For clarity, I mean applications that facilitate writing, not the act of writing applications. The last machine I coded on was the ZX81.
Recently, I migrated from the Crapple ecosystem to the Crapdows-Poogle ecosystem. An expensive way of discovering that all the tech giants are producing shit at a rate that an elephant with dysentery would struggle to match. How do they get away with it? Crapple is the smooth schmoozer who goes after the aspirant consumer. "Would you like some food with your foam?" Crapdows and Poogle are the bruisers in the prison canteen. "You wanna eat? This is it."
Sorry, where was I?
Writing apps, that's it.
After plenty of trials, I ended up with Ulysses for writing. I took inspiration from Matt Gemmell. My long-languishing novel has versions in Scrivener and Ulysses. Scriv is old school, but for the whole mess of writing a book, I have yet to find anything to match it. Fortunately, there is a Windows version.
Much of my writing is short-form. Posts like this. Newsletters, that sort of thing. For that, I found Ulysses excellent and also indulged myself with an elegant (and expensive) app called Paper. The best of Apple has always been the third-party developers, the people who craft beautiful programmes. Alas, Apple's corporate machine is grinding up and disenchanting those people, but that's another post. My immediate concern was that neither application would work on Windows.
My requirements
First, a file structure. I like to have a simple file structure where I can feed notes in and then develop those notes into drafts and edited pieces. In a perfect world (or rather a customer-focused one), I could type on my phone, import a handwritten note or type on any device and direct the text to the right place, automatically and manually attaching helpful metadata. Then, I'd edit it on my machine of choice and automatically export it in multiple forms to various places.
However, the world is far from perfect, so I've accepted that a little copy and paste is often much less hassle than seeking perfection (or obvious functionality that the biggest companies in the world can't be bothered to do...sorry. FOCUS!)
My second requirement is the interface. I want as little distraction as possible. Fortunately, this desire is very much fashionable, so there are lots of options.
Third. Non-proprietary. I've learned this the hard way. Anyone who has ever used Evernote or even Apple Notes can attest to the hurdles that are placed in the way should a user ever want to vary their interface. Exporting notes is possible but a pain in the proverbial.
Way back when computers were intended to help people become more productive, there was this format called txt. Since then, there have been extensive efforts to make everything more complicated, but joyously, those desperate to bugger everything up forgot to cancel txt. Pretty much every writing program in the world can open txt, and its fatter, funnier brother markdown (md.). Because of txt, I can store my files in the cloud and access them from computers of every brand and operating system.
Options
I have a penchant for the "one". A desire to discount everything I've written above and adopt one app that does everything, everywhere. Obsidian, say. Or its slightly more sinister competitor, Roam. I eliminated Roam because everything lives on their servers (whoever they are or might become).
Obsidian is excellent. It's privacy-focused and uses md files, which are saved wherever I choose. There are apps for all platforms. I enjoyed Obsidian on Mac. But...in the end, I went off it. The model is free, with optional user support and a whole raft of plug-ins by the developer and users. Mike Schmitz is building a business on teaching people how to use it. I found it perfectly possible to spend days considering my PKM (no antibiotics required; it stands for Personal Knowledge Management) and tending to my backlinks (not a euphemism).
Microsoft One Note is attractive, too. The interface is a bit Gen X, with notebooks and pages. Pretty colours. For MS users, it's everywhere. Sure, it's not txt, nor particularly private...but...
I resist. I just need txt files that I can find.
Right. Windows. What's out there? IA Writer. Cracking app. Works on Apple and IOS, too. Typora. Prettier. I'm a sucker for a pretty face, so Typora is my favourite, but I do have IA Writer installed as well.
Android. This is tougher. IA Writer tried for a while but found Google so difficult to work with they threw in the towel. Typora doesn't do mobile. Generally, I don't draft much on my mobile, but I jot down aide-memoires occasionally. For the moment, I'm working with OneNote from Microsoft, which is included in my Office subscription. Then, I copy/paste anything worth keeping. I'm still experimenting with stand-alone apps, but honestly, it's barely worth the effort.
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