HTML is amazing. It’s the backbone of the Internet, incredibly flexible and powerful. That is, if you are willing to spend a lot of time learning it. HTML consists of tags, rules, formatting, styles and many other elements that seem like a spectacular mess to anyone who is not familiar with the language.
To sum it up, HTML is complex enough to be recognized as a programming language. And it’s an issue, because not everyone wants to learn to code in order to write a blog post. Luckily, there are alternatives, that allow content creators to focus on content.
What exactly is Markdown
Markdown is not the first content-focused formatting language — that honor belongs to Adobe’s Rich Text and its RTF-implementation by Microsoft. Alas, they did not solve the core problem of HTML — the syntax, which despite being simplified, became even more unreadable. Rich Text just hid the issue behind a WYSIWYG-editor and an HTML-converter, both of which are far from perfect.
By 2004, John Gruber had enough of it and created Markdown — a simplified formatting language that does not need a WYSIWYG. It had gone through many variations since then, becoming even more streamlined and readable. Markdown is not a replacement for HTML, or even close to it. Its syntax is very small, corresponding only to a very small subset of HTML tags, and Markdown’s formatting syntax only addresses issues that can be conveyed in plain text. And it makes Markdown the best formatting language for content creators.
Here’s a comparison between HTML, Rich Text Formatting (by Microsoft) and Github Markdown:
HTML
<h1>Unihost</h1>
<a href="”http://unihost.com”">Unihost</a> is the best hosting company in the world and will make your <em>whole life</em> easier. <strong>I promise.</strong>
Let’s be honest, it’s a mess. Maybe not enough of a mess for you to switch to something else, but enough to be a pain in the posterior. It’s a simple paragraph with a single link, but it looks quite complicated for that.
Also, look at the tags. To open and close each tag, at least two additional symbols (<>) are required. Not to mention, that the tags themselves can be rather long, i.e. <strong>
, and thus vulnerable to typos. And there are lots and lots of those tags, with some of them being quite non-intuitive.
To sum it up, HTML is:
- Hard to read;
- Overcomplicated;
- Not fool-proof.
All this makes it rather hard to simply open up a new document and start writing HTML. It’s a common practice to use development environments with code highlighting, like Atom Text Editor or JSFiddle. Lately, my favorite has been Adobe Brackets with its Live Preview, but it is still not a solution.
Rich Text Formatting (Microsoft)
{\rtf1\ansi
{\colortbl
;
\red0\green0\blue255;
}
Unihost
{\pard
{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK
"”http://unihost.com”"
}}{\fldrslt{\ul\cf1
Unihost
}}} is the best hosting company in the world and will make your {\i
whole life
} easier. {\b
I promise.
}
\par}
}
This is even more of a mess than usual HTML. Granted, it is extremely flexible and you almost never have to see it because of a WYSIWYG-editor, but as mentioned before, those tend to introduce problems. And if you can read it in raw form — you are definitely a better coder than I.
Markdown
# Unihost
[Unihost](http://unihost.com) is the best hosting company in the world and will make your *whole life* easier. **I promise.**
Just look at it. Maybe it’s just me — and a lot of other people on the internet — but I can follow this much, much easier. It’s streamlined, lean and does not require a special state of mind to read fluently.
The only downside is that some symbols are not as intuitive as you may want them to be. While emphasizing with *
and **
seems pretty logical, but headlines and links are trickier and will require some studying.
Still, Markdown Cheatsheet 101 is infinitely simpler and smaller than any HTML or Rich Text guide. And once you get good at it, you can write Markdown in the Notepad, or anywhere else you want — with no need for a dedicated environment.
Where to use Markdown
It’s all nice and dandy, but if there’s no point it, if you can’t use Markdown anywhere. Luckily, it is supported by most of the popular CMS — including WordPress, Joomla and many others.
How to enable Markdown support in WordPress
Native WordPress does not support Markdown, but you can easily add support with a plugin — either Jetpack, JP-Markdown or Markdown Editor.
Jetpack by WordPress.com is a monumental plugin that dramatically improves your WordPress experience in exchange for privacy. Basically, it installs additional WordPress.com trackers and sends some public data — like crash reports — back to the developer.
After installing Jetpack, go to Settings > Writing and check the mark called Use Markdown for Posts and Images. You can also enable Markdown for comments in Settings > Discussion.
You won’t notice any visible changes, but Markdown in your posts and comments will now be properly processed and displayed.
JP-Markdown is exactly the same as the Jetpack Markdown Module, but it does not send data home or install trackers. Markdown in posts is enabled automatically, but you will have to click on the same switch as in Jetpack in order to activate Markdown for comments.
Markdown Editor is my personal favorite for the task. Instead of simply adding a Markdown interpreter, it completely transforms the WordPress Editor, adding a live preview feature and powerful shortcuts. Not that you need any of this to write Markdown, but it sure is nice to have.
Just as with JP-Markdown, the posts are supported by default, but you will have to click on the switch in Settings > Discussion to enable Markdown for comments.
TL;DR
- Markdown is awesome. It allows you to write and format an article easily, without any unnecessary coding.
- Markdown is not a replacement for HTML, but a supplementary tool for content creators.
- Read Markdown Cheatsheet 101 and you will be fluid in Markdown in an hour.
- You can write Markdown anywhere — in Notepad, MS Word, gEdit. You don’t need a developer environment.
- But StackEdit is an awesome tool for managing your Markdown and is highly recommended. And if you are offline, Adobe Brackets is a great solution.
- Markdown support can be added to almost any popular CMS. WordPress even supports a dedicated Markdown Editor.