SmartDown

Posted by jaslar
Nov 15, 2014 at 11:22 PM

I spent an hour or so with SmartDown today, and wrote this blog entry:
http://jaslarue.blogspot.com/2014/11/smartdown-markdown-editor-for-windows.html

I like it a lot. But like many of us here, I’m always looking for the multi-platform tool, always ready-to-hand, with just the right mix of features.

For me, I realize, the feature list is small.

- Minimal interface elements. Elegance.
- Full editing set. It should do what I expect it to do, with the commands I’m used to.
- Word count. I’m a writer. Gotta have it. It’s how my editors pitch it, and how I know if I delivered.
- Spell check. Duh.
- Outlining. I really hadn’t thought about this as “folding” - although Dr. Andus has brought it up in the past, with his noticing of that feature. It’s not quite the same thing as outlining software. Once you collapse “folded” text, there are no commands for moving it up or down outside copy and paste. It’s possible, I see, to move a heading, only to realize that you’ve stranded the subordinate text somewhere else. But it’s still way better than most plain text tools.
- Markdown. I’m not quite up to speed with all this yet. But it’s a nice, plain text alternative to formatting. Most of what I need is readily available.
- Export. At the end, I have to be able to send my work to software other people can deal with. RTF and PDF and HTML usually work. And SmartDown does that.

So bottom line: pretty darn good. If the job is cranking out text - article length certainly, maybe even book length - this is software that writers will love. It lacks a few things and I don’t know how much it will cost. But I like it, and the authors seem to be looking at an iOS version, too. Dunno about Linux.

At any rate, as always, you folks have delivered new and cool links. Thanks.

A few final thoughts:

- I like SmartDown’s ability to quickly switch between edit and view.
-