
StackEdit: A free, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown - wqfeng
http://benweet.github.io/stackedit/#
======
Shank
(Context: Using ChromeOS)

The biggest flaw I see in this (and in several alternatives suggested below)
is that it doesn't support native browser spell check because it uses Ace (and
in the case of alternatives, they do text rendering that isn't native and
isn't detected as text). I use Markdown for taking outline based notes - and
one of the biggest stopgaps is that I can spell check my work to make sure I'm
not screwing up my own notes as I type during a lecture.

In that regard, the only thing I've found that meets this criteria isn't a
Markdown editor, it's Writebox -- [https://write-
box.appspot.com/](https://write-box.appspot.com/)

~~~
jelled
My favorite online markdown editor
[https://draftin.com/](https://draftin.com/) seems to work fine with native
spell check.

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nathancahill
Very slick. Nice touch adding the delay between scrolling and moving the other
page. Your logo looks like StackOverflow's, is there a relationship between
the two? Otherwise I'd consider changing it.

Also, the save/download buttons (the first thing I look for in an app like
this) are hidden behind a sliding panel. Move them front and center!

~~~
bloometal
I had the same question too. The footnote #1 states that >"StackEdit is a
free, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used
by Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites."

~~~
nathancahill
Based on the same library that another website uses doesn't warrant the use of
a similar logo though. It was confusing to the point of "Oh look, a
StackOverflow button, I wonder if it posts to StackOverflow"

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joeblau
The best M↓ editor I've used is Haroo Pad[1]. I like it because you don't need
to visit a webpage to use it which makes it ideal for offline idea dumps while
you're on a plane for example.

[1] - [http://pad.haroopress.com/](http://pad.haroopress.com/)

~~~
chavesn
I've never seen that one, but it looks pretty similar to the one I use, Mou --
[http://mouapp.com/](http://mouapp.com/)

~~~
joeblau
I actually started off with Mou, but I've found Haroo to work a bit better for
my needs. It's got better shortcuts (although I don't need them) the interface
is a bit nicer and it's got more customization. Plus since Haroo is built
using node-webkit, it runs cross platform.

~~~
IbJacked
Much the same, here. For some reason the font rendering on my Ubuntu machine
seems sub-par (only in the editor, the preview pane looks good). The Windows
and Mac versions don't have that problem.

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cheshire137
I find it strange that the icon used is so similar to StackOverflow's if this
isn't an app built by the same people.

~~~
_pferreir_
I asked myself the same question. At first I thought it was some kind of
editor using the Stack Overflow Markdown flavor. It's really confusing.

~~~
cruise02
It is an editor using PageDown, the Stack Overflow Markdown flavor.

~~~
danpalmer
I still think it's a bit dodgy. If I used GitHub's form of Markdown for a
similar project, I wouldn't think it acceptable to call it "MarkHub" and give
it a logo of a Septocat in a black circle.

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Jonovono
What I want to see is an open source markdown editor that renders the preview
as you type where you type (not side by side).

For an example check out
[http://mangomarkdown.com/](http://mangomarkdown.com/) (which powers
foldingtext).

There are a few projects that do this, but not open source, that I can find!
It might not be that hard to change the current ones that go side by side to
do this.

(I am planning to work on one, but have not gotten around to doing much, and
will probably take a different approach to it than this)

~~~
guynamedloren
Have you seen [http://prose.io/](http://prose.io/)?

Looks similar to mangomarkdown, and it's open source. I'm using it in a
project I'm working on and loving it.

Edit: actually, I think I like the mango style even better. Didn't realize
this before, but the markdown tags are hidden after you type - pretty neat.
(My initial test was a few heading tags, which still display the '#' in the
margin).

~~~
Jonovono
Oh, cool! I have heard of this, but I did not know they did the rendering like
this. Thanks!

edit: Ya, I still like mongo and how they make the header kinda fade out, have
support for checkboxes (well folding text does), and when you are on a
unordered list and press enter it automatically makes a new one. Mango has
just made a codemirror mode to handle this it looks like.

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cgcardona
Nicely done! Throughout the day I'm very often jotting down notes in markdown
and then pasting them into a Gist to share with someone.

The frustrating part is not seeing how it's going to be formatted while I'm
actually taking the notes. This app could solve that problem. I'll give it a
try this week.

Some questions/comments:

1\. What are you using for the popover tour that appears the first time
someone visits the page?

2\. The logo looks _very_ much like the Stack Overflow logo[1]. Are you
associated with that group? If not I'd consider changing it.

3\. I'm familiar with but haven't used Epic Editor[2] by Oscar Godson and
friends[3]. Have you checked it out by any chance?

Again, great work and I'll be giving this a try over the next week or so.

[1]
[http://blog.moovweb.com/content/uploads/2013/09/stackoverflo...](http://blog.moovweb.com/content/uploads/2013/09/stackoverflow-
logo.png)

[2] [http://epiceditor.com/](http://epiceditor.com/)

[3] [http://epiceditor.com/#credits](http://epiceditor.com/#credits)

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jsilence
Very well done!

Would love to see it integrated with Etherpad somehow so that several people
could colaborate on the same document.

We're often using Etherpad to collect notes during meetings. Converting them
to a nice formatting in real time would be nice for those who are only
following the document.

Synchronization with ownclowd would be nice as well.

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laacz
I was searching for the best way to edit online content and Markdown was
obvious choice. Until I saw what Medium has done. I believe that WYSIWYG is
the only way. You still get emphasys on text but with no need to learn any
kind of markup no matter how human readable it is.

On the other hand Medium's approach is tied to their visual style and design,
it does not support many things I'd wish it would. Still, I'm rooting for
WYSIWYG in the future.

[edit] Sorry, forgot to add that nevertheless this Markdown editor is
impressive.

~~~
oneeyedpigeon
But the web is not WYSIWYG, so you're really just editing text in a bespoke
'format' layered on top. Fair enough if that works for you, but it's important
to recognise this and understand the drawbacks.

~~~
laacz
I agree partially. For most people there is no need to see web as any
particular format or markup.

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pioul
Since we're dropping links here and there, here's the also free and open
source Markdown editor I created. It's also minimalist, and unflavored:
[http://markdown.pioul.fr/](http://markdown.pioul.fr/)

The source is on GitHub:
[https://github.com/pioul/MinimalistOnlineMarkdownEditor](https://github.com/pioul/MinimalistOnlineMarkdownEditor)

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m_mueller
I quite like it, the UI is intuitive and functional.

Sort of related: Is there a library or editor that could be used to create
both markup for the web as well as export to LaTeX syntax? My use case:
Software documentation where I'd like to have both a Wiki as well as creating
a professional looking PDF document (or even print it for the old fashioned
folks). That sort of functionality would be worth paying for in my case.

~~~
clienthunter
pandoc

~~~
drifkin
Also check out gitit ([http://gitit.net](http://gitit.net)), written by the
same author as pandoc. It's a git-backed wiki that uses pandoc to let you
write in a variety of formats. Markdown + latex for math works well for taking
notes in a wiki format. The content is stored as flat files in the repo that
you can just export as pdfs using pandoc if you wanted to.

~~~
clienthunter
After a few weeks of trying to get Github's gollum gem to do what I want, this
might be what I've been looking for.

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jstalin
Markdown needs nested ordered lists. I would like to convert legal documents
to markdown, but I can't. For example:

1\. Item one

2\. Item two

    
    
        a. Subitem a
    
        b. Subitem b

~~~
wazari972
isn't that an implementation issue? your example doesn't work indeed in the
StackEdit link, but

1\. Item one

1\. Item two

    
    
       1. Subitem a
    
       1. Subitem b
    

does work, so that let me think that you just need to improve the parser to
consider "a b c" as a valid ordered list, and maybe "i ii iii" at the same
time?

(I replaced a, b and 2 by 1 to force the automatic numbering)

~~~
jstalin
Yes, that would be nice if it parsed correctly. I need ordered lists that have
capital letters, capital roman numerals, lowercase letters, numbers, and
lowercase roman numerals.

~~~
Terretta
In all legal documents we work with, "legal numbering" is like 1.2.1.3. Here's
CSS for that:

[http://lane.net.nz/blog/dave/creating-legal-list-
numbering-o...](http://lane.net.nz/blog/dave/creating-legal-list-numbering-
only-using-css)

For your Digits, Roman Numerals, and Alpha numbering (mixed symbols), here's
CSS for that:

[http://css.wikidot.com/cssnippet:easy-
outline](http://css.wikidot.com/cssnippet:easy-outline)

Use Markdown to make your list's HTML, use CSS to style it.

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twog
We recently just launched a very early dev preview of our markdown editor. It
integrates directly with github. I would love some feedback
[https://alpha.banyan.co/](https://alpha.banyan.co/)

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laurent123456
I'm curious what are all the "Application Cache Progress event" showing up in
the console? There's a different URL for each event but it doesn't seem to
correspond to an actual HTTP request?

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tonetheman
Very cool and really well done. I really wished it would only write in a
single spot on dropbox not the whole thing... I found the source and might
change that in my own fork. Very very cool stuff!

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bowerbird
this arena is getting kind of interesting, what with all of the new tools
being mounted, and the variations, in terms of interface, wysiwyg-ness,
storage locations, online/offline wrinkles, auto-save-timer idiosyncrasies,
and so on... plus, as a long-time observer of markdown, there are a lot of
butts that are going to get bitten when people discover the inconsistencies
and edge-cases that arise between the different flavors. so it's gonna be
quite fascinating to see the shakeouts that'll happen.

-bowerbird

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zengr
This is good! I have been using stackoverflow's wmd which I host on heroku:
[http://wmd.heroku.com](http://wmd.heroku.com)

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bachback
Ah, it's open. took me a while:
[https://github.com/benweet/stackedit](https://github.com/benweet/stackedit)

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jwarkentin
This is awesome! I've wanted something exactly like this for ages for
publishing to my blog! You are my hero - at least for the night :p

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bvancea
I just love the LateX support. I was actually just looking for something
similar.

Great work, the editor is pretty impressing even without that feature.

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dtim
This is amazing.

