User Experience
# User Experience
As academic writer I am using Markdown editors since nearly 10 years. In 2020/21 I wrote a book with Ulysses, 2021/22 another one with Typora. For my ongoing work am maintaining a sort of a free-format database with bibliography entries and excerpts in more than 2000 md files.
I am always looking for an alternative writing environment which is maximal adaptable to my needs. From my special perspective I found three issues with the present state of nvUltra.
1. The flat folder/files system makes browsing in all my assets nearly impossible. I have sorted my files into 5 groups (folders) and 30 subfolders. I know the order of these folders but the flat display impedes the overview. It takes much longer than usual (e. g. browsing the file list in the Finder) to find a specific file. OK, I can help myself by refining my tag system and make it more reliable than now. That would cost me days if not weeks of labour. Since my file names have strictly the structure {surname date short_title.md} browsing is often much more helpful than searching by tags.
Furthermore: I do not like the column width which is necessary to display file names like {BibEx/ReadWrite/Narration/Baldwin 2013 The Idiocy of the Digital Literary} – even if I curtail the file name to »Digital Literacy«.
2. I am missing a Highlight function which is independant from Critic Markup (or a possibility to edit the CSS and add such an emphasis). In my test I am misusing the `code` function as highlight.
3. I agree with other beta testers who advocate an option to hide the Markdown markup. That would make the creation and editing of text more readable.
Since the overview is a big issue for me I would not use nvUltra for a larger work.
On the other hand I like the diligence that is used to refine »normal« editing functions like search, spell checking and others.
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Thanks for your comments. Obviously everyone has their own desires and experience, so none of this is to say that you are "right" or "wrong", but just to comment about things that do or do not fit with the design philosophy of nvUltra.
1. nvUltra is a spiritual successor of sorts to Notational Velocity and nvAlt, where a focus is on quickly searching a long list of files for specific text. Both of those two applications used a single folder, nvUltra adds the ability to include files from subfolders, but sticks with search as the intended way of navigating files, not navigating a hierarchy directly. That said, nvUltra also adds the ability to use multiple folders at the same time (NV was designed to use a single dedicated "shoebox" repository for all of your notes -- nvUltra allows you to have as many repositories/folders as you like.) I find that I will often open subfolders of a main project as separate windows when appropriate. At this time, we have no plans to change the way that nvUltra handles subfolders.
2. Plain text doesn't allow highlighting, so you have to have some sort of syntax to indicate highlighting.
3. At this time we have no plans to "hide" Markdown markup.
nvUltra is not designed for everyone. It is specifically focused on plain text (not rich text). And while Markdown/MultiMarkdown is not required, the app itself is obviously designed to tightly integrate with Markdown use. Brett and I both strongly believe in the power of plain text and Markdown, and want an app that leverages that power and flexibility. As you mention, there are alternatives for those who desire different workflows.
Thank you for your comments, and we will continue to think about ways to improve nvUltra and make it more flexible, but within certain philosophical considerations.
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Fletcher,
thank you for the explanation of your development philosophy. NvUltra (in the present and an even more refined stage) may totally fulfil the needs of people who are used to code and also write. A pure writer like me does not like to see the code –`code`, {==highlight==},  and so on but only the resulting formatting. But – many people like me enjoy the plain text based functionality and the seemingly reduced command set of Markdown. For a while I used BBEdit and Marked2 for text creation with Markdown, but felt relieved when I moved to Ulysses or Typora because I could concentrate more on the text itself.
I like to observe the development process a bit further. Perhaps I can publish a review when there is an official release.
-Hermann
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Fletcher Penney An (older?) version of Folding Text had a really cool feature that hid the Markdown syntax of a line/paragraph unless your cursor was in the line/paragraph. I always thought this was an elegant solution that offered the best of both worlds. Just my 2¢.
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Jack Brannen -- yes, I've seen that. Thanks.
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