Zettlr
1.7.5
1.7.5
See all Versions

Name: Zettlr
Rating: 4.5 (5 reviews)

17 August 2020

Markdown editor.

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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-Here and tag your files using Twitter-like hashtags: #hashtag. Holding down the Alt-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 pandoc and LaTeX, 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 press Cmd/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 Zettlr

Version 1.7.5:

GUI and Functionality:

Fixed a bug where opening RMarkdown files with Zettlr not open would throw an error.
Fixed a bug where the app would not process inline images during export, leading to missing images.
HTML Export now centres figure captions underneath figures.
Zettlr finally allows alternative/title texts in images to be specified, making it possible to preview images with a title, and have them properly export even with relative filenames.
Fix wrong design of the sorters in combined sidebar file trees.
Fixed a bug where adding more and more list-characters in front of a list item would make the left gutter "swallow" these due to an extreme amount of negative indent. Now the line indentation for soft-wrapped lists (or anything indented) should work as expected.
Fixed a behaviour that would sometimes lead to the editor inserting tab-characters instead of spaces.
Added UX improvements to the fold gutter and the global search bar.
Fixed non-centered button icons and made some UI elements a little bit bigger.
You can now abort searching in Quicklook windows by pressing escape while the search field is highlighted.
Fixed a rare error where codeblocks would not be indented correctly in HTML outputs.
Zettlr now renders linked images.
Restored the security question when you are about to overwrite an already existing file.
Made URLs in references into clickable links that open in the system's browser.
The context menu on directories within the file list now correctly shows you project options, if the directory is one.
The file tree has been cleaned up. Now, the children toggle (if a directory has any) as well as any additional icon will be displayed aligned with each other.
Fixed a bug that would not display the filename but a heading level 1 that has been removed from the file.
Single inline image inserts are now handled without adding newline characters.

Under the Hood:

Added an additional check for directory exports to check that they indeed have an attached project.
Removed all legacy WebHostingHub-Glyph references and switch fully to Clarity.
Removed unused legacy code from the Quicklook windows.
Replaced getTokenAt with getTokenTypeAt, hopefully achieving performance gains on documents littered with renderable elements.

Zettlr for Mac Old Versions

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2 Reviews of Zettlr

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).

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