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Supernotes
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Short-form note-cards
The note-card format is incredibly versatile, and great when you have lots of information.
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Top
Con
Only web apps for now
The developers haven't released native apps yet.
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Top
Pro
Responsive platform
Works on all devices, from mobiles to laptops.
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Top
Pro
Full Markdown (with LaTeX equation) support
Great to be able to use all the features of Markdown, rather than a select few.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
API:
Yes
Collaborative:
Yes
Search:
Yes
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28
0
Vim
All
46
Experiences
Pros
30
Cons
15
Specs
Top
Pro
Lightweight and fast
When compared to modern graphical editors like Atom and Brackets (which have underlying HTML5 engines, browsers, Node, etc.), Vim uses a sliver of the system's memory and it loads instantly, all the while delivering the same features. Vim is also faster than Emacs.
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Top
Con
High effort to customize
A lot of time and effort is put in to make it specific to your needs.
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Top
Pro
Free and open-source software
Vim is open-source, GPL-compatible charityware.
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Top
Con
Difficult learning curve
You'll spend a lot of time learning all the commands and modes supported in Vim. You'll then spend more time tuning settings to your needs. Although once it's tuned to your needs, you can take your .vimrc to any machine you need and have the same experience across all your computers.
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Top
Pro
Works in terminal over SSH
Unlike other editors such as Sublime Text, Vim is a command line editor and hence can be used in remote development environments like Chromebooks via SSH.
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Top
Con
Difficult to copy, paste, and delete
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Top
Pro
Extremely portable
Vi/vim exists on almost all Unix-like platforms. It's the de-facto Unix editor and is easily installed on Windows. All you need to make it work is a text-based connection, so it works well for remote machines with slow connections, or when you're too lazy to set up a VNC/Remote Desktop connection.
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Top
Con
Poor support for external tooling
Many plugins depend on optional Python and Lua features, which may or may not be included in whatever binaries are available for your system. And without platform-specific hacks, it is difficult for plugins to operate in the background or use external tooling.
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Top
Pro
Keyboard-based, mouse-free interface, and trackpad support
There's no need to reach for the mouse or the Ctrl/Alt buttons again. Everything is a mere key press or two away with almost 200 functions specifically for text editing. Vim does support the mouse, but it's designed so you don't have to use it for greater efficiency. Versions of Vim, like gVim or MacVim, still allow you to use the mouse and familiar platform shortcuts. That can help ease the learning curve and you'll probably find you won't want to (or need to) use the mouse after a while.
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Top
Con
Poor feature discoverability
Though basic features like syntax checking, autocompletion, and file management are all available out of the box or with minimal configuration, this is not obvious to new users, who might get intimidated or assume they need to install complex plugins just so they can have this functionality. Other features new users might expect to find embedded in Vim, such as debugging, instead follow a UNIX-style model where they are called as external programs, the output of which might then be parsed by Vim so it can display results. Users not familiar with this paradigm will likely fault Vim for lacking those features as well.
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Top
Pro
Great productivity
Vim's keyset is mainly restricted to the alphanumeric keys and the escape key. This is an enduring relic of its teletype heritage, but has the effect of making my ost of Vim's functionality accessible without frequent awkward finger reaches.
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Top
Con
No smooth scrolling
Even with the GUI version, the lines jiggle line-by-line. If you are used to smooth scrolling, this is very annoying, especially when working with larger files.
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Top
Pro
Macros increase productivity
Many text editors have programmable macros, but since Vim is keyboard-based, your programmed macros are usually far more predictable and easier to understand.
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Top
Con
Doesn't play nice with the system cut/paste mechanisms
This can be worked around somewhat if you disable mouse for insert mode. You can then right-click your terminal and use paste like you would anywhere else in a terminal. But it still doesn't feel right when the rest of your system uses Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V, and you have a system clipboard manager, and so forth.
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Top
Pro
Excellent performance
As it loads the whole file into RAM, replacing all string occurrences in 100 MB+ files is quick and easy. Every other editor has sort of died during that. It is extremely fast even for cold start. Vim is light-weight and very compact. In terminal, it only uses a small amount of memory and anytime you invoke Vim, it's extremely fast. It's immediate, so much so you can't even notice any time lag.
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Top
Con
Outdated UI
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Top
Pro
Tons of plugins/add-ons
This makes Vim the definitive resource for every environment (Ruby/Rails, Python, C, etc.), or simply just provides more information in your view.
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Top
Con
Requires Brain Mode Switching
When editing in vim, you have you use the vim keys; when editing in every other window on your PC, or in Word or Excel or other application, you need to use the standard system key combinations. Learning the vim combinations can actually make you SLOWER at everything else.
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Top
Pro
Everything is mnemonic
No need to memorize different key combinations for things like deleting the text inside of a block or deleting the text inside of a pair of quotes. It's just a series of actions, or nouns and verbs, or however you prefer to think about it. If you want to delete, you select "d"; if you want it to happen inside something, you select "i"; and if you want the surrounding double-quotes, just select ". But if you were changing the text, or copying it, or anything else, you'd still use the same "i" and ". This makes it very easy to remember a large number of different extremely useful commands, without the effort it takes to remember all of the Emacs "magic incantations", for example.
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Top
Con
Slow when opening files with very long lines
A lot of very long lines can make Vim take up to a minute to open files, where a few other editors take only seconds to load the same file.
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Top
Pro
Vimtutor
Vimtutor is an excellent interactive tutorial for people with no prior experience of Vim. It takes about 30 minutes to complete.
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Top
Con
Consume brain energy for editing that should be used for logic
Text editing in vim is awesome, but it requires thinking about combination of commands. In other editors, you don't have to think about how to delete this part of code. You just think about how to implement a feature, what is a good design for this code. Even after you get used to using vim, it still requires your brain for editing.
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Top
Pro
Amazing extensibility
Vimscript provides a rich scripting functionality to build upon the core of Vim. When combined with things like Tim Pope's Pathogen plugin management system, it becomes easy to add support for syntax, debugging, build systems, git, and more.
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Top
Con
Foreign keyboards have a hard time on Vim out of the box
A lot of frequently-used keybinds are way harder to access on foreign keyboards because they use different layouts. For example, Germans use the QWERTZ layout, while French use the AZERTY.
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Top
Pro
Usable from a Terminal or with a GUI (GVim, MacVim)
If you happen to be logged into SSH, you can use Vim in a terminal. It can also run with a GUI too.
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Top
Con
Unintuitive mode switching
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Top
Pro
Has been supported for a long time
And will be supported for many years to come.
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Top
Con
Extensibility isn't that great
While it has gotten better and some projects are slowly starting to build proper extension support, it still can't and by design never will achieve the extensibility of another editor like emacs.
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Top
Pro
Once learned, it's very hard to forget
Vim's somewhat steep learning curve is more than made up for once you've mastered a few basic concepts and learned the tricks that allow you to program faster with fewer cut/paste mistakes.
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Top
Con
Works poorly out of the box with right-to-left
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Top
Pro
Can never outgrow it
The fact that very few, if any, people claim to be a "Vim Master" is a testament to the breadth and depth of Vim. There is always something new to learn - a new, perhaps more efficient, way to use it. This prevents Vim from ever feeling stale. It's always fresh.
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Top
Pro
Flexible feature-set
Vim allows users to include many features found in IDEs and competing editors, but does not force them all on the user. This not only helps keep it lighter in weight than a lot of other options, but it also helps ensure that some unused features will not get in the way.
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Top
Pro
Has multiple distinct editing modes
Interaction with Vim is centered around several "modes", where purpose and keybindings differ in each. Insert mode is for entering text. This mode most resembles traditional text entry in most editors. Normal mode (the default) is entered by hitting ESC and converts all keybindings to center around movement within the file, search, pane selection, etc. Command mode is entered by hitting ":" in Normal mode and allows you to execute Vim commands and scripts similar in fashion to a shell. Visual mode is for selecting lines, blocks, and characters of code. Those are the major modes, and several more exist depending on what one defines as a "mode" in Vim.
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Top
Pro
By default in Linux
All Linux distributions out there will have Vim built into them, which is highly convenient!
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Top
Pro
Vim encourages discipline
If you use Vim long enough, it will rewire your brain to be more efficient.
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Top
Pro
Useful undo features
Vim does not only offer unlimited undo levels, later releases support an undo tree. It eventually gives the editor VCS-like features. You can undo the current file to any point in the past, even if a change was already undone again. Another neat feature is persistent undo, which enables to undo changes after the file was closed and reopened again.
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Top
Pro
Donations and support to Vim.org helps children in Uganda through ICCF Holland
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Top
Pro
Built-in package management
Starting with Vim 8, a package manager has been built into Vim. The package manager helps keep track of installed plugins, their versions and also only loads the needed plugins on startup depending on the file type.
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Top
Pro
If you can use Vim you can also use vi
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Top
Pro
Works on Android
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Top
Pro
Productivity enhancing modal paradigm
As with all vi-like editors, Vim provides a modal paradigm for text editing and processing that provides a rich syntax and semantic model for composing succinct, powerful commands. While this requires some initial investment in learning how it works in order to take full advantage of its capabilities, it rewards the user well in the long run. This modal interface paradigm also lends itself surprisingly well to many other types of applications that can be controlled by vi-like keybindings, such as browsers, image viewers, media players, network clients (for email and other communication media), and window managers. Even shells (including zsh, tcsh, mksh, and bash, among others) come with vi-like keybinding features that can greatly enhance user comfort and efficiency when the user is familiar with the vi modal editing paradigm.
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Top
Pro
Asynchronous I/O support
Since Vim 8, Vim can exchange characters with background processes asynchronously. This avoids the problem of the text editor getting stuck when a plugin that had to communicate with a server was running. Now plugins can send and receive data from external scripts without forcing Vim to freeze.
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Top
Pro
Can set up keymapping
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Top
Pro
Multiple clipboards
It is called "registers".
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Top
Pro
Status Booster
Using vim not just increase your productivity, but helps you flex.
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Specs
Platforms:
Linux, macOS, Windows, Cygwin
License:
Vim License
Price:
0
Extension language:
Vim
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Experiences
free
2402
445
VNote
All
8
Experiences
Pros
7
Specs
Top
Pro
Able to attach files to a note
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Top
Pro
Markdown
Markdown note-taking app.
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Top
Pro
Free, open source
Source code is available via https://github.com/tamlok/vnote/
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Top
Pro
Fast, uses C++ and QT Frameworks
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Top
Pro
Supports MathJax, Mermaid Diagrams, Flowchart.js
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Top
Pro
Vim Mode
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Top
Pro
Can be synced using third-party synchonization services
All files on your local disk. Utilize third-party synchronization services to work from anywhere seamlessly. (taken from https://tamlok.github.io/vnote/)
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
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Experiences
Free
11
0
Frost
All
5
Experiences
Pros
5
Top
Pro
Downloading option
This writing platform has the ability to download the written content in the form a .txt file with a single click.
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Top
Pro
Completely free to use
All the themes and features of this platform are free of cost. So it's basically a no-brainer for anyone who prefers to write in a minimalistic space with high quality music!
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Top
Pro
Ad-free Music
The music which is played here is completely ad-free. So one isn't bothered with ads every other minute!
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Top
Pro
Multiple Themes
There are multiple themes which allow the user to write in whatever atmosphere he wants to write in.
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Top
Pro
Ambient Music and Individual Fonts
There are various themes, each having a different font and ambient music mix.
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FREE
7
0
Letterspace
All
5
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Full featured iOS app
This was a iOS first app and that is clear. Great swipe bar interface on iOS.
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Top
Con
No in-app Markdown preview
You can export to PDF or HTML with formatting, but no preview in the Mac app.
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Top
Pro
Simple, yet powerful interface
Keyboard shortcuts for basic text formatting. A few theme options. Full screen mode and swipe gestures.
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Top
Pro
@mentions and #tags for easy organization
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Top
Pro
Advanced Markdown support
Features Markdown support that many other text editors don't; such as Todo's ( -[x] ) and Strikethrough.
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6
0
MacDown
All
13
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
MacDown is a free and open source editor influenced by Mou. It's released under the MIT license.
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Top
Con
Not very versatile
MacDown is not very powerful or versatile. It's not customizable or extendable. This is what makes it so simple, but it's not for people who want more from their tools.
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Top
Pro
Real-time split-screen preview
MacDown's main view is split into two panels. The user types on the left and the Markdown is rendered on the fly in the right panel. This helps users to better understand the way they are formatting their document.
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Top
Con
Frequently fails to update the display and/or flat out hangs
Must often restart MacDown.
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Top
Pro
Markdown previews can be customized with CSS
You can use a CSS file to customize the rendered output and the file preview you are working on will display the rendered Markdown with the custom CSS styling on top.
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Top
Con
The Markdown preview is rather heavy on the CPU
The Markdown preview needs a lot of resources to keep rendering on-the-fly after each keystroke. A single keystroke in the editor panel may trigger up to 5 seconds of max-CPU usage.
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Top
Pro
Supports syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks
MacDown has syntax highlighting support for various languages when writing code in fenced code blocks.
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Top
Pro
Good auto-completion
MacDown has a good built-in auto-completion engine for Markdown symbols.
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Top
Pro
Support for GFM
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Top
Pro
Ideal for day-to-day programmers' work and MarkDown novices alike
Using MacDown for the notorious README.md use case gets you going without reading any manual or requiring any configuration values. Think of it as a sort of TextEdit for MarkDown files. Thus its shortcomings - neither powerful nor versatile - turn out to be a PRO for novices trying to jump on the MarkDown bandwagon. Open its help and you'll immediately find yourself editing the MacDown's MarkDown help file, a MarkDown primer with some MacDown menus and configuration added.
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Top
Pro
Linking between pages
Unlike a few other editors, MacDown lets you link between markdown pages.
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Top
Pro
Tool bar with most used markdown shortcuts
This is especially useful for Markdown novices
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Specs
Platforms:
MacOS
License:
MIT
Export:
HTML
Preview:
Live Preview
Hide
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Experiences
Free
92
6
IntelliJ IDEA
All
13
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Great Java Support
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Top
Con
Is not free
But it does have a free version (Community Edition).
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Top
Pro
A good editor for test-driven development
IntelliJ IDEA is really easy to work with when it comes to test-driven development in Java and JavaScript/TypeScript.
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Top
Con
Heavy
Consumes more resources than VSCode etc. But depending on your use-case, it can still be worth it for the benefits you get with this editor.
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Top
Pro
Great JavaScript support
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Top
Con
Autocomplete does not work while IntelliJ is indexing
But this, in general, is not much of an issue. Usually after npm install, etc.
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Top
Pro
Markdown support with preview
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Top
Pro
Supports PHP quite well
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Top
Pro
Great TypeScript support
Really good support for importing classes, libraries, etc. into a typescript class. Making it easy to do TDD.
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Top
Pro
Good BASH script support
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Top
Pro
Angular CLI support
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Top
Pro
Made by developers for developers
It can make one more efficient, but also can get one way too used to shortcuts, autocomplete, and easy debugging.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Cross Platform:
Yes
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Experiences
Paid
65
6
MWeb
All
14
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Excellent support of LaTeX equations
Math-heavy note takers, look no further. Mweb even supports the basic LaTeX equation labeling and referencing, which you cannot find in any other markdown editor as of early 2018. Library management is another major plus.
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Top
Con
Indie app, possible to be abandoned at anytime
If you like the app, please buy it to make it sustainable.
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Top
Pro
Supports publishing to popular web platforms
MWeb can publish Markdown files to various web platforms including (but not limited to) Wordpress, Metaweblog, Evernote, Blogger and Tumblr.
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Top
Con
Price become expensive
MWeb used to cost $14.99, and could be bought half the price with promo; but version 3 now costs $20, and the developer would like to go to a subscription plan.
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Top
Pro
Syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks
MWeb has syntax highlighting for some popular programming languages inside fenced code blocks.
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Top
Con
No free version
MWeb costs $20.99 and is available on the Mac App Store. There's a free trial available but it's only for 14 days which may not be enough to make a good evaluation of the software before buying.
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Top
Pro
Comes with an iOS app with iCloud sync
Once you are done editing your note on your mac, it's immediately available in your iOS devices, great for checkup anytime as you go.
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Top
Pro
Drag & drop or paste photos to the editor and display
Supports adding pictures to a Markdown file either through drag-and-drop or by pasting it.
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Top
Pro
Small but powerful
It has file tree, can post article, can upload pictures, can render in pretty preview themes, and is small and fast.
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Top
Pro
Supports both its own database and external folders
So you can have a side project stored on its database, and your current notes on external folder, with simple files, that could be share with other apps.
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Top
Pro
There's a free version, Mweb lite, on Mac OS and iOS
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Top
Pro
Supports publishing a static blog on FTP
Possible to manage your self-hosted static blog with your own css .
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Top
Pro
Tables
Quick insert and editing of tables.
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Specs
Platforms:
MacOS
License:
Proprietary
Price:
128 CNY
Cross Platform:
macOS/iOS
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Experiences
$14.99
15
2
Trilium Notes
All
14
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
Note encryption
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Top
Con
Interface can be confusing
There is a fair amount of flexibility to the interface but it can also become confusing, especially when some parts are not necessarily simple to use. Most of the basic features nevertheless are intuitive.
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Top
Pro
Free and open source software
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Top
Con
Database storage rather than files
This makes it a little less simple to work with (also has benefits).
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Top
Pro
Excellent WYSIWYG interface
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Top
Con
Not markdown
It will import and export markdown but it does not store content as markdown. This isn't necessarily a problem if you don't need it.
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Top
Pro
Attributes that can be assigned to nodes and inherited
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Top
Con
Synchronization requires use of Trilium's sync server
This can be problematic to set up unless you have a web server that will support the requirements of this.
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Top
Pro
Graph of node connectivity
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Top
Pro
Note versioning
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Top
Pro
Synchronization with a server
You can set up synchronization but you need a server to do this.
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Top
Pro
Database storage rather than files
This enables the tool to do a lot of things that would be difficult with plain text file storage.
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Top
Pro
Archival functionality
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Specs
Platforms:
Linux, Windows, Mac
License:
AGPL 3.0
Technology:
JavaScript
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Experiences
Free
31
4
MultiMarkdown Composer
All
13
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Multimarkdown support
Not many popular Markdown editors support MultiMarkdown syntax.
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Top
Con
Table of contents gets out of sync sometimes
If you keep the auto-generated table of contents open while you work it gets out of sync, meaning items in the table of contents (at the end) disappear until you restart the program.
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Top
Pro
Multiple export options
You can export to HTML, PDF, LaTeX, RTF, OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, ePub, OPML.
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Top
Con
The way the preview shows images is inconsistent
The preview is a bit inconsistent with images. Sometimes it shows the image correctly, sometimes it shows a blue question mark.
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Top
Pro
Table of Contents support
Generates a table of contents based on the headers in the Markdown file being worked on.
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Top
Pro
Support for elastic tabstops
Elastic tabstops are used to align text automatically during writing. When there's a change in the text, MultiMarkdown Composer automatically aligns all lines both on the beginning and end of them.
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Top
Pro
CriticMarkup support
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Top
Pro
Optional synchronized scrolling
Hold a key down and get synchronized scrolling.
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Top
Pro
Fast syntax highlighting
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Top
Pro
Highly customizable
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Top
Pro
Counts words, characters, lines
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Top
Pro
Can show invisible characters
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Specs
License:
Proprietary
Supported platforms:
MacOS
Export:
HTML, PDF, LaTeX, RTF, OpenOffice, Docx, ePub, OPML
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Experiences
$4.99
14
2
Logseq
All
10
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Privacy-first
Logseq is a privacy-first tool for thought.
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Top
Con
Keyboard-driven editing/navigating is descent but average
It is only because I was a long-time Checkvist user that I say this. Checkvist has keyboard-driven controls which are in a league of their own.
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Top
Pro
Networked notes
Similar to Roam's technique of letting the notes flow with links to each other.
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Top
Con
Still in Alpha
Logseq is still in Alpha and is under heavy development.
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Top
Pro
Local-first software
Every topic is its own flat file. Nothing is better than keeping your data in the file system with an option of git source control or online backup. https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/
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Top
Pro
Daily journal is capture on Steriods
The daily journal feature allows you to quickly capture disparate topics under today's date and by way of tags make things organized and findable from any topic page.
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Top
Pro
Open source
Logseq is opensource.
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Top
Pro
Structured data over willy-nilly formatting
Lots of apps are too graphically flexible in how they allow content to be entered, placed, and formatted. They act like Word when what you want when authoring content is Markdown. Content and semantic structure, not graphical frills.
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Top
Pro
Org syntax
Logseq support Emacs Org syntax out of the box.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS
Technology:
Clojure
Offline access:
Yes
Markdown support:
Yes
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Experiences
FREE
111
11
Gingko
All
7
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Con
Limited free version
The free version is limited to 100 cards and 10 documents. Depending on how you use it, this might not be enough.
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Top
Pro
You can customize colors
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Top
Pro
Allows focusing on one piece of information at a time
Since Gingko documents are "trees", they are always organized on the go. And since everything is written in cards, it is possible to focus on one chunk of content at a time.
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Top
Pro
Easy to overview
Despite the complexity of the tree structure, it's always clear where you are, and how to quickly add your thoughts.
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Top
Pro
Markdown support
All formatting is done via Markdown.
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Top
Pro
Non-linear
Non-linear notetaking allows you more flexibility, freedom and creativity.
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Specs
Platforms:
Web
Preview:
Live Preview
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Experiences
Get it
here
19
3
Org mode for Emacs
All
17
Experiences
Pros
11
Cons
6
Top
Con
Obtuse documentation
The documentation assumes a level of understanding of basic Emacs usage that not all users may have.
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Top
Pro
Can be as simple or as complex as you want
Org mode started out as a simple outlining/note taking app. Then each outline heading can optionally be a TODO list item. And if you desire, you can add SCHEDULE and DEADLINE dates. (Schedule being the date you'd like to start the item.) You can customize the TODO states to add things like DELEGATED, WAITING, BLOCKED, etc.
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Top
Con
Complicated to get started
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Top
Pro
Libre/open source
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Top
Con
Difficult to use as a database
For example, if you need to quickly populate client details on quotes, unfortunately its easier to find, copy & paste.
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Top
Pro
Cross platform
Emacs runs on all platforms, Windows, Linux, OSX, even Android and IOS
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Top
Con
Not suitable for normal users
Not even a majority of software developers can be bothered to use Emacs (or VI, for that matter).
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Top
Pro
Exports data to PDF, LaTeX, HMTL and other
You can even build presentation or blog from your data
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Top
Con
PDF export can be difficult
Latex assumes you're a (compliant) student, have to do a lot of research to get what you want out of it.
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Top
Pro
Supports tables with formules (quite powerful!)
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Top
Con
Uses Emacs (for those who prefer vi, menus, etc.)
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Top
Pro
Plain text data storage
Future-proof.
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Top
Pro
Inline image displaying
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Pro
Free but copyrighted
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Pro
Fast interaction
Once muscle-memory sets in, can be much faster to use than a point & click program.
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Pro
Uses Emacs
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Pro
All apps
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Experiences
$0.00
82
11
Mark Text
All
8
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Open Source
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Top
Con
Not lightweight
On Windows 10 the installed size was 259 Mb, no surprise as this is an Electron based app.
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Top
Pro
WYSIWYG or TEXT visualisation
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Top
Con
Not a WYSIWYG editor, no formated preview
There is only plain text editing.
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Top
Pro
Has RTL language support
Can be used with languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.
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Top
Con
Limited block selections
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Pro
Very light : 103 Mb only
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
License:
MIT
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Experiences
Free
52
8
Obsidian md
All
66
Experiences
Pros
55
Cons
10
Specs
Top
Pro
Locally stored, not dependent on cloud
Everything is stored in your device. You can back them up, encrypt and process however you want to. Works completely offline. Read your notes anytime, anywhere.
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Top
Con
Closed Source
See related thread at Obsidian forum.
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Top
Pro
Markdown makes for flatter learning curve
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Top
Con
Needs to be better at block level references, searches, tagging
For example, if you want a tag a block of text, for obsidian, its the whole page that will get tagged.
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Top
Pro
Lightweight and very customizable
Variety of settings, and community themes & plugins, available from built-in marketplace. Every community plugin is open-source which means you can learn from it and develop your own.
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Top
Con
Proprietary software lock-in
Creates dependence on the application with the promise that the content is yours but that cannot be entirely true without the application being free and open source software. You will end up altering the way you create the content to take advantage of Obsidian features and your processes will evolve for its workflows. This replicates the lock-in pain that people experience moving their highly personal information from one proprietary platform to the next when that initial platform stops serving them well, goes out of business, or becomes a bad actor.
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Top
Pro
Backlinking
This allows you to link notes back and forth really easily.
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Top
Con
Does not export to MS Word
Can export only as a PDF file.
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Top
Pro
Fast growing
It's becoming more powerful everyday, it seems like they add many functions within several days.
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Top
Con
Requires .md files
Can't read .txt or other plaintext file formats. Can't read asciidoc files. (Available with a plugin.)
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform: works on Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android and iOS
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Top
Con
No ability to add dates that link to a daily note, when that day/note may not yet exist
You can create a backlink which doesn't yet exist; it just doesn't auto-fill for you. (Available as a plugin)
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Top
Pro
Very easy to use and link notes, preserves the standard form of markdown
Linking notes is a game changing feature. Very easy to use and link notes. Their implementation of markdown doesn't deviate from the standard form of markdown and so the same files can be used by other markdown programs without any consequence. While renaming note link still works.
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Top
Con
Too many plugins
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Pro
Multiple Vaults
A Vault in Obsidian is like a database. Internal links and files are not shared across Vaults. Each Vault is opened with a separate instance of Obsidian. Each Vault can have its unique app settings and plug-ins. Useful if you have distinct/unrelated projects or "data spaces" requiring different workflows and data relations.
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Top
Con
iOS version works only with icloud
Does not work with other cloud folders.
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Top
Pro
In-line tagging
Ability to tag-as-you-write and find each occurrence of a tag in the entire vault makes it very easy to organize and retrieve notes. Supports nested tags.
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Top
Con
Needs to be polished
They still need time to fix some bugs.
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Top
Pro
Infinite panes, split panes, lock panes
In Obsidian, pane = window = note = page Obsidian allows you to open as many notes as you can fit concurrently in your screen. You can split a pane horizontally/vertically. You can lock/link panes so they scroll in sync, useful for and edit & preview modes.
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Top
Con
V1.0 release is terrible
Don't download unless you can't find pre 1.0 version.
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Top
Pro
Functionality extensions with a growing number of plugins
Also open for anyone to develop their own extensions/plugins.
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Top
Pro
Daily Notes with template
Daily Notes plug-in, when clicked, generates a new note with the current date. Great for journaling and reduces friction in your writing habit. You can create a custom template for your Daily Note.
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Top
Pro
Helps visualize personal knowledge in ways nothing else allows
The Graph view is more than an aesthetic gizmo. It allows you to grasp and recognise clusters of information, follow branches and easily filter out what you don't want to see. The "animate" option shows how your notes and links have grown organically. With a bit of tweaking to the visuals and the proper theme, your graph might even start to look like a disturbingly "alive", eerie thing.
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Top
Pro
Random note
A plugin that, when clicked, surfaces a random note from your vault.
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Pro
Support for tags
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Pro
Readable as it hides the [[ ]] around links when in Preview mode
This is a big difference, as having to read through long-form texts laden with [[links]] gives friction.
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Top
Pro
Slides for giving presentations from within Obsidian
Easily turn your notes into simple yet sleek powerpoint-style presentations by enabling the Slides plugin and adding the --- separator.
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Top
Pro
Markdown rather than outline/blocks
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Pro
Keyboard shortcuts, Vim key bindings
Hotkeys can be customized in settings. Can switch on or off Vim key bindings in the editor settings.
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Top
Pro
Great onboarding experience
The onboarding consists of well-written help documentation (saved as a vault) served in small chunks and organized systematically so that you become familiar with all its features as well as get hands-on experience in real time.
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Pro
Community of developers building themes and plug-ins
Due to the tool being very developer-friendly, there are tons of cool developments being made to it by 3rd party devs.
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Pro
Page previews on hover
When you hover on an internal [[link]], you get to preview the note without opening it on a new pane. Page preview plugin must be enabled.
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Top
Pro
Intuitive and easy to use with an excellent help system built-in
The app doesn't frustrate the user - the built-in help is excellent.
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Top
Pro
Embedding attachments, such as PDF
Variety of file formats are directly embedded in the markdown preview, e.g. markdown, image, audio, video and PDF files.
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Top
Pro
Exporting as PDF
Allows exporting your markdown files as PDFs rendered with all of your plugins.
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Top
Pro
Calendar
Daily and Weekly notes with Calendar Plugin.
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Top
Pro
Graph view
A pretty, alternative way to represent links between your notes.
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Top
Pro
Multiple cursors
A feature unseen in other tools. From the help doc, "This can be useful when modifying a lot of lines in the same way, for example putting - at the beginning of multiple lines to turn them into a list, or appending [[ to a series of links you’ve copied from elsewhere."
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Pro
Can copy search results and paste as lists and/or links in a new or existing note
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Top
Pro
Advanced search
Supports extended searching by default. Community plugin called "Vantage" allows to make more advanced queries.
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Top
Pro
Git integration
Version Control for your vault with Obsidian Git plugin.
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Top
Pro
Aliases
Allows to refer to a note with multiple names.
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Top
Pro
Big and helpful community
There's a Discord server and a forum. Join the community!
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Top
Pro
Not locked to a provider
No lock-in to a certain company - just markdown files on disk.
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Top
Pro
Mindmaps
Available as a plugin.
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Top
Pro
Math
Uses MathJax.
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Top
Pro
Templates
Allows to create templates with built-in plugin. There's also powerful community plugin called "Templater".
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Top
Pro
Diagrams
Uses Mermaid.
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Top
Pro
Linking to blocks
You can link to a block - e.g.: paragraph, blockquote, heading.
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Top
Pro
Metadata
Add a custom metadata to a note with YAML front matter.
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Top
Pro
Sketching
With Excalidraw.
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Top
Pro
Academic citations
Supports Citations and provides inserting from Zotero.
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Top
Pro
SQL-like queries
Advanced queries for the data-obsessed with Dataview Plugin.
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Top
Pro
Workspaces
Saving and loading workspaces.
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Top
Pro
Built-in Audio Recorder
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Top
Pro
Folders and file level storage which is open to manage, does not lock navigation
With other options like notion, we can not see how the data is actually stored.
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Top
Pro
HTML Support
Use HTML in a note.
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Top
Pro
Incredible tool for PKM (Personal Knowledge Management) which allows anyone who has a computer and an internet connection to think better and create new insights
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Pro
Helps with planning and organization.
Variety of planning and organization plugins, such as Kanban boards or Day Planner.
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Pro
Supports importing from other tools
Supports importing from tools such as Notion, Evernote, OneNote, Apple Notes, Bear, Zkn3, TiddlyWiki 5, and Roam Research. Refer to Obsidian Help for more info.
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Top
Pro
Supports several languages
Translations are made by the community at GitHub repository.
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Top
Pro
Discord rich presence
Update your Discord status to show your friends what are you working on with Discord Rich Presence plugin.
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Top
Pro
Syntax highlighting for code blocks
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Top
Pro
Snapshots, file recovery, trash folder
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Top
Pro
Copy and paste images easily
When taking notes, you can just grab a print screen from your clipboard and paste into the notes without having to do any file management
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android
API:
Beta
Collaborative:
Upcoming
Search:
Advanced
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Free / paid
899
70
Boostnote
All
15
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
Cross platform support
Supports Windows, macOS and Linux.
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Top
Con
Some of the features are not consistent
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Top
Pro
Markdown support
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Top
Con
Must use third-party service for sync-ing (Dropbox, etc.)
Boostnote does not have sync-ing capabilities and relies on third-party services to fulfil notes storage. There are additional steps involved to set this up.
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Top
Pro
Free
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Top
Con
Can't work in "real" offline mode
See More
Top
Pro
Open source
See here.
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Top
Con
Very poor syncing
Data loss may occur on syncing.
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Top
Pro
Great for developers
Boostnote is great for developers looking to take programming notes with code snippets and such.
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Top
Pro
Supports code snippets and syntax highlighting
Boostnote has the ability to store code snippets and comes with syntax highlighting out of the box, supporting many languages.
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Top
Pro
Works offline
Boostnote doesn't require an internet connection to work. You can write notes offline and sync later.
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Top
Pro
Global search, tag feature
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Top
Pro
Comes with many themes
Boostnote comes with many themes out of the box, most of which are popular themes and color schemes for code editors: e.g. 3024, base16, solarized, tomorrow.
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Top
Pro
vim/emacs key bindings available
Boostnote supports vim/emacs key bindings. If you're a developer familiar with either of them, navigation should be easy to pick up.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows/MacOS/Linux/Android/IOS
License:
GPL v3
API:
No
Dark Theme:
Yes
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605
54
Kate
All
10
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Integrated terminal
Has a terminal that can sync to the location of your document, letting you compile or run your program quickly or run quick commands, all without leaving the editor.
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Top
Con
Hard to install on Windows or OS X
Kate can be a little hard to install and configure, especially for beginners. On Linux or BSD, it can be easily installed from your distribution's repositories.
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Top
Pro
Project mode
Kate allows you to make projects to simplify the organisation of your code. This brings in additional organization of an IDE without the overhead.
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Top
Pro
Fast and minimaistic
Kate is pretty fast and lightweight. This helps it with it's start up speed.
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Top
Pro
Syntax highlighting
Kate supports syntax highlighting for over 180 languages, from Assembler to Zsh.
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Top
Pro
Edit over FTP, SSH, or other protocols
Kate uses KDE's input and output libraries to read and write files, allowing seamless integration with FTP, SMB, SFTP, and many other protocols.
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Top
Pro
Thriving plugin ecosystem
Lots of plugins allow Kate to expand or shrink based on your needs. It includes GDB integration, XML completion, and symbol viewing to speed up programming.
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Top
Pro
By far one of the best and lightest text editors.
Notepads alternative (for the Windows users).
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Top
Pro
Vi entry mode
Kate has a vi entry mode.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD
License:
LGPL-2.0-or-later, MIT
Collaborative editing:
No
RTL:
Yes
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Experiences
Free
148
19
Haroopad
All
16
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
5
Specs
Top
Pro
Very customizable
Haroopad has multiple available themes to choose from and new ones can be easily built with CSS.
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Top
Con
English translation is iffy
The software was initially developed in Korean for Korean users and later translated and ported to English. The translation to English has not been perfect and there may be some weird expressions and grammatical errors along the way.
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Top
Pro
Multiplatform support
Runs on Mac, Windows and Linux with 32-bit and 64-bit binary packages available.
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Top
Con
Documentation is in Korean
The official documentation is in Korean, so it may be a bit hard for non-Korean speakers to find their way around Haroopad.
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Top
Pro
Completely free
Haroopad is a free and open source Markdown Editor.
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Top
Con
Windows installer does not support easy admin installation
It can't request the necessary privileges to install to C:\Program Files.
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Top
Pro
Various publishing and export options
Haroopad can publish to Wordpress, Evernote, Tumblr and MediaWiki and export to EPub, ReStructured Text, RTF and PDF.
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Top
Con
Undo sometimes loses control about the selection
Select some text, select a formatting in the Markdown Syntax Helper view, undo.
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Top
Pro
Mathematical expressions support
Haroopad supports mathematical expressions through LaTeX and MathJax.
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Top
Con
Code pane is dark in default theme
Can be hard to read and a bit hard to find where to change it.
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Top
Pro
Supports MathJax
Mathematical equations can be exported to the browser by using MathJax, a JavaScript display engine with a lot of great features such as typography support and modular output.
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Top
Pro
Allows embedding content from a wide variety of sources
Content from YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo, Slideshare, Flickr, Instagram, Soundcloud, Wikipedia and Pastebin can be embedded in the document.
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Top
Pro
The Markdown flavor can be extended
Haroopad supports GitHub Markdown flavor out of the box. But the functionality can be extended to support additional Markdown features.
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Top
Pro
Vi key bindings
For people used ti vi/vim, Haroopad can be set up to be used with vi keybindings.
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Top
Pro
Dual License
GPL3 license is applied to the current version and will be applied in the future to meet the internal dual licensing scheme. Commercial use follows Apache license v2 (APLv2) for keeping the GPL license and non-commercial use under consideration.
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Specs
Platforms:
MacOS, Windows, Linux
License:
GPLv3
Languages:
Javascript
Export:
HTML; EPub; ReStructured Text; PDF; RTF
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Experiences
Free
93
15
Zettlr
All
7
Experiences
Pros
4
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Focuses on writers
While many Markdown editors don't offer specific support for a certain type of workflow, or offer features for scientific workflows only, Zettlr offers features that help the writing process of journalists or researchers in the arts and humanities. It's a lot more text-focused than most editors.
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Top
Con
Obtrusive, like someone WITH CAPS LOCK ON
Too loud, too much going on, and definitely an in-your-face sort of feeling.
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Top
Pro
Citation support
While it supports a diverse range of syntax (chart, easy image insert, etc.) found in other editors, the great citation support made it possible to write real articles. Citation from Zotero and Mendeley can be inserted easily which is a huge plus.
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Top
Con
Large, slow, can't open just a single .md file
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Top
Pro
Almost perfect
This is the best option, still not perfect, there are some bugs like creating / editing tables and resizing images, but the PROS destroy the CONS, easy quotes, WYSIWYM , attachments tab (supports attaching and opening links to any file), table of contents, TAGs, easy hyperlink between files (same as citations), export to many formats (like Word, HTML5, PDF)...
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Top
Pro
Renders math in-place through KaTex
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
License:
GPL v3
Technology:
Electron, TypeScript
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Experiences
0
102
17
typora
All
20
Experiences
Pros
14
Cons
5
Specs
Top
Pro
Live preview
Typora immediately renders what's typed on the screen in Markdown format. This helps users to have a better understanding of how their document is being formatted.
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Top
Con
No mobile (Android/iOS) apps
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Pro
Hybrid interface
The editor and preview dual-pane setup typical of desktop Markdown editors are gone; instead, a singular interface makes for a WYSIWYG experience. This streamlines the workflow and encourages direct manipulation.
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Top
Con
In beta
Typora is still in beta and may be prone to changes or bugs.
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Top
Pro
Support for LaTeX expressions
It supports LaTeX expressions, with an easy-to-use MaxJax panel.
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Top
Con
Unusable image management
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Top
Pro
Syntax highlight for fenced codes
It supports GFM's code fences, with syntax highlight support for C/C++, java, etc.
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Top
Con
The immediate rendering of Markdown is hard on the eyes
Having Markdown immediately render causes text to jump into formatted text, which is distracting and hard on the eyes.
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Top
Pro
Custom theme support
Typora has clean yet beautiful built-in themes and allows for users to create new themes using CSS.
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Top
Con
No portable version (Windows)
You need admin rights on a managed Windows computer to install it. There currently is no portable version available.
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Top
Pro
Support for tables
It supports tables for Markdown Extra. And also provides a GUI to make it easy to insert and edit them.
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Top
Pro
Inline images
It won't display image like , But shows the image content inside the editor.
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Pro
Free during beta
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Top
Pro
Shows table of contents for the document
It supports an outline for the document, by showing a table of contents on the left side of the screen.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
Currently works on Windows, Mac and Linux.
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Pro
Natural typing experience
Editing in Markdown, either in WYSIWYG mode or in markdown code mode, feels natural. It never gets in the way.
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Top
Pro
Make charts and diagrams with Mermaid, FlowChart and Sequence
Use fenced code-blocks to render diagrams using syntax from Mermaid and FlowChart.js.
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Top
Pro
Sidebar with a list of files
You can open any folder in sidebar and see a list of other markdown files.
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Top
Pro
Syncs with iCloud
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Specs
Platforms:
Mac OSX; Windows; Linux
License:
Proprietary
Price:
$14.99
Export:
HTML; HTML (pure); PDF; Word; OpenOffice; RTF; Epub; LaTeX; Media Wiki; ReStructuredText; Textile; OPML
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484
59
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