MarkPad, is a free Windows 8 Markdown editor app. For those who don’t know what Markdown, exactly is. Well, markdown is a simple lightweight markup language, that is used to create webpage content. A few examples includes HTML, XML, CSS etc. Using this Windows 8 markdown editor app, you can easily use the simple and easy markdown special characters like #, _, *,– etc. in a very user-friendly and distraction free environment; and easily format the plain text to convert them for blogs, comments etc. This Windows 8 markdown editor app includes all the basic copy-paste features and shortcuts, plus you can add a hyperlink, and open, save, and pin files with a single mouse click. This a good markdown editor for all those bloggers that regularly post their articles in different blogs. So, get this app from Productivity Category in Windows Store. You can use Windows 8 Search Charm for locating it in Windows Store.
A little information about Markdown:
The difference between Markdown editor and other markup languages is that these markup languages have tags and use special characters, that makes it hard for normal users to understand these codes. So, what markdown does is it makes it easy for users to write the web contents mainly text without making the text, look like it’s been marked up with tags and formatting instructions. That is in place of tags and formatting instructions, you can use simple easy to understand symbols, and develop your content in the best way possible. You can know more about Markdown here.
Markdown plain text using this Windows 8 Markdown editor:
Working in this Markdown editor app is very easy and fast. The app gives a very clean interface to work with. There are no Ads at all. By default the app screen is divided into two different parts, one is where you’ll write the text along with requisite markdown characters and instructions; this on the left, and the other is live preview of whatever you write in the aforementioned part. This is a pretty good feature because, you can actually see the line to line and word to word preview, and know how the content will actually look. All though, I felt that the app must include the instructions on markdown characters and how to use them. That will be specially helpful for the newbies. If you don’t want to view the preview, then right click on the screen, and you’ll get a flyout at the bottom. Simply click on Distraction Free button.
This flyout is quite powerful and handy, as it contains useful buttons, these includes: Bold, Italic, Link, Pin, New, Open, Save, Remove, and Distraction Free. These all are pretty easy to use and are quite self-explanatory. Click on requisite, whenever required.
All you have to do is write text in the left half of the screen, right away. A good thing about this Windows 8 markdown editor app, is it is supported by spell check features and checks words with inbuilt dictionary. Like I said before, in place of writing tags and formatting characters like <home>, </br> ,<a href>, <ul> etc. You’ll be writing simple and easy to understand markdown symbols. Here are the important markdown symbols:
# for First level heading, ## for Second level heading, __bold__ or **bold** for bolding text, _italic_ or *italic* for italicize text, > making blockquote, Enter key for new line, *,+,- for unordered list, 1., 2., 3. for ordered list, [your text](url) for linking e.g [my link]( https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/ ).
Once you are done writing your article, simply right click and click on Save. This saves the file in .md, .mdown, .markdown, .mkd formats. Another good thing about this Windows 8 markdown editor app is, all the opened files get listed in the far left of the screen, making it easy to toggle quickly between opened files.
Key features of this Windows 8 markdown editor app:
- Available for free.
- Supports all markdown symbols and formatting instructions.
- Word to word preview.
- Clean interface with no Ads.
- Simple and easy to use.
Also, do check out this free Markdown editor software with live HTML preview: CuteMarkEd.
Final note:
MarkPad, is a good Windows 8 markdown editor app. It’s functional and does what it advertises. Although I felt that it misses the markdown file to HTML converting feature. Still it’s good and is quite handy. Also, in Windows Store; the app promises that there will be newer version with more features like publishing to web, Github API, Metaweblog API, –AtomPub etc. All in all a good free Windows 8 to try.
You might also like these 4 free HTML Editor with WYSIWYG support.
