5 Markdown Editors That Bring Back The Joy of Writing
Two years ago, and yes, time flies, I heard about this thing called Markdown. Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool. Many of the tags used in Markdown are already familiar to us, so the learning curve is very short. John Gruber created the Markdown language in 2004, and I heard about it on the Mac Power Users Podcast.
“Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor.”
Wikipedia
Bring back the joy of writing
It truly is a quick way to write and format your text documents. I use this method when writing my blog posts. It’s an easy language to learn, and it saves me a lot of time, I don’t need to pull my attention away from what I am typing to add bold text, create a numbered list and so on. Take a peek at the syntax for Markdown.
I’m seeing many text editors come out that support Markdown and what’s known as distraction-free editors. I started my journey with Markdown using Byword, a text editing tool, and have since tried many other editors for my iPad.
Five distraction-free markdown editors
Here are five Markdown enabled editors I encourage you to try out. I find these distraction-free editors bring back the joy of writing. I use a Mac and iPad, so many of these are for that operating system, but you can find Markdown editors for Windows and Linux.
Byword makes writing more enjoyable with Markdown. All the tools you need to write effectively, with keyboard shortcuts, word counters with live update, and more.
Stackedit.io Markdown syntax highlighting is unique. The refined text formatting of the editor helps you visualize the final rendering of your documents. Nothing to download, it runs in your browser.
1Writer provides a distraction-free writing environment. You can create and edit plain text or Markdown files. It has many features including inline Markdown preview, word count, dark theme, TextExpander support, insert photo, an extra keyboard row, and many more.
Typed is a Markdown Editor and Minimal Writing App for Mac.
Typora will give you a seamless experience as both a reader and a writer. It removes the preview window, mode switcher, syntax symbols of markdown source code, and all other unnecessary distractions.
Do you use Markdown? What is your favourite Markdown editor, please let me know on Twitter and as always, thanks for reading!