July 03, 2025
Untiled & Unfiltered: How I Build Websites My Way
Everyone has their own way of getting things done—but for me, it all starts with a blank text file. Over the years, I’ve built a workflow that’s more patchwork than platform: simple tools, carefully chosen, working together in a way that makes sense to me. It’s not streamlined, it’s not glossy—but it works. From quick scraps in TextEdit to full-blown websites powered by Jekyll, this is a hands-on, Mac-based approach to web development that values control, clarity, and the quiet power of plain text.
I’ve always liked working in plain text. For years, I used TextEdit, the built-in macOS editor, as a sort of long-term clipboard. I’d often have twenty or more untiled documents open—each holding scraps of ideas, notes, or bits of code. TextEdit is fast, flexible, and entirely local. It handles plain and rich text, supports basic HTML editing, and never gets in your way. It’s perfect for quick thinking and capturing ideas without friction. I tried Apple Notes for a while—it shares beautifully between devices—but I missed the impermanence of TextEdit. Notes felt too serious. With TextEdit, there’s freedom in knowing it doesn’t have to be permanent.
Working this way naturally led me to Markdown. As a long-time Mac user and follower of John Gruber, Markdown became second nature. It keeps the beauty of plain text while allowing for formatting—if you need it. Of course, Markdown needs processing to shine, and that’s where things like Jekyll come in. But when you don’t need that polish, plain text is still unbeatable for speed and simplicity.
When I do need that polish—when a document needs to look good—Pages is my go-to. It’s Apple’s flagship word processor, with all the styling options I need. The use of paragraph styles, templates, and powerful layout tools means I can build beautiful documents quickly without sacrificing structure or control. It’s perfect when presentation matters.
After many years of this piecemeal approach—TextEdit for notes, Markdown for drafts, Pages for polish—we found Obsidian, and everything shifted. Obsidian keeps the simplicity of plain text Markdown but layers on structure and power. It lets you link thoughts together, build a network of notes, and visualize those connections with graph views. Plugins expand its capabilities dramatically, and since it works off local files, there’s no lock-in. It’s like a “second brain” for developers, writers, and tinkerers like me.
When it came time to pick a development environment for the web side of things, I chose WebStorm. It’s a focused, professional IDE built for JavaScript, with deep support for frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. But what I love most are the little things: smart autocompletion, live error checking, fast navigation, and rock-solid version control integration. It handles SCSS, templates, and build tools with ease—everything I need to manage my web stack lives in one place.
That stack came together when RapidWeaver moved to a subscription model, and I had two websites to build and maintain. I chose Jekyll. Jekyll transforms Markdown and frontmatter into clean, static websites. It uses templates and layouts to keep things consistent, and best of all, it plays beautifully with GitHub Pages for free hosting and versioning. I write everything in Obsidian, using frontmatter to control page behavior, while WebStorm manages the SCSS and layout templates. Jekyll then builds it all into the site you’re reading now.
Is it simple and easy? No. But this workflow—TextEdit for scraps, Obsidian for structure, WebStorm for code, and Jekyll for output—gives me control at every level. And that’s the point. It’s not about finding one perfect app. It’s about combining the right tools, each good at what it does, to build a workflow that suits how you think.
