I got in touch with a tech journalist from New Zealand a couple of days ago.
Initially, he said Document Node seems to be for developers not for him, which confirmed again I did wrong market positioning on the KickStarter page.
After I explained how it can help writers, he seemed interested, asked some questions, and shared with me which tools he is currently using for writing.
Usually, writers use a toolchain for their work - A separate application for writing, and WordPress for publishing, or something similar. But, WordPress is unnecessarily complicated if you manage it yourself, such as searching, installing, upgrading plugins, and confused admin user interface, etc.
Document Node is for anyone who writes a lot. Technical writers, blog writers, book writers and journalists all can benefit from Document Node.
So, how Document Node can make it easier?
Document Node is a fast, native, all-in-one writing tool. From writing to publishing, writers can use a single lightweight application instead of a complex toolchain.
Does ‘refactoring’ just mean ‘editing’?
No.
Refactoring is more potent than just editing.
For blog websites or books, they have a structure or skeleton. That is, a blog website (or any content-based website) contains categories which then includes blog posts, and a book includes chapters. Similarly, an excellent article has a good skeleton as well, which are usually arranged as sections with headings.
With this in mind, we can see how ‘refactoring’ is helpful for writers.
While editing usually means modifying text etc. within one article, refactoring means you can:
- change the structure of your blog website categories or your book chapters any time, via simple drag-and-drop.
- reorder your blog posts or book chapters via drag-and-drop.
- change the structure of sections with headings and reorder them within one article, via drag-and-drop.
With the ability of refactoring, writers can control the big picture of their writings easily.
By clicking the “Run” button writers can preview their real websites on a local machine, and by clicking the “Publish” button, all refactoring or editing changes will be published to the public.
The ultimate goal is to help writers focus on their creative writing and control the big picture, not to worry about formatting and publishing.
Does Document Node work as a back-end to WordPress?
“At the moment I use iA Writer as a Markdown editor, post to WordPress, add a little polish and hit post. How close can I get to that model? “
Document Node is more than that, and easier than that.
Using Document Node means you can have functions of both a Markdown editor and WordPress and more within one lightweight application, without any other complicated settings.
When writing, you can preview your website in real-time locally. When publishing, the same beautiful site will be synced to Document Node hosting in seconds. It’s fast because only changes will be compressed and uploaded.
With Document Node, the workflow of writers would look like this:
- You edit, refactor, and polish your articles in the Document Node app, with real-time preview and a real website.
- Then, you hit “Publish” button. All your changes will go live, as precisely the same to your local site.
- If you want to change anything (text, image, structure and so on), go back to step 1.
That’s it all.
No need to polish your article in a different place, as all polishing can be done in one place.
No need to deal with two or more separate tools.
No need to worry about backup anymore. Using Document Node, your writings are always sitting on your disk, and you have a fully functional website locally because only a mirror will be synced to cloud.
Document Node will provide high-quality website themes by default, so most writers can just pick one and use it directly. Sometimes, writers may want an entirely new site appearance. In that case, they will have 100% control, and we are happy to help too.