![]() ![]() Try drafting your next piece of writing in Markdown. Exportable to any format you can think of.Markdown is without a doubt the saviour of the Internet. There is no better way to save your valuable words. Markdown is also a solid base for writing a book, as it can be exported to ePub, amongst many other ebook-specific formats. However many times you export, and wherever you publish, your original words are safe and accessible, without being locked into the presentational particulars of one application.Įxporting to HTML, for the web, is easy. Any edits you make to the article are still in Markdown itself, so it remains simple. You’re not locked into any format, and if you want to change how the finished article looks, you need only export it into a different format. Markdown can be exported into hundreds of different formats, depending on your needs. This export process is seamless and is as simple as clicking a button. When I hit publish, Ghost automagically exports the Markdown for me into HTML, ready for the Internet to marvel at. It understands Markdown too, so all headers, emphasis, bolding, quotes etc are preserved. When I’m ready to publish the content I can just copy the text into my blog software, Ghost. When an idea arrives, I can start furiously typing and formatting on the go, without worrying about presentation. Like all quality writing apps, they both support Markdown. My articles often start in Trello or Ulysses. No need to reach for the mouse and delay the next masterful sentence. When you want something italicised you know to just type a couple of underscores either side of your content. In Markdown, the markup is simple enough that you can just type it as you go. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, and you probably do it without thinking, but over time the interruptions add up and the ideal writing flow is broken.Īs with many things, good writing depends on flow, and the less we can interrupt this process, the more faithfully and rapidly we can translate the words from your head onto a screen. A standard app usually has various formatting options dotted around the screen, requiring you to lift off the keyboard, select text with the mouse and then find the right buttons. One facet of Markdown that is not mentioned as much is that it promotes a better writing experience. What’s more, the files are extremely lightweight and take up very little space. You can keep all of your files in one folder which is synced to Dropbox or iCloud or Google Drive. ![]() Markdown-specific editors will give you live previews of your content as you write it: Write and blog in Markdown, using MacDownĪll of the above mean it’s much easier to backup your work. Either way, the document remains pristine and unpolluted by any particular app. Or I can just stick to a plain-text editor. I can copy the above Markdown into any other compatible editor and continue writing. The plain text nature of Markdown also means Markdown documents are very portable. For example, it’s pretty intuitive to wrap some asterisks around a word to make it stand out, and some of you will already use similar tricks when writing messages. You can probably figure most of it out just by eye and you don’t need to be a programmer to write it either. Markdown says that your words and files don’t need to be tailored to some specific application, like Word or a HTML editor.Ĭreated in 2004, and already loved by geeks the world over, Markdown is very simple to learn and use.Ī normal paragraph with a little _emphasis_.Īnd here’s what that looks like in HTML (the format you’re reading it in now): My titleĪ normal paragraph with a little emphasis.Īs you can see, Markdown is just plain text with a few fancy characters, which means you don’t need a special editor to write it.īecause of its simplicity, it’s also easily readable. We cater for the particular presentation needs of one piece of software, instead of just marking up the basic content: our words. The problem is that we write in formats that only one application understands. Furthermore, many apps and services don’t stick around forever, and then we’re left with all of our writings stuck in one particular format. ![]() Most of us are aware how painful it is to try and move a formatted document from one piece of software to the other, and then on to the web. After you’ve published your words, you don’t want them locked into that one particular presentation forever, right? You don’t want each new app loosing bits of your formatting. ![]() When you’re writing for the Internet, you want to be able to save and move your writings around as easily as possible. It’s time to break the tyranny of note-taking apps and blogging platforms: write your online content in a universal language that encourages flow and keeps you focused on the content. ![]()
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