text editors - What are some alternatives to word processing with Markdown?
2013-10
Hassan
I've used MS Word-style editors for a long time, but I never got used to how unintuitive and cumbersome they are. I'm not talking specifically about MS Word, but also other editors that seem to mimic Word, like OpenOffice, NeoOffice, etc.
I've found myself preferring to write in Markdown (much like on this site). I've found a few good Markdown editors, and I like using them a lot more than using Word-style editors. Here is what they generally look like:
As you can see, it works much differently than a Word-style editor. This is a generally cleaner way of writing, since formatting is done right in the text, and is extremely simple to use (no highlighting some text, then clicking a button in some menu you have to find).
Although editing text this way is great, I've realized that the syntax can only be used for very specific needs (bullets, numbered lists, headings and sub-headings, bold, italic, and some other common ones). However, many features are missing. Here are some features that would be nice in a word processor:
- Tables.
- Indenting paragraphs.
- Good image support (you can link to images, but not add them, since Markdown is just text).
- More simple to use than Word and its cronies.
- Cross-platform.
Some of these can be fixed with in-line HTML, but nobody wants to do that.
It seems Markdown was designed for editing text on the internet. Is there a similar setup that works better for desktop word processors?
Ярослав Рахматуллин
Perhaps more complex than you desire, but latex has all those things. There are many different distributions (packages of editors and libraries) for all OSes, some are cross platform. Look around, you'll find plenty on the net. The downside is you have to do a bit of learning, while the upside is you can get up and running in a couple of days and you'll never need anything else for all your documentation.
Consider these:
deceze
I think most of you know this problem: relatives that call you at the weirdest of times with a computer problem (oh, noes). Recently my aunt-in-law has started to seriously use her computer to write long essays and articles, but she's continually stumped by Word 2003. There's just so much cr*p in there that she never ever uses, but continues to accidentally invoke or run up against. I always thought Word was a half-way decent application (because I rarely ever use it), but getting to see the kinds of problems she has I'm starting to think that it's possibly one of the worst word processors out there.
So what I'm looking for is a nice, simple, clean word processor that I can install for her as a replacement. There are some requirements, but not many:
- Needs to have a Japanese UI available
- Needs features particular to Japanese text (I actually think it's easy to best Word here)
- page needs to be lay-outable by character column and row count
- vertical input would be nice
- Ruby support would be nice, but not a must
- Needs to run on Windows XP
- Addendum: If there's an awesome Japanese Linux word processor I'd probably be happy to replace her XP install
I think a more recent version of Word with the Ribbon UI would be a good start, but I'm really looking for something that does less, that doesn't have many buttons at all. Any suggestions welcome.
UPDATE: To make it clear: Yes, this is intended for a Japanese person. This Japanese person is an old lady who's very alert but barely knows anything about computers, so the interface needs to be dead simple. Too much technical jargon or "meta-functionality" (e.g. macros, LaTeX/GUI abstractions, templates) is not good and unnecessary. Somehow she managed to invoke the "Record macro" mode, was therefore unable to click on the text and had no idea how to get out of this mode. If the stupid Office assistant pops up with a modal message that needs confirmation she ignores it and doesn't know why she can't interact with the application window any longer.
I'm looking for an app that does away with all that crap, offers only a minimal blank space to write, yet still offers (at least some of) the features she needs.
You'd think this shouldn't be so hard... ;-)
Lakshman Prasad
LaTex. With some of the GUI frontends available.
While it has a lot of options and is the best out there, really doesnt get in your way to do what ever you would want.
Elijah
OpenOffice
OpenOffice is a fairly robust office suite that is not as heavy as MS Office. It is free and open source. Furthermore, I have used its Japanese localization before and it is decent.
Ichitaro
Ichitaro is a popular word processor used in Japan. Many Japanese people swear by it. However, it is commercial software, so no freebies.
nik
I see this Sakura editor at Sourceforge.
"SAKURA" is a Japanese text editor for MS Windows. Japanese MS Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP/Vista is required. Most double-byte characters are not shown properly on other language versions of MS Windows.
fretje
Why not let her use WordPad?
It's included in the operating system, and very simple indeed.
joe
akf
The best option that you have in your situation, by far, is to use Google Documents. It has a simple interface, it can be configured to use Japanese menus, will accept Japanese text, and it is not OS dependent. The extra perk is that it will allow you to login, given your obasan's permission, to inspect her settings as she sees them when something goes wrong (and no matter what you do, something will go wrong). You will even have the ability to switch the interface to English, if you prefer, to 'clarify' any misunderstandings.
Gokurosama.