I see. So I primarily use the Modern and Github previews in iA Writer, but it makes sense to go with Quattro as the default. If I want to adjust the headings or links to my preference, I can decide that later.
Using the Obsidian help vault Format Your Notes file for testing, I did notice some minor differences. In the screenshots, iA Writer is on the left and obsidian_ia on the right.
Thanks, that helps a lot. Are you also working in Quality Assurance?
The code blocks have a different background color
This happens when a language is specified and prism.js renders the codeblock using it’s own css. Don’t know how to change this. iA does not have syntax highlighting so you get the default behaviour by deleting the language name.
Is it purposeful that the tags don’t display on preview?
That’s an interesting topic. iA doesn’t render tags in preview if you want (specified in the settings), but a tag inside a list isn’t recognized as a tag at all by iA and rendered as normal text. Maybe it would be better to keep tags rendered in obsidian because they are more versatile than in iA.
As a newbie to the ‘install’ process, do your ‘fixes’ automatically make their way to Obsidian because the plug-in resides in the Setting section OR is there some user interaction that’s required to take advantage of the updates to the plug-in.
No. It’s not automatic. Go to the Community Themes plugin and click use on the theme. That will fetch the latest version from Github and override your local css file.
This request is a little (or a lot) off topic, but seeing that you apparently use Obsidian and iAWriter together, how do you link Notes (Zettels) while writing in iAWriter so they ‘appear’ correctly linked in Obsidian; Copy>Copy URL Command or Copy>Library Path. In my workflow, iAWriter is using my iCloud>Zettel sub-folder which is also my Obsidian Vault location.
I also use iA Writer’s iCloud Drive as my Obsidian vault. I found it more reliable in syncing than the iCloud Documents folder.
As for adding backlink, I’m using shortest path possible setting. If I add a backlink in iA Writer, it’s because I know the file name.
My actual process has evolved to where I do my initial writing in iA Writer and then later when reviewing in Obsidian add relevant links and tags. This way my initial focus is just on encapsulating the Zettel or atomic note and later thinking about it’s connections when I’m “filing” it in Obsidian.
I’m constantly meandering between different tools because none of them could really fulfill my needs on its own. Not sure what the final solution will be.
I love iA Writer for its robust markdown implementation which supports really nice simplifications like dropping a csv file into a markdown to create a table when rendering it into a pdf - something no other application can do (as far as I know), the same goes for source code or text files. That really helps to structure large documents. You just put each chapter in an own file and link them together in a master file.
iA Writer also has good Math and Table Support as well as excellent working footnotes (with various ways to implement them), link references, and definition lists. Even sub- and superscript are easy to use (not that I’m using them very often)
I also love iA Writer for their beautiful PDFs. You can use captions for images ( - which will be nicely rendered italic and centered below the image, you can create a TOC on the fly, and pages are numbered.
They have a nice looking and excellent working iOS Client for both mobile and tablet.
iCloud Sync is not as robust as in other apps, sometimes sync take much longer than expected. In Bear for example you can start on your computer and continue writing on your tablet because the sync is done while switching devices.
The biggest complaint I have with iA Writer is the lack of an application-independent linking method between notes. If you are using the URL Command, iA Writer will always open, even if you use the note with another application. Secondly, iA Writer will always open a new window instead shown the note in the current window. Third, if you rename or move the linked file the link will not be updated automatically. Therefore I don’t use linking between notes in iA at all.
I’m missing multi-level tags (which could replace folders completely for me) and hate the location of the find bar.
I hate that iA Writer doesn’t support multi-word tags and dashes in a tag
Using Front-Matter YAML is nice for hiding classification information from getting into the final document - for example, you could put the tags into this section or the source or additional references or internal notes
Now look at obsidian:
I like the implementation of wiki links and I love the possibility to give the link another name the linked file has. With this, you can write fully understandable sentences and have important aspects linked. That’s a killer feature for me
I love that obsidian automagically updates links when I rename or move a file
Dependency Graphs are nice but not as important to me. Showing me linked and unlinked mentions are nice, but I think roams solution showing them below the current note is better.
I love heading folding (but would prefer if obsidian would remember the current state when switching to another note)
I miss exporting, multi-level tags (again I wouldn’t need a static folder structure anymore), image captions, multi-word tags, and a good mobile client
Obsidian also support front-matter yaml but won’t recognize tags inside them
Bear:
Bear seemed to be the sweet spot for me, they have a beautiful mobile client, wiki link support (but no Piping), PDF export (but no page numbers), multi-level tags (which are shown as a folder structure with a document appearing in more than one folder at the same time, if you tagged them appropriately) and multi-word tags.
Bear has an excellent web clipper and support cut and pasting html (including images) and converts it automagically into markdown
Unfortunately, there is no pure preview Mode, no table support, no math support, no footnote support, no image captions, the note list is very space-consuming (especially if your notes contain images) and not customizable and there is no support for automatic backlinking
I like the “Show me notes with open Todos” feature but would love an implementation which aggregates all todos in one list as I have seen in Roam
I love how bear remembers my last reading position for notes
I miss a way for structuring larger documents
The sync is very robust and fast
I would love to sort different tag-folders differently (latest notes first, alphabetically, manually)
I hate that they are using a database for storage
What’s the result of all of this? I mainly use the most-common subset of features (single-level tags, no - inside the tag, no multi-word tags, image captions as normal markdown). I than use wikilinks in obsidian sharing the file structure with iA. With all of this, I can still wait and see how the clients evolve (Bear is testing a new editor with footnote and table support, obsidian is building an export function and mobile clients, iA Writer will hopefully present a new version at there 15th anniversary in November).
Love the smooth integration of calendar, reminder and todo functions - this feels very natural for me
supports wiki links which make structuring very easy (e.g. linking meetings note and the corresponding calendar entry), multi-level tags but no multi-word tags
supports people contexts/mentions with @
unfortunately, noteplan does not support code blocks (which I often need) and highlighting of text as well as footnotes and export.
@rcvd love the theme, I’ve been using it since you first released it. I was using a version that I’d slightly altered but updated to use the one that’s now available via community themes.
I noticed a weird spacing issue when indenting lists - like attached. Seeing screenshots from other people it seems like that’s not the case so not sure if it’s just me. Running 0.8.11 right now.
