Use cases
Markdown has many uses including creating websites, taking notes, producing presentations and writing books
Markdown is:
- Simple: easy to learn and read.
- Portable: works anywhere, on any platform.
- Powerful: scales from notes to full documentation sites.
- Extensible: supported by countless tools and frameworks.
Whether you’re taking notes, writing books or documenting software, markdown provides a universal, future-proof format. Markdown has many practical uses. Among them are:
Websites and documentation
Markdown is ideal for creating static or CMS-based websites.
- Simple hosting: Blot.im allows you to publish markdown files directly from Dropbox.
- Static site generators: tools like Astro, Hugo and Zola (as used by this site) convert markdown to full websites (see Jamstack for more examples).
- CMS integration: platforms like Ghost and WordPress support markdown natively or via plugins, although, in my experience, WordPress’s integration was sketchy to say the least. Maybe things have improved since that time.
It is also widely used for technical documentation, with tools such as:
- MkDocs: a simple static site generator with themes.
- Read the Docs: automatically builds docs from markdown in GitHub repositories.
- VuePress: a Vue-powered documentation site builder.
Documents and notes
Markdown is suited to writing basic documents such as letters, essays and reports. It can be used on any platform, where you can export markdown to PDF or HTML using applications such as:
- Mac: Obsidian, Bear
- Windows: Markdown Monster, ghostwriter
- Linux: ReText, ghostwriter
- Web: Dillinger, StackEdit.
It is also popular for note-taking, with tools including:
- Simplenote: minimalist, cross-platform note app
- Joplin: a privacy-focused, open-source alternative
- Visual Studio Code: a developer-oriented note app.
Books
Markdown is commonly used for writing and self-publishing. Leanpub converts markdown into eBooks (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) and the generated PDFs can also be used for print publishing.
Presentations
You can generate presentation slides from markdown using tools such as:
- Marp: an open-source presentation ecosystem
- Cleaver: billed as a 30-second slide show for hackers
- Deckset (macOS)
- Hyperdeck: a Mac and iPad app.
- IA Presenter: a cross-platform app.
Collaboration
Many collaboration tools support basic markdown formatting for text emphasis and structure, such as Slack, Discord and Wiki.js.
Flavours of markdown
Different tools implement markdown slightly differently. These variations are known as flavours. Take a look at your editor’s documentation to understand its specific markdown usage and compatibility, and see the flavours page for more information.