What is Reddit's opinion of MarkdownPad?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Would it be possible to get the CSS you use (or possibly a REST endpoint for rendering) to work with external programs? I use MarkdownPad 2 heavily for homebrewing, and the CSS I use is close, but nowhere near as good as this!

1) I'm usually writing my markdown without live preview, but I'd use Mou (OS X) for that. On a cursory look, MarkdownPad seems to be roughly equal in functionality.

2) That's a bit hard to do, because md really is just text, and windows can't guess wether you want the preview or editor. Maybe you could have a batch script or so automatically rendering it as a context option. Maybe some with live preview is enough?

3) markdown markdown, without extensions. StackOverflow is trying to standardize it: http://commonmark.org/

• Dropbox for storage.
• Zotero for reference management.
• Evernote for storing general notes (diagrams, meeting notes, etc).
• Plain text for writing:
  • Write using Markdown formatting in MarkdownPad 2. Markdown's far easier to read and write than Latex.
  • Use Pandoc to convert the plain text into .docx format when it's time to send it back and forth for revision.

Writing in plain text is far more rapid for me, it means I don't have to worry about spacing and stuff. It also means I can do work across any device I own (phone, tablet, even an AlphaSmart word processor) without the slowness and agony normally associated with using an office suite on a portable device. When Pandoc does the conversion it also applies the styling of a template document I've made, so I've set all that stuff once and been able to forget about it. You can also do fancy things like have different template documents for each journal, so you've already got their preferred line spacing, numbering, font settings, blah blah.

Unless you're working with some sort of framework for putting together static HTML pages automatically, this is just going to be a long-term nightmare the way you're doing it. Not the least of which is because you're either writing HTML by hand or constantly generating HTML from plain text files.

The problem with a knowledge base isn't formatting. It's accessibility. Using flat files like that for a KB is like putting square wheels on a car. It will go, but you might as well be walking because it's going to be faster and less frustrating. If I were you I would never even use that KB. I'd just stick to Google so it would never get updated. This will only work for a handfull of files. If you can't tag and have meaningful search, a KB is useless after it gets to even a modest size. Folders are not tags and KB entries need more than one category which you cannot accomplish with folders. What's the point?

What you want to accomplish as flat files would be best served by a markdown editor to generate formatted text from easy to use syntax. But that still doesn't solve the fundamental problem that the "base" in knowledge base is short for "database". What you have isn't a knowledge base. It's just a disorganized collection of files.

Honestly if I took a job at a shop like this and saw that was the level of tools provided, I'd quit on the spot. That's a joke.

EDIT: You could probably host this for free on Github Pages or Netlify.

I just found this, and thought others would find it useful. I was doing heavily formatted posts in the small reddit editor. Even with the RES preview, it got pretty tiresome. I also always worried about accidently closing the tab.

This lets you edit Markdown on your desktop, in a large window with a live preview. I've found it really convenient so far. It's free.

I know not everyone has a mac, so I googled and found this one for windows. But I haven't tried it, so I can't vouch for it.

http://markdownpad.com/

To me it sounds like a markup language word processor might be down your street.

I just discovered LyX myself; it's a nice GUI for Latex (some horribly complicated markdown-type language geared towards listing, indexes and academia) - output is very nicely formatted PDFs. open-source, etc.

Might be useful?

Alternatively, if you prefer standard *.md Markdown with PDF export, I've been using MarkdownPad2. Last update was 2013, though, so sorta abandonware, don't know if buying Pro version will still work (I can send you my copy if you want).

Well then, try silence. There's nothing that works for everybody.

In general you'd want to ensure that there's minimal distraction on the space you're writing. Clean your desk, reduce noise, tell people that you'll be busy until further notice, if you're writing online try closing applications and web pages that won't be helpful (relevant extension. I also like working with a stable light source, but I know others that find darkness better.

I use a super simple text editor that helps me stay concentrated. Maybe working on handwriting would be less distracting than anything so try it if you can.

As of writing, just write whatever comes to mind. There's no need to stop and think. When a word goes down, you should already be thinking of what will come next. This has saved me loads of time.

Apparently the end result is not going to be as decent, but that's why proofreading and fact-checking are a thing. After you're done, take a break for some minutes to do whatever else. When you come back re-read your essay and correct any mistakes you find. This way you write faster and save time to make your work look better.

About your data loss.

I used to write up stuff in notepad on beforehand (my post is mostly done by friday already) but now I use MarkDownPad you can even modify the CSS so it has spoiler tags and the like, this way you can verify your post before you post it (admittedly Reddit enhancement suite also gives you a preview)