A Review Of Three Best-Of-Breed Markdown Editors

As a technology blogger, I write HTML documents that are hosted on dissimilar platforms such equally WordPress, Drupal, together with Blogger. I similar to compose HTML using the Markdown markup language. Unfortunately, the HTML editors bundled amongst the aforementioned platforms produce non back upwards Markdown natively. It is truthful that yous tin flaming download Markdown plugins for WordPress together with Drupal. But, at the end, I nevertheless regain the HTML editors to live on equally good intrusive for a author such equally myself to rest focused together with productive.

Fortunately, at that spot are many skillful special-purpose Markdown editors out there. My spider web authoring procedure involves kickoff composing the document using a Markdown editor, together with hence copying together with pasting the output HTML into the Content Management System(CMS). Below, I evaluate iii open-source Markdown editors: justmd, Remarkable, together with ghostwriter.

I volition evaluate each editor from 2 sometimes conflicting viewpoints, that of a geek together with a writer. As a geek, I side amongst editors that accept many bells together with whistles. But, equally a writer, I prefer editors that aid me create, oft past times filtering out equally much distraction equally possible, together with forcing me to focus on the side past times side word, phrase, judgement to seat on the page.

justmd

justmd is a minimalist, bare-bones Markdown editor. When yous opened upwards justmd, yous volition catch a unmarried window amongst 2 window panes of equal size, located side-by-side. One pane is where yous teach into the Markdown text; the other is the HTML preview pane. Although yous tin flaming alter the overall size of the encompassing window, yous cannot alter the ratio of the 2 panes. The geek inwards me cannot aid but cringe at the discovery. After all, it is mutual amid Markdown editors (including Remarkable together with ghostwriter) to accept split input together with preview windows that yous tin flaming independently resize together with fifty-fifty hide. Conversely, the author inwards me gives justmd a large shout-out for its austere simplicity. You exactly opened upwards the app, together with straight off start out writing, without having to adapt the size of whatever window component. Writers volition regain justmd to a greater extent than conducive to writing than many editors that are much to a greater extent than customizable.

Minimalist equally it is designed to be, justmd, equally a Markdown editor, is non characteristic consummate inwards its electrical current status. The next features, which I deem to live on really of import for writers, are nevertheless missing inwards justmd:

• Spellchecker.
• Word count.
• Auto save.

This post was written only using justmd, together with the overall sense was really positive. The lack of a spellchecker together with discussion counter did non hamper the writing at all. On the contrary, it enhances my productivity past times breaking the bad habits of constantly checking the discussion count together with looking out for spelling errors inwards the midst of writing. Most Content Management Systems are capable of spellchecking together with discussion counting. So, those tasks tin flaming live on deferred until later, after yous glue the HTML into the CMS.

Finally, I comment on the ease of installing justmd. None of the iii editors beingness reviewed hither are pre-packaged inwards the official repository of a major Linux distribution. Having said that, installing justmd is equally slow equally 1-2-3.

1. Download compressed tarball from justmd website.
2. Uncompress the tarball using ascendancy tar -zxvf justmd-linux-x64-v1.1.1.tar.gz.
3. Create shortcut to justmd binary.

Remarkable

Featurewise, Remarkable is middle-of-the-road, betwixt justmd together with ghostwriter. It has discussion counting, but no spellchecking. Like justmd, both input together with preview functions coexist equally panes side-by-side inwards a unmarried window, but yous tin flaming stack them vertically or horizontally, together with yous tin flaming resize each pane proportionally inside the window.

Now, equally a writer, I regain Remarkable's user interface equally good colorful, equally good distracting. Specifically, its overly generous utilization of color for syntax highlighting together with icon blueprint is detrimental to the principal writing task. With color, less is more.

You tin flaming download the Remarkable packet inwards .deb or .rpm format from its Linux download page. Users of Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE, together with Arch systems volition regain installation straightforward.

ghostwriter

ghostwriter is the around mature together with characteristic consummate of all iii MarkDown editors. It offers spellchecking, discussion counting, motorcar saves, together with much more.

Two unique features are peculiarly noteworthy to writers: Hemingway together with Focus modes. In Hemingway mode, 2 detail keyboard keys are disabled, namely, the delete together with the backspace keys. The rationale is to increase productivity past times delaying document editing equally much equally possible. In Focus mode, only the component of the document yous are working on is made prominent, together with the repose fades out. You tin flaming configure the focus to live on the electrical current sentence, the electrical current unmarried or iii lines, or the electrical current paragraph.

Despite the rich characteristic set, the ghostwriter user interface is surprising laid upwards clean together with uncluttered.

The input together with alive preview functions reside inwards split windows that yous tin flaming resize together with motion around individually. Keen observers volition definitely notice at that spot is a real-time lag betwixt actual text input together with the update of the alive preview. This is non a põrnikas inwards the program. On the contrary, ghostwriter is programmed to only update the alive preview when yous halt typing(for a fraction of a second). The technical argue given past times the developers is that the delay smoothens the jitters inwards synchronizing the rendering of large files. I tin flaming catch many writers genuinely back upwards this blueprint determination because attending should live on primarily focused on the writing, non the rendering, of the document.

Recall that the overall objective for using a MarkDown editor is to generate HTML code to insert into a CMS. With justmd together with Remarkable, yous demand to kickoff export to a HTML file, together with hence import the file (or re-create together with glue its contents) into the CMS. On the other hand, ghostwriter provides a shortcut Copy HTML push which is discreetly tucked away at the bottom correct of the window. The push is a shaver characteristic inwards the overall blueprint scheme, but has a disproportionally high value to cease users. Clicking the push copies the HTML code inwards its entirety into the clipboard. Importing the HTML into the CMS exactly involves pasting the contents of the clipboard.

ghostwriter provides packages for Ubuntu , Fedora, openSUSE, together with Arch Linux AUR. If yous run Ubuntu or whatever of its derivatives such equally Linux Mint, ghostwriter tin flaming live on installed after adding a PPA repository together with updating the local cache.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wereturtle/ppa sudo apt update sudo apt install ghostwriter 

If ghostwriter is non pre-packaged for your distro, e.g., Debian, yous tin flaming follow the on-line instructions to construct the executable yourself. Depending on the detail distro together with release, live on prepared to pass approximately considerable fourth dimension equally yous may encounter the proverbial Linux dependency hell.

Feature comparison

Features	justmd	Remarkable	ghostwriter
Cross-platform	Linux(x64), Windows(x64), macOS	Linux, Windows	Linux, Windows
Linux installation	Downloadable executables	Downloadble packages for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch	Downloadble packages for Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch
Export to HTML, PDF	Yes	Yes	HTML, PDF, Word, ODT
Spellchecker	No	No	Yes
Auto save	No	No	Yes
Word count	No	Character, word, trouble counts	Character, word, line, sentence, paragraph, page counts
Live preview	Fixed window proportion	Hidable, variable proportion	Separate resizable window (no dual panel)
GitHub-flavored syntax	Support for tables	Yes (tables, strikethrough, emphasis, etc)	Yes (tables, strikethrough, emphasis, etc)

Summary & conclusion

A writer's working vogue is intrinsically idiosyncratic. H5N1 writing surround that is distraction-free to ane mortal may non live on stimulating plenty for another. Yet, ghostwriter is the clear winner of the iii editors because it strikes a residuum betwixt laid upwards clean blueprint together with characteristic richness. However, if ghostwriter is non pre-packaged for your Linux distro (say Debian), justmd together with Remarkable are definitely worthwhile alternatives.

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