This is a short description of how I approached this project, how I’m going to go about it in the future, which tools and software I’m using and what kind of knowledge I needed.

In general, I either write in German or English and then translate the text into the respective other language. I have neither an editor nor a competent translator. Therefore, I’m very grateful for any feedback.

How do I develop the Texts?

I’m using Writer Pro by Information Architects on Mac (Writer Pro in the US Mac App Store) and iOS-Devices Writer Pro for iPhone and iPad an the US App Store.

iA Writer had already convinced me and with Writer Pro – in addition to the minimalistic approach and the perfect typography – they added a writing process. It sounds pretty simple, but that helped me a lot – like: really a lot. You can briefly describe the steps of the process as:

• take notes
• write
• edit
• read

Especially the distinction between writing and editing is very important to me. A lot of the times, I tried to write down my thoughts and got sidetracked: While editing the first section, I completely forgot the rest.

Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects describes the process and Writer Pro a little (way) more extensive in his article on Writer Pro.

Synchronizing data via iCloud makes it easy for me, to take notes on the iPhone, then go on writing on my iPad or Mac. I do all the editing on the Mac (more screen real estate). And the results can be read here on my website.

Writer Pro supports Markdown formatting. Thanks to a plugin, I can use this format without any manual editing. It just works like a charm.

How does the website work?

For the website, I’m using the blogging software WordPress (on my own server). To make the technical part of the multilingual thingy easier, I’m using WPML for WordPress.

The design is my own, self-made. Based on the framework Bootstrap, it took me about 20 hours (and counting) to develop a “responsive design” (it’s not really my core competence). Responsive means basically that the site looks different and hopefully good on devices with different screen sizes.

The fonts, I’m using here are Museo for headlines, menus and quotes and Museo Slab for the text. Both fonts were designed by Jos Buivenga of exljrbis and are provided as web fonts via Adobes Typekit.

I selected these fonts, because on one hand, I really love the history of Museo and Jos, and on the other hand, I like the fonts – they are different but legible.

To be able to use the Markdown formatted texts from Writer Pro without any hustle, I installed the Markdown plugin as part of the Jetpack (developed by the WordPress developers).

In retrospect, I might have been better off using a configurable standard theme instead of doing my own thing. It might have saved me a few hours of php, css, JavaScript and banging my head on hard surfaces. And all that with an investment of only $55.00 into something like the great Avada Theme for WordPress.