Review: MarkdownPad makes composing Markdown even easier than usual

HTML is the lingua franca of the Web. If you publish anything online, that's the format your text will end up in. But while easy for browsers to render, HTML isn't always easy (or fun) to compose. Some content management systems, like Wordpress, solve this problem by offering a WYSIWYG editor that lets you edit visually. For those who prefer the simplicity and ubiquity of plain text, Markdown is the way to go—and MarkdownPad Pro is a simple editor that lets you compose Markdown and view your results instantly.

MarkdownPad's instant preview mode makes it easy to see what your final HTML is going to look like.

By default, MarkdownPad Pro shows a split interface, with your text taking up the left side of the window and an instantly-rendered output taking up the right—much like online Markdown editor Dillinger.io. If you find the live preview pane distracting (as I do), you can hit F5 to toggle it. If you do like it, but don't like the vertical layout, a quick tap on F4 switches the editor to a horizontal layout with the preview pane under the editing pane.

Markdown is the format of choice for many writers, and MarkdownPad 2 contains several writer-friendly features: A live word count on the status bar, squiggly lines denoting typos, and frequent automatic saving are just a few. One feature that's notably missing is the ability to copy formatted text as rich text, for pasting into Microsoft Word or other rich-text aware editors–something free editor WriteMonkey offers. On the plus side, MarkdownPad 2 lets you directly export a PDF document from your Markdown source.

If you find the instant preview distracting, you can easily toggle it off and enjoy just the Markdown syntax highlighting.

Markdown is a lightweight format, so your text shouldn't be drowning in tags and angle brackets. Still, it does have its own conventions for links, titles, and text emphasis–and MarkdownPad offers syntax highlighting that makes it easy to see if you got the syntax right. It also offers toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts for many of the syntax constructs, but unfortunately doesn't let you customize the shortcut keys. Ctrl+K, which I would expect to insert a link, instead inserts the token for a code block (Ctrl+L inserts a link).

If you find Markdown too restrictive for your needs and require more power, you may want to try Markdown Extra. This is an enhanced version of the Markdown syntax, including refinements like Markdown inside HTML blocks, and definition lists. MarkdownPad 2 supports Markdown Extra, as well as GitHub-flavored Markdown, for composing text destined for the open-source powerhouse.

MarkdownPad ships with several rendering presents, but you can edit them or add new ones if you know CSS.

MarkdownPad 2 is solid, but not spectacular. I am not convinced the commercial version justifies the $15 price tag, given Markdown's inherent simplicity and the availability of free, powerful alternatives such as WriteMonkey and Dillinger.io. That said, it does get the job done, and the instant preview goes a long way towards ensuring your document ends up the way you want it to, without having to make last-minute tweaks to get things to render correctly. If you're disappointed with the free alternatives, MarkdownPad 2 might be worth a try.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
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Review: Write better-formatted messages with Markdown Here

Gmail doesn't offer you much in the way of formatting to make your emails look more attactive. That's fine for most emails, but sometimes you need a bit more pizzazz—like, say, a headline. Then again, maybe you often email code snippets, and could use some automatic syntax coloring. Markdown Here is an unobtrusive extension that can help convert your text into well-formed HTML.

Markdown Here offers fine-grained settings for controlling the CSS that's included with your formatted emails.

Markdown is a simple way to format text using special characters: To write an italic word, just surround it with asterisks. To make a word bold, just surround it with two pairs of asterisks. Markdown can be used to create links, headlines, bulleted or numbered lists, tables, horizontal rules, block quotes and more. Markdown's simple and friendly syntax was inspired by plain-text emails, so it makes sense to use Markdown to format email. With Markdown Here, you can write an email using Markdown, and then hit Alt+Ctrl+M and watch it transform into a beautiful, richly formatted message. Code listings get syntax highlighting, you can use multiple levels of headlines, and more. Don’t like the formatting? Hit the Markdown button again and it reverts to plain text so you can tweak it and try again.

To format any Markdown text as HTML, simply select it, right-click, and click Markdown Toggle.

You can also use Markdown Here when replying: Just highlight the part of the message you wish to format with Markdown, and hit the key combination. That combination doesn't have to be Ctrl+Alt+M–I like to use just Alt+M, and Markdown Here lets me easily change this. And if you often email code snippets, you can even pick one of several themes for syntax highlighted code. One note of caution, though; adding HTML and CSS to email messages can cause problems with some email clients, so if you are using this for a mailing list, offer a plain text version as well.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
More by Erez Zukerman

From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference