Thanks for giving it a try!

> I have no idea what variables are available

Were the video tutorials[0], in particular the variables tutorial[1] not helpful?

> Except I don't have a single example of a variable.

Did you watch the metadata tutorial[2]?

> People can edit a MarkDown file but you don't think it's faster to simply let people edit YAML in text?

Close the variable editor panel if you like and edit the variables in a different text editor. (Or create a symbolic link between the .yaml and .yaml.txt file and edit the .yaml.txt file in a KeenWrite tab.) The downside is that KeenWrite won't know how to inject variables into the document when pressing the Control-Space hotkey.

The variables, architecturally speaking, need not be written in YAML. They could be TOML, XML, JSON, etc. The software reads a nested hierarchy of variables and values into a tree data structure, which abstracts away the data's file format. Presently only YAML format is integrated. The hierarchy is then presented through a clunky JavaFX Tree UI element.

> discoverability of KeenWrite isn't nearly good enough

I received that same feedback years ago and made video tutorials, which are linked to at the bottom of the home page[3]. Do they need to be more prominent?

The home page also links to a documentation page[4] that describes variables, metadata, R integration, and more.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-WIt1cZYLm1MMx2FBG9...

[1]: https://youtu.be/CFCqe3A5dFg?&t=11

[2]: https://youtu.be/cjQ-dle-tAE?t=11

[3]: https://keenwrite.com/

[4]: https://gitlab.com/DaveJarvis/KeenWrite/-/blob/main/docs/REA...