Notes format

Support
1

Operating system

macOS

Joplin version

3.2.11

Sync target

File system

Editor

Rich Text Editor

What issue do you have?

Hi,
I understand that MD format for notes is great but I am a simple person who wants to have the option
to have the notes in simple text format. In many cases I just create notes quickly and paste it directly in
Apple notes (have 2000 notes) , I really would like to get rid of apple notes and tried Joplin for example.
is there a way to use this software simple without pasting text which change into hieroglyphic ?
Thanks

2

Have you tried the rich text editor mode? Just be cautious that while this visually hides away a lot of the markdown, it's still technically markdown just presented more as you might expect.

Here's the general gotchya's but you might be fine with them

3

I did select the rich text editor , I am just trying to paste a bash script without having to do anything extra in Joplin, I am sure that Joplin can present this bash script pretty good if I spend additional time.
I need an option that will allow KEEP IT SIMPLE even if in 2025 this is not an option anymore, sophisticated is not always better.
Thanks for the help.

4

I'm unsure with the Rich Text Editor, but a bash script should work great with mark down

use three backticks between the code and optionally inform the parser of the language, e.g., ```bash

and then finish with 3 more backticks, you'd get this with syntax highlighting included.

whoami
echo $USER
if [[ 1 -eq 1 ]]; then; 
  echo "Yay";
fi

```bash
whoami
echo $USER
if [[ 1 -eq 1 ]]; then;
echo "Yay";
fi
```

Joplin itself should do something similar

5

Thanks , will do that.

6

I too only use Joplin for writing plain text and would have wanted this feature when I migrated to Joplin originally. On Joplin desktop if you don't use the rich text editor, you can toggle the side by side view to show the plain text editor only. On Joplin mobile though, there is no way to show notes in plain text unless you open the note in edit mode and even then, certain formatting is still visible.

So I resorted to replacing markdown special characters in my notes with other similar characters which don't have a special meaning in markdown. Most I did using bulk find and replacement, and any remaining I just change as I find them when I view old notes. For any new notes I write, I am conscious of avoiding using certain characters.

An example of this is that I like to make separators in my notes by using a - character on a new line with or without surrounding empty lines. Now I use ~ instead.

With code scripts though, yes using 3 back ticks helps, because you don't want to be replacing characters within code source.

7

I just add a ``` thingy at the top of a document if I want to force a "look" of the document. For example …

For CSS:

```css
/* My CSS for XXXX purposes …
 */
h1, h2, h3 {
    color: red;
}
p {
    font-size: 85%;
}

... etc ...

For plaintext:

```plaintext
Here is my plaintext document. Blah blah blah.
So and so forth.

... etc ...

You don't even need a trailing ``` at the end of the document. It gets terminated by Joplin for presentation.

Anyway. I do that if I am socking away some .txt document I want to present as a text document even if it is rendered. Or a python code snippet (use ```python) etc. etc.

Yes, I think having a switch in the UI to change the variety of note would be helpful. Maybe. But in the mean time, that is what I do for the rare case I feel I need it. Usually, I just slap something in Joplin and though it will look weird in the rendering, I don't care and move on. (Note that I use the raw editor and not the rich editor.)