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82 points WolfOliver | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | source

Hi HN,

Since 2019, I’ve been working on a writing platform designed for creating complex documents (e.g., theses). I personally use it for everything as it also allows to classify documents in categories so you can organize them efficiently. As of a few months ago, the app is also available in the browser, and you can now invite coworkers to collaborate on a document in real time.

The app is somewhat inspired by LyX. It offers an intuitive, modern editor, but users don’t need to know any LaTeX. When it’s time to export, they can choose from a range of templates (IEEE paper, thesis, etc.).

A few highlights:

- It uses a custom-built block editor that performs well with large documents. Each block is its own contenteditable element (instead of having one massive contenteditable for the whole document)

- If you prefer plain text - you can insert a Markdown block and write using Markdown instead

- Built-in citation management

- Support for cross-references and footnotes

- Mermaid diagrams, inline LaTeX equations, and display math are all supported

- "To-do" sections help you stay organized while writing

You can try it out here: https://www.monsterwriter.com/

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jkhdigital ◴[] No.44346012[source]
I started a PhD in 2020 and I know exactly why you created this app because I tried like half a dozen different tools that didn’t fit. I needed a workflow to

1. collect and prioritize relevant research papers

2. make notes and synthesize ideas across my reading

3. use the notes to assemble draft of original writing

4. seamlessly move my own writings into LaTeX documents along with citation details

and ended up in Obsidian where I basically had to build my own tool anyway. Which I never did, because I just wanted to focus on research without fooling around with tools.

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1. kriro ◴[] No.44348247[source]
My/our setup for papers is: Latex installation on laptop, (home, work, conferences) + private Github repo + Zotero (with notes and highlighting directly in the PDFs) + notes.md for thoughts/ideas etc.

Team members all have local Latex installs as they have CS/math backgrounds.

Works well, easy to onboard new colleagues. Probably harder if there were people with other backgrounds (MBA), however an industrial designer on the team also uses GitHub for basic pull/commit.

For my fiction writing, I also use local Latex install+GitHub.