Zettlr for Mac
1.8.6
1.8.6
See all Versions

Name: Zettlr
Rating: 4.5833 (6 reviews)

18 January 2021

Markdown editor.

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What is Zettlr for Mac

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 1.8.6:

GUI and Functionality:

Your typing speed is now as fast as previously again, even for long paragraphs and files (thanks to @mattj23 for implementing the fixes in the multiplexer).
You can now also switch to sub-directories using the file list navigation; it is not limited to files anymore.
Fixed a bug that would show a wrong path on pasting image data onto the editor.
Fixed a bug that would make dragging items from the file list impossible.
Fixed odd behaviour that would make dragging and dropping items in the file tree (especially in combined mode of the file manager) hard.
Fixed a logical bug that would open a dialog notifying of remote changes for every detected change, rather than just once per file.
Added RMarkdown files (.Rmd) to the list of supported file extensions for which Zettlr can be registered as a default handler.
Fix a regression error that has rendered citation exporting impossible.

Under the Hood:

Fixed a performance sink in the multiplexer module which introduced noticeable lag while writing long paragraphs and documents (implemented by @mattj23).
Implemented a global event listener that prevents any arbitrary navigation away from the loaded URL that occurs within webContents. So this way we do not need to sanitize any anchors or take care about setting window.location, because all of these events will be captured and navigation will be prevented. For opening local files and directories, make sure to prepend the path with safe-file://, which is recognized by this listener.
Implemented a global event listener that makes sure any call to console.log is also received in the main process so that we can intercept those and add them to our global logging interface as well. This way, debugging errors in the renderer process can be debugged together with users as well. Messages from the renderers are indicated by a [R] including the window identifier (e.g. "[Main Window]").
Migrated the Tags Provider to TypeScript. Cleaned up the IPC calls.
Moved electron-builder configuration to electron-builder.yml.
Removed no longer necessary scripts.
Moved most type annotations to corresponding types files. The structure is currently: All node_modules without type support reside within ./source, whereas the service provider types are stored in ./source/app/service-providers/assets.
Removed generic IPC calls for the CSS Provider and migrated that to the provider class.
Zettlr now detects a potential downloaded Pandoc in the resources directory during development.
Fixed a logical error in calculating the application uptime.
The application now exits forcefully if an error is produced during boot.

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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