Zettlr for Mac
One-stop publication workbench — from idea to publication in one app.
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Zettlr overview
Zettlr is a reliable companion for writing scientific texts and taking notes. It is made for academics in the humanities and arts and is intended to keep your content apart from your design, but close to the notes you take. To reach this goal, Zettlr incorporates several important features:
- File-agnostic editing. Zettlr does not store any information about your files, except in your files. This way you can always switch to and from Zettlr. Every file you see inside the preview pane corresponds to a file on your disk. With no special additions that might render the use of your files difficult for other editors.
- Zettelkasten-Methods implemented directly into the app. With Zettlr, you can link files and searches using "Wiki-Links" in the format
[[your search text|@ID:ID]], give IDs by typing@ID:Your-ID-Hereand tag your files using Twitter-like hashtags:#hashtag. Holding down theAlt-key and clicking on links will try to open exact-match files and also initiate searches, while Alt-clicks on tags will simply initiate searches. More features are likely to come. - A directory list. This list contains all open directories and files. You can open new directories by pressing
Cmd/Ctrl+O. New files can be opened simply by double clicking them in your file browser or by dragging them onto the app. Every time you start the app, all previously opened paths will be re-loaded. - A preview pane that lists all the files that are inside the currently selected directory and separates them by their subdirectory. Just click on a file to open it in …
- … the editor, which takes the most space and is the crucial component that actually makes Zettlr an editor. You are able to write
Markdown-files in the area, a slim text format that keeps formatting to a bare minimum. - Exporting options. Using the open source software
pandocandLaTeX, Zettlr enables you to export all files on the fly in a variety of formats; currently HTML, DOCX, ODT and PDF. Just open a file and pressCmd/Ctrl+E. - Searching. Zettlr enables you to quickly search through your files to find what you are looking for in a fraction of the time you'd need if you store all your information in several word documents that you'd have to open and search.
- A toolbar containing all functions in handy button-form.
Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.
What’s new in version 3.2.3
GUI and Functionality
- Fix highlight markers not appearing while the emphasis renderer is on when the user edits a highlighted span
- Add pascal syntax highlighting to the code block autocomplete
- Improved highlight detection around punctuation marks and other non-word characters
- Image previews now treat escaped quotes in image titles properly ()
- Fix an issue with image caption updating that may replace text surrounding the image (#5021)
- Too small images won't display the informational layers anymore (#3953)
- Improve image copy and paste operations (#5408)
- Improve dropping operations onto the main editor
- Blockquote markers are now properly hidden with the emphasis renderer on and the cursor not within the blockquote (#4667)
- Fix ambiguous German unsaved-changes dialog (#5072)
- Fixed an issue where some websites could make Zettlr freeze on loading a link preview via catastrophic backtracking in a regular expression (#4883)
- Make link preview generator more resilient
- Updated German (de-DE) translation (#5399)
- Fixed an issue where indented LaTeX math equations could crash the editor instance due to the code marks including superfluous newlines (#4726)
- Fixed missing code block background on YAML Frontmatters
- Improved visual feedback during the update process
- Zettlr now checks for new updates once an hour instead only during startup
- New tags are now picked up by the app immediately (#5140)
- Fixed a UI regression where clicking on the tag filter didn't focus the text box (#5444)
- Nightly releases are no longer considered older than the current stable version (#5429)
- Fixed file duplication (#5360)
- Fixed a bug that would cause a saved window state to be lost due to an issue with the active file not existing anymore
- Zettlr now respects your chosen symbols for bold and italic formatting upon converting HTML to Markdown (e.g., during paste; #5396)
Under the Hood
- Moved image preview styles into Codemirror plugin; simplified container
- Bump Pandoc to version 3.5
- Properly type document tree JSONs and make the logic more resilient to a lack of an active file upon hydration
- Properly type props for MainEditor Vue component
Zettlr for Mac
Free
In English
Version 3.2.3
Write a detailed review about Zettlr
(4 Reviews of Zettlr)
Comments
User Ratings
Dec 27 2021
Version: 2.0.3
V 2.1 still crashes on 10.13. They've isolated the problem with the Electron framework. Sadly, I've supported other electron-based projects that were orphaned by them. So this is a hard-pass for me. Luckily FSNotes works great on MacOS. Don't need android, Linux, or Windows for now.
Jul 26 2019
Version: 1.3.0
Zettlr is incredibly powerful : you can create files and write them in GFM markdown (that means table of content and footnote, tables), plus extras, like folding text (really useful when you write long papers).
It uses Latex and Pandoc parser to export in a huge range of format (including .docx or .odt, of course PDF, ePub and other text format), and academics can use Zotero to manage bibliography.
You can manage extra folders without moving them (excellent: you store your files and folders wherever you want, just drag and drop them to Zettlr), and transform folder to project, meaning you can export a project as an only one merged file).
I just miss the preview feature, which is not fully implemented, but I asked the dev and I'm sure it will come soon.
This app is a gem, the dev is open and responsive, it's just an incredible free and open source app, as powetful as Ulysses, but you're not trapped in a subscription model, and the arrogance of the devs.
I recommand it to any one who want to manage a big writing project, like a paper, a novel, a bunch of short stories, a book (scientific books are welcome, as it can deal with latex and mathjax syntax).
It uses Latex and Pandoc parser to export in a huge range of format (including .docx or .odt, of course PDF, ePub and other text format), and academics can use Zotero to manage bibliography.
You can manage extra folders without moving them (excellent: you store your files and folders wherever you want, just drag and drop them to Zettlr), and transform folder to project, meaning you can export a project as an only one merged file).
I just miss the preview feature, which is not fully implemented, but I asked the dev and I'm sure it will come soon.
This app is a gem, the dev is open and responsive, it's just an incredible free and open source app, as powetful as Ulysses, but you're not trapped in a subscription model, and the arrogance of the devs.
I recommand it to any one who want to manage a big writing project, like a paper, a novel, a bunch of short stories, a book (scientific books are welcome, as it can deal with latex and mathjax syntax).
