This is nice: iA Writer has been given wikilinks, which work extremely well.

Along with the "content block" transclusion feature (best used in side-by-side markdown + preview mode, or in two separate windows – yes, you can type markdown in one window while viewing a preview of the same file in another window; the latter updates in real time), iA Writer is now making moves into knowledge management.

For my money, it represents one of the best cheap (and non-database-dependent) alternatives to Ulysses around.

I know the iOS/iPadOS and macOS versions support wikilinks – they don't mention Android, however, so I'm not sure if their Android version does as well. I'll have to check...

Cheers!
Bill

Backlinks are "on the roadmap". I think that's where they needed to go in the first place, especially given the competitive landscape over the last couple of years.

https://ia.net/topics/ia-writer-6-now-with-lasers

Agreed, very nice. You can navigate your history, too with control-command-left/right arrow.

90% of what I've used personal wikis for in the past boils down to hyperlinks.

Perhaps they are feeling some pressure from Obsidian, my next thing to try.

Nice overview at MacStories

https://www.macstories.net/reviews/ia-writer-6-adds-cross-document-linking-metadata-and-more/

As it happened, I decided a few days ago to get the macOS version of iA Writer (I have been using the iOS since a long time already) but could not due to some unspecified technical difficulty ("the item is being modified, please try again later"). This is still the case today and now I am hearing that the price is going to go up. Ah, that later.

Certainly not intentional by the iA folks but I am a bit miffed nonetheless.

In 2017 I bought IA Writer for Mac for $9.99 and the iOS version for $3.99. (Pretty sure it was a 50%-off sale.) I just checked the current pricing and was a little shocked to see each has jumped to $49.99, but considering that IA are adamant about not offering subscription pricing this must be the only way to pay salaries and continue development.

I rely on Ulysses for pretty much all text over 300 words, and I've gone all-in on their cloud sync which has thankfully been reliable and stable. The Ulysses subscription is $49.99/year (having purchased earlier versions I'm grandfathered-in at a $29.99/yr tier, though) so for a typical Mac/iOS user IA Writer beats Ulysses after two years. (Albeit with different features and less customizability.) I appreciate IA's continued thoughtful advancements even though it's only a backup app for me these days.

If you like writing in Markdown and don't want to pay a subscription IA's Mac and iOS apps are pretty nice.

If you're looking only for a Mac app Typora - offering a unique and bulletproof WYSIWYG "live preview" - is an awesome deal at $15. (And it has a 15-day trial.)

Typora is gorgeous, and can be used with iOS markdown editors (e.g. the excellent 1Writer, which is unavailable on macOS) simply by designating the relevant iCloud folder as its "Home" library.

Thanks, @satis – this reminded me of a couple of features I'd totally forgotten, like the variables and metadata functions.

Worth mentioning that iA Writer now keeps track of hashtags, too (it has done for a while, but they're up front in more recent versions).

satis wrote:

Nice overview at MacStories

https://www.macstories.net/reviews/ia-writer-6-adds-cross-document-linking-metadata-and-more/

I recently wrote a sorta tongue-in-cheek article on Medium giving alternative options for the top three Mac writing applications: Scrivener, Ulysses and iA Writer. The app I offered as an option for iA Writer is Typora.

The article is here, if you care to read it:

https://stephenjzeoli.medium.com/a-possibly-blasphemous-writing-application-show-down-ed27f32f545a

Steve

Nice article, Stephen. I appreciate the inclusion of Highland 2, even though its heart is as a screenwriting app that interchanges with Final Draft's fdx format (and "melts" pdf screenplays into proper formatting inside the app). One of my favorite features is the online theme builder, which makes easy changing text, background and sidebar colors whatever you want.

https://quoteunquoteapps.com/theme-builder/index.php

And there's a theme gallery submitted by users with a dozen variants to use or to use as the basis for your own theme.

https://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland-2/theme-gallery.php

It makes a stab toward IA/Ulysses features with sprints and goals but Highland 2 otherwise seems to be in maintenance mode at this point, and the Roadmap page on the site has no new features planned. So if you don't like what you see don't expect it to change.

I still chafe at IA Writer's deliberate limitation to using one of their three funky embedded fonts, and the inability to change colors. When I'm writing I have very specfic font preferences for viewing onscreen (Courier Prime for screenwriting, Verdana Pro for most writing, Iowan Old Style or Lora for serif), different fonts/size for printed output, and sometimes I need to change fonts when revising in order to see the work with fresher eyes. And that's where IA Writer falls down compared to virtually every other writing app it competes with.

When scanning my documents I appreciate in Ulysses being able to see quotes and source code highlighted with a slightly different-colored background, with different color highlights denoting annotations and links and even italics. I like using my own choice of font and off-white background.

IA believes their decision to limit this choice ultimately makes writers more productive by not letting them aimlessly waste time tweaking - and I admit to have done just that for hours with other writing apps - but once I get comfortable with my customizations I rarely need to change them.