So if Lettera’s mission statement is to be a standalone Markdown file editor, its New File behaviour should be considered very broken.
In the macOS document model (whether you use autosave or manual save), New File should always create a new Untitled file with an undetermined location until that file is closed / saved. Every well behaved Mac app that considers itself a document editor uses this model: TextEdit, Pixelmator, Pages, even Panda.
But Lettera does NOT do this. It instead creates a new document with the explicit title Untitled and saves it in the explicit location of its iCloud storage. This also assumes that every new file should belong to some kind of default project, which is NOT what a document editor in macOS is supposed to do.
Hitting Cmd+N a bunch of times results in this:
This is understandable if Lettera is an app like Bear, where everything is not a document, but rather items in an internally managed project. But Lettera’s purpose is to be a standalone Markdown editor, and thus this kind of behaviour should be considered both incorrect and broken.
Most people like and expect that behavior. Let’s assume, in the sense of a definition, that you are right. But then the question arises: Why shouldn’t it be incorrect and broken? As it is, it is just useful.
What exactly is the point of your criticism? Does this behavior disrupt your workflow or are you trying to determine, based on your very own definition of what an editor is, whether Lettera fulfills that definition?
For me Bear is a document or text editor like Lettera. I have many documents saved in Bear
Not at all. This is about the app behaving like a good macOS citizen. Anything that uses the document model on macOS has standardised behaviour. Users expect this standardised behaviour for myriad reasons, each with their own valid use cases.
I agree with Somnesis. I find it especially jarring that Lettera is creating a new file in my iCloud. I don’t want anything going to iCloud without me explicitly asking.
I think Panda does it correctly. I’m not sure why the developers changed it!
You’re right that plain ⌘N departs from the standard document model, and that’s a deliberate choice. Let me explain the thinking, because I think there’s a misunderstanding about what’s actually happening.
The ability to work inside folders changes things a little. ⌘N creates a new file in the currently selected folder (standard behaviour), OR (if no folder is open) it reopens the default iCloud folder and creates the file there. That second case is the non-standard one, I’ll own that. The reasoning is speed of capture: once we let you redefine the default folder, it lets you go from “new file” to “typing” without the “Save as…” → pick-a-location dance every time. It’s a trade-off, and I understand it won’t be everyone’s preference.
But the standard behaviour you’re describing absolutely exists too: it’s on ⌘⇧N, which creates a temporary untitled document with no fixed location you have to choose. And worth noting: this is closer to the system apps than it might seem. The moment you type into an untitled TextEdit document, autosave writes it to a real location rather than keeping it purely in memory, and with iCloud Desktop & Documents enabled, that location is inside iCloud. Lettera’s untitled documents work the same way. So the model you want isn’t missing; it’s on a different shortcut, and it behaves much like TextEdit does.
Given that, “broken” feels a bit strong, both behaviours are there, and it’s really a question of which one lives on ⌘N by default. That’s a fair thing to disagree on, and it’s almost certainly something we’ll make configurable, since you’re clearly not the only one who’d expect the standard mapping.
Thanks for the detailed write-up, this is exactly the kind of feedback that helps
The name of a new window considers the names of untitled files in the workspace
The name of a new window temporarily appears in the sidebar of the workspace
Edit: That behavior is always related to Lettere’s iCloud folder, no matter if it is open or not
Edit: Sorry folks! I’ve been using a MacBook Air since 2015, but I’ve never used iCloud. This behavior (at least point 1) seems to be normal, as a look at how Pages behaves has shown.
I’ve been using a MacBook Air since 2015, but I’ve never used iCloud. This behavior (at least point 1) seems to be normal, as a look at how Pages behaves has shown.