Markdown

Writing academic papers with Markdown and Pandoc is rather straightforward, and Pandoc does a rather bang-up job in its export - with one exception. It doesn’t create a hanging indent for references. Some citation styles require a hanging indent. Its possible to go ahead and export the Markdown to .docx, open that output in Word, and reformat the reference section. I could, but I won’t. For one reason, I don’t have Office on my Linux machines (my OS of choice). »

When I write, I usually export my Markdown to HTML before I create a .docx or .pdf. Most of what I write gets posted so, for me, exporting to HTML first only makes sense. If I need to create anything else, I can use Pandoc to convert from the HTML. One of the cool things about Markdown is the ability to create code blocks. Code blocks are usually fixed-width text so that a reader can tell that they are looking at information that stands out from the rest of the text. »

Many times, when I use Markdown, I work on one file. Once I’m done with it, I convert it to another format, such as a docx or html file. Occasionally, I have to create a small batch of files and convert them. Once I’m in a writing mode, I prefer to “stay in the flow” and write. Conversion can be performed later. I use Pandoc to convert files and it’s possible convert the lot in one shot. »

" Using Markdown by William Dyer I discovered Markdown while I was in search of a method to simplify the process of preserving documents. Markdown certainly makes text repairs easier, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much it made all of my other writing tasks easier as well. Today, I perform every writing task with Markdown. I also wrote a book about it. This book is an introduction to basic Markdown. »

Here is an unexpected use for Markdown that I found by accident. Markdown is good for ASCII guitar tabs. ASCII tab is a text file format used for writing guitar tablature (a form of musical notation) that uses plain ASCII numbers, letters and symbols. Recently, I copied a sample arpeggio picking pattern and the only editor I had open at the time was a Markdown editor, so I copied it there. »

There is a phrase that goes something like this: “Read the instructions only as a last resort.” For those who absolutely will not read instructions, I provide this cheat sheet as familiarization with Markdown. For those who do read instructions, I present this cheat sheet as a refresher. Markdown, a plain text markup format created by John Gruber. For more information and help, please visit his website at: http://www.daringfireball.net. Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax. »