But more and more I’m despairing that it’s ever going to arrive.Īt this point you might say that iA Writer already arrived, years ago. That’s always been iA Writer’s vision, and it’s so close-arguably closer than any other. What’s needed is a better general-purpose MacOS (and iOS) markdown editor tailored to writers, not programmers (who will probably be happier adding markdown plugins to the code editor they’re already using). It’s foolish for iA Writer to try to compete in that space. There are already plenty of markdown apps that specialize in PKM and note-taking, from powerful cross-platform ones like Obsidian and Logseq to native Mac ones like Bear (paid) and Notenik (free and open-source). And do we really need six highlight color options in an app with just three fonts (albeit excellent ones)-especially since it can’t let us highlight a document in multiple colors anyway? But instead of refining that further and judiciously integrating much-needed features, the dev team is adding PKM features that are contrary to their professed vision, and wasting time and energy on things like arbitrarily changing the keybindings for highlighting and strikethrough without including an option to stick with the existing ones-an unnecessary annoyance for those of us who have years of muscle memories invested in the established ones. But the way I see it, that’s the problem-it seems to be going in the wrong direction.Īt its heart, iA Writer is a writing-focused markdown editor. I agree with those who don’t want iA Writer to lose its clean and streamlined focus. And most of all, the Quattro font-the finest font for writing that I’ve ever found. docx file actually translates markdown heading levels into MS Word heading levels. It stops being “distraction-free” when there’s something about the app that constantly annoys you but you can’t change it. It’s harder when you agree with some but not all of the developer’s opinions-and hardest when you absolutely adore some things about the app but strongly dislike others.

That makes your choice easy if you agree or disagree with all of the developer’s opinions as manifested in the app you either use it or you don’t. IA Writer is a radically opinionated app. (I’m posting this here rather than in another writing- or app-focused subreddit to keep it “in the family.”)

Ia writer app