Markdown support

diskostu

Hey there,

markdown support would be really nice. This means we would probably need two editor views - a plain text view and a preview view, like in Jira, for example.
The app "Journey" has markdown support (btw I just migrated from there to this app 😊) and I love it.

timo

Thanks for your suggestion. Diarium already offers a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) formatting editor (with bold, italics, bullet lists etc) - I chose this over Markdown because it does not require multiple views and is therefore much easier to use.
Why would you prefer Markdown over the current formatting options?

Kat M. Moss

timo I'm probably the minority here, but being visually impaired, typing is easier than pretting buttons when it comes to formatting, hence why I prefer markdown over anything else out there right now. I can use button options, of course, but one is easier than the other.

diskostu

Ah, I did not notice that there are WYSIWYG-options... that's why I mentioned Markdown.
Nevermind, the existing formatting options are fine for me. Thanks 😊

CraigStrachan

The current version does formatting, but its very basic. I would love to see (with or without markdown)
H1, H2, H3, blockquote, tables.

Blockquote is a big one for me, I often save interesting quotes.

#H1
##H2
##H3

redeyeshev

I love Markdown because it's so easy to add formatting right from the keyboard without having to use the mouse, especially for things like headings, bold text, and bulleted lists. I can live without it in Diarium, but I agree with Craig that headings would be a nice addition.

LC155

Throwing my hat in the ring for more WYSIWYG support as well. Purchased the app a while back thinking that it had those features, but was disappointed to find out it did almost everything except that.

I'm a Journey user that was hoping to move to something new, but Journey is just better for writing fancy entries on - headings, tables, blockquotes, horizontal lines (especially useful for breaking up things in one entry). That kind of stuff. Without it I'm a bit lost.

timo

LC155 Diarium currently uses WYSIWYG. This feature request is about Markdown, which is not WYSIWYG

LC155

timo So if I recreate the topic but mention adding support for more WYSIWYG features beyond the basics (like Journey, although they do allow the use of both, but as far as I'm aware the difference between them is mostly in how you input), you will consider it?

I feel like horizontal lines, blockquotes, and headings should at least be in there, if you don't want things like tables.

I'm personally neutral on WYSIWYG vs Markdown, but there are things missing right now that I'm too used to, preventing me from making a full switch IMO.

timo

You can always submit a feature request but if I'm being honest, given how complex & difficult it was to implement lists (that aren't even multiple indentations) on 4 different platforms, I don't think the chances are very high that I can take care of this in the near future. I am a solo developer and this would consume incredibly much time that I could use on other feature requests that are easier to implement.
Adding blockquote or horizontal lines might sound easy from a user perspective, but from a technical perspective, this is much different unfortunately.

LC155

timo Thanks for the honesty. I guess I'll submit it as a feature request and see how it goes. I can keep using Journey for now, but if this ever manages to get done, then it is an easy swap over. For those not on the Apple ecosystem, choices in apps remain fairly limited.

Stone

@timo is there a feature request to export to Markdown? I think that would appease a lot of people and provide protections in case you win the lottery or god forbid, the bus!

timo

Stone The app allows you to export to .docx, .html & .txt (or backup the SQLite database), which all are probably even more commonly used formats than Markdown.

Stone

timo yes for Windows users DOCX but more of us need Markdown, HTML is useless if I want to move my notes to another editor. Text is, well text. Thanks

RussIrvine

Stone Just to note that most markdown editors will open .txt and read md code as such. Then save as or export as .md. But yes it would be nice to have .md support in D~ .

herbhert

+1 Markdown
Markdown is not about representing source code. Many programs like iA Writer, Logseq, Todoist, Obsidian or Typora directly display the result. This format has also been standard for Day One for a long time.
The advantages become clear with longer texts: With heading levels you can structure much better and clearer. Small quote indentations are also useful etc. etc. But above all: I often write the text in a Markdown editor in advance and then copy the result to Diarium - at the moment, Diarium then only shows a "text desert".

obstschale

I would like to add my +1 - Markdown is a good markup language, which makes it easy to write and easy to read. WYSIWYG Editor exist and so the technical aspect is not an argument IMHO.

People can use shortcuts or buttons if they like and others might want to simply type the syntax. Please add MD support.

timo

obstschale WYSIWYG Editor exist and so the technical aspect is not an argument IMHO.

Not for the technology I am building with. Most markdown WYSIWYG editors are some kind of web control.

I also still don't see the benefit of markdown except that for the rare case when someone wants to write paste markdown written in another app into Diarium

mz

Hey Timo, of course I don't want to add any stress to this. I have to confess that when checking out Diarium, my first research was “Markdown support”.
For me, and I guess for the users requesting this feature, it is simply that once you got markdown into your fingers by using apps supporting it, it really accelerates your writing / thinking. So, by dreaming of Markdown support for Diarium, I simply would be able to “write on” from iAWriter and the others. I would not need to “back step”. I just could write on.