Hi,
Is there a work in progress for the writing experience on Devonthink ?
Just add in setting the number of characters per line (in general 64, 72 or 80). Then please do not align to the left. keep it centred like the examples below.
Here some examples:
Bear
Obsidian
IA Writer
Devonthink
Hope you agree with me that Devonthink need to improve. I think it’s a quick win.
Have a nice day
I don’t see this as a priority
If I need an “improved writing experience”, I use external apps
I currently make use of the Apple iWorks apps
You’re comparing rich text in DEVONthink to Markdown in the other apps. That’s not a 1:1 comparison. That being said, press Command-R to show the ruler when editing rich text. Select your text and move the margin stops to adjust the width of the text.
Hi my friend,
I can compare the markdown experience too.
Bear
DT
The issue is the number of characters per line. If it’s more than 80 (best is 65), eyes will lose tracking when moving between lines. For example, a novel will have an average of 55 characters per line.
I will love to see a possibility to set a limit of characters per line in settings, that will help to stay within DT when working between searching, writing, organizing …
Thank you Bluefrog,
Have a nice day
You’re welcome.
The only controls for the source is the font size and width of the editing pane. For the rendered view, the width can be controlled by CSS styling. Development would have to assess changes in the editing behavior.
You could make the window smaller?
Supporting @kewms’s suggestion, when I want a narrower editing window, no matter what app I’m using or whatever I’m doing in that window, I simply narrow the window. That surely will work for you in this situation?
I’m leaning towards the same answer as you.
I find all that white space in a lot of apps nowadays irritating. It is basically dead space, since the purpose of the apps is reading and writing, and it’s taking up screen space that offers neither function.
But then I’ve also implemented css (on markdown) that renders my notes how I like to see them, given that DT supports that and it’s great.
(I also am not inclined to care about the comparison with books, given that their format is largely driven by convention and the demands of paper, not an “optimal reading experience”, and neither are relevant here.)
I strongly support @Rachik 's suggestions and have been trying to advocate for this for a while, for example in this thread here, where others have also chimed in on this general topic.
I’ve been a professional writer for decades and I love DEVONthink as a tool for my work, except that I absolutely hate writing in it for exactly this reason. It’s incredibly frustrating that all of my documents, notes, and drafts (the latter two all in markdown these days) are housed in a brilliant app but then I never want to use that same app to actually write in. [EDIT: To clarify I am talking here about the markdown editor which is not subject to style-sheet solutions.] I always go through an annoying multi-step process of opening those markdown files from DT into iA Writer and writing there, for exactly the reasons the OP describes. And I then pray that iA Writer will always correctly save my writing back into the file in DT. (So far so good, mostly, though on the iPad I am always holding my breath and can never quite tell if/when iA Writer actually saves back into DTTG.)
So, once again, I will try to register my strong support for what the OP is requesting [EDIT: namely for the markdown editor view]. Yes, it is “only” a seemingly aesthetic matter but for me it has a direct and profound impact on creative focus and process. This is the one thing that still frustrates me to no end about my use of this otherwise incredible app, of which I’ve been an enthusiastic user for many years.
You could try
body {
font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt;
line-height: 1.5; /* change if needed*/
max-width: 64ch;
margin: 0 auto; /*to put it in the middle */
}
Changing the CSS affects only the preview. I think that @quirkt is talking about the editor here (as others did). And having very basic settings like left/right margin or maximum line width and line spacing would be beneficial in the editor. For anything else, I’d still rather go with an external MD editor.
Interestingly, no one seems ever have to missed better search/replace functionality in DT’s editing environment. That’s something I really need in an editor.
Yes, I am talking specifically about the markdown editor view—thanks. I’ve clarified my post above.
Gosh. Then why do it? Why wait for something that might or might not happen? Plenty of really good editor tools that use MarkDown that integrate with DEVONthink just fine. I’m surprised you see unreliability of iA Writer saving back to the DEVONthink. Odd. The good news is that DEVONthink doesn’t mess with the file created by IA Writer.
I’d say you are overcomplicating the process by a long shot. Please clarify what you’re actually doing.
Instead of double-clicking the MD document in DT? Why?
Not so different situation: I double-click on Pages and Numbers files in DT, work with them in Pages or Numbers, press Cmd-S, and the modified file is stored in DT. Looks like a two-step process to me – double-click and Cmd-S.
do you just need search/replace or more “sophisticated” search features within documents?
I’m a RegEx person, so “sophisticated features”, please.
But it doesn’t matter, I’m using an external editor for MD anyway. I was just expressing my surprise at the fact that seemingly all requests to modify the editor are related to visual effects.
I’m always of the mind “just use Open With; edit in your favorite external app; then save”.
Two cases to edit internally: need a short note now. Or, need to make reference links to other documents in the database. Fiddly to do the first with Open With. Time consuming to do the second with an external editor.
Thanks for your response, and my apologies if I wasn’t clear. I don’t write in DEVONthink. When I said I hate doing it, what I was trying to communicate was that I don’t do it. For markdown I’ve almost exclusively been writing in iA Writer.
The issue is that I wish for convenience’s sake that the visual experience of writing directly in DEVONthink was similar to the way the editor in iA Writer looks—because being able to stay in DT all the time would make my working life with multiple text files and documents much simpler (see my other response regarding a “multi-step process”).
For me the problem is that the DT editor is much more difficult to work in visually, for the reasons the OP mentions above. That’s why iA Writer is designed the way it is. Visual simplicity is one of the draws of working in markdown, at least for many writers. Markdown in DT is great in many ways but not in that way.
My concern regarding iA Writer saving back into DT is specifically with DEVONthink To Go on the iPad. On the computer, yes, it seems fine; and to be safe, when finishing in iA Writer on the computer, one can save the document to make sure the most recent changes have been saved back to DT before closing. But I don’t know of a way on the iPad to make iA Writer save manually; I have asked about this elsewhere in the DT community but I haven’t noticed a clear answer. Yes it saves automatically but there is a delay. I’ve had the experience of opening a markdown document from DTTG in iA Writer on the iPad, making edits, and being not sure if/when the edits have been saved into the file within DTTG, and sometimes they haven’t been if I don’t wait a bit with iA Writer sitting open. If someone can enlighten me further about this back and forth specifically on the iPad I’d be grateful.
Thanks, yes, that is indeed what I do—I do have DT set to open markdown files in iA Writer when I double-click them, like you do with Pages, Numbers (I also do that as well).
When I say “multi-step process”, I am talking about the whole experience of working with multiple text files and reference documents stored in DT while writing:
Opening a markdown file from DT into iA Writer is one step, yes. But now I have two apps that I’m working in; typically I have reference documents from DT open in DT that I want to look at while I write in iA Writer. So then I’m switching back and forth between apps or moving windows around from different apps so I can see them at the same time. Even if I’m not doing that, but just making a quick note in a single markdown file, still, when I save and close the file in iA Writer, then I have to do an extra step to get back to DT. That’s multi-step. It may not sound like much but when you’re working across dozens of text and reference files on various different projects throughout the day that’s a ton of extra back and forth and clicks. Life would be much simpler for me if DT had a markdown editor that looked more like iA Writer’s. The OP’s screen shots above comparing the look of the markdown editors illustrate well the issue for me.
