The Problem with Microsoft Word and Google Docs
We've all experienced the nightmare of copying text from a Word document and pasting it into a website CMS like WordPress. Suddenly, your text is wrapped in bizarre, hidden <span> tags, the font sizes are inconsistent, and your layout is broken. This happens because rich-text editors use hidden, proprietary code to style your text.
What is Markdown?
Markdown is a lightweight markup language created in 2004 by John Gruber. Instead of clicking buttons to make text bold or create lists, you use simple punctuation marks while you type.
- To make text bold, you wrap it in asterisks:
**bold text** - To make a header, you use a hash:
# Header 1 - To make a list, you just use hyphens:
- Item
The 3 Massive Benefits of Markdown
1. Keyboard Flow State
Because you apply formatting via punctuation, your hands never have to leave the keyboard to reach for the mouse. This allows writers to maintain a state of flow, typing continuously without breaking concentration to click a "Bold" icon in a toolbar.
2. Universal Portability
A Markdown file is just a plain text file (.txt or .md). It is not locked into a proprietary format like a .docx file. A Markdown file created twenty years ago can still be opened today by any text editor on any operating system in the world. Your data belongs to you.
3. Perfect HTML Output
Markdown was explicitly designed to convert cleanly into HTML. When you use a Markdown to HTML Converter, the resulting code is perfectly semantic, clean, and free of the bloated inline styles that ruin SEO and page performance.
Getting Started
The learning curve for Markdown is about ten minutes. Try writing your next email or blog draft in Markdown format. When you are ready to publish, simply run it through an Online Markdown Converter to generate the clean HTML required for your website.