I use the DTTG app with an iPad
My preference is a wysiwyg editor; formatted note format
Inline images are supported
handwritten notes
I use the Notability app on an iPad with an Apple Pencil (stylus)
When completed, I export in pdf format for storage in Devonthink
The contents are ocr’d (searchable)
auto date and time stamp when I enter these entries
I use an IOS shortcut that prefixes the title with the date/time
Could you share on how do you create the iOS Shortcut, I don’t think there is a ready made one.
Over three years later and still no bullets in Formatted Notes. Any hope for this?
fwiw When I need functions not available in the DT editor,
I switch to an external text editor and insert the HTML code
This works for bullets
Now, 5 years later, what editor do you use now?
Why was (or is) Typora better than MacDown?
Can you compare to iA Writer or Obsidian?
I did some research and as it seems, Markdown is not the very best solution, mainly because there is such a plethora of variants …
You cannot reply on nothing but the most basic version, while all the additions vary widely.
But there are solutions for exactly that: AsciiDoc and ReStructuredText
AsciiDoc is in fact a version of DocBook XML, which makes it a parseable format that is strictly defined and can be converted to anything.
I found this very interesting article about it:
ReStructuredText aims for something similar, but is less an standard. I still found it interesting.
Both are very similar to basic Markdown and could probably converted to and from it, for basic features.
The best solution for what? You need to start with your goal, and then figure out the best way to achieve that.
You do of course need to be aware of the format you are using, what possibilities and constraints it has, and where it is supported. The original markdown syntax is very limited. That led to many different projects to extend it in different ways. Those are in a sense their own formats, some conflicting with each other. I think most of them are pretty niche.
DEVONthink uses MultiMarkdown, which is a widely used standard supported many places. Some apps don’t use MultiMarkdown, or only borrow a limited set of its extended syntax. And some choose to deviate from the standard and invent their own syntax in absolutely annoying ways that break compatablity (like Obsidian’s footnotes and cross-references) – but that is on them.
You might want to read this MultiMarkdown User's Guide by Fletcher Penny, the creator of MultiMarkdown. This is both a nice guide and contains some background and thoughts on the format.
Have you run into any problems? Just don’t use the niche markdown variants unless you know what you are doing/getting into. And stay away from apps that deviate from the standard if you don’t want to deal with compatibility issues.
I haven’t looked into AsciiDoc and don’t remember much about ReStructuredText, but I think both are even less supported and used than markdown. So why are you looking at those?
The MultiMarkdown parser has some built-in conversions to other formats. Otherwise PanDoc is widely used for conversion to/from markdown with advanced options and customization – it can do so many things.
With AsciiDoc or ReStructuredText, you settle for a certain markup language. Same as you’d do with DT’s MultiMarkdown.
Yes, there are different MD dialects, but each of them follows a specification. And current MD editors support should support at least some of them. No need to throw out the child with the bath water.
@troejgaard and @chrillek both of you basically repeated what I posted about Markdown. It is a diverse bunch and not a standard, and “concentrating” on one of them does not fix that.
What I did, was just pointing to a perfect alternative, which is AsciiDoc, as it is compatible with DocBook XML!
I just wanted to share this information - maybe, some day DT will support AsciiDoc 
…for you. 
maybe, some day DT will support AsciiDoc
Perhaps “one day” but there are definitely no current plans.
You make it sound like it is extremely confusing and uncertain to use markdown. It really is not I say that because my impression is you don’t have much experience with it, quickly read something and got a bit scared.
How does it not? Again, what is the goal? MultiMarkdown is pretty reliable. Just make sure it is supported where you want to use it. This is not difficult. Just like many apps cannot open .psd files (or .oo3/.ooutline files, as came up in our recent exchange ).
What is AsciiDoc supposed to fix? If it is less widely used/supported, how is it better? And… The more popular it becomes, the higher the chance that someone forks or extends it like markdown.
PS: PanDoc converts to DocBook, if this is important to you. But it’s not a format I use, so I haven’t tried it.
That’s like saying “all markup languages are just a divers bunch”. Make the criteria lose enough, and nothing is standardized. Make them more specific, and you get something perfectly standardized and usable. Just stay clear of the apps that “improve” the standard.
I sure did not refer to my needs 
I am happy with very basic Markdown most of the time.
But AsciiDoc is perfect for most types of documents (esp. technical docs) and types of output, which is sometimes diffcult to do with Markdown, not possible with several versions of Markdown or requires inclusion of HTML or macros in Markdown - all of which is not needed in AsciiDoc.
AsciiDoc, from my research seems to be the “final version of a light ascii based mark-up language”.
For those interested, a bunch of links:
I will not use it either, because no Apps I know of supports it directly - but I would LOVE to see such support! Then, I would switch immediately.
Great thing!
EDIT: And a basic comparision as video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W33_l1oOX9A
That’s why I started by asking: Solution to what? What is your goal?
There is no perfect format for everything—otherwise, there would exist only one format All formats have tradeoffs.
For example, a significant tradeoff to AsciiDoc seems to be
I appreciate that you want to make people aware of something that could be useful to them, and that they might not know about That is what makes this forum great!
But if you read the original post in this thread, it asks how and why people use the different formats already available in DEVONthink. It is a bit strange to revive an almost 2 year old thread to start talking about a format not available. I think it would make more sense to see if there is already a thread on AsciiDoc or start at new thread
@BLUEFROG how do you draft your mails in Markdown? do you have an email client that supports markdown or how do you copy the markdown text including formatting into a mail app?
However, if other people use AsciiDoc, there must be tools to work with it somehow. A quick search on the forum reveals this
– so it seems there are indeed options if you want to try it out.
It also looks like markdown plays well with it!
Our support ticket system runs like a webserver, so I am not composing in an email client. It just sends an email of our replies.
I draft/compose all of my emails longer than a few sentences in markdown. I know some people swear by MailMate, which supports markdown directly. But I use Apple Mail in standard rich text mode.
I do this in iA Writer. iA Writer has a Copy Formatted command (it can also copy as HTML, if that matters to you). Then you can just paste directly into your email. Maybe there is a more elegant way to do it, but it works for me.
I’m sure the app Drafts can do something similar, and Ulysses too.
Since Google Docs added support for markdown recently, maybe the Gmail web client also supports it? If you use Gmail of course.
You can copy directly from the preview in DEVONthink.
Thanks for the links, yes AsciiDoc really is interesting and capable!
And the basic format is quite similar to Markdown and can be used in the same way, while offering very interesting options.
i installed asciidoctor and pandoc with MacPorts to play around with that.
