Markdown Editors and Note-Taking¶

See also: Knowledge Management

I expect the following from a markdown/text-based knowledge base

• Easy to adapt my established way of organizing
  • folder based, all-over the file system, in a Dropbox folder for sync, in a project folder for documentation
• Global search over all documents
• Document Outline
• Handling of Assets, like easy copy and paste of images, without writing or naming files. Preferably stored near the document – no global image folder
• Maybe linking between files
• Nice, minimal and functional UI, not super large text, or if, then easy to customize.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VO6SmioKkt4smrTddzsZxbMrCynuSK_9jkvcHWom_-M/edit?usp=sharing

Lightweight Markup Language

• Markdown Editors and Note-Taking
  • Thoughts on Markdown
  • Obsidian
  • Drafts
  • iA Writer
  • Lepton
  • Typora
  • Notable
  • Zettlr
  • Notepad2-mod
  • Boostnote
  • Joplin
  • Sublime Text (or VSCode or any IDE/Texteditor)
    • VSCode Extensions
  • Markdown Monster
  • Mark Text
  • QOwnNotes
  • Caret
  • Stackedit
  • Abricotine

Thoughts on Markdown¶

To embed images in Markdown, use <img> tags instead of the Markdown ![](i.jpg) syntax, especially in an authoring context (image size) Markdown images are an anti-pattern | daverupert.com

Instead of embed content (like youtube videos) with HTML code, just set a link and let the Markdown parser do some magic on a set of known sources (turn a youtube link into an embed)

Thinking out loud about embedding content · Paul Robert Lloyd

// this is just a test
var x = 0;
function x() {
    return x;
}

Obsidian¶

• https://obsidian.md/

• https://obsidian.md/features

• https://obsidian.md/publish

• Folder structure

• Knowledge management with focus on links between documents

• Tags

• Properties (to use as a Document Database)

• Fold headlines

• Analyzes document links and keeps track of changes

• Split panes horizontal/vertical

• Publishing

• Great Community Extensions

• API

Drafts¶

https://getdrafts.com/

• Desktop (MacOS) and iOS
• Best Feature: Actions for notes (append to file in dropbox, post to wordpress, send as email)

See PKM - Personal Knowledge Management > Drafts

iA Writer¶

https://ia.net/writer

• Desktop and iOS
• Library to add folders
• Outline inside file listing
• UI 50/50 nice/bad
• Focus mode (dim surrounding text)
• commercial
• no code syntax highlighting

Lepton¶

http://hackjutsu.com/Lepton/

• Client for Gist
• Write Markdown in a code editor
• Public Notes on Github
• Comments (via Gist website)
• Electron

Typora¶

https://typora.io/

• Reads nested Folder Structure
• Sidebar with Document Outline, Folders (flat/nested)
• TOC Support
• Fast Startup
• configurable image embed (upload, custom folder, custom naming)
• beautiful UI
• needs pandoc

Notable¶

https://notable.md/

• beautiful UI
• flat filesystem
• YAML frontmatter for tags etc
• paste images, uses global asset folder
• Wiki like Internal linking via filename with [[]] Syntax
• Easy and decent export as HTML and PDF without extras
• detects changes on notes outside
• Ok syntax highlighting
• Doesn't need pandoc
• VSCode editor shortcuts work well
• Batch change of Metadata
• No access to Yaml Block
• Share text via Notable online service

Zettlr¶

https://www.zettlr.com/

• Based on Luhmanns Zettelkasten
• reads the directory and keeps it
• Document Outline
• Headline folding
• Internal linking via dropdown and internal id or filename with [[]] Syntax
• #tags are in text and are searchable (or clickable with Ctrl)
• PDF only with Pandoc and Latex and Latex is a large ugly package to download, Pandoc is universal but needs templates to make the output less ugly
• easy table editor
• detects changes on notes outside
• Syntax highlighting
• Setting up projects
• Working with directories is a bit weird (shows empty subfolders)
• Weird UI and color scheme
• Change appearance https://docs.zettlr.com/de/core/custom-css/
• Block Folding (Headlines)

Notepad2-mod¶

https://xhmikosr.github.io/notepad2-mod/

• fast startup
• Markdown Syntax highlighting
• Integrate into Windows
• Bare bones code editor

Boostnote¶

• nothing too special about this
• cloud storage

Joplin¶

• A little bit odd to use
• Local Evernote Alternative
• has an iOS app, which is super ugly
• syncs into a dedicated dropbox folder
• iOS/Android App

Sublime Text (or VSCode or any IDE/Texteditor)¶

• Folder Structure
• search index over all files
• paste images extension, creates folder per file, with attachments (per extension)
• plain text, no meta data, no links, no nothing
• some functionality (footnotes, links) come with ST extensions
• Document Outline
• GoTo Panel

VSCode Extensions¶

Knowledgemanagement similar to Obsidian

• https://www.dendron.so/
• https://github.com/svsool/vscode-memo
• https://github.com/foambubble/foam

Markdown Monster¶

https://markdownmonster.west-wind.com

• Not an electron app
• Preview and themes work out of the box
• Folder based
• Document Outline
• Publish to Wordpress, Gist etc.
• Git integration
• Screenshot tool
• Code Editor Feeling
• Slightly Weird UI
• TOC maybe via MarkDig Extensions
• Table Editor and CSV Import

Mark Text¶

https://github.com/marktext/marktext

https://marktext.app

• Folder based (Open recent)
• Multiple open documents (Tabs)
• Document Outline
• really nice UI
• Instant full text Search
• Easy insert of block (Math, Code, Graphs) via typing @

QOwnNotes¶

https://www.qownnotes.org

• Folder Structure
• Scriptable Actions
• Local Evernote Alternative
• Cloud Support (Owncloud, Dropbox)
• Cluttered UI
• Metadata like tags are saved to sqlite db
• Manual TOC
• ![qownnotes-media-sqjeEQ](../media/qownnotes-media-sqjeEQ-14855.png)

Caret¶

https://github.com/careteditor/releases-beta/releases https://caret.io/

• beautiful UI
• Folder Structure
• Ctrl+P for opening files
• Ctrl+Shift+P for commands
• Find in Folder
• TOC [[toc]]
• Paste images into editor ![](.pastes\2020-05-19-19-56-10.png)

Stackedit¶

• Browser based editor (nothing to install) or PWA
• Connect to cloud storage

Abricotine¶

http://abricotine.brrd.fr

• single document editor
• very basic
• Document outline