Writer’s Mode

Elements
1

I was thinking about what would best serve me as a writer. Rather than fully functional WYSIWYG writing environment a Writer’s mode would be better. I’m not looking to override the theme. It would all be theme aware. This is not a design environment, just a clutter free editing and formatting environment.

Writer’s Mode – Feature Set

Core Text Editing

  • Plain text input with clean, distraction-free interface

  • Text formatting: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough

  • Paragraph styles:

    • Normal text

    • Block quote

    • Heading levels (H1–H3 for light structure)

    • Ordered list

    • Unordered list

    • Pre

    • Mono

  • Text alignment: left, center, right, justify

Links & References

  • Insert and edit hyperlinks (with optional title attribute)

  • Inline link preview (hover to show URL)

Writing Experience

  • Word and character count

  • Autosave and version history

  • Minimal toolbar that appears only on text selection or when hovering near the top

Layout & Appearance

  • Adjustable font size and line spacing

  • Choice of fonts (serif, sans-serif, monospace)

  • Ctrl+B for bold, Ctrl+K for link, etc.)

Images

  • Insert image

  • Inline or block display (choose whether it sits within text or on its own line)

  • Basic alignment: left, center, right

  • Adjustable width (percentage or preset sizes: small / medium / full width)

  • Add optional caption or alt text

  • Replace or remove image easily

  • Maintain aspect ratio automatically

1 Like
2

A little more thinking. The way I see it activated is simply by gabbing everything inside an element; article, aside, etc.

3

What you’re describing is another entire app… have you looked at using a dedicated markdown app for this?

Here’s how I would see this working:

Build your site in Elements, then use a dedicated markdown editor (with all the features you need) to edit and upload the .md file to the server. The Elements CMS would pick-up this file and render it in on your site.

4

Not looking at the CMS. I like the feature but want a flat file system, less to go wrong. Instead why not make a .md option inside Elements?

Edit: it would need to honor the theme. Can you suggest one that does that? I know the CMS supports markdown already, I get it. But until it has a UI built into the app, not offline, it doesn’t matter to me regardless. 2¢

5

Just saw this thread. I guess that ain’t happening. :wink: I’m not doubting Elements is a designer’s app. However it leaves me behind. I design a site once and forget it. The real everyday use will be adding content. Elements has no good way for a webmaster, writer, or content creator to use it without a lot of “noise” getting in the way. As a result everything takes way longer and a lot more fidgeting to get work done and published.

https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/markdown-formatting/50523

2 Likes