[MlMt] External Editor To Compose Messages?

[TJ Luoma]

On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 2:36 PM, Harvey Leff <hsleff at csupomona.edu> wrote:
>
> From a non-programmer. Can someone explain just what using an external
> editor accomplishes with MailMate, and why it is preferable for some of you?

I’m not a programmer either.

Using an external editor lets you benefit from all of the features
that an app designed for _writing_ has, which aren’t likely to be
present in a mail client (or a web browser, or any other app, really).
The advantage of something like QuickCursor (or its replacements) is
that whenever you are writing, you can be writing in the app that you
prefer to use for writing, and then easily copy that into whatever app
you need to send the text _to_.

> I myself would like to have a simple way to enter Markdown commands for
> boldface & italics. I now use Typinator as a partial solution, but can a
> text editor do this for me? Thanks.

A text editor which has Markdown support can do some things that
keyboard shortcuts cannot do on their own.

For example, it is easy enough for me to create a Keyboard Maestro
shortcut which will insert four asterisks and leave my cursor in the
middle of the four so that I can type a word in **bold** but a good
text editor with Markdown support would let me “type over” the
asterisks at the end without actually inserting more asterisks.

A text editor with Markdown support knows when I am making a list, and
when I press enter it will add another “* “ to the next line or
increment the number “2. “ if it is an ordered list.

And so on.

Those are not features that are likely to be found in a mail client,
and certainly not in a web browser. So for people who want those
“little conveniences” of a text editor with Markdown, it is worth it
to have the ability to easily write in your text editor of choice and
then simply copy/paste back to whatever app the text needs to go into.

TjL