Lattics - a program for PKM notes and writing. Only for Windows and Mac; iOS apparently coming sometime.
This isn't really a review, and I haven't systematically tested any features. I have seen a number of 'reviews' on the internet and my impression is that they are from people who have given the program a onceover, maybe for the purpose of writing the review, and I haven't noticed any systematic testing in those either. However, over the last year, I have found myself moving from looking at it, to testing it, and using it more and more, to the point where I now use it for everything writing related; effectively it's the stage before Word where it has many advantages over the Word/OneNote combo. I have received no request, nor inducement to write a review; initially I used the free version and moved to a subscription once I realised that I was going to use it; I hadn't felt limited by the free version, but didn't want to come across one once I realised I was using it. For a modern writing program, I believe the price is reasonable - I'd avoid the monthly price ($4) and go for annual ($21) or five yearly ($90).
It wouldn't suit everyone.- It's Chinese.
- There's no mass export. Backups used to be in json format; I'm not sure now, although they still seem to be readable.
- It's local and there's no web version.
- No mobile version either (iOS apparently coming).
- Subscription ($4 monthly, $21 yearly), but the free version is very usable.
- Uses @links rather than [[wikilinks]]; I've noticed that this is more common in east Asian apps.
- It's not open source. It has optional simple markdown syntax, but mostly works like a rich text app.
- Communication is very limited. There are few responses on their Discord and they don't even seem to have a routine to ban spammers. They do however respond to in-app communications, usually in a couple of days.
- Documentation is extensive, but far from complete.
It can be surprisingly difficult to work out the best way to use the program. For a long period, I believed it was best to follow the workflow they describe (make notes, set up projects as needed and make documents within those projects, copy notes into projects - each note can be in multiple projects with edits updating all), but this isn't strictly true.
There are imho many infelicities where a minor tweak would enable a much smoother workflow. Initially I made suggestions, but I've come to accept that it works the way it does for reasons that make sense to the developers, and maybe they'll implement suggestions and maybe they won't but discussion will be limited.
It's widely recommended as a
PKM notetaking program. It does indeed have links, backlinks, an excellent card view, #tags, fast search, transclusions, and an integration with Zotero; but for most purposes there are other apps with significant advantages. Since there are many different camps of users - the productivity focused, the visual, the markdown purists, those wanting automation/coding or AI etc - I see no point in berating Lattics for not having features that lie outside its focus. And it is quite clear in aiming at the student/researcher/academic market - I feel that creative writers are a more recent addition although they have developed another writing app (Zine - for iOS, Android and web). It has Zotero integration and spaced repetition cards which many apps don't; personally i have no need of either since I have no use for spaced repetition and don't use Zotero (though I acknowledge its popularity). But the core search is limited (filters can't be stacked), the notes don't live in folders - they need to be organised by tags and sub-tags. It does have folders for documents and they could be repurposed for notes, but then you lose the ctrl-n for new notes and introduce potential conflicts because folders are designated as projects; I did test this out, and would advise keeping the two distinct - if you genuinely need your notes in folders, then use another program. Personally, I wouldn't use Lattics if all I wanted to do was keep PKM notes. otoh the notes are pretty comprehensive and useful if you anticipate using them with, or as an adjunct to, a writing program - which is what most academics, students and researchers will do.
Which brings me on to considering it as a
writing program. Again it won't suit all writers - if you write for the web, you might as well stick to simple markdown; if you need detailed formatted output as in Scrivener, then you might as well stick to Scrivener (I'm not sure there are many of these); if you want to write according to a fixed story beats system (Snowflake, Hero's Journey etc), then you might prefer a program with the templates built in; ditto if you want templates for characters, locations etc. Lattics' only 'specialist' features are useful in academic writing - LaTeX, templates for journals, styles for citations, PDF annotation to notes, automated bibliography, tables and charts. These features are essential requirements in academic writing but
general writing, fiction or non-fiction, doesn't actually require the specialist features mentioned above and they may actually be experienced as claustrophobic (they're always too rigid for me).
Lattics does though have a long list of features and options typical of writing apps. It's actually a pretty comprehensive list. It includes focus mode, dark/light modes, typewriter mode, stats (by document or card which includes goals, and user by date), first line indent, spell checker, bi-article comparison, ability to drag sections and blocks around, ability to view/edit individual sections or all sections together. It doesn't have folding. There's good export options into docx, pdf, markdown, txt.
So how does it work? Conventional main structure: Folder/Project pane on the far left, File/Documents pane on the near left, both hideable. Multiple layers of sub-folders and document possible. Can be resequenced at will, as can the blocks in the main pane. Usual text formatting options, including colour and footnotes. Can add comments (show in margin), which is less common. Shortcut to copy links to a block. Buttons will open card, mindmap, flashcard and timeline views on the right.
As a writing app, Lattics' superpower is obviously its well integrated PKM notes feature. Useful for students and researchers, but also useful for creative writers who want to have notes on characters or arcs; the notes can be added so quickly that making them needn't interrupt the flow.
But there are two other major features - the timeline and the mindmap. Both can be very helpful.
The mindmap is a simple mindmap of the document and sub-documents with the ability to add other connecting arrows. I was under-impressed when I first saw it. But then I realised that note cards can be dragged onto the mindmap and connected (the notes are differentiated by colour)); it's possible to connect them to the mindmap but also for them simply to connect to each other. This makes it significantly more useful. There are three views - mindmap, plot of story and aerial - only differentiated by the amount of content shown. They all have the ability to be expanded into the full editable document or note which means that it would be possible to write a complete book while never leaving the mindmap. I'm not sure why anyone might wish to do that, but recognise that it might be easier to write or edit some sections while seeing them in the visual context of the mindmap.
The timeline allows events to be specified with a start and end time precision down to the second. They are placed in lanes, each lane with multiple tracks, which makes viewing and organising easy. Cards, document and articles can be dragged into the timeline. This has obvious uses for real world events eg in historical research or genealogy, but is also helpful in intricate plotting in fiction. Again all the cards etc can be fully expanded for writing and editing.
Effectively it means that you could write a book by accessing the sections from the usual document hierarchy, from the mindmap or from the timeline, or from all three in turn. Now the mindmap isn't near the capability of a standalone mindmap program like Mindomo, and the timeline isn't close to AeonTimeline, but both are quick and easy to use and sufficient for my writing needs, and I suspect for those of most writers.
For me, the combination of features puts Lattics far ahead of all other writing apps, even though it has taken time to build my confidence and workflows.
It may be worth emphasising the need to look after your data, since so many users seem to believe that that's not something they need to bother themselves with. Lattics keeps its data local; it's not available to the developers; it's worth making sure that the backups are frequent enough and in a location suitable for you. I've not experienced a problem, but like all database apps (and apps that operate simultaneously on multiple files) there's the possibility of something going wrong. It's clearly quite a complex app and updated frequently.
