In the next article we are going to take a look at Ghostwriter. This is an editor for Markdown that we can use in both Gnu / Linux and Windows. This application will offer the user a relaxed writing environment without distractions.
Ghostwriter, is a Qt5 editor for Markdown that has been updated to version 2.0.0. The new version comes with a revamped theme and a new default Markdown renderer. The application offers a clean interface for a distraction-free typing experience. It will also allow us to easily disable the sidebar, go full screen and show a live HTML preview.
Ghostwriter has built-in support for cmark-gfm processor. However, it can also automatically detect Pandoc, MultiMarkdown or cmark processors. It will only be necessary to install any of these processors and ensure that their installation locations are added to the system PATH environment variable.
This program will automatically detect its installation at startup, offering the user a live HTML preview and export options accordingly.
General features of GhostWriter
- It’s a free and open source program. This software is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
- We can enjoy an experience of writing without distractions.
- We will have a focus mode. By clicking the ‘Focus‘in the lower right corner of the editor, this mode will be enabled and it will highlight only the current text around the cursor, while fade out the rest.
- If you have forgotten any Markdown syntax, you only need to press the key F1 to bring up the cheat sheet in the sidebar.
- You can get a Markdown document preview in HTML. With the live preview, you can copy the HTML to paste it in our blog or export it to another format.
- The ghostwriter sidebar provides a document outline that will allow us to navigate to any section of this, with a single mouse click.
- In addition to displaying a live word count at the bottom of the window, ghostwriter shows even more live stats in the sidebar.
- The program will give us the possibility of export to multiple formats.
- Hemingway mode. This option will allow us to avoid editing while we write, since it disables the backspace and the delete option, creating an experience similar to that of the typewriter.
- The built-in light and dark themes provide an aesthetic out-of-the-box writing experience. To accompany this change, a new button has been added to the status bar, allowing users to switch to light or dark mode. If these are not enough, you can create your own theme.
- We will be able easily create image urls within our markdown document, by dragging and dropping an image to the project.
- Using Ghostwriter, users will also find support for MathJax , which will allow whoever needs to write equations, and export to HTML.
- It has autosave option.
These are just some of the features. They can consult all of them in detail from the project website.
Ghostwriter installation on Ubuntu
In the Downloads page of the project indicate that for Ubuntu, we can use your PPA to install the stable version of the program. To add the repository, in a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) we just need to write the command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wereturtle/ppa
After the software update available, you can install the program with this other command:
sudo apt install ghostwriter
Once the installation is finished, we only have find the program launcher in our team.
Uninstall
To remove this program from our system, we can start by getting rid of PPA. We will achieve this by opening a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and typing the command:
sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:wereturtle/ppa
After the previous command, it only remains delete the program of our system. In the same terminal, the commands to use will be:
sudo apt remove ghostwriter; sudo apt autoremove
For more information about this program, users can go to the project website, to its repository on GitHub or his wiki community.
