The Markdown Office Suite

I think I’m finally pretty close to achieving being Down with the Mark, like guru Brett Terprstra. I seem to have the right combination of Markdown-aware applications that replace the more traditional office suites:

Words #

• FoldingText for writing structured documents, such as outlines, articles, etc.
• Byword for longer-form, distraction-free creative writing
• LogLine or Slugline for that screenplay I’ve been working on, using the excellent fountain variant of Markdown
• Scrivener for that long-form novel that I work on when I’m not writing my Oscar-winning screenplay.
• Ulysses 3 and/or NVAlt depending on how nerdy I am.
• Blogging with Svbtle (you’re soaking in it, Marge.) Nice, clean, simple, Markdown-centric. Just wish there was a way to use an offline editor to push things to the blog via API, like say with MarsEdit or Byword.Web pages make me nervous to type into for longer periods. I’m just one window close away from losing work. My not-so-svbtle hint to the developers.
• Tying it all together, my swiss-army knife: BBEdit. Echoing many other blogs out there “I keep having tawdry affairs with Atom and Sublime, but keep coming back to BBEdit.”

Yeah, there are some redundancies here. But just as I have a whole box full of gleaming silver wrenches, each of differing size, so goeth it for me with text editors.

Numbers #

• Calca for free-form grid-free calculations and worksheets where I can show my work

Slideware #

• Deckset for Fighting the Power. Point taken?
• Even cooler is the Slid.es implementation of the author’s Reveal.JS library. Deckset is nice because it is offline and pay-once, rather than a subscription.

Notes and General Productivity #

• FoldingText once again for letting me keep notes and tasks all in one document, with a bonus of letting me Pomodoro when the mood strikes.
• Taskpaper as the plain-text, Markdown-like, parseable, free-form-yet-structured task manager that has displaced even the mighty Omnifocus for me.
• Day One for personal journaling and capture of my day’s activities with the excellent Slogger. For those of you counting, that’s my third Terpstra link.

Sharing and Storage #

• DropBox - You know where this is. Not linking to it right now because I’m a little burned by the Condoleeza Rice thang. I’m not sure I can give it up yet, but I sure want to. It just connects to every-freaking-thing.

Utilities #

• Marked 2 for previewing and exporting Markdown files when the simple interpreters in each of the above apps simply won’t do.
• Popclip is essential for working with text in general. See Brett Terprstra’s extensions (you don’t need another link) or the ones that come with it. Markdownify is awesome.
• Ah shoot. One more Terpstra link: Heck Yes Markdown converts websites into Markdown.

Database #

• Well, ok - this one is a bit of a stretch. VoodooPad is like a personal Wiki, which allows me to structure bits of information in my own way. I use it as a tonic to Evernote, which I can’t let go of, because it syncs really well. Not a database at all, I know, but is the base of my data. Plus, who uses personal databases anymore anyway? Wither Bento?

Well, is my office suite sweet? Tell me what I’m missing! There’s always room for one more text editor.