writing tools

Original link: https://blog.fivest.one/archives/6520

In order to write a long paper, I sorted out various scattered ideas and materials, and tried a range of existing writing tools. Write down the experience.

Let’s talk about the conclusion first. The only ones that meet the rigid needs and can be chosen are the following. The current order of consideration is:

• Siyuan Notes, Lattics, Scrivener (paid), Manuskript, Joplin, CherryTree

For reference, those who were eliminated because they did not meet the urgent needs:

• Effie, Flomo, Heptabase, Logseq, Notion, Obsidian, Onenote, QuollWriter, Ulysses, Writeathon, Zettlr, Evernote

There are some that I know about but haven’t tried, such as IA Writer. And there seem to be many writing tools developed for Internet article authors in recent years, so I won’t try them all. After all, I just want to find one that I can use, not do a comprehensive review in this regard.

Factors you don’t care about:

First, I was looking for a tool for a specific writing project, not general information management. Therefore, I don’t need to consider some functions that are very important for the latter.

• Running speed. I know that some tools will become stuck after the number of documents increases to tens of thousands. But I have at most a few hundred documents here, so I don’t have to consider this issue.
• Is it easy to export/migrate to other tools? The portability of some tools is very poor, and even after managing a lot of information, people feel like they have been kidnapped by this software. But for me, I just need to manually transfer a few final products to other tools for typesetting.

Some rigid requirements for me:

• Support Windows. Some of them are said to be excellent, but they can only be used by Apple, so I won’t read them. disuse:
  • Ulysses
• The content is not visible to operators, especially those with mainland background. disuse:
  • Notion, Evernote, etc.
• Available offline. There are some tools that I’m not sure can be used offline, but after installing the desktop client, you need to register an account before you can use them. And most of this is done domestically. Combined with the above, I will not continue to try. disuse:
  • Effie, Flomo, Writeathon
• Supports more than three levels of directory structure. disuse:
  • Onenote, I’m just mentioning this casually. Onenote’s block editing is so fascinating. I’ve tried it several times, but I’ve never gotten used to it.
  • Logseq
  • QuollWriter
• Drag-and-drop sorting is possible. This one eliminates a lot of tools that are actually very good. Some of them are even my main tools in other aspects of my daily life. But when it comes to conceiving long articles, it’s important to me that I can drag and drop to sort at any time, rather than changing file names and sorting manually. disuse:
  • Obsidian, it’s a shame because Obsidian is otherwise almost perfect. There are plug-ins that can be manually dragged and dropped, but they can only change the order of the first-level directories.
  • I also like Zettlr, and its integration with zotero seems to be very useful. I will try to use it to compile the manuscript later.
• cost. Of course it’s best to use it for free; you can spend money, but as a tool that I will use for a long time but not every day, I prefer a one-time buyout (such as Scrivener) rather than accept a paid subscription model. disuse:
  • Heptabase

Some are not strictly necessary, but will be important factors in my choice:

• Interface comfort. Some old English software, the default interface after opening is still not suitable… and the English fonts are also very small. Although many of them can be customized, I don’t have time to adjust them slowly.
• Visual markdown
• Internal article links, it doesn’t matter whether they are double links or not
• Split screen and edit two articles at the same time

Other optional bonus points:

• You can store different projects in separate folders, and only open one project at a time, making it easy to switch between different projects.
  • Lattics is not possible, all items are placed in a sidebar interface. This is okay for occasional use, but it cannot be used as a long-term tool for multiple projects.
  • Siyuan Notes also only has one main interface, but it provides export and import functions for each project, so it is probably okay?
  • Joplin loses a lot of points on this point, but it’s because this is my daily main note-taking tool, and it’s too messy when mixed with projects.
• Can call other external editors
• Supports zotero, I haven’t looked into the details yet
• I haven’t experienced card mode yet. What’s the difference between using a separate folder to save fragmentary ideas and cards?
• Multi-device synchronization, is this probably a paid feature of Siyuan and Lattics?
• Access your project’s text and media files directly from the file manager
• learning complexity
• card mode
• Open source
• cost

A side-by-side comparison of six tools. The blank ones are ones I haven’t looked at carefully yet.

	Scrivener	Latics	Siyuan	Manuskript	CherryTree	Joplin
interface	★★★	★★★	★★★	★★	★	★★
markdown	x	√	√	x	x	√
internal link	√	√	√	x	√	√
split-screen	√	√	√	√	x	x
Switch items	√	x	/	√	√	x
external editor	x	x	x	x	x	√
Zotero				x	x	x
card	√	√	√			x
Multiple devices	x			x	x	√
Manage media files
learning complexity	★★★	★★	★★	★★★	★★★	★★
Open source	x	x	x	√	√	√
Domestic	x	√	√	x	x	x
cost	buyout	Free + Subscription	Free + Subscription	free	free	free

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