Are there plans to have one integrated wysiwyg editor in future ?
None I’m aware of.
Also, a WYSIWYG editor is not universally desirable so we have to factor that in too.
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I guess it’s worth noting that others have also expressed a preference for various 3rd-party MD editors.
My workflow is still evolving, but currently I edit my principle documents in BBEdit and allow DEVONthink to display the preview in it’s own window. Small hassle (which is why only principle documents) but the editing experience in BBEdit is slightly better (e.g. auto-indent).
Also, in this way I have two windows and can position with more flexibility, in this case above and below. I guess it just shows that individual preferences is always going to trump and single approach.
Markdown has limitations about formatting but you could use custom css files to show notes, code, and so on to mimic various formats outside the normal use of those (like code is usually for code but you could use it via a css formatting as a rectangle with different color and text inside…)
Might be nice to add an update preview button when in side-by-side view, instead of having to switch out and switch back in. I don’t find the implementation that useful, I guess because I’m fixing errors from downloaded pages that don’t render properly. Surprised at how much stuff has space errors so instead of a bold or italic, I get the MD tags.
Actually if you merely save the file (Command-S beyond the normal automatic saves it occasionally does), it will update the preview.
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Just a reminder that Brett Terpstra’s Markdown Service Tools are very handy if, like me, you prefer the contextual menu over something like Keyboard Maestro.
I agree with @BLUEFROG that it’s mostly both quicker and more elegant to type the actual Markdown code than to mess around with scripts and shortcuts. But today I pasted some plain text that I then wanted to turn into a long Markdown list. The appropriate Service made this easy, and the collection contains many other handy tools for wrapping, unwrapping, smart quotes and so on.
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I am coming to that view as well. I have felt that I am just adding an extra layer recently in this area by ‘shortcuts’. I am even thinking of dropping Ulysses. I love it but its proprietry layer between the Mardown and whatever has friction I am finding.
As a slight fork in the discussion I actually read * Leo leo * if I see it now, as Leo leo and will accept it naturally as a properly italicized species name for example. I noticed that a few days ago.
I continue to refine my workflows, but must say I’m becomming more and more happy with Markdown. Especially as I begin adding KB Macros (that’s for you @tudoreynon)
Currently, I open markdown in BBEdit for edits and open it as well in DEVONthink for previews. (Both are optimal for what I’m using them for.)
I’ve got the four function keys over the numeric keypad so each will display a short palette of options for formatting, containers & alignment, auto-generated content and functions to process the selected text. Two keystrokes can format a string, indent some content or even make a floating callout box.
It even looks great on th iPad. I’m well-pleased.
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Could you share any Macros? Or a rough description of them. I often come across something useful this way that I hadn’t though of myself.
Okay, bearing in mind that this is a DEVONthink forum I think I can still go off on a little tangent since this is all to support my use of Markdown in DEVONthink.
There very first thing you want to get is to set up a CSS stylesheet you like and associate it will all your Markdown files. (In the preferences, it’s described elsewhere.) Mine says a span of class “red” should have a font color of red, a div of class “rbox” should float on the right, have a light background color and a drop shadow. Once you have all that you could easily do the rest by hand, but it’s better with macros.
Here are three.
“Make the selected text red”
It cuts the current text to the clipboard, and then pastes it back surrounded by the “red” span.
Set the “cut” action so that the macro continues continues even if the cut fails…that way if you have nothing selected you still get the span and you can insert your text after.
“Paste with <br>”
Sometimes I’ve copied text from another source that has linebreaks in it, but I want it to go into one cell of a pipe-delimited-table in markdown. This just swaps out the newlines for <br> and the text stays in table with the appropriate linebreaks. (Note that if some clown entered multiple breaks in the same place, this will return only one. My preference.)
“Generate a cron file entry.”
I keep a cron file of everything that happens at work during the month, with separate sections for each day and a weekly summary so I’m all set for Monday morning reporting. This macro is longer, but generates the whole thing for me every morning. Saves much much time. (Gee, I hope you’ll be able to see it.)
- First I load the projects I am currently working on into a variable. This only needs to change when my portfolio changes. I use a variable to hold the definitions so I can put this as the first action and it’s easy for me to find and edit.
- If today is Monday, create a collapsable weekly summary section that I will keep at the top and populate during the week.
- The third action begins today’s stuff. It starts out with today’s date and then the topics that never ever change. Headers, and bullets ready to go. “Meetings” comes last, because…
- …if it’s Monday I also have my team scrum meeting, so I insert a skeleton for those notes. (Harvested from the previous week’s summary, and also in a collapsable zone. )
- Finally following Meetings, every one of those projects defined at the start get’s it’s own section, with a header for the project and a sub-header for whatever the topic I’m noting is.
It seems like a lot, but it’s not. Head over to the Keyboard Maestro forum and you will see some amazing shit.
But hey, DEVONthink is really cool too! (btw, I never type “DEVONthink” I type “dvt” 
)
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Also, assuming that the underlying Markdown layout engine is decent, you could add html and div tags in case Markdown does not support it, such as close/open note fields and so on. It’s not pretty but you could copy/paste those from a good clipboard manager.
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I love markdown, but I find the DT3’s markdown capabilities and editing experience very impoverished coming from Bear/Quiver. I loved that adding images in Bear was simply a matter drag & drop/paste and forget, whereas in DT3 I have to mess around with groups in order to avoid breakage/keep things organised. Bear also combines formatting and markup in the editor, so no need for the cumbersome switching between source/preview (and why it defaults to ‘preview’ on selecting a note, I’ll never know). Oh, and you don’t get functions like ‘scan documents from phone’ with markdown either.
I’m pretty unenthused about it, to be honest, but I can’t stand the word processing approach (RTF)—especially in the absence of having semantic headers—and the nonsensical laws governing what formatting minefield you’re going to be stepping into when you start typing from cursor position x. And formatted notes, well, they are essentially useless for note taking thanks to their lack of support for either tables or lists (!).
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Never say never.
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Ah, I missed that! Thank you.
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Thanks for that. Slightly different in DT2 (radio button instead of dropdown) but same result. Never realized that was an option, and the default Preview always was an annoyance.
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@Bernardo_V Any chance you could share your KM macros? I am getting a 404 when trying to access … Thank you very much!
Wonderful! Thank you
How about a Markdown editor?