Inspire 3

"A windows minimalist markdown editor for notes and distraction-free writing."

I was talking with TJ on 1857 about transitioning some of my work from MacOS to Windows. I moved in the opposite direction in 2010, and apart from a brief dalliance with a Chromebook, have been in the fruit-based ecosystem ever since.

A work project required me to get back into Microsoft, and after a period of whining and whingeing, I decided to lean into it. I have fingers in multiple pies, and sometimes struggle with maintaining focus. My thought was to use different hardware and software for different areas. So - use my new windows machine for the financial services projects, and my apple kit for my more creative work.

Once I had got the machines setup so that the right things were going to the right places, I checked my task manager. It was time to write a blog post for my financial services company, Lime Training and Consultancy Ltd. In the new regime, Lime work is Windows work, so I opened my shiny new laptop and...

Ah. Problem. I write on Ulysses, a subscription app from the Apple world. What to do? I ran a search, "Ulysses alternatives for Windows", and on the first page, came across Inspire. I downloaded a trial version, skipped reading any of the introduction posts, and started writing this review. Thus far, I have instantly discovered dark mode, focused view and statistics. I created the weblink above, again, with no reference to anything, other than my own experience.

For the first time since this laptop arrived a couple of weeks ago, I am in "flow". Honestly, managing my email in MS Outlook still feels awkward and difficult. I'm regularly frustrated. There is going to be a learning curve to getting comfortable back in the world that Microsoft built. Logging onto a remote server has me cursing and screaming daily. In contrast, using Inspire has been a joy. Discoverable, intuitive and lovely to use.

The menu at the top of the page is small, but ugly. Hang on a sec. Ah. There we go. I have moved to "full screen" and the menu is gone. Now, I see this post, and some minimalist icons on each edge of the page. If I don't look for them, I don't see them, but if I need them, they're there.

Wow! This is really good. Connected to an external monitor, this feels as good as Ulysses.

I don't know whether Inspire was directly intended to be a Windows adaptation of Ulysses, but it certainly seems to be exactly that. Using external folders - I'm told that I can seamlessly move from one app to the other.

It's very early days, but colour me impressed! Now - I'm going to find out how easy or difficult it is to move these words from my laptop, to your inbox or browser.

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