Review of iA Writer
Writer is a minimal text editing tool created by iA (Information Architects) that supports Markdown. Writer aims to assist writers in improving their writing habits by highlighting words and phrases to make apparent the style in which they write. This helps greatly with writing tasks that require intensive focus and careful attention to detail.
Features
Writer boasts a range of features that are meant to free writers from distraction and help them refine their writing styles.
Typewriter Mode
Typewriter Mode frames and automatically scrolls the view so that the caret[Caret: The cursor marking the text insertion point.] is always in the middle of the screen. This allows the writer to eliminate the need to track the current position of the caret, so that they may work more efficiently without having to constantly move their eyes. However, this also leaves the bottom half of the view devoid of text. It is a trade-off that I believe is worth it, as searching for the position of the caret is an unnecessary distraction, and Typewriter Mode streamlines this.
Focus Mode
Focus Mode takes on the same functionality as Typewriter Mode, and additionally causes all sentences other than the sentence currently being modified to be a light gray, so that the writer may focus their attention on one single idea at a time.
Preview Mode
Preview Mode allows for the writer to view an approximation of what the Markdown output will look like in its final form. Three font styles are available to view the preview in: Sans, Serif, and Mono. While it is possible for the writer to treat their document purely as beautiful plain-text, Writer’s Preview is useful for seeing what the document’s formatting would look like on a publishing medium, such as Medium^1. Conveniently, the preview pane scrolls alongside the editor pane, so that the equivalent content is always shown in both panes.
Preview Mode on iOS always takes up the entire screen, while Preview Mode on Mac OS can be configured to take up either a portion of the window, or the entire window, simply by dragging the divider separating the preview and editor panes. In Writer 3.1, the configuration for Preview Mode is retained on document closure, which is greatly appreciated.
Night Mode
Night Mode darkens the interface (and on Mac OS changes the context menu to a dark gray, also, which is a nice touch). I would like to see an option made available which allows Night Mode to be activated automagically in accordance with one’s circadian rhythm.
Text Highlighting
Text highlighting allows writers to select different categories of words to highlight, each category having a different color. Multiple categories can be selected and highlighted simultaneously. Highlightable text includes…
- Adjectives in orange
- Nouns in red
- Adverbs in violet
- Verbs in blue
- Conjunctions in green
Highlighting text makes it far easier for the writer to pick out patterns and notice redundancies, and fix little bad habits so they can improve their writing style.
Text Statistics
Text statistics allow the writer to track the amount of words, characters, and sentences in a document, along with the approximate amount of time it would take to read the document. On iOS, text statistics may be displayed in a bar at the top of the screen. On Mac OS, text statistics are displayed at the bottom right corner of the editor pane. Only one category may be displayed at a time. Clicking on the category allows all categories to be viewed in a list menu, and allows the writer to interchange the currently displayed category.
Technical Details
First and foremost, Writer is a Markdown editor. Since being introduced to Markdown, it has become my favorite format for editing text documents. While Markdown formatting is meant to be interpreted and converted from plain text into a formatted document, Markdown formatting is just as effective and elegant when viewed simply as plain text.
Although Writer is primarily a Markdown editor, documents created in Writer are saved in the file system as .txt files rather than a .md files. This is great, because it means that documents written in Writer are extremely portable, and doesn’t require any specialized software to be able to read or write, which is the case with formats such as Rich Text Format. A document can be written up in Writer, then directly pasted into any other application or publishing service. However, Writer does not completely rely on this aspect concerning sharing documents.
The creators of Writer have supplied writers with options for sharing and exporting documents to multiple file formats and to different services. Documents can be exported as…
- Plain text (.txt)
- HTML (.html)
- PDF (.pdf)
- Microsoft Word (.docx)
Notably, Rich Text Format (.rtf) is not present in this list. However, a possible workaround to this is to copy the text from the preview pane into your Rich Text editor, and formatting — sans spacing between paragraphs — will be preserved.
Sharing options for iOS and Mac OS are similar, although the approach taken in iOS is more streamlined and obvious. On iOS, the writer is presented with the share sheet menu after exporting a file, so that they can either share or save a document as they wish directly from Writer. A specific text selection can also be shared by selecting some text in the editor pane or the preview pane and bringing up the context menu containing sharing options. Selected text shared from the editor pane will be shared as plain text, while selected text shared from the preview pane will be shared as formatted text. On Mac OS, there is no option presented to share a file directly through Writer’s interface after exporting, so an exported file must be shared through Finder’s share menu instead. If the writer wishes to share directly from Writer, they must select the text they wish to share (either by dragging the cursor across a block of text or by using ⌘A to select all of the text) and then secondary-click on the selected text to bring up the context menu containing sharing options. Just as with iOS, this can be done in either the editor pane or preview pane to share plain text or formatted text, respectively.
In Writer 3.1, both the iOS and Mac OS versions now have the ability to publish a document directly to Medium as a draft. This may imply that iA has future plans to further expand publishing and sharing options with other services. Currently, I have found that there are a few things that don’t completely translate when publishing something to Medium, such as footnotes and internal links (such as those used in a table of contents). Otherwise, publishing to Medium is a nice feature, and I hope to see Writer be integrated with more services in the future.
As a side note, the certain inconsistencies in regards to Markdown formatting are not exclusive to Medium. I’ve noticed this across other services, as well. One of the more prominent examples I can think of is GitHub, which, until recently^2, supported three different flavors of Markdown for its documentation editor. Possibly because of its relative newness, it seems as though nearly everyone wants to use their own version — or flavor — of Markdown in their service, which results in inconvenience for users of these services. This article by Jeff Atwood, creator of StackOverflow, is a good piece concerning the direction — or lack thereof — of Markdown specification. Possibly in the future, a consensus can be made on formatting standards for Markdown.
Document versioning is a useful feature for reverting changes and integrating deleted content back into the current document. On iOS, Writer has no versioning option. However, on Mac OS, because Writer uses .txt or .md (depending on the Writer’s choice) documents that are stored in Finder, versioning is managed by Time Machine. While this isn’t as elegant of a solution as something such Google Docs (which highlights additions and deletions), it is nice to have.
Experience
Above all, the main emphasis of Writer is the writing experience. Without hesitation, it can be said that the writing experience of Writer is the best of any app I have used. My history with writing apps includes Notational Velocity (mainly a fork of it called NValt), Notepad++, Evernote, Simplenote, Apple Notes, Pages, Google Docs, Atom, and Day One. Many of these apps were made for different functionalities than long-form writing that requires that the writer put their full focus into their words, and I still use Apple Notes, Pages, Google Docs, and Atom for the occasions when they better meet my needs in comparison to Writer. Writer finds its best use in giving the writer an environment in which they are able to immerse themselves completely into their work, and afterwards carefully review and refine their grammar and writing style.
Notes on Preview Mode
The preview mode is an interesting point to discuss. Because of the minimal nature of Writer, it seems odd to add complexity by including this mode. Requiring the user to switch to preview mode to view what their final work will look like seems to be an unecessary extra step. And furthermore, relinquishing the writer of their ability to directly edit the preview seems to make for a convoluted system. Why not simply do like many other text editors do, and make Writer what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG)? However, it makes sense once you start using Writer.
At first, there may be an urge — most likely arising from either a sense of curiosity or uncertainty that you are formatting things correctly — to switch over to the preview and see what your document will look like. However, this was not the intention of iA in adding the preview mode. Put shortly, preview mode is not meant to be a part of the editing process. All writing, formatting, and proofreading should be done in editor mode, and only when the document is finalized and is ready to be exported or printed should preview mode be switched to so that the writer may view their final work. Then, the inability to edit or highlight words becomes a positive. The writer can view their work not as the author, but as a reader. It allows the writer to — after channeling all of their creative energy and effort into their work — to let go of that urge to write, and instead take a step back and absorb their work. It’s really a fantastic method of writing.
Keyboard Commands
Writer has a rigid focus on simplicity and efficiency, and this shows in Writer’s keyboard commands. For example, to open the library and preview panes, the keyboard commands are simply ⌘E for library and ⌘R for preview. Writer could made the command for library ⌘L, and for preview ⌘P, but instead they decided to assign keyboard commands based on what feels the best and most natural for one’s fingers.
Although any Markdown formatting may be added by typing in Markdown syntax, and formatting options can be found by placing the mouse over the bottom of the editor view, Writer offers keyboard commands for the majority^3 of text formatting options. All of the commands are easy to remember and quick to access, which makes formatting a document highly expedient.
For iOS, keyboard commands are executed through a bar above the keyboard. There are seven buttons which each reveal six commands if held down (holding down for longer allows these commands to be interchanged), making for a total possible 42 keyboard commands that can be used.
The Little Details
Although Writer is a minimalist text editor, iA understands that “minimalist design” does not mean “under-thought.” With minimalism — more than anything — it’s the details that count, because minimalism forces the designer to question and justify the validity of every single detail and feature, and otherwise throw it out if it fails to serve a purpose. The essence of minimalism is that everything must exist for a reason. While Writer has undergone many iterations and changes throughout its existence, iA has always attempted to maintain this ideal in development. Writer 3.1 is the most refined design so far, offering robust functionality without becoming a source of distraction to the writer. However, it’s the details that make Writer stand apart.
By default, when the writer begins to type or scroll within the document, the toolbars at the top and bottom of Writer fade away. Only when the writer places the mouse cursor over the area where each individual toolbar would be will they reappear. This isn’t only to make Writer look nice and clean. It show’s iA’s dedication to eliminating all possible sources of distraction for the writer.
One thing which I immediately came to appreciate is the behavior in which, when opening a modified document, Writer will place the caret where it last was when the document was closed. This behavior is a small convenience, and is easy to overlook, but it indicates that iA designed Writer in the mindset of making the user experience as enjoyable and straightforward as possible, rather than filling out a list of features derived from market research.
Likewise, by default, Writer’s preference is to correct spelling errors automatically, but not underline spelling errors that are not automatically corrected. iA most likely decided that underlining spelling errors would prove to be a distraction from a stream-of-consciousness writing style, where errors and modifications are meant to be dealt with after the entire section is completed. Stream-of-consciousness is my preferred style of writing, as it allows language and ideas to flow naturally from mind to writing. However, it is a very sensitive process, as it requires full immersion of the writer into their work, and any distraction can garble thoughts and interfere with the writing process. This preference shows that iA consists of people who understand writing, and are able to take the perspective of the writer. Great design requires this kind of empathy.
Verdict
iA’s Writer is an excellent app for any writer who desires a beautifully simple interface which allows them to write their mind without interference. Writer eliminates everything unnecessary which may create a barrier between a one’s fingers and mind. I highly recommend it.
