
iA Writer 4+
Laser-focused writing
Information Architects AG
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- $49.99
Screenshots
Description
“Leaving life’s mess for an ideal realm of words.” —The New Yorker
“My favorite iOS app for writing in Markdown, without question, is iA Writer. iA Writer is just beautiful. To me, it’s the gold standard for Markdown syntax styling... an elegant champagne flute. That’s iA Writer for me.” —John Gruber
“iA Writer creates a clean, simple and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words.” —The New York Times
“iA Writer is an example of how powerful simplicity and accessibility can be.” —The Guardian
“iA Writer is all about textual production—writing this phrase, this sentence, this word at this moment.” —WIRED
4 x Best of App Store Winner
# The Simple Writing App
iA Writer removes distractions. Giving you a calm, focused, writing space, so you can express yourself clearly.
# Focus
Focus Mode dims everything but the current sentence or paragraph, helping you stay in the flow.
# Start
Don’t worry about the format. First, write in plain text. Then preview in HTML.
# Organize
Search, sort, and quickly swap between documents from different clouds.
# Customize
When you tap and hold a key in the command keyboard, you’re given the chance to choose your own layout. Rearrange your keys, or pick new ones from the extensive list.
# Search
You can open documents and launch frequent actions in no time with the new Quick Search. It lives in the keyboard so it’s always close at hand.
# Work
iA Writer includes an inverted light-on-dark-mode, perfect for working day and night.
# Clean
Spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, repetitive nouns, false conjunctions and clean your text of the usual rumble.
# Shape
Customize your templates and export to WordPress or Medium, HTML, Microsoft Word (.docx), or PDF.
# 100% Text
Embed links, pictures, tables and text files in plain text and see them in preview.
# Get in Touch
- Visit ia.net/writer for more information
- Visit ia.net/writer/support for support and feedback
- Let us know what you think on Twitter @iAWriter
What’s New
Version 6.0.12
This update fixes a few small bugs. It includes all the great features in iA Writer 6:
# Wikilinks
- Wikilinks make it easy to connect, browse, and rediscover your writing
- A [[wikilink]] is a link from one text file to another
- To make a wikilink, just type [[ and the name of the file you would like to link
- Autocomplete suggests files from your Library
- Open the linked file using the Open Link button in the keyboard bar, ⌘-click, or ⌘⏎
- If the file doesn’t exist, it’ll be automatically created and ready to type
# Navigation History
- Navigation history keeps track of the files you recently opened using wikilinks, Library, or Quick Search
- To go back and forward on iPhone, swipe right or left anywhere in the document
- To go back and forward on iPad, swipe right or left with two fingers anywhere in the document on screen
- Or hold ⌘ and swipe right or left on a trackpad
# Lightning Menu
- Fast access to your favorite formatting commands and features, right from the keyboard bar
- Available starting with iOS and iPadOS 15
- Fully configurable in Keyboard settings
# Split Preview on iPad
- Added ability to show Preview side-by-side with Editor
- Enable in the Preview appearance menu
- Scrolls in sync by default, configurable in Interface settings
# Hashtag Improvements
- Hashtags can be now added anywhere in text
- Autocomplete suggests hashtags as you type
- Consistent styling for hashtags and other links
- Show a hashtag in Quick Search using the Open Link button in the keyboard bar, ⌘-click, or ⌘⏎
# Autolinks
- All web links and email addresses are automatically detected
- Open a link in browser or compose a new email using the Open Link button in the keyboard bar, ⌘-click, or ⌘⏎
- Control how wikilinks, hashtags, and autolinks are exported in Markdown settings
# Content Block Improvements
- To add a content block, type / at the beginning of a line and the name of the file you would like to include
- Autocomplete suggests files from your Library
- A path to a file is no longer required. Filename-only content blocks automatically find the nearest matching file
- Open a text content block using the Open Link button in the keyboard bar, ⌘-click, or ⌘⏎
- If the content block file doesn’t exist, it’ll be automatically created and ready to type
# Metadata
- All-new metadata engine enables powerful new features
- Provide variables to text content blocks, width and height attributes to image content blocks
- Supports Markdown in metadata variables
- Define global metadata in Markdown settings
# Look and Feel
- Completed tasks are faded and crossed-out
- All-new highlight colors: yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and green
- Choose your favorite highlight color and configure completed task appearance in Editor settings
# Editor Improvements
- Editor automatically inserts closing brackets
- Select text and type an opening bracket to wrap selection in matching brackets
- Added indent width setting
- Changed strikethrough shortcut to ⌥⌘U
- Changed highlight shortcut to ⇧⌘U
- Changed code shortcut to ⌘J
- Added code block command with shortcut ⇧⌘J
- Disabled spell checking, autocorrection, autocapitalization, and smart punctuation in code
- Set up ⌘E shortcut to use selection for find
- Changed shortcut to mark task as completed to ⌥⌘X
- Redesigned find bar works much better with hardware keyboards, and provides direct access to matching style and case sensitivity on iOS and iPadOS 15
# Other Improvements
- Changed Library shortcut to ⌃⌘S
- Task list items are searchable with Smart Folders and Quick Search using [ ] and [x]
- Added ability to show and sort by date created in Library
- Added fuzzy Library Path matching to Quick Search
- Added an option to always show Editor and Preview toolbars, configurable in Interface settings
- Deleted folders and files are moved to Recently Deleted in Files app starting with iOS and iPadOS 14
- Integrated system menus on iOS and iPadOS 15
Ratings and Reviews
Editors’ Choice
When we want to hunker down and type without distraction, one of our favorite resources is iA Writer. Substantially updated since its initial release, this writing app offers a customizable keyboard, selective text highlighting, iCloud sync, and many other features we’ve come to depend on. Plus, a streamlined interface lets you simply swipe left to preview a document and swipe right to access your library. The entire experience is designed to be quick and easy so you can focus on your work.
Almost perfect!
This application coupled with an iPad Pro and a magic keyboard have, quite frankly, made my on-the-go writing experience... magical! I’m not a professional by any means, however, as a college student I have had almost nothing to complain about when using this application. My only grievance, you guessed it, is more customization! This means more fonts, more color palettes, and more storage solutions like Google Drive. I totally understand that IA Writer’s aim is to be minimal and focus driven, but more “optional” customization features wouldn’t hurt anyone in my opinion. Overall, this is a wonderful application as is. My only suggestions would be to look into the “show stats” feature as I don’t like how it hangs over your text indefinitely... maybe move the word count to a corner where it doesn’t interfere with your text or perhaps set it to timeout after a few seconds. Also, there’s a wonderful feature labeled “syntax highlight” that I believe shouldn’t be buried within settings but would be of greater use somewhere next to the “aA” button. All the colors hurt my eyes so I never turn it on for long, however, occasionally using the feature helps me identify a myriad of adjectives and nouns to replace without having to read my entire essay again!
Developer Response ,
We don't have plans to add much in the way of customizations to the editor itself. The idea is you spend your time writing and not twiddling settings. When it comes time to put some form around the content, you can use templates to get exactly what you want. You can build your own custom templates too—email us at support@ia.net if you want to know more. On Syntax Control, you can toggle this within the "aA" menu and it will show the last used combination of parts of speech you had turned on.
Almost Perfect for Dungeon Masters
Most of the writing I do is for large D&D campaigns that I work on where there are a lot of small markdown files organized into thematic folders, which this app is perfect for. The writing surface is clean, the lines of text are spaced perfectly and the default duospace font is relaxing to view in both day and night modes, particularly on a large iPad.
I also particularly like how the markdown formatting symbols hang outside of the left margin of the text, which makes parsing documents with a lot of formatting much easier. The placement of formatting symbols is not perfectly right aligned outside of the margin, but that is a minor quibble with syntax that is designed to flow inline in a plain text file.
Feature Request: The ability to add folders from other applications would make this app absolutely perfect. I use the Working Copy app to push all of my documents to Github and for version control. If iA Writer could add my Working Copy folders to the library, the writing experience and repository workflow would be sublime.
App Privacy
The developer, Information Architects AG, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Information Architects AG
- Size
- 54.7 MB
- Category
- Productivity
- Compatibility
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- iPhone
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- iPad
- Requires iPadOS 12.0 or later.
- iPod touch
- Requires iOS 12.0 or later.
- Languages
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English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
- Age Rating
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2010–2023 Information Architects GmbH
- Price
- $49.99
Supports
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Family Sharing
Up to six family members can use this app with Family Sharing enabled.