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App idea: a word processor that doesn’t expose every single possible possible formatting option permanently in a huge top bar. Create headings, write text, mark important sections, insert images, and that’s it. Export as a PDF and move on. In contrast to a note taking app / markdown editor, this would actually be intended as a simpler and more focused alternative to #Word, #LibreOffice and such.
I personally think the current word processor paradigm, and the resulting underlying technology, performs badly UX-wise: many of the formatting options don’t have any semantics at all, and have to be applied manually. What’s the semantic difference between bold and italic text? Why are both options exposed at all? The current state-of-the-art apps are full of quirks like this, and I think it’s time to challenge the decades-old workflow that has lead us to this.
#LaTeX has already addressed a lot of this, so I guess what I would really like to see is a modern, general-purpose app incorporating the same ideas.
Introducing Sentence: an adaptive word processor for the 21st century. The intention of this is not to fully replace every single thing you can do with a traditional word processor, but I'm confident that the vast majority of things you've used them for can be done way quicker and more conveniently with this.
@bragefuglseth uhm what exactly do you mean with "the vast majority of things people do with word processors"? People use them for letters (biggest use), forms and contracts (often strict formatting requirements), invoices (complex content, letterhead), academic papers and theses (very precise formatting requirements)... Markdown doesn't cut it for any of these. Google docs comes close but in reality people want Word because they need Word.
(Also file format compatibility)
@gcampax Sentence will have the capability of exporting documents to a selection of file types (PDF, HTML, and so on), so we’re not expecting everybody and their dog to handle markdown. For things with specific formatting requirements, we could e.g. have a way to change the global styling of the document. Invoices, contracts and similar corporate stuff is probably best suited for specialized software anyways (maybe word processors *is* that specialized software?)
@bragefuglseth well, part of the popularity of word processing is that to some extent everyone has to deal with that stuff... eg. small businesses, freelancers, landlords need to make contracts and can't afford specialized software.
Ultimately, who would be the target user of such app?
And it's not about the export format, it's about the complexity of formatting and the internal representation. Markdown doesn't have alignment or margins, so even a letter can't be formatted correctly...
@gcampax The need for specific layouts is a great point, and traditional word processors may be better suited for those cases. Sentence is more focused on producing textual content than the layout and looks of it. Some example use cases are creative writing, school assignments (without layout requirements), informal letters, and simply just getting something written down and stored. This is *possible* with today’s tools, but it would be great to have some more focused options :)
@bragefuglseth @gcampax frankly, i've seen people struggle with properly using docx/gdoc files a fair bit at my last workplace. they used to make an absolute mess out of it, and despite the fact that i haven't used them myself for years, i would be the one formatting them correctly (both visually and semantically). and as a designer and web enthusiast, i know that they're a pain for typesetting and layout.
@bragefuglseth @gcampax with this app, requirements for a specific layout would include a layout/theme file shared by the institution or such, similar to how certain tech institutions share latex themes.
edit: this could be achieved by creating a layout/theme editor to be shipped separately or together.
@gcampax @bragefuglseth Maybe frontmatter header could fill the base formatting needs as the metadata of the underlying markdown format? Not to go wild with customization, but for basic formatting needs like, document type and margin.