Zettlr
Zettlr
One-stop publication workbench — from idea to publication in one app.
Free
Absolutely Free
Zettlr overview
Zettlr is a reliable companion for writing scientific texts and taking notes. It is made for academics in the humanities and arts and is intended to keep your content apart from your design, but close to the notes you take. To reach this goal, Zettlr incorporates several important features:
- File-agnostic editing. Zettlr does not store any information about your files, except in your files. This way you can always switch to and from Zettlr. Every file you see inside the preview pane corresponds to a file on your disk. With no special additions that might render the use of your files difficult for other editors.
- Zettelkasten-Methods implemented directly into the app. With Zettlr, you can link files and searches using "Wiki-Links" in the format
[[your search text|@ID:ID]], give IDs by typing@ID:Your-ID-Hereand tag your files using Twitter-like hashtags:#hashtag. Holding down theAlt-key and clicking on links will try to open exact-match files and also initiate searches, while Alt-clicks on tags will simply initiate searches. More features are likely to come. - A directory list. This list contains all open directories and files. You can open new directories by pressing
Cmd/Ctrl+O. New files can be opened simply by double clicking them in your file browser or by dragging them onto the app. Every time you start the app, all previously opened paths will be re-loaded. - A preview pane that lists all the files that are inside the currently selected directory and separates them by their subdirectory. Just click on a file to open it in …
- … the editor, which takes the most space and is the crucial component that actually makes Zettlr an editor. You are able to write
Markdown-files in the area, a slim text format that keeps formatting to a bare minimum. - Exporting options. Using the open source software
pandocandLaTeX, Zettlr enables you to export all files on the fly in a variety of formats; currently HTML, DOCX, ODT and PDF. Just open a file and pressCmd/Ctrl+E. - Searching. Zettlr enables you to quickly search through your files to find what you are looking for in a fraction of the time you'd need if you store all your information in several word documents that you'd have to open and search.
- A toolbar containing all functions in handy button-form.
Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.
What’s new in version 3.0.0
Updated on Sep 05 2023
Read this first!
- This update brings a host of changes and new features. If you're upgrading from an older version of Zettlr, you will have to re-do a few things because due to the extensive changes, we had to adapt how your data is persisted. Here's the quick list:
- Your open documents will have to be re-opened once. Regardless of which files were open previously, they will all be closed after the update.
- There are no more unsaved in-memory files.
- Two default settings have changed in order to maximize benefits from the new features: Avoid new tabs is now set to false (since split-panes also allows you to spread out your open documents across several panes and windows), and Always reload remote changes is now set to true by default.
- The defaults system has changed. You will see new export options that weren't there before, and you will see some weird export.format.yaml and import.format.yaml export options. These are the "old" profiles we have kept in case you made modifications. We suggest you copy over all changes to the new profiles and then delete them, or rename those old ones to more memorable names. Read more below.
- The TableEditor has received a better save strategy to prevent data loss. As it is impossible to fully control the data flow from the visual table element into the underlying Markdown document, this data flow is now explicit: Tables now feature a save button (with a disk icon) at the top of the table. Its background will be green as long as the table has not been modified. Once it it modified, the background will turn red. Click the button to apply all changes to the document.
- Quicklook windows are completely gone now.
- Footnote editing has changed: Instead of editing the footnote in-place by Cmd/Ctrl-clicking it, there is now an "Edit" button inside the footnote preview which, upon clicking, will bring you to the footnote context. This has the benefit that you will have full syntax highlighting support as well as any shortcuts and commands you may need.
- We have deprecated the Zettelkasten link start and end configuration settings. Both are now fixed to [[ and ]] respectively. We have figured that nobody needs to configure this, and it makes many parts of our code easier.
Other high level updates
- New Icons on Windows and Linux
- Split-Panes and Multiple Windows
- New Defaults/Profile File System
- Tag Manager Update
Information
App requirements
- Intel 64
- OS X 10.11 or later
- Version for Apple Silicon
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User Ratings
Dec 27 2021
Version: 2.0.3
V 2.1 still crashes on 10.13. They've isolated the problem with the Electron framework. Sadly, I've supported other electron-based projects that were orphaned by them. So this is a hard-pass for me. Luckily FSNotes works great on MacOS. Don't need android, Linux, or Windows for now.
Jul 26 2019
Version: 1.3.0
Zettlr is incredibly powerful : you can create files and write them in GFM markdown (that means table of content and footnote, tables), plus extras, like folding text (really useful when you write long papers).
It uses Latex and Pandoc parser to export in a huge range of format (including .docx or .odt, of course PDF, ePub and other text format), and academics can use Zotero to manage bibliography.
You can manage extra folders without moving them (excellent: you store your files and folders wherever you want, just drag and drop them to Zettlr), and transform folder to project, meaning you can export a project as an only one merged file).
I just miss the preview feature, which is not fully implemented, but I asked the dev and I'm sure it will come soon.
This app is a gem, the dev is open and responsive, it's just an incredible free and open source app, as powetful as Ulysses, but you're not trapped in a subscription model, and the arrogance of the devs.
I recommand it to any one who want to manage a big writing project, like a paper, a novel, a bunch of short stories, a book (scientific books are welcome, as it can deal with latex and mathjax syntax).
It uses Latex and Pandoc parser to export in a huge range of format (including .docx or .odt, of course PDF, ePub and other text format), and academics can use Zotero to manage bibliography.
You can manage extra folders without moving them (excellent: you store your files and folders wherever you want, just drag and drop them to Zettlr), and transform folder to project, meaning you can export a project as an only one merged file).
I just miss the preview feature, which is not fully implemented, but I asked the dev and I'm sure it will come soon.
This app is a gem, the dev is open and responsive, it's just an incredible free and open source app, as powetful as Ulysses, but you're not trapped in a subscription model, and the arrogance of the devs.
I recommand it to any one who want to manage a big writing project, like a paper, a novel, a bunch of short stories, a book (scientific books are welcome, as it can deal with latex and mathjax syntax).
Free
Absolutely Free
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