Apps for Dissertation Writing

iA Writer

Too Expensive

iA Writer (https://ia.net/) is a markdown writing app, making it perhaps the purest digital writing environment. If you want to bold a word, then you must type ** around the word (**bold**). The point of the app is to remove all distractions. Because you have to markdown all changes, you’re never digging through menus, and because everything is saved in the cloud (either through Dropbox or iCloud), you don’t even have to save anything. It’s all about writing, and it’s very expensive. It’s $50 for macOS, $50 for the iPad and iPhone, and another $30 for Windows.

Dissertation writing is distracted writing. You’re reading articles, books, or manuscripts while writing and no app is going to change that. It is pretty, though.

Markdown Guide: https://www.markdownguide.org/.

Obsidian

Too Complicated

Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) is a freemium writing app. You can somewhat customize the writing and note-taking experience, including adding Zotero and long form integration, but it requires far too much for the average writer, especially if you're looking to add it to your dissertation writing arsenal.

Zotero

Necessity

Rather than tell you how Zotero works or how useful Zotero is, I will give you step-by-step instructions on how to get more space for free:

Download and install Zotero from here: https://www.zotero.org/
Make a free account at Koofr: https://koofr.eu/. By simply making an account, you'll receive 10 GB of free cloud storage, which is a lot of PDFs.
After creating your free Koofr account, create a folder in Koofr titled "zotero" without the quotation marks and all lowercase.
1. To create a folder, click the green button with the white plus sign in the upper-right hand corner of your screen, and then click "Create Folder."
After creating your Koofr account and "zotero" folder, open Zotero and click on "Zotero" at the top left and then "Settings..."
1. On Windows, click "Edit" and then "Preferences."
Under the "Sync" tab, you will see a section titled "File Syncing." Make sure the checkbox is checked for "Sync attachment files in My Library using [and then select WebDAV instead of Zotero] WebDAV."
Where it says URL, make sure that "https" is selected and type in "app.koofr.net/dav/Koofr" without the quotation marks.
Type in your Koofr username where is says "Username," which is the email address you just used to create your Koofr account.
Do not put in your Koofr password where it says password. Instead, go back to Koofr and click on the letter in the top right corner (it should be the first letter of your first name).
Click on your full name, which should be the first option. This will take you to the settings menu.
On the left side of your screen, click on "Password."
At the bottom of the page, you will see a text box that says "Generate New Password." Type in a name like "Zotero Computer" and then click "Generate."
This will generate a unique password that you will use with Zotero! Copy the unique password and then go back to Zotero. Paste your Password to where it says "Password" below where we typed in our username/email address.
Finally, click "Verify Server."

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