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I love iA Writer and will shill it till I die. One of the few pieces of software to genuinely change my professional and artistic life. I screamed for a second

I love iA Writer and will shill it till I die. One of the few pieces of software to genuinely change my professional and artistic life. I screamed for a second when I thought this was them releasing an eink device. Something like Remarkable, that would be a day one buy for me. I tried to get this hacked together with one of those Chinese Android eink tablets, but the save/sync was unreliable (only time I’ve ever lost writing) and the overall experience was poor compared to my iPad. But my soul pants for iA Writer on eink.

seeknotfind 3y ago
I love it too :) so many good memories writing, staring at that perfect blue cursor blinking. The markdown renderer is beautiful too because it still renders a lot of the special characters. Header hashtags off to the left.
Caddickbrown 3y ago
Have you tried something like Obsidian? How would you compare it?
- samsolomon 3y ago
  Not who you asked, but I like and own both, but have found myself moving to Obsidian more and more. I'm not entirely sure why. IA writer now has document linking and I love the typography. I like the editor better. I think there is something that makes file organization easier in Obsidian. I have a plugin that creates a new note for each given week. And it feels easier to navigate a bunch of files without the descriptions/first few lines of the doc. EDIT: And this thread has encouraged me to second guess myself about some of these things and there's a setting to remove descriptions in the library. Maybe I'll try picking IA Writer back up!
- kstrauser 3y ago
  For me, they're so different that it's hard to compare them. Obsidian is a great tool for linking, searching, querying, and visualizing sets of thoughts. It happens to have a text editor, but that's not the brilliant part about it. Obsidian's editor feels to me like a method to get data into the note database. Also, Electron. iA Writer is a one the best text editors I've ever touched. It happens to have tools for linking and searching notes, but that's not the brilliant part. Writer's data management feels to me like methods to navigate around to the note I want to writing. Also, it's a "Mac-assed Mac app", looks and feels exactly like it belongs on my desktop, plays nicely with all other Mac apps, and couldn't be faster or more responsive if it were hand-coded in assembler. If I want to store and search notes, I'd probably pick Obsidian (although I'm currently using Bear Notes for that). If I want the best writing environment I know of, I'll reach for iA Writer every time.
- bayindirh 3y ago
  I use both, and won’t exchange one for the other. Obsidian is a knowledge management tool. iA is on the other hand is a writing tool. I compose my blog posts there, esp. its writing aids are very helpful. While obsidian is getting more and more of my knowledge, all focused post authoring is happening and will happen in iA.
- crossroadsguy 3y ago
  Obsidian is fantastic except that it’s not a native app (nor is Zoplin). I have made peace with web/electron apps by now except for very intimate affairs like note taking. I don’t know why I still can’t bring myself to use such electron/web mobile/desktop apps to write longer or even short notes/texts.
llm_nerd 3y ago
One thing I battled with in iA Writer is its objection to adverbs and adjectives. Eventually I came to appreciate its position, realizing that they add little value to text.
- Filligree 3y ago
  That sounds like it’s not very useful for fiction, then?
  - llm_nerd 3y ago
    Obviously you can turn that syntax highlighting off. Add that the majority of writing is non-fiction (I'd wager 99.99%+ of written words). Or least purported to be non-fiction.
  - turuttituff2000 3y ago
    Mark Twain: “When you catch an adjective, kill it.” Stephen King: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs”. But what do they know about fiction? :)
    - crossroadsguy 3y ago
      Stephen King once said, “Ms Rowling seems to have never met one [adverbs] she didn't like" But what would Rowling know about storytelling :) I have never even read Rowling, nor have I read King. But such restrictions and imposing of so called “rules”, or what is good what is not, are absurd when comes art. I would urge anyone to not let such decrees by the famous to dictate their style, let alone a software.
      - turuttituff2000 3y ago
        Whatever rocks your art. Being especially careful with adverbs and adjectives is common practice among experienced writers. More examples: “Adjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.” – Voltaire “[I was taught] to distrust adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations.” – Ernest Hemingway “The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.” – Clifton Paul Fadiman “[The adjective] is the one part of speech first seized upon and worked to death by novices and inferior writers.” – J.I. Rodale “Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.” – Ezra Pound “The adjective has not been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” – E.B. White “[Whoever writes in English] is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective.” – George Orwell “Most adjectives are also unnecessary. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don’t stop to think that the concept is already in the noun.” – William Zissner
sergiomattei 3y ago
That software made me fall in love with writing. I’m a lifelong customer and it’s been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.
- kstrauser 3y ago
  > one of the best purchases Key word there: purchases. Their apps are pricey, but then you own them. I'll take that over subscriptions every time.
  - SanjayMehta 3y ago
    I bought their apps when they came out, used them until I discovered Scrivener. Just checked now and my IA purchases have vanished. It appears they obsoleted older versions.
    - kstrauser 3y ago
      You might wanna check with their support. I bought iA Writer many, many years ago and still get regular updates. Scrivener’s one of my favorite apps. I love when I have an excuse to use it. I think that Writer is better at the actual writing process, though.
      - SanjayMehta 3y ago
        It’s okay. Scrivener is deeply embedded in my workflow today and I don’t have the energy to chase after some old licenses. More power to IA with this unusual notebook though. Am curious to see how it works out.
sambeau 3y ago
The only thing stopping me from using iA Writer for everything is being able to manually sort a folder. I realise that, being it's just a folder underneath, this would require storage somewhere. But it could be as simple as: _index.md: - File 1.md - File 2.md - File 3.md
- brailsafe 3y ago
  Since it's a mac app, it could store the metadata in either a file, like you mentioned, or in a userdefaults preference dictionary (plist) that would be stored in the app's library support folder, or they could use core data and just keep a unique identifier for the path to the folder
- bradgessler 3y ago
  I want it to have basic Frontmatter “dimming”, which ByWord does well.
  - Terretta 3y ago
    And Obsidian took a step further by turning into a "Properties" UI.
- fluder 3y ago
  Did you try FSNotes? https://fsnot.es https://fsnot.es
Swizec 3y ago
Been using iA Writer for 10+ years. It's made me a better writer. The way it started highlighting cliches and fluffy turns of phrase a few years ago has been chef's kiss. I wish it supported .adoc because sometimes markdown just isn't enough.
RBerenguel 3y ago
Shilling (or not, it’s open source, who cares). I made this: https://github.com/rberenguel/PiWrite https://github.com/rberenguel/PiWrite It is not iA Writer in eink, but I got distant inspiration (I used it a lot back when it was released… a long time ago) and could be closer with effort.
- crossroadsguy 3y ago
  Only an external keyboard works? Also how does it survive Amazon’s device update etc? This looks very interesting though!
  - RBerenguel 3y ago
    I guess I could make the on-screen keyboard work with a text area instead of needing an external one, but I never planned on using that, I find “glass keyboards” annoying to use. It would require some serious changes to the system though, since everything is designed for reading input from a keyboard from “stdin”, so to say. So far has survived fine, and as long as there are no major changes in the browser (long polling and the JS I use have been available for several years from what I have seen in people who investigated its features). It’s a risk I accepted when I wrote it, worst case the docs are in the Pi, and then PiWrite can be used from any web browser on any modern enough device.
fmeyer 3y ago
I use Drafts, It can take you to places that you never thought would be possible with AI writer.
- kstrauser 3y ago
  I use both. iA Writer is my definite writing app. It's where I write any bit of non-trivial Markdown, to the point I wince when I have to use an old-fashioned word processor. Drafts is exceptional for dispatching little bits of text to other apps through its ridiculously powerful integration and scripting. For instance, if I think of something I want to post to Mastodon, I press opt-F2 to open Drafts, write it, then press F2 to send it to my server. Writer is a much better text editor IMO. (Drafts is really good, but Writer is stupendous.) Drafts is much better for interacting with or automating other apps. They're both in my dock.
disqard 3y ago
Thank you for that enthusiastic appraisal! You made me wonder "is it really that good?", so I just tried it out and loved it, and I'm grateful to you for bringing it to my attention. Have a wonderful day, Internet stranger :)
glenngillen 3y ago
Did you look at the SuperNote? I’ve one, and love it. It seems more hackable than the Remarkable from what I can tell, though the base functionality has been enough for me so I’ve not customised it.
- karencarits 3y ago
  It looks really nice! I have some relatives that struggle with tremor and I hope we will see such devices soon that can filter out the rapid shaking and make it easier for them to take notes
darkteflon 3y ago
What do you enjoy most about it?
andrei_says_ 3y ago
IA writer is just one of these “human-centric-design” things. I’ve owned it since the early versions, a one-time purchase, consistently updated through the years. Its way to embrace ai-generated text is to mark it as such at insertion time and to invite you to rewrite it. As for the printed notebook version, I’m buying it.

seeknotfind 3y ago

I love it too :) so many good memories writing, staring at that perfect blue cursor blinking. The markdown renderer is beautiful too because it still renders a lot of the special characters. Header hashtags off to the left.

Caddickbrown 3y ago

Have you tried something like Obsidian? How would you compare it?

samsolomon 3y ago
Not who you asked, but I like and own both, but have found myself moving to Obsidian more and more. I'm not entirely sure why. IA writer now has document linking and I love the typography. I like the editor better. I think there is something that makes file organization easier in Obsidian. I have a plugin that creates a new note for each given week. And it feels easier to navigate a bunch of files without the descriptions/first few lines of the doc. EDIT: And this thread has encouraged me to second guess myself about some of these things and there's a setting to remove descriptions in the library. Maybe I'll try picking IA Writer back up!
kstrauser 3y ago
For me, they're so different that it's hard to compare them. Obsidian is a great tool for linking, searching, querying, and visualizing sets of thoughts. It happens to have a text editor, but that's not the brilliant part about it. Obsidian's editor feels to me like a method to get data into the note database. Also, Electron. iA Writer is a one the best text editors I've ever touched. It happens to have tools for linking and searching notes, but that's not the brilliant part. Writer's data management feels to me like methods to navigate around to the note I want to writing. Also, it's a "Mac-assed Mac app", looks and feels exactly like it belongs on my desktop, plays nicely with all other Mac apps, and couldn't be faster or more responsive if it were hand-coded in assembler. If I want to store and search notes, I'd probably pick Obsidian (although I'm currently using Bear Notes for that). If I want the best writing environment I know of, I'll reach for iA Writer every time.
bayindirh 3y ago
I use both, and won’t exchange one for the other. Obsidian is a knowledge management tool. iA is on the other hand is a writing tool. I compose my blog posts there, esp. its writing aids are very helpful. While obsidian is getting more and more of my knowledge, all focused post authoring is happening and will happen in iA.
crossroadsguy 3y ago
Obsidian is fantastic except that it’s not a native app (nor is Zoplin). I have made peace with web/electron apps by now except for very intimate affairs like note taking. I don’t know why I still can’t bring myself to use such electron/web mobile/desktop apps to write longer or even short notes/texts.

llm_nerd 3y ago

One thing I battled with in iA Writer is its objection to adverbs and adjectives. Eventually I came to appreciate its position, realizing that they add little value to text.

Filligree 3y ago
That sounds like it’s not very useful for fiction, then?
- llm_nerd 3y ago
  Obviously you can turn that syntax highlighting off. Add that the majority of writing is non-fiction (I'd wager 99.99%+ of written words). Or least purported to be non-fiction.
- turuttituff2000 3y ago
  Mark Twain: “When you catch an adjective, kill it.” Stephen King: “The road to hell is paved with adverbs”. But what do they know about fiction? :)
  - crossroadsguy 3y ago
    Stephen King once said, “Ms Rowling seems to have never met one [adverbs] she didn't like" But what would Rowling know about storytelling :) I have never even read Rowling, nor have I read King. But such restrictions and imposing of so called “rules”, or what is good what is not, are absurd when comes art. I would urge anyone to not let such decrees by the famous to dictate their style, let alone a software.
    - turuttituff2000 3y ago
      Whatever rocks your art. Being especially careful with adverbs and adjectives is common practice among experienced writers. More examples: “Adjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.” – Voltaire “[I was taught] to distrust adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations.” – Ernest Hemingway “The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.” – Clifton Paul Fadiman “[The adjective] is the one part of speech first seized upon and worked to death by novices and inferior writers.” – J.I. Rodale “Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.” – Ezra Pound “The adjective has not been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” – E.B. White “[Whoever writes in English] is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective.” – George Orwell “Most adjectives are also unnecessary. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don’t stop to think that the concept is already in the noun.” – William Zissner

sergiomattei 3y ago

That software made me fall in love with writing. I’m a lifelong customer and it’s been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

kstrauser 3y ago
> one of the best purchases Key word there: purchases. Their apps are pricey, but then you own them. I'll take that over subscriptions every time.
- SanjayMehta 3y ago
  I bought their apps when they came out, used them until I discovered Scrivener. Just checked now and my IA purchases have vanished. It appears they obsoleted older versions.
  - kstrauser 3y ago
    You might wanna check with their support. I bought iA Writer many, many years ago and still get regular updates. Scrivener’s one of my favorite apps. I love when I have an excuse to use it. I think that Writer is better at the actual writing process, though.
    - SanjayMehta 3y ago
      It’s okay. Scrivener is deeply embedded in my workflow today and I don’t have the energy to chase after some old licenses. More power to IA with this unusual notebook though. Am curious to see how it works out.

sambeau 3y ago

The only thing stopping me from using iA Writer for everything is being able to manually sort a folder. I realise that, being it's just a folder underneath, this would require storage somewhere. But it could be as simple as: _index.md: - File 1.md - File 2.md - File 3.md

brailsafe 3y ago
Since it's a mac app, it could store the metadata in either a file, like you mentioned, or in a userdefaults preference dictionary (plist) that would be stored in the app's library support folder, or they could use core data and just keep a unique identifier for the path to the folder
bradgessler 3y ago
I want it to have basic Frontmatter “dimming”, which ByWord does well.
- Terretta 3y ago
  And Obsidian took a step further by turning into a "Properties" UI.
fluder 3y ago
Did you try FSNotes? https://fsnot.es https://fsnot.es

Swizec 3y ago

Been using iA Writer for 10+ years. It's made me a better writer. The way it started highlighting cliches and fluffy turns of phrase a few years ago has been chef's kiss. I wish it supported .adoc because sometimes markdown just isn't enough.

RBerenguel 3y ago

Shilling (or not, it’s open source, who cares). I made this: https://github.com/rberenguel/PiWrite https://github.com/rberenguel/PiWrite It is not iA Writer in eink, but I got distant inspiration (I used it a lot back when it was released… a long time ago) and could be closer with effort.

crossroadsguy 3y ago
Only an external keyboard works? Also how does it survive Amazon’s device update etc? This looks very interesting though!
- RBerenguel 3y ago
  I guess I could make the on-screen keyboard work with a text area instead of needing an external one, but I never planned on using that, I find “glass keyboards” annoying to use. It would require some serious changes to the system though, since everything is designed for reading input from a keyboard from “stdin”, so to say. So far has survived fine, and as long as there are no major changes in the browser (long polling and the JS I use have been available for several years from what I have seen in people who investigated its features). It’s a risk I accepted when I wrote it, worst case the docs are in the Pi, and then PiWrite can be used from any web browser on any modern enough device.

fmeyer 3y ago

I use Drafts, It can take you to places that you never thought would be possible with AI writer.

kstrauser 3y ago
I use both. iA Writer is my definite writing app. It's where I write any bit of non-trivial Markdown, to the point I wince when I have to use an old-fashioned word processor. Drafts is exceptional for dispatching little bits of text to other apps through its ridiculously powerful integration and scripting. For instance, if I think of something I want to post to Mastodon, I press opt-F2 to open Drafts, write it, then press F2 to send it to my server. Writer is a much better text editor IMO. (Drafts is really good, but Writer is stupendous.) Drafts is much better for interacting with or automating other apps. They're both in my dock.

disqard 3y ago

Thank you for that enthusiastic appraisal! You made me wonder "is it really that good?", so I just tried it out and loved it, and I'm grateful to you for bringing it to my attention. Have a wonderful day, Internet stranger :)

glenngillen 3y ago

Did you look at the SuperNote? I’ve one, and love it. It seems more hackable than the Remarkable from what I can tell, though the base functionality has been enough for me so I’ve not customised it.

karencarits 3y ago
It looks really nice! I have some relatives that struggle with tremor and I hope we will see such devices soon that can filter out the rapid shaking and make it easier for them to take notes

darkteflon 3y ago

What do you enjoy most about it?

andrei_says_ 3y ago

IA writer is just one of these “human-centric-design” things. I’ve owned it since the early versions, a one-time purchase, consistently updated through the years. Its way to embrace ai-generated text is to mark it as such at insertion time and to invite you to rewrite it. As for the printed notebook version, I’m buying it.