1Writer: The app that answers all your text editing needs

Markdown text editors are scattered across the App Store, but editors that work well with iOS 9, iPad, iPhone and iPad Pro are much rarer beasts. 1Writer is currently probably the only one – and, thankfully, it’s also exceedingly good.

1Writer has many similar features to competitors such as Byword and Ulysses. There’s a keyboard with an additional layer of buttons that let you drop in links, bullet points and images. Images are automatically uploaded to Dropbox, CloudApp
or Droplr, and files are synced to Dropbox or iCloud. You can even choose to have different folders of documents on different services, if you prefer.

There’s a one-tap preview mode, which displays your fully formatted document, while a swipe to the left brings up a built-in web browser, so you don’t have to use iOS 9’s split-screen view.

Twitter addicts will appreciate the option to include hashtags in docs. The file browser will list all the hashtags used across your documents, letting you jump to any document including that term. You can create to-dos within a document and export all of them to Reminders, which is incredibly useful for anyone taking notes in a meeting.

The killer feature for 1Writer is its automation capabilities. Unlike competitors such as Editorial, which uses Python as a way of building extensions, 1Writer uses JavaScript. This has pros and cons. Obviously, JavaScript is extremely well known, with a broad developer base. On the other hand, it’s not as powerful as Python. For example, it can’t access the native Twitter features in iOS, which is possible with Python.

That said, it’s still capable of doing amazing things. Check out the 1Writer Actions directory and you’ll find Actions that automate complex tasks such as posting to Medium, sending to Pastebin, as well as simpler stuff such as finding and replacing text. The drawback of Actions is there’s no easy way to access them.

All Actions live under a single modal pop-up, and you can’t add them to a quick-access option on the keyboard. This means they’re less useful for jobs you’re likely to perform frequently.

1Writer is a well-thought-out and powerful text editor, which will only get more powerful as users expand its capabilities with Actions. It’s not perfect, but if you want a text editor that makes the most of iOS 9, it’s your best choice.

See also: The 58 best iPhone and iPad apps of 2015 – games, photography, work and more