November 25, 2016

Emacs Keyboard Commands Which Work in iA Writer

Keyboard Command	Behavior
⌃+K	Deletes from the cursor to the end of the current line
⌃+O	Inserts a new line after the cursor. The cursor stays in the current line
⌃+B	Moves the cursor one character to the left
⌃+F	Moves the cursor one character to the right
⌃+N	Moves the cursor down one line
⌃+P	Moves the cursor up one line
⌃+E	Moves the cursor to the end of the current line. If you use word wrap, the cursor moves to the physical, not the displayed, end of the current line
⌃+A	Moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. If you use word wrap, the cursor moves to the physical, not the displayed, beginning of the current line
⌃+V	Scrolls down within the document

Note: These keyboard commands work not only in iA Writer but also in a few other applications on macOS. For instance, most of these also work in Ulysses. Try them out in the text editor you use, you might be surprised.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie

iA Writer Keyboard Commands macOS

November 20, 2016

iA Writer Icon

iA Writer 4 Adds to Markdown and Makes It Better

Product: iA Writer
Price: $9.99

iA has a tendency to take risks. They are the one developer who has consistently tried to improve the process of writing in plain text files.

The initial release included a custom version of the Nitti font, a startling blue caret, and a minimalistic aesthetic.

iA Writer Pro was their next attempt. I covered that here. It was an unsuccessful but commendable effort to bring some order to the process of writing.

iA Writer 3 was the next iteration. iA went back to the basics, they added the ability to manage your files in the file-system and brought full support of MultiMarkdown, including tables and footnotes. From Writer Pro, they brought along Syntax Control. And I wrote about it, iA Writer Grows Up in Meaningful Ways - iPadpedia.

We now have version 4 of iA Writer.

iA didn't disappoint this time either. They introduced something they are calling file referencing syntax. This is a proposed addition to the markdown specification. It is implemented in iA Writer, a better way of handling images, tables, and other files. It seems to be a reworking of the "transclusion" feature built into MultiMarkdown (thanks to Brett Terpstra for the background).

According to iA,

Every file reference you insert adds a block of content to your document, be it an image, table, or plain text file. These content blocks can then be ordered, stacked and chained with ease.

Long Documents

Markdown was designed for writing for the web. It's intent was to convert plain text into web ready formats for web publishing. That use case though still relevant has been augmented with people like me, using Markdown to write everything I write. Books, reports, long articles, and of course blog articles are all being written in Markdown and we are all running into the limitations of the original specification. There have been different attempts to address this problem. MultiMarkdown is one such attempt, Github Flavored Markdown is another, CommonMark is yet another. They are all involved in broadening the use cases of Markdown, or, trying to achieve some standardization in the implementation of the markup language.

iA has tried to tackle a different problem. How does one write a long document in text files?

The long document can be a book, an essay, or a report. Long documents are optimally written in parts. I am going to use an example of a novel to explain this. Novels are rarely written in a linear fashion. You don't start writing chapter one and end up in chapter fifteen in a linear fashion. What you do is write different chapters at different times and put them all together in book form at the end. That is the logic underlying the design of products like Scrivener and Ulysses. These products let you write in any order you want. Then arrange the content and compile into whatever final output you desire(.pdf, .docx, .html, .epub).

This is a difficult exercise to accomplish in text files alone. iA Writer is trying to tackle this problem.

The file reference syntax lets you specify that a text file is going to contain the contents of other text files. For instance, you can have an individual text file for every chapter of your novel, and compile them into one document by adding the file reference of the individual chapters into your master document. You export the content into a markdown file, an html file, a pdf file, a Microsoft Word file or a Project Archive. A Project Archive is a zipped file containing the markdown file and all of its associated content blocks.

The syntax for the file reference? Just a / mark followed by the name of the file you are including. Simple. The caveat is that the file must be in the same folder as the master file, or in a child folder of the folder that the master file is in. That is the only restriction.

Makes the process easy and an absolute boon to writers of long form documents. It is an elegant and simple solution to a problem which has plagued writers writing in text editors.

Images

This file reference syntax also makes it possible to add images easily to your document. For instance, I will add a screenshot of this document.

File Reference

This is the easiest way of adding images to markdown and definitely an improvement over the original Markdown specifications.

Tables

Tables in Markdown are difficult to create. I was going to Tables Generator to generate Markdown tables. I create them there and then paste them into my editor.

iA Writer 4 has made the process better. I can make my table in a spreadsheet. I can make it look the way I want and then export to a CSV file. You can just point iA Writer to the CSV file and now you have tables in Markdown. The syntax is the same for tables as it is for other text files and images. Since I use a lot of tables in my writing this is an absolute godsend.

Suggested Improvements

iA Writer is almost perfect in its present iteration but I have some nits to pick:

1. When you export to a markdown file, the application insists on exporting a file with the extension, .txt. That doesn't make sense, why not use .md? (This is fixed in version 4.0.1)
2. I would like an updated users manual or an updated help file. (Update: There is an updated help file, my system did not reach it.)
3. Support for the use of tabs in macOS Sierra would be welcome. (Update: A bug in Night mode by Apple prevents this at this point. When and if Apple fixes the bug, it might or might not be implemented.)
4. Support for relaunching the app with the documents which were open the last time the program was quit would be an improvement. (Update: This is a system preference. Go to General Preference Pane and uncheck Close windows when quitting an app.)
5. Add keyboard commands to the items in the format menu without them. I have added them through the Shortcuts tab of the Keyboard preference pane.

Add Keyboard Shortcuts

I have asked for project support from iA Writer in the past. They have indirectly supported projects through the file reference syntax. You can make a folder and add all the files that are relevant to the current project in that folder. Makes using the file reference syntax easier and provides you a project folder. In addition, you can export your document and its ancillary files to a Project Archive which is a zipped file of all the content blocks relevant to a project.

One of my reasons for sticking with writing in Ulysses as opposed to moving to iA Writer was that iA Writer was missing support for user fonts and themes. It is true that I prefer Operator Mono over Nitti and I like Solarized as the theme when I am writing. However, I cannot recommend that iA Writer change this option. Nitti in iA Writer coupled with the blue caret is iconic to iA Writer. They should not change that. They have established a certain look and they own it, doesn't make sense to tinker with that one. The white and black screen for day and night mode are effective to soothe the strain in my eyes when staring at the screen for long periods of time, and I need to stop complaining about it.

Conclusions

So, have I moved all my writing to iA Writer? I have. I am going to give this move three months and at the end of that period I will re-evaluate whether the move away from Ulysses to iA Writer makes sense. The better support for Markdown and the file reference syntax which lets me add tables and images easily are the main reasons for the switch.

iA has done a stellar job of improving iA Writer with this version. If you write in Markdown, you owe it to yourself, to give this a try.

I recommend iA Writer 4 heartily.

Updated:

• Edited the suggestions for improvement section with feedback from developer.
• Edited with suggestion implemented in version 4.0.1

macosxguru at the gmail thingie

macOS iA Writer Writing Markdown

November 17, 2016

HazeOver

Dim Distractions With HazeOver

Product: HazeOver
Price: $4.99

HazeOver is a distraction dimmer. I didn't think I needed it. I did.

HazeOver Preference 1

When active, HazeOver automatically highlights an active window or application when you switch windows. The rest of the windows on the desktop fade into the background and you can concentrate on the active window.

HazeOver Preference 2

One of the advantages of working on the iPad for me is the focus on one application at a time. Which for me, translates into one task at a time. I find that the desktop on my Mac is inherently distracting. HazeOver is the solution to that problem.

HazeOver Preference 3

This is a well-designed utility which does its job well. Spend some time on the preferences and tweak it to fit your workflow.

I love it. Heartily recommended.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie

macOS HazeOver Utility

November 13, 2016

The Prodigal Son Returns to Ulysses

I have a love-hate relationship with Ulysses. I use it. Get frustrated. Dump Ulysses. Go back to Sublime Text 3. Come back to Ulysses after a while. So what is going on?

I am back to using Ulysses.

Frustration with Ulysses?

1. Markdown: Ulysses supports markdown badly. I need tables. Ulysses doesn't support them. I have to rely on some other editor to make tables. If I am already using some other editor, why not do all the work there instead of switching between two editors.
2. Links: My articles for the blog are full of links. Ulysses does a horrible job of dealing with links. They are considered "objects." What that means is that if you format a link, you have to rely on the pop-up provided by Ulysses to format links. If you don't, and input the links in the raw format, Ulysses has a horrible habit of adding escape characters to the links, when exporting, and it is a pain to remove them.
3. Ease of Writing Markdown: There are ways to make writing markdown easier. Ulysses doesn't provide those. I should be able to highlight a word and press a keyboard command and the program should enclose the word with square brackets and then immediately following that get the URL from the clipboard, enclose them with brackets and move the cursor past the closing bracket. I have a plug-in in Sublime Text 3 which provides this for me. LightPaper and iA Writer provides this out of the box. Ulysses doesn't. Ulysses supports all the code, but doesn't make it easy to work in it. For instance, you can make links in Ulysses, but there is no keyboard command assigned to that. Nor is there a keyboard command for images. Another feature it lacks is the auto-pairing of brackets and asterisks.

Then why go back to Ulysses?

The Simplicity of the Environment

Simplicity. What does that mean? How is that established?

It took me three months of using Sublime Text 3, reading a couple of books on it, before I found myself comfortable in Sublime Text 3. It is a complicated beast which does a lot of things.

Ulysses doesn't do most of what Sublime Text 3 is capable of. It does a subset of the tasks and that is all it concentrates on. That means that the learning curve is smaller. It also means that it is not going to take you three months to become familiar with using the program. In fact, it might take you a week before you know everything there is to know about Ulysses. There is pleasure in working in an application where you are confident that you know the nooks and crannies of a program. Every keyboard command is at your fingertips. That comfort with Ulysses is a result of its simplicity. Ulysses has done a great job of including all the things that you need and leaving out most of the things that you don't.

That is the essence of what I mean by Ulysses and simplicity. You spend a week, you learn the program and then you write in it for the rest of your life. Doesn't get better than that.

I love being in Ulysses. The themes are beautiful. It does a perfect job of giving me just enough control over the variables I want to control and the text on the screen looks crisp and sharp, the spacing is perfect and I am just happy writing here. Sublime Text 3 is infinitely customizable and you can make it look anyway you want, but with this increased choice comes a certain amount of complexity. The other part of it is that you are going to be tweaking all of the available choices and not writing. Writing was the object of this exercise. Ulysses through its control of the features that it lets you tweak gives you the right options but doesn't overwhelm you with choices. You don't find yourself endlessly customizing in Ulysses. You settle on a look and you are good to go. That helps your productivity. I like choices but endless choices can get overwhelming and more importantly, distracting.

As a result of this simplicity I find that I am productive in Ulysses. More productive than the other options. That was the main reason behind the switch back to Ulysses.

Compromising

These are the compromises which I have had to make to bring back Ulysses into my workflow:

1. Links: I don't input most of the links when I am working in Ulysses. I write the article. After the content of the article is written, I export to a markdown document. I open the document in iA Writer and go to work on it. iA Writer does three things for me: check the grammar of the piece, input tables, and input links. This is the process I go through. It gives me the advantage of writing in Ulysses, and editing and tweaking in iA Writer. I get the best of both worlds and I find that I am productive.
2. Keyboard Commands: I use KeyboardMaestro to add keyboard commands to Link and Image. That makes the process of adding links easier in Ulysses.

I love being in Ulysses.
So, I have returned to Ulysses.

Update

RJR @inzzense on Twitter asked me a relevant question: "Just curious why not return to iA Writer then?"

I answered the question on Twitter but I have been thinking about it some more.

It is a valid question. I am working in Ulysses and then moving on to iA Writer for its better handling of links and grammar check. Why not start and end in iA Writer? The advantages of that are obvious:

1. Less friction. One less app to worry about.
2. Better support of links and markdown writing than Ulysses.

Those are good enough reasons to make me think of switching to iA Writer and dumping Ulysses altogether. What is keeping me in Ulysses?

1. iA Writer has improved considerably in version 3.0 and I am looking forward to the next version which is about to be released. But it still restricts choices too much for me. I want to use my own font: I like looking at Operator Mono instead of the custom Nitti that iA Writer uses. I want some control over line spacing and paragraph spacing. iA Writer does not provide that. Ulysses does.
2. Typewriter scrolling. iA Writer implements it, but it is rigid. Ulysses provides some measure of control by it's variable setting and I like that better.
3. Themes. I like Solarized light and dark. Ulysses provides that. iA Writer doesn't.

I stare at the screen for 16 hours a day. Please let me have some control over what I am staring at. These are the main reasons behind the decision to keep working in Ulysses and then move to iA Writer for adding links and grammar checking. I understand that this is not an optimal solution. One app would be the better solution. However, given the limitations of both applications, the write in Ulysses and edit in iA Writer seems to me, to be the best solution for the time being.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie

Writing macOS Ulysses

November 9, 2016

TipTyper

TipTyper: A Quick, Efficient, Free Text Editor

TipTyper: Official Web Site
TipTyper: From the Mac App Store
Price: Free

TipTyper is a simple product. A basic text editor.

It is not geared towards being anything but a copy of the Notepad app on the Windows platform.

There is a whole host of stuff it doesn’t do. No markdown. No code highlighting. No autocompletion. Nothing much but a window where you can input text. As an added bonus, it has a word and character count. Gives you the option of showing invisible characters. It supports macOS’s Versioning feature. The lack of features ensures that the product is incredibly fast to launch and you can work in it without having to wait for anything.

TipTyper Preferences

TipTyper has a well considered bunch of preferences and it is easy to fall in love with this product.

TipTyper Toolbar

The program has a toolbar and it lets you customize it.

If you are looking for a simple fast editor you should look at TipTyper. It is well designed, fast and useful for the quick edit of text, note-taking and general text writing.

It is heartily recommended.

macosxguru at the gmail thingie

Text Editor macOS Free