Markdown is a simplified formatting language commonly used for easy text-to-HTML conversion.
Quite simply, it’s a human readable and writable form of HTML. It’s simple, clean, fast, and flexible. And its extended portability and precision, coupled with its simplistic implementation, make it a favorable tool.
Markdown has come a long way since it was first created in 2004 by John Gruber. Today, it’s widely adopted across the web. It empowers writers and bloggers with the ability to write their HTML, without the use of overcomplicated and visually exhausting code.
Similarly, Markdown is increasingly popular among a more technical crowd as well. In fact, it’s the central language to both GitHub and Stack Overflow—two popular sites for programmers.
Markdown is even a preferred option for WordPress users of all shapes and sizes. You can write and format entire posts without even taking your fingers of the keyboard. It’s pretty amazing.
In this article, I’m going to provide an outline of 3 Markdown-specific plugins for WordPress.
Jetpack Markdown
When it comes to adding features and functionality to your WordPress site, it seems that Jetpack is the go-to plugin. So, it’s no surprise that Jetpack adds Markdown capabilities as well.
Jetpack Markdown uses Markdown Extra to provide extended support that’s not included in standard Markdown—including tables, code blocks, inline HTML, footnotes and more. Although Markdown capabilities are also available in the full Jetpack, this plugin allows you to bypass the need to download it.
WP-Markdown
WP-Markdown enhances your WordPress blogging and writing experience by allowing you to write any post using Markdown.
This plugin also enables Markdown in comments and BBPress forums.
Typewriter
Typewriter replaces the visual editor on WordPress with a simple Markdown editor.
This plugin has the ability to remove the TinyMCE editor, using a Markdown specific text editor, and analyzes the output using Markdown Extra.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a writer, blogger, or programmer, Markdown is a great option. These WordPress plugins allow you to bring the power of Markdown straight to your site.
Additionally, the amount of plugins that offer Markdown capabilities is more extensive than this article, so please feel free to share some of your favorites in the comments below!
Which Markdown plugin do you prefer?
Marie Dodson is an editorial assistant at Torque. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biology and Society. She enjoys wine, good books, and travel.
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