40Tech » Markdown

Bring Markdown to Any Mac Text Editor With Marked [App of the Week]

Evan Kline — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:00:16 +0000

In our previous looks at Markdown, we focused on a couple of free apps (one Windows, one Mac) that have native Markdown support. If you have a favorite text editor, though, and want to bring Markdown to it, then check out Marked. (For a discussion about why you should care about Markdown, head on over to our post about why you should bother with Markdown).

Marked is a Mac-only app that will read any Markdown, MultiMarkdown, Text, or HTML file, and display it as HTML. It should work with any text editor. Simply type in your editor of choice using one of the supported languages, like Markdown, and save your document. Then drag the title of your document from your editor’s title bar onto the Marked icon in your dock, and a preview window will open, displaying your document in HTML. You can then keep that window open as you work, and the preview will be updated every time you save your document. The image below (click it to enlarge it) shows a document in TextEdit on the left, and the preview in Marked on the right.

Make sure that you’re working on a plain text file in your editor. I made the initial mistake of not noticing that TextEdit was saving my file as a rich text document. Markdown is a plain text language, so Marked won’t work with a rich text formatted document.

When you’re done with your document, you can quickly copy the HTML that is produced, or export the document as an HTML document or a PDF document. I typically use the keystroke to copy the HTML, and paste it into my destination.

Marked has a few other features as well, including different preview styles, document statistics, and the ability to float the preview window so that it stays on top of your other windows.

Marked is only $2.99 the Mac App Store, so it’s hard to go wrong with it if you use Markdown on a Mac. Have we sold you on Markdown formatting yet?

Marked [Mac App Store]

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Yep, Geeks Love Markdown, But Why Should You Bother?

Evan Kline — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 01:00:02 +0000

If you’re a geek, you may have heard about Markdown, a markup language that makes it easy to output HTML, without actually having to know even a lick of HTML. We joined the love fest ourselves recently, covering the basics, as well as looking at a Windows app and a Mac app that support Markdown. With the proliferation of what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editors today, though, why should you even bother with Markdown?

I’ll admit – I wondered the same thing. We covered some reasons for using Markdown in our initial post, but we didn’t dive into the reasons too deeply. I initially used Markdown because I had a case of the “new and shinies,” and thought it was, well, cool. But there are more compelling reasons, too. The developer of Marked, a Mac app that brings Markdown support to most text editors, has written a great overview of why Markdown might be worth checking out.

One of the more important benefits of Markdown is that it is portable. Have an iPad? You can draft some text using Markdown syntax, and use it pretty much anywhere else. It’s also fast. The Marked developer points out that it’s fast to actually write the Markdown syntax, but it’s also fast from a hardware perspective- if you have a low-powered machine, there isn’t anything less hardware-intensive than a basic text editor.

For the full list, hop over and check out the post. Have you tried Markdown? If not, do you plan to?

Why Markdown? A two-minute explanation

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nvALT: A Clever Notetaking App That Syncs With Simplenote (And Supports Markdown, Too) [Mac]

Evan Kline — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 01:00:05 +0000

The past couple of days we’ve talked about Markdown, a markup language that helps you easily output HTML without having to learn HTML. Yesterday, we looked at a Windows app, WriteMonkey. Today, it’s the Mac’s turn. One of the earliest apps that I downloaded on my Mac was nvAlt, a note taking app. I was impressed by the unique and efficient way that nvALT operated. Well, technically it isn’t unique, since it is a fork of an open source app, Notational Velocity. But it is different than most note taking apps that I’ve used. What I didn’t know until recently was that it also supports Markdown.

For more on Markdown, check out our look at the basics of how it works. If you’re on Windows, head on over to our look at WriteMonkey, a Windows app with Markdown support.

When you start nvALT, you’ll see a text box at the top, a column of notes in the left sidebar (along with a couple of preview lines), and note content in the main area to the right. What makes nvALT (and Notational Velocity) interesting is that the text box at the top is both a search box AND a text entry box. Go to the box, and start typing a new note. As you type, your entry will filter the notes in the left sidebar. To enter a new note, finish typing the title and hit Return. To view or edit an existing note, arrow up or down to select it. The whole process will feel strange at first, but is quick and easy when you get accustomed to it.

The other big selling point of nvALT is its ability to sync with your Simplenote account. Although I’m a big Evernote user, I do keep a variety of text-only notes in Simplenote (generally temporary notes that I want to quickly enter and retrieve, but that will have limited or no long term value to me). I’ve recently started gravitating towards desktop apps with a cloud syncing component, so this is a nice feature.

nvALT also gives you the ability to bookmark notes that you use frequently. The bookmarking features are pretty basic, though. As you bookmark notes, they are added to your bookmarks sequentially. So, the first note that you bookmark can be accessed with Command-1, the second with Command-2, and so on. You can drag the bookmarks from a bookmarks popup menu to reorder them, but that’s about all there is to it. You can’t set up folders, for example. This is most likely because Notational Velocity and nvALT were designed to be used without a mouse.

If you want to share your notes, you can do so using Peggd. I haven’t tried this feature, but Peggd does look interesting.

But we’re here to talk about Markdown, right? Markdown support was one of the features that the developers of nvALT added, that differentiates the app from Notational Velocity. You can type a note using Markdown formatting, and preview the note as you go by hitting a key combination to open a preview window. One feature that I didn’t find, that I wished were available, was the ability to access a Markdown cheat sheet with a hotkey. You can do this in WriteMonkey, the app that we covered yesterday. For a Markdown newbie like me, it’s quite handy.

Even without the Markdown cheat sheet, and notwithstanding the limited bookmarking, nvALT is worth a look if you use a Mac. It’s fast, and you can access your notes everywhere via Simplenote. If you need a more robust solution, then check out Evernote (of course). nvALT is free.

nvALT

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WriteMonkey: A Distraction-Free Writing Tool That Supports Markdown [Windows]

Evan Kline — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:00:24 +0000

We recently looked at Markdown, a markup format that lets you easily create HTML-formatted text. What can make Markdown even easier to use is if you use an app that supports it. On the Mac, Markdown apps are plentiful. On Windows, not so much. Fortunately, if you’re on Windows, you do have WriteMonkey. WriteMonkey is a Markdown tool, but describing it as such just scratches the surface.

For more on Markdown, check out our look at the basics of how it works. If you’re on a Mac, head on over to our look at nvALT, a Mac app with Markdown support.

Think of WriteMonkey as a distraction-free writing environment that supports Markdown. If you’ve used WriteRoom, then WriteMonkey will seem familiar to you. When you start it up, you’re presented with a completely black screen, that displays your words without any formatting at all. By default, the only other information on the screen, aside from your words, are a counter, clock, and the name for your file. You can also start a writing timer if that tickles your fancy.

If you don’t like the appearance of the app, you can change the background and font colors, as well as the font and font size. I’m not a fan of a black writing background, so I switched it to a white background with black text.

With WriteMonkey, you can toggle between full screen and windowed mode, and even have focus on just the segment that you’re writing. That will show only a few lines at a time, helping you to focus on what you’re writing.

Don’t let WriteMonkey’s appearance fool you. With a right click, you can call up a host of options, commands, and settings, such as backups, autosaving, spell checking, and find and replace.

You can also preconfigure hotkeys to look up words at different places. For example, by default ALT+5 will open your browser to Dictionary.com, showing the dictionary entry for the word where you had placed your cursor.

WriteMonkey is also a Markdown tool. Hit the F1 key, and you’ll see a list of common Markdown commands. When you’re done, you can output your Markdown text as HTML. Personally, I found it easier to copy my selected text with CTRL-SHIFT-H, which copies your output as HTML. I then paste that into its final destination.

That’s not the only keyboard shortcut available. In fact, you don’t have to use mouse at all if you don’t want to, as all of WriteMonkey’s functions and commands are available via keyboard shortcut.

WriteMonkey also is portable, which means that you could put it on a USB key and take it with you.

WriteMonkey won’t be for everyone. If you like to have visual cues for the options available to you, then you’re better off with a traditional writing tool, such as Word, Live Writer, or Pages. However, if you want a distraction-free writing enviroment that supports Markdown, give WriteMonkey a try. WriteMonkey is free, but if you find that you use it, think about donating to the developer.

Do you have any Windows-compatible writing apps that you like? If you do, and especially if they support Markdown, let us know in the comments.

WriteMonkey

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Markdown: The Basics

Evan Kline — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:00:33 +0000

If you’re a geek, you may have heard of Markdown. What is it? Markdown is a format that you use to write text that can then be converted to valid HTML. The hallmark of Markdown is that it is easy to read and to write.

For more on Markdown, check out our look at two apps that support it natively, WriteMonkey for Windows, and nvALT for Mac.

Examples

The best way to understand Markdown is to look at some examples.

What you type in Markdown	HTML output
_italic_	italic
__underline__	underline
[link text](http://example.com)	link text
> This paragraph is indented	(an indented paragraph)

These are some of the more basic examples. For full formatting instructions, check out the syntax guide of John Gruber, Apple fan and creator of Markdown.

Why Use Markdown?

Why should you use Markdown? A few reasons come to mind.

Markdown is clean and easy to read.
Markdown is actually sort of fun, at least compared to writing out HTML.
Valid HTML. I’ll take their word for it, but I’ve heard programmers say that blogging software and other editors can butcher HTML, and leave you with invalid HTML. Markdown gives you valid HTML.
Convenience: You can use it anywhere. While apps such as Live Writer (Windows) or MarsEdit (Mac) are pretty easy to use, and perform HTML formatting behind the scenes, you can use Markdown anywhere that you have a text editor. You can then copy that text over to a Markdown-ready machine or app, and you’ve got valid HTML.

How to Set Up Markdown

There are a few ways you can convert your Markdown text to HTML. One method involves installing a Python converter on your system. Easier yet is to install a text editor with Markdown support. Over the next two days, we’ll cover both a Windows option and a Mac option. If you’d rather not install anything on your system, you can try Gruber’s onlne tool, Dingus.

Any Markdown fans out there?