The beta version of SmartDown for Mac is now available:

http://www.neomobili.com/products/smartdown/

It's a very nice piece of work already, according to my (brief but intense) testing. Very simple user interface, hiding a multitude of functions (including a very elegant tagged scrollbar which throws up brief headers for each section as you scroll past it). Rather like FoldingText, but actually more intuitive to use. It's got that nice Ulysses feature, too, whereby certain functions only appear if you mouseover the top of a file window (e.g. font settings, search function).

The one major failing (IMO) is the lack of GitHub-style Markdown, meaning it doesn't recognise tasks (unlike e.g. FoldingText).

But it's looking good, and should be an outstanding addition to the still relatively sparse ranks of outliners that also support Markdown (I continue to hope that Cotton Notes will come to Mac at some point, but it's looking unlikely. In which case, this could be the ideal alternative!)

The developer, Agaric Perdereau, is a responsive correspondent, too. A Big Plus, IMHO!

Cheers,
Bill

MadaboutDana wrote:

The beta version of SmartDown for Mac is now available:

I see, so that's why the Windows version hasn't received an update for a while ;) I really hope he'll continue to develop both, as I love the Windows version (despite the fact that it doesn't feel quite finished).

Bill, with two endorsements from you in one day -- Outlinely and SmartDown -- I'm going to have to CRIMP all night ;-)

Yo, CRIMP on, dude!
;-)

Smartdown for Mac is on sale today; is it worth US$9.99 or IA Writer 3 (US$19.99) is a better alternative?

Thanks, Marcos.

Thanks for the notifications, Madabout and Marcos. Having just downloaded the app, my only observation so far is that some user guidance would be welcome.

In my opinion SmartDown is worth $9.99 but not $19.99. It has folding and does tables but does not have an iOS app. IAWriter does not do folding or tables but has a companion iOS app. The iOS bit isn't important since these are vanilla markdown files. Other than that, both apps are basically the same (iAWriter is prettier, FWIW).

Marcos D. wrote:

Smartdown for Mac is on sale today; is it worth US$9.99 or IA Writer 3
(US$19.99) is a better alternative?

Thanks, Marcos.

If you're considering iAWriter, I would look at Ulysses before hand. Ulysses cost a bit more, but it is way more powerful. If you don't need an iOS version, or a full writing suite, then SmartDown sounds like a good alternative (never tried it).

Steve Z.

Having both iAWriter and Ulysses, and now having SmartDown, I agree with the points of view expressed by Paul and Steve above.