Web-based Editors Matter to Me

I love to read about people's writing workflows and get inspired by their choice of tools to capture thoughts. At the same time, I have a very simple workflow for publishing my posts. I write the thoughts quickly and save them as a draft. I then come back to the saved draft, review it, and publish it.

I generally like to do all this from a single interface but multiple machines. Hence, web-based editors are my preferred interfaces for writing my posts. This has been the case since the early days of my blogging. I open the dashboard and start writing a post. Sometimes, it is ready in a single sitting. When I feel it isn't, I save it as a draft to pick up later.

I have experimented with blogging platforms that don't have a good interface on the web, but I generally gravitate back towards ones that do. Micro.blog has been the platform I have used the longest, even though it had an interface I disliked. I wrote about my struggles with its writing interface a couple of years ago.

I wonder if no one on Micro.blog creates any type of long-form posts using the web editor. I can’t be the only one who finds this interface too limiting. It is suitable only for short updates. The goal of keeping things simple shouldn’t hamper the experience of writing posts. Whenever I attempt to write a long post with this interface, I instantly look for other options. Sure, I don’t switch. But I would love to avoid having this feeling.

This wasn't the first time I had complained about the editor. Although I had a few gripes about it, I was generally able to convince myself not to worry about the web editor.

Saving and building on a draft is unnecessarily complicated. Keyboard shortcuts do not work consistently – undo/redo often messes up the post. This is exasperated by the already small editor window. In addition, the experience is not consistent between writing a new post and editing a draft.

Unfortunately, a lot hasn't changed since then. These continue to be the issues with the platform, and I didn't want to keep running other setups on the side just to access a usable interface to write posts. My aversion to its web editor was one big reason for my recent switch away from Micro.blog as my blogging platform of choice.

I have a soft spot for this platform and respect how Manton runs the business. However, I cannot continue to use it when it does not suit my simple writing workflow. I love writing long-form posts and want to write them on a web-based editor. Unfortunately, the platform does not prioritize this need, as is evident with the recent upgrade to the editor. For now, I am glad I am done compromising.