markdown

Typora, a Markdown editor that lets writers focus on content, not code

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When you're a writer, you want to focus on words, not complicated formatting.
When you're a writer, you want to focus on words, not complicated formatting.
Image: Typora

Almost any writer or content creator can benefit from using a minimal Markdown editor like Typora. It’s a simple app that you can configure in many different ways to suit the formatting you need for your document, whether you’re writing a book, building a website, crafting a business report or simply blogging or penning an essay for school.

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This post is brought to you by typora.io.
Typora excels at Markdown, which helps a writer format text using simple markup language. Typora keeps everything minimal and seamless, so you can focus on the content, not the code behind it.

Stay focused on writing with iA Writer [50 Essential iOS Apps #27]

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iA Writer on iPad
iA Writer is perfect for bloggers and others writing on the go
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: iA Writer appThere are dozens of ways to write on iOS. Apple’s own Notes app offers a simple writing platform, while Pages allows for elaborate documents – complete with pictures. While both are good for certain tasks, more serious writers typically want something a little different. iA Writer offers more while doing less, making it the perfect text editor app.

Capture notes quickly with Drafts [50 Essential iOS Apps #5]

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writing in Drafts for iPad
Drafts is where writing starts, before moving on to its final destination.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Drafts 5 note taking and writing app While there are dozens of note-taking and writing apps available on iOS, few strike the balance of rich features and simple design the way Drafts does. Whether you’re looking for a quick way to digitally jot down a passing thought, take notes in a meeting, or store an address or phone number, the Drafts app makes it easy to quickly capture text before taking action.

How to export your Apple Notes to plain text

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exporter notes export
Getting your notes out of Apple Notes is easy.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple’s Notes app has gotten great in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra. It’s fast, it’s easy to clip content to new and existing notes, search is instant, and you can collect pretty much anything into a note. You can even share individual notes, mark up PDFs, draw on pictures, and scan paper documents.

It really is a powerhouse. But one thing Notes doesn’t have is a sensible way to get your notes out of the app. Notes export is limited to PDF. If you decide Notes isn’t for you, you’re stuck. Fortunately, some third-party apps will export your Notes into universally compatible plain text files. Even better, one is free, and the other costs just 99 cents.

Realmac tells us how it built the best Markdown editor for Mac

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If you write, you need Typed. Photo: Realmac Software
If you write, you need Typed. Photo: Realmac Software

Realmac Software has been schooling developers on how to make great apps since 2002. So when they brought Typed to OS X back in December, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Two months on, I’m convinced it’s the best Markdown editor you can get on the Mac, so I spoke with Realmac founder Dan Counsell to find out how he and his team built it.

Write’s smart toolset makes note-taking easier on your Mac

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Write-app-Mac

Write, the distraction-free note-taking tool that’s been a great success on iOS, is ready to make writing easier on your Mac.

Whether you’re a student, a blogger, a novelist, or simply too forgetful to remember what you need to pack your holiday, Write’s incredibly simple design and clutter-free user interface can make writing a more enjoyable experience. But don’t let its minimal beauty fool you — Write is packed with handy features.

Forget PowerPoint: Deckset Is A Markdown-Powered Presentation Powerhouse

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Ever been on a plane and seen some suit squished into his chair, browning his ThinkPad’s screen with his office breath and lining up some pictures and text on a PowerPoint slide? “Jeez,” you think. “Not only is this dork-o inflicting yet more PowerPain on the world, but he thinks it’s important enough to do on a plane.”

Next time you see one of these sad specimens, you might point them in the direction of Deckset, a slideshow maker that works using Markdown.

Passive Voice Detection Is Added To Marked Markdown Preview App

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Brett Terpstra’s Marked app started out as a quick way to preview any Markdown file as it would appear when rendered into rich text or HTML. It still does that as well as any of the apps that have their own built-in Markdown preview, but Marked is now arguably something else entirely. It analyzes your text and gives detailed statistics, as well as suggestions on how to improve your prose.

The latest version detects the passive voice.

Plink, An Image Uploader For All iOS Text Editors

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Did you ever try to write a blog post on your iPad? It’s easy, right? But did you ever try to add an image to that post? It’s a major pain in the ass. Plink is here to fix that. It’s an iOS app that will upload a photo to its own storage cloud, and generate a URL that is automatically copied to your clipboard. All you need to do is switch back to your writing app and paste it in.

And of course this isn’t just for bloggers. Anywhere you need to link an image – forum posts for example – you can use Plink.

Get Over $600 Worth Of Photography And Design Assets With The SuperStacked Mac Bundle 2.0 [Deals]

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redesign_vectorrain

This Cult of Mac Deals is the perfect software stack for any creative. It’s so perfect, you could even call it a “super” stack.

Cult of Mac Deals has assembled $650 worth of creative resources in one massive package, featuring software that is ideal for the designer and photographer. We’ve even planted an app in there that many bloggers and online writers use. And you can get all of these apps – 9 in total – for just $29 during this limited time offer!

Convert Markdown to DOCX On iOS With MakeDoc

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makedoc

 

MakeDoc looks like a good bet for otherwise right-thinking folks who find them selves required to supply a Word DOCX file. Being a smart nerd, you undoubtedly write in Markdown, converting to the required format on output. But DOCX isn;t an output option for most iOS text editors. That’s where makeDoc comes in.

Write for Mac Beta Now Available

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write beta

Write, the slick iPhone and iPad text-editing app, is now available in beta form on the Mac. It doesn’t yet have many of the fancy trimmings of its iOS siblings, but it is already a rather nice place to write your Markdown, rich text or plain text notes.

Letter, A Beautiful Markdown App Just For Writing Emails

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Screen Shot 2013-12-24 at 09.34.54

 

Have you ever responded to an e-mail from your boss with some angry knee-jerk reply, then you’ve accidentally sent it, only to regret it later as you sweep the contents of your desk into a cardboard filing box? Me too, but as Leander never reads any of his e-mail, I — unlike you — still have a job.

Let.ter is a brand new app which will help you stay employed next time. It’s a beautifully simple Markdown-based app with one purpose: composing e-mails away from your main e-mail app.

Lazy Reference Links Make Markdown Even Easier

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lazy
Don't worry -- you don't need to touch this.

This one’s pretty nerdy, but if you use Markdown to write anything with links in it (web articles, e-mails and so on) then you’re going to love it. It lets you use “lazy” reference links in Markdown to keep your text nice and tidy, but it does it without the references. Reference links without references? What? Wait…

Brett Terpstra’s Awesome SearchLink Ported To Editorial For iPad

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Screen Shot 2013-08-20 at 12.51.24

Brett Terpstra’s SearchLink is a System Service for OS X which automatically generates links from your text, without you having to bother to look anything up on Google first. It’s like having an unpaid intern inside your Mac.

And Editorial is that fancy new iPad text editor that incorporates workflows that you can roll yourself.

Now the two have been combined into one amazing iPad ball of goodness.

Markdown to MindMap, Another Great Service From Brett Terpstra

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markmindmap

Mind Maps are a great way to brainstorm and visualize ideas. And plain text is a great way to hammer out lists. And Markdown is a perfect tool for quickly adding hierarchy to those lists as you write them. If only there were a way to combine these three things…

And guess what? The fairy godfather of Internet tinkering, Brett Terpstra, has already done it for you. It’s an OS X System Service that takes the messiest of Markdown lists and turns them into a format suitable for most mind-mapping apps.

Editorial, Like Pythonista For Text

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Ole Zorn, the super-villain[1] behind the amazing Pythonista for iOS, has just started teasing his newest app – a Markdown text editor for the iPad. Only unlike all the other Markdown editors, this one is looks like it’s as programmable as Pythonista. I’m getting pretty excited.