In this post, I am going to talk about what I think is the best Markdown editor out there for any system, iA Writer.
What is Markdown?
I previously went into detail on what Markdown is in a previous post. Here is a quick rundown of what Markdown is and what it does.
Markdown is a way to use standard text files in a way that preserves formatting and other features in a cross-platform way. It also makes reading a text file easier no matter what program you use.
You don’t need specialised software to write Markdown, just a simple text editor. There are programs, however, that make Markdown a lot more powerful than at first glance. iA Writer is one such program.
iA Writer at a glance, what is it?
To put it simply, iA Writer is a distraction-free, cross-platform way of writing Markdown that shows the formatting of Markdown inside the document you are editing.
It uses a subset of the Markdown syntax called Wikilinks that allow you to connect Markdown documents together like webpages. When you export the document into the formats that iA Writer supports, it will link those documents together into one document. The best way to explain it is that each document can be a chapter in a book with a table of contents as a master document.
What makes iA Writer stand out from the other Markdown Editors
The main reason why I use iA Writer over other Markdown editors is the way it can highlight different syntax and also a style checker built in.
The syntax check can highlight words that are as follows :-
- Adjectives
- Nouns
- Adverbs
- Verbs
- Conjunctions
All these get highlighted in a different colour in your documents when editing them, but when they are exported, they just get exported as usual. This way, you can easily see if you are using too many conjunctions, for instance, and edit the document to make it better.
The style checker highlights the following :-
- Cliches
- Fillers
- Redundancies
- Custom List
With this turned on, the program will strike out and dim the text to make you think about how to write that part of the document better. Again, you can ignore it, and it will export just fine.
All in all, with both of those features, the program makes you write your documents better without getting in your way, as you can still be in a distraction-free environment to write.
How does iA Writer organise documents
iA Writer has a built-in Library that can sync to cloud services like iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Nextcloud Drive, to name a few, that allows you to organise documents inside the application.
It gives you the option to save your documents with the standard .txt extension or the Markdown-specific .md extension.
The program will sort your documents by date or name, with the newest or oldest on top. You can also put subfolders on top as well. There is an option to show 3 lines of excerpts of the document in the Library view.
Export Options
Here is another reason why I love iA Writer. Besides the usual options like exporting to HTML, PDF, Markdown, and Word, you can directly upload your documents to blogging platforms like WordPress, Medium, Ghost, Micropub, and Micro.blog, at least on Macs and iPads. This feature is not available on Windows.
It’s Cross Platform
As I alluded to earlier and as someone whose main business computer is an iPad Pro, but also uses a MacBook Pro and a Windows gaming laptop, I wanted something that supports all those platforms. I like a consistent interface no matter what operating system or device I am currently using.
iA Writer supports both Windows and Mac, as well as iOS and iPadOS. There was an Android version but seems to have been discontinued.
So for all the machines I use, that is 2 iPads, an iPhone, a MacBook Pro, and a Windows-based gaming laptop, iA Writer supports all of them.
My main cloud-based storage is iCloud, as I am mainly an Apple user. This cloud service supports all the devices I use. The only computing device that I regularly use that is not from the fruit company is my Windows-based gaming laptop, and iCloud Drive does support Windows.
This means no matter what device I am on, I have the same interface while working on the same documents, and all the changes sync between all the devices automatically.
Differences between the versions of iA Writer
Although the program is cross-platform, there are some differences between the iOS, macOS, and the Windows versions of iA Writer.
Here is a list some of the features and whether they are compatible with iPad/iPhone, macOS, and Windows.
| Feature | iPhone/iPad | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus Mode | Y | Y | Y |
| Local Images | Y | Y | Y |
| Content Blocks | Y | Y | Y |
| Dark Mode | Y | Y | Y |
| Authorship | Y | Y | N |
| Syntax Highlighting | Y | Y | Y |
| Style Check | Y | Y | Y |
| Folding | N | N | Y |
| Dynamic Outline | N | N | Y |
| Smart MD Tables | Calculation | Calculation | Formatting |
| Writing Goals | N | N | Y |
| Wikilinks | Y | Y | N |
| iCloud | Y | Y | Y |
| Dropbox | Y | Y | Y |
| Google Drive | Y | Y | Y |
| OneDrive | Y | Y | Y |
| Other Cloud Services | Y | Y | Y |
| HTML Preview | Y | Y | Y |
| PDF Preview | Y | Y | Y |
| Equation Rendering | Y | Y | Y |
| Metadata | Y | Y | Y |
| MS Word Export | Y | Y | Y |
| MS Word Import | Y | Y | Y |
| Y | Y | Y | |
| iA Fonts | Y | Y | Y |
| Custom Templates | Y | Y | Y |
| Ghost Upload | Y | Y | N |
| Medium Upload | Y | Y | N |
| WordPress Upload | Y | Y | N |
| Micropub Upload | Y | Y | N |
| Micro.blog upload | Y | Y | N |
| Global Document Search | Y | Y | N |
| Apple Shortcuts | Y | Y | N |
| URL Commands | Y | Y | N |
| Biometric Protection | Y | N | N |
| Hunspell Directory | N | N | Y |
Just a word of note, iPadOS and iOS 13 limitations restrict addition of Library locations to apps/file storage providers that fully support full folder sharing.
As you can see, the main difference between the 2 versions is Folding and Dynamic Outline on Windows, support for Wikilinks and the ability to upload to blogging platforms on macOS/iPadOS.
The macOS/iPadOS versions also support more languages out of the box, but the Windows version can add languages via freely downloadable LibreOffice directories.
Conclusion
As I stated before, this is the writing app I use all the time to write scripts for TransRadio UK and this blog. All formatting is done in Markdown and uploaded via the iPad version of the app. I do have this excellent editor installed on all my systems.
Yes, it’s expensive: £50 for iPad/iPhone, £50 for Mac, and £25 for Windows. But for any writer, bloggers especially, they should seriously take a look. There is a free trial version on the iA website for Mac and Windows, so there is no cost involved in trying it out. You can always move to a different editor if you like, and the documents will be compatible with the next Markdown editor you try.
Leave a comment