this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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Besides Libre Office, what other programs/solutions exist in the Linux world for writers?

(Please, don't suggest VIM. After all the memes and comments I've read, I've come to dread it).

I like writing but the standard Writer tends to send me in a constant formatting spree.

I want to get back to writing regularly and something that could help me stay focused and somewhat organized would be nice.

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[–] SuperiorOne@lemmy.ml 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I recommend Obsidian with community plugins. Application itself isn't open-source but your content stored as markdown files.

[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Obsidian’s fork of Markdown. Don’t expect compatibility.

[–] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There are extensions for obsidian compatability in Vim and Emacs.

[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It’s not compatible with other Markdown forks, but the whole Markdown ecosystem is a mess duct taped together by more forks & extensions that aren’t compatible either. Even the common denominator CommonMark is feature-barren & isn’t suitable for documentation or technical writing, but boy howdy will the next guy have his Markdown contraption to sell you.

[–] Elric@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

God he says no Vim and everybody goes on about vim. Please learn to read. It obviously isn't for programming.

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works -2 points 10 months ago

I honestly use nvim for my general note taking.

[–] callyral@pawb.social 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Any text editor that lets you write Markdown (all of them, since markdown can be written as a plain text file). It's simple but featureful. I would recommend Marktext.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

There is still an older version of Scrivener available for free, from when they were beta testing it on Linux. It still worked well last time I checked. The Windows version also runs really well in WIne, although it takes a bit of setting up initially.

Compatibility is apparently really good on Linux according to CrossOver reports only a month or two ago: https://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/crossover/scrivener

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I have paid scrivener and it's a fantastic product for writing a story... or a DnD campaign even!

I haven't shopped around but I switched from word to onenote to scriv and stopped looking. This is from my experience on windows not linix.

Not sure how good the beta is. https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/linux-1-9-01-beta-released/31623

[–] Lem453@lemmy.ca 5 points 10 months ago

Onlyoffice

Is UI mimics ms office and has comparability with word files.

Not open-source and has some limitations without paying but works on windows and Linux. Can even be self hosted yourself to provide a web UI for access to your own files Google docs style.

[–] Starfighter@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 10 months ago

Typst

You can use their online web-editor (similar to OverLeaf for LaTeX) or download the open-source engine and run it locally (there are extensions available for many text editors).

Compared to LaTeX I find it much more comfortable to work with. It comes with sane, modern defaults and doesn't need any plugins just to generate a (localized) bibliography or include links.

Since Typst is very young compared to LaTeX I'm sure that there are numerous docs / workflows that can't be reproduced at the moment but if you don't need some special feature I'd recommend giving it a shot.

[–] Tiuku@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago

If markdown fulfills your formatting needs, then there's no beating it in terms of focus and simplicity. Use whatever text editor you like. My recommendation would be Kate. It supports previewing the rendered document in side by side view.

[–] driveway@lemmy.zip 4 points 10 months ago

I'd use OverLeaf. Open source LaTeX editor with cloud storage, simple setup, plugins, extensive documentation.

[–] om1k@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 months ago

That’s what I use for my reStructuredText documents!

[–] jodanlime@midwest.social 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If you base your opinion of vim from memes you are missing out. Anyone who can't take 10 minutes to type vimtutor in their terminal is not someone to base an opinion on. These memes come mostly from impatient people that can't read the docs. It's a fantastic text editor.

That being said, it's not meant to be used for written words it's meant to write code and config files. You want to look for a word processor.

Abiword, etherpad, focuswciter are probably the next 3 biggest on Linux behind libre and open office.

Personally I prefer markdown for most things these days but it's not exactly meant for word processing either.

[–] Polyester6435@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago

(Neo)Vim is fantastic for writing when combined with some plugins and LaTeX

[–] bellsDoSing@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

IMO (neo)VIM is great for writing text as well, when all you need is markdown level formatting. Personally I use vimwiki a lot (many years by now).

[–] mcepl@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not vim necessarily, but I would really suggest thinking about a plain text editor of your choice and some of those lightweight markup languages (Markdown itself, reStructuredText, ASCIIDoc … I prefer rST, but they are mostly the same). Exactly because it allows me to concentrate on the content and ignore formatting. Besides, formatting, do you write for print or as everybody else these days for HTML? Why do you need a large word processor which is build primarily for preparing documents for print? Every serious text editor has some kind of plugins with spellcheckers, grammar checkers, dictionaries, etc.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I like so say I want someday to see my work out in the world in the form of (e)books, so I want to keep my options open.

[–] mcepl@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Eh? Both pandoc and rst2epub can generate eBooks. All those lightweight markup languages are especially awesome for converting into various output formats.

[–] lapislazuli@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

FocusWriter for a minimalist, focused writing experience. You can edit the existing template for a dark theme and white text. I rather like the typewriter font, Liberation Mono (it was Courier something back on Windows). Give it a try. I've been using it for around 3-4 years.

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago
[–] thayer@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

While I'm a big fan of Vim, it's definitely not for everyone.

I spend about half of my writing time in VSCodium, which is a community-based release of Microsoft's open source VS Code editor. There are several markdown, grammar, and focus-oriented plugins for the platform, and you can pretty much shape it into whatever kind of editor you want.

I use VSCodium for the vast majority of my personal notes, technical writing, and project documentation (nearly all of which are written in markdown format).

[–] tuto193@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

I'd recommend https://typst.app/. Super easy to structure text like LaTeX and 100 times easier to use :)

[–] kzhe@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Norka, Apostrophe, Obsidian

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can I get some links, please?

[–] kzhe@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sorry, I was on mobile.

The spiteful thing to do would be linking Norka and the such but I'll link them: Norka, Apostrophe and Obsidian.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago

Thank you very much.

[–] LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you don't need all the features of a full office suit then check out markdown and and editor like ghostwriter

[–] rodbiren@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

I second the motion on ghostwriter. Had a nice focus mode, looks good, isn't distracting. I use syncthing to backup everything. It's my jam.

[–] amanneedsamaid@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 months ago

I use LaTeX, and edit using Emacs. The nice thing about LaTeX is the editor you use doesn't matter.

[–] downhomechunk@midwest.social 2 points 10 months ago

KDE comes with its own office suite. I've always preferred libre office so I don't have much experience with it, but it's there.

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What do you want from your writing software other than basic text editing?

Mouse or keyboard navigation preferred?

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago

Prose. Fiction. Not programming. I may learn to code in a near future but I want to start writing for leisure again.

[–] halm@leminal.space 1 points 10 months ago

I've found that for me markdown is the very simplest, yet versatile way of typing out stuff quickly and regularly. And it's not bound to any one software or platform, so I use Markor on my phone and Geany on my laptop.

[–] rstein@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

It depends on what you want to achieve.

Vi and it’s descendants are brilliant editors for a programmer but not for writing prose. So stay away from them. ;-)

Do you want just to write text without being distracted by an overwhelming gui or are you fine with the hint at options?

Do you want to write in a terminal?

How much do you want to format while typing? By typing the format commands into the text or by clicking on buttons or ctrl-key magic?

Do you need version control?

For each of your combination of answers there are different solutions.

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Vi and it’s descendants are brilliant editors for a programmer but not for writing prose.

They work just fine for writing prose too. Though you probably do not need to learn them if you only want to write prose.

[–] goosehorse@livesound.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I wrote almost all of my grad school work in Vim and Emacs/Evil, in a non-compsci field! It was fantastic for editing, and I used pandoc to automate proper formatting, citations, and bibliographies for my papers and thesis. 10/10 would recommend to someone who is tech savvy or has a tangential interest in programming.

[–] rstein@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 months ago

If you used pandoc hen you were programming your thesis. ;-)

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Version control is an interesting idea.

I used to write fiction as a hobbie and want to return to it again.

The blank sheet of a standard text editor messes with my nerves. I lose myself editing, formating, etc.

If I could find a prompt that I could pre set the font, layout of the final work, and then have the program leave me alone, it would be perfect.

Most writers solutions come with a lot of bells and whistles, like word counter, time elapsed, goals, etc. Unnecessary. Distracting.

[–] ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

If I could find a prompt that I could pre set the font, layout of the final work, and then have the program leave me alone, it would be perfect.

You're describing a workflow using TeX or LaTeX, like typesetters for publisher's use. I don't have a specific recommendation, but in your shoes, I'd look for a CLI text editor (to avoid distractions) that supports word wrapping and do your actual formatting and typesetting totally separately from your writing with LaTeX.

[–] rambos@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

If you are looking for microsoft compatibility check OnlyOffice, its amazing

[–] kzhe@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Norka looks interesting. Also, Apostrophe, Obsidian

[–] Vipzy@reddthat.com 1 points 10 months ago

Kile( by KDE ) if you know latex.

[–] genie@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Others are recommending Obsidian (which I have no experience with, it may be the right way to go).

Myself, I chose Logseq on a whim a year or two ago and haven't looked back. In the backend you get a nicely composed set of plain-ol' markdown files that you can cp/edit/merge as needed.

I know you said don't suggest Vim, but I use Neovim for my writing and write in markdown. Any markdown editor will do. Marker is fine. It's really easy to convert to another format like HTML or EPUB with pandoc. Markdown has minimal formatting, too, so it shouldn't bug you so much.

FocusWriter is another good suggestion if that's more what you're interested in.