Byword2
Latest
Byword 2.0 for Mac adds publishing, more
Byword (US$9.99 Mac, $2.99 iOS) is a simple text editor of the full-screen, "distraction-free" ilk from Metaclassy. Version 2.0 is now available, with some very nice changes, including one-click blog publishing. Byword 2.0 for Mac introduces publishing. This is a "premium feature" that requires a one-time purchase. The app is a free update, while publishing services are available as a separate in-app purchase of US$4.99. With Byword 2 for Mac, you can publish your writing directly to WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Evernote or Scriptogram. This is such a great feature that's saved me a lot of time. I like to write long posts in Byword using Markdown. Byword has been friendly with Markdown since version 1.2, so no problem there. Until now, I'd write a post and then select Copy HTML from the Edit menu. The next step was to open a web browser and then navigate to my WordPress installation and paste the HTML that Byword had placed on my clipboard. No more. %Gallery-189592% Now that I've set up publishing, I can simply select publish and off it goes. Here's how publishing works in Byword 2.0. First, select Publishing from the Byword menu to access the publishing preferences. Click the service you'd like to use and enter the required information, typically a password and user ID (Scriptogram wants your Scriptogram ID). Individual services might have their own settings to look at, like your preferred Evernote notebook for example. But really, that's it. Once you've written something you'd like to publish, select Publish from the File menu. A new sheet will appear with service-specific options. For example, when publishing to a WordPress blog, you can opt to have your post go live right away or be added to your queue as a draft, pending or private. You can also add a title and tags right then and there, as well as create a custom URL, add categories or use a custom field. Byword has become my go-to blog publisher. There are more goodies, of course. Non-premium features let you copy rich text to the clipboard. That lets you write in Markdown and copy it as rich text to the clipboard for sharing via email, for example. Smaller fixes are in place too, like a smoother animation in and out of Markdown preview. Plus, this version will maintain your scroll position while previewing a Markdown document (yay!). Byword has been a preferred text editor and the publishing feature makes me even happier to use it. Well worth the price.
