Linux Apps for Writers

Open source productivity suite for managing documents, collaborative projects, and CRM.

novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavor of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text editor that allows for easy organization of text files and notes, built on plain text files for robustness.

The plain text storage is suitable for version control software, and also well suited for file synchronization tools. The core project structure is stored in a project XML file. Other meta data is primarily saved in JSON files.

novelWriter is not a full-feature Markdown editor. It allows for a minimal set of formatting needed for writing text documents for novels. These are currently limited to:

• Headings level 1 to 4 using the # syntax only.
• Emphasized and strong text. These are rendered as italicized and bold.
• Strikethrough text.
• Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.

Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.

The core export format of novelWriter is HTML5. You can also export the entire project as a single novelWriter Markdown-flavor document. In addition, other exports to Open Document, PDF, and plain text is offered through the Qt library, although with limitations to formatting.

Other features include:

• Syntax highlighting for the editor and syntax highlight themes
• User interface themes including dark theme
• Auto save documents and project files on a set timer
• Document stats including word count
• Easily organize files in root folders and sub folders
• Assign tags to notes

More information can be found on the Github page.

Doom is a configuration framework for GNU Emacs tailored for Emacs bankruptcy veterans who want less framework in their frameworks and the performance of a hand rolled config (or better). It can be a foundation for your own config or a resource for Emacs enthusiasts to learn more about our favorite OS.

Its design is guided by these mantras:

• Gotta go fast. Startup and run-time performance are priorities. Doom goes beyond by modifying packages to be snappier and load lazier.
• Close to metal. There's less between you and vanilla Emacs by design. That's less to grok and less to work around when you tinker. Internals ought to be written as if reading them were part of Doom's UX, and it is!
• Opinionated, but not stubborn. Doom is about reasonable defaults and curated opinions, but use as little or as much of it as you like.
• Your system, your rules. You know better. At least, Doom hopes so! It won't automatically install system dependencies (and will force plugins not to either). Rely on doom doctor to tell you what's missing.
• Nix/Guix is a great idea! The Emacs ecosystem is temperamental. Things break and they break often. Disaster recovery should be a priority! Doom's package management should be declarative and your private config reproducible, and comes with a means to roll back releases and updates (still a WIP).

Vim is great for writing. But it isn't optimized for note-taking, where you often create lots of little notes and frequently change larger notes in a separate directory from the one you're working in.

This plugin allows you to define a list of directories that you want to search. The first directory in the list is used as the main directory, unless you set g:nv_main_directory. If you press control-x after typing some words, it will use those words as the filename to create a file in the main directory. It will then open that file in a vertical split. If that file already exists, don't worry, it won't overwrite it. This plugin never modifies your files at any point. It can only read, open, and create them.

You can define relative links, so adding ./docs and ./notes will work. Keep in mind that it's relative to your current working directory (as Vim interprets it).

oStorybook is a free, open source novel-writing software for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing texts.

Typora will give you a seamless experience as both a reader and a writer. It removes the preview window, mode switcher, syntax symbols of markdown source code, and all other unnecessary distractions. Replace them with a real live preview feature to help you concentrate the content itself.

It has features of:

1. Markdown support including tables, code fences with syntax highlight, LaTeX, Table of Contents.
2. Cross-platform.
3. The real live preview and WYSIWYG features.
4. Beautiful interface and Custom CSS theme support.
5. Easy export

Typora will only be free during its Beta period. When it gets out of Beta, it will be a paid app.

Typewriter. Ring-binder. Scrapbook. Scrivener combines everything you need to craft your first draft, from nascent notion to final full stop.

Use it to sync your documents across devices via 2p2, without the need for cloud storage.

Elephant is a notetaker with a classic interface you already know.

Keep your notes to yourself. No accounts or clouds. For syncing use Dropbox, Github, rsync, ...

No feature bloat or redesigns, ever.

Elephant stores notes in plain files and folders. No databases and no migration.

Cross-platform for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Built for longevity with a classic interface. New versions will never offer weird functionality. There will never be a chat feature and it will never show stuff from Financial Times.

Premium is free, no ads. Open source.

A simple note taking application for your computer focused on privacy, using PGP keys to encrypt all your notes by default.

GNU Diffutils is a package of several programs related to finding differences between files.

Neovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to:

Simplify maintenance and encourage contributions.
Split the work between multiple developers.
Enable the implementation of new/modern user interfaces without any modifications to the core source.
Improve extensibility with a new plugin architecture.

bibisco is a novel writing software that helps you to write your story, in a simple way.

• bibisco is a desktop application available for Linux, MacOS and Windows in 13 languages: czech, dutch, french, german, english, italian, polish, portuguese (Brazil), portuguese (Portugal), russian, serbian, spanish, turkish.
• All that you need - with bibisco you can organize chapters and scenes, manage revisions, export novel in pdf, docx., txt, epub. And, of course, write with a fully featured text editor, also in DISTRACTION FREE mode.
• Organize your ideas - with bibisco you can create a novel structure, define premise, fabula, narrative strands and settings: geographic, temporal and social context.
• Focus on characters - your novel works if its characters are believable, that is when you understand human nature's complexity. With bibisco you can KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS, in an unusual and funny way: an INTERVIEW!
  *Going into the deep - with bibisco you can see how characters, locations and narrative strands are distributed chronologically and across chapters. You can keep track of the number of words and characters you've written and you can see your story represented on a TIMELINE. You can draw the relationships between characters, places and objects using the RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM.
• Set your writing goals - with bibisco you can set your writing goals: deadline, words total, words per day and monitor the status of their achievement over time.

Heimer is a desktop application for creating mind maps and other suitable diagrams. It's written in Qt and targeted for Linux and Windows.

Sigil is a multi-platform ebook editor. It is designed to edit books in ePub format.

Sigil is a multi-platform EPUB ebook editor with the following features

• Online Sigil User's Guide, and Wiki documentation
• Free and open source software under GPLv3
• Multi-platform: runs on Windows, Linux and Mac
• Full UTF-16 support
• Full EPUB 2 spec support
• Multiple Views: Book View, Code View and Preview View
• Complete control over directly editing EPUB syntax in Code View
• Table of Contents generator with multi-level heading support
• Metadata editor with full support for all possible metadata entries (more than 200) with full descriptions for each
• User interface translated into many languages
• Spell checking with default and user configurable dictionaries
• Full Regular Expression (PCRE) support for Find & Replace
• Supports import of EPUB and HTML files, images, and style sheets,
• Documents can be validated for EPUB compliance with the integrated FlightCrew EPUB validator
• Embedded HTML Tidy: all imported files have their formatting corrected, and your editing can be optionally cleaned

With Plume Creator, organize your writing projects ! Scenes, notes, characters,... Rich Text editing, full screen editing and multiple projects …

Plume Creator gives you an outliner, a distraction-free mode, a note manager and much more!
Windows version has not been updated since 2013

Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

Thus, “Markdown” is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML.

Taskwarrior is an ambitious project bringing sophisticated capabilities to a simple and elegant productivity tool. You'll find it has customizable reports, charts, GTD features, Lua extensions, device synching and more, all while our international team provides excellent support!

Track your tasks and projects in a plain text file, todo.txt. A todo.txt is software and operating system agnostic; it's searchable, portable, lightweight and easily manipulated.

diagrams.net (previously draw.io) is a free online diagram drawing application for workflow, BPM, org charts, UML, ER, network diagrams. No login or registration are required and features include the ability to save locally (including SVG), a range of stencils, .vsdx, Lucidchart and Gliffy import and real time diagram sharing.

Open-source tool for writers. With outliner, character management, plot development, distraction-free editor, etc.

Org mode is for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and authoring documents with a fast and effective plain-text system.

Sync makes it easy to store, share and access your files from everywhere - your privacy guaranteed. Get 5GB free or 500GB Pro account for $49/yr.

Made by the company behind WordPress, Simplenote enables users to take notes, lists, and ideas. These notes are stored on the cloud and are accessible across multiple devices.

Simplenote's both client and server components are free and open-source. However, the service component of Simplenote requires free registration and accepting the terms of service.

Tree editor for writers, makes outlining your stories and articles easy, fun, and convenient.