I very much agree with the sentiment behind a recent comment on a a post on the Workflowy Blog

I would always vote for full LaTeX, markdown is very simple, but of course very limited ...
the majority do prefer clean simple formatting and WYSIWYG. Also, most people, including myself, abandon software even if it is functional, when it is not pleasing the eyes, you must "like" to work with it, otherwise you will not be productive.

So while I always like more formatting options ..., I am more inclined towards the concepts of block editors (like Notion, Nimbus, Craft ... and all the clones)

In the end, if you need to be productive, comfort and workflow is everything.

Also made me reflect on why markdown is a very poor match for me.

• For the vast majority of the time I use no formatting or markup at all. Just paragraph and line breaks.
• Since moving back to working in single large documents, I use headings - but once I pass h3 I find counting #s irritating; even html is better.
• For the final document, I need underline and italics, rarely bold.
• When reviewing, I also need colour (text and highlight) and strikethrough.
• When publishing, I often need to control pagination.

Markdown doesn't tick these boxes at all. (It is compatible with but unnecessary for the first.)
Simple tables are possible, but it's not very good at them.

So we have variants. And most markdown editors go further adding extensions and scattering html in the file (underline being the most common). So if markdown is a bad fit, why not the more widely understood docx (which for me was always a txt/docx combo)

The most recent version of Obsidian (0.14 insiders only atm) effectively sherlocks the admonitions plugin. The admonitions/callouts are simple to write and potentially useful. They're not exactly incompatible with other markdown editors, but they don't work in them either.

Ghostwriter ... FocusWriter ... OmniaWrite

-n8wachT (March 09, 2022, 01:35 AM)

Hi n8wachT,
Can you say more about why you would suggest these as alternatives?
I see very little parity in workflows or features.

I like FocusWriter, but, apart from minimalism, it has very little in common with IW. No autosave, isn't a markdown editor, formatting only comes through in odt/docx/rtf..

I didn't know Ghostwriter, but it looks like a traditional markdown editor with a few writer statistics. And the install options (Windows portable only, Mac has to be built from source) just scream high friction and Linux based.

I only had a quick look at OmniaWrite. Initial warning that latest update solved some security issues was hardly inviting. Rigidly based on books, Chapters, Scenes. Seemed very limited from what I saw.

IW is polished and functional for both long and short-form writing. Ulysses might deserve the design credits, but IW is still polished. (I look at some of the recent 'imporvements' in Ulysses and can't help wondering whether they're reducing its polish.)

I've noticed that Ia Writer has a new outline function (Windows only - hasn't arrived for Mac yet). Big step for Ia but it's still navigation only - no manipulation - so doesn't really make it much more suitable for long-form.

I need smooth workflows

-Dormouse (March 04, 2022, 04:41 AM)

IW ... is limited and rigidly not configurable. But everything is part of the whole and seems, so far, to be very reliable.

-Dormouse (March 01, 2022, 05:34 AM)

so when I found this quote

I also like how picky the developers of both apps are. Neither of them just add every requested feature. It needs to fit tightly into their app’s workflow.

In a Review comparing Ulysses with Bear I thought "Exactly!"
There are times when I'm happy to play and learn, but others when I need to get things done. Most writing is getting things done. Research too, but not quite such a high proportion of the time.

The problem with smooth workflow apps is that they are very very good if they match your workflow, but can be close to useless if they don't. But most of the newer PKM apps I've tried are in the very rough category (I'll except Amplenote, which simply didn't meet my needs). Obsidian used to be far smoother than most, but hasn't been the same since the move to CodeMirror 6 and Live Preview and the plugin explosion.

Also
The resurgence of Workflowy development seems to be associated with an increase in the number of developers from 2 to 14. Some in Ukraine.

And Also
Brandon Sanderson apparently does his outlining (he's a heavy outliner) AND writing entirely in Word. Maybe in a single long document?Story Bible in WikidPad. I'm okay with a very long document in a plaintext format, but I'd worry about a huge tome entirely in Word. Though I assume he has much more powerful computers that I have.