md format and how to edit

What file uses .md extension and how should I edit them?

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On GitHub, several projects have README.md files. It seems like a simple format file to express text and pictures.  I guess there is an editor or syntax explanation somewhere. Where can I find an introduction to .md files? markdown  file-extension share improve this question edited Jan 24 at 7:33 entpnerd 1,273 5 23 asked  May 7 '11 at 17:42 Lai Yu-Hsuan 8,811 15 56 121

26   I guess this is evidence in favor of using the .markdown extension instead, though it's so awfully long... –  endolith  May 22 '12 at 19:30 6   Here is a link that may help you -> .MD File Extension –  Vipin Kr. Singh  Sep 21 '12 at 16:39 1   MarkPad is a nice application for MarkDown editing in Windows. It presents you with the preview of the edits. –  skjoshi  Aug 31 '13 at 20:23 1   User can try MarkView, a Chrome extension for editing and viewing markdown file inside the browser. –  swcool  Jan 20 '14 at 6:48 1   Full guide to help you start with markdown: blog.wax-o.com/2014/04/…. You should try to write markdown with a way to live visualizing the result (with an application like mouapp.com). Did you know that stackoverflow post and comment syntax is based on markdown ? :) stackoverflow.com/editing-help –  fabien Jul 4 '14 at 10:07  show 1 more comment

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The extensions .md and .markdown are just text files written in Markdown syntax. If you have a Readme.md in your repo, GitHub will show the contents on the home page of your repo. Read the documentation: Standard Markdown GitHub Flavored Markdown You can edit the Readme.md file in GitHub itself. Click on Readme.md, you will find an edit button. You can preview your changes and even commit them from there. Since it is a text file, Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac) or any other text editor can be used to edit and modify it. Specialized editors exist that automatically parse the markdown as you type it and generate a preview, while others apply various syntax coloring and decorations to the displayed text. In both cases though, the saved file is still a readable text file. If you want to create an md file with preview and if you prefer not to install any special editors, you can use online editors like dillinger.io and stackedit.io. They provide live preview. You can also export your files to Google Drive or Dropbox. share improve this answer edited Jul 29 at 13:05 community wiki 8 revs, 7 users 38% Dikei

12   I found Github's basic explanation very useful as a quick introduction too. –  Voo  Mar 28 '14 at 19:03 1   On Windows you might want to use WordPad to make use of the formatting for an easier read. –  G O'Rilla Nov 8 '14 at 16:21 2   @GO'Rilla, IMHO avoid WordPad like the plague unless writing little notes to yourself that you will never share with anyone. What it adds to the .txt file can wreak havoc on other editors (vim, Notepad++, etc). Much better to work in plain text when dealing with .txt and use a word processor or Acrobat for non .txt textual files like .doc and .pdf. –  labyrinth  Mar 24 '15 at 20:56 can we add images or through link in .md file... is it possible? –  user1645290  Jan 22 at 4:54  add a comment

up vote 68 down vote

If you are looking for an editor, I suggest you use http://dillinger.io/. It is a simple browser-based text editor that can render Markdown on the fly. However, if you prefer an app, and you are using OS X, you could try Mou. It is quite good and full of examples. share improve this answer edited Nov 6 '14 at 18:57 answered  May 18 '12 at 10:44 sirLisko 1,054 9 12

2   It seems to be back to life? –  GuiSim  Mar 7 '13 at 15:04 Mou is a nice tool ! –  yunas  Jul 22 '13 at 10:20 2   MarkPad works nicely on Window. –  skjoshi  Aug 31 '13 at 20:20  4   I'd like suggest http://dillinger.io/, another really cool browser-based text editor. It also allows you to link Dropbox, Github and Google drive. –  sirLisko  Feb 6 '14 at 15:01 The Notepad link in this answer triggers a RAR file download. Why is there no webpage, didn't you say it was a browser-based editor? –  evanrmurphy  Jul 31 '14 at 3:31 show 1 more comment

up vote 21 down vote	Github's Atom text editor has a live-preview mode for markdown files. The keyboard shortcut is CTRL+SHIFT+M. It can be activated from the editor using the CTRL+SHIFT+M key-binding and is currently enabled for .markdown, .md, .mkd, .mkdown, and .ron files. share improve this answer edited Jan 24 at 7:42 entpnerd 1,273 5 23 answered  May 26 '14 at 16:27 Feckmore 1,320 3 22 42
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up vote 14 down vote

Extension '.md' refers to Markdown files. If you don't want to install an app to read them in that format, you can simply use TextEdit or Xcode itself to open it on Mac. On any other OS, you should be able to open it using any text editor, though as expected, you will not see it in Markdown format. share improve this answer edited Mar 26 '14 at 9:13 answered  Jun 4 '13 at 9:59 codeburn 1,676 10 18

4   Actually, you will see it in Markdown format. You won't see it as bold, italics, indents and code blocks, though.–  Lightness Races in Orbit  Oct 4 '13 at 14:08 add a comment

up vote 13 down vote

Yup, just GitHub flavored Markdown. Including a README file in your repository will help others quickly determine what it's about and how to install it. Very helpful to include in your repos. share improve this answer edited Oct 2 '13 at 18:33 Erick Robertson 19.2k 7 48 88 answered  Jul 28 '12 at 21:36 esilvas 172 1 4

5   Downvoted. By “one” in “including one in your repository” you should mean “a README file in any format”, not just “a README.md file”. But the question is asking about “.md” files in general, not about READMEs in general. So this answer is irrelevant to the question. Also, the ambiguity with “one” could make a reader think that Markdown READMEs are necessarily better than other READMEs, which is wrong. –  Rory O'Kane  Dec 23 '12 at 6:36 I made the change specified in the previous comment, because it makes sense and I think it could help avoid confusion. I don't think this is a very good answer, though, as it adds nothing new that's relevant. This question isn't about README's, it is about the .md extension. There's no reason to add this answer six weeks after the accepted answer provided the same information. –  Erick Robertson  Oct 2 '13 at 18:36 add a comment

up vote 5 down vote	Stack Edit is an online markdown editor with the ability to save to Google Drive and DropBox. share improve this answer answered  Feb 14 '14 at 15:18 Philip 1,744 3 14 35
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up vote 5 down vote

Markdown is just a text file which optionally has .md, or .markdown extensions. It can be converted to HTML. To know syntax of Markdown, Check out GitHub Flavored Markdown. You can use any text editor for markdown. If you are sublime text user, you can check out Markdown Preview plugin which will display the rendered markdown content in browser and updates whenever you change the markdown file. Some of the online markdown editor Markable dillinger markdownviewer share improve this answer answered  Mar 6 '14 at 6:32 Fizer Khan 17.6k 9 83 95

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up vote 4 down vote	BBEdit will also display MD on the mac. and here is a quicklook plugin to display them when you preview them. share improve this answer edited Feb 22 '13 at 15:08 answered  Oct 4 '12 at 17:06 nycynik 3,963 2 24 50
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up vote 2 down vote	markable.in is a very nice online tool for editing Markdown syntax share improve this answer answered  May 29 '14 at 19:37 user1337432 34 8
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up vote 1 down vote	There is an ongoing effort to standardize Markdown and as of now, this is probably the best place to learn about markdown: http://standardmarkdown.com/ share improve this answer answered  Sep 4 '14 at 17:56 Afaque H 101 1 3