Do you speak Markdown?
If you have never heard this word before, no need to fear friend!
Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax. Its design allows it to be converted to many output formats, but the original tool by the same name only supports HTML. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor. [..] – Source Wikipedia
What we can deduce from this, is that by learning the basics of Markdown, anyone can create splendid static Web pages without having to know anything about HTML or CSS. Ain’t that swell?
With a minimalistic but powerful set of markups, it is quite naturally that Markdown ended up being the default markup language for many modern Web application.
Markdown and Wiki syntax are the two most common markup languages used to simplify HTML writing. They empower non-tech cybernautes to create and edit formatted HTML pages easily.
Real-time, markdown-based text editor
NOMAGIC is thrilled to add CodiMD to its catalogue of services (users only). CodiMD lets you create real-time collaborative markdown notes on all platforms via your Web browser.
CodiMD is the free software version of HackMD. It was the original Version of HackMD. The HackMD team initiated CodiMD and provided a solid code base. Due to the need of paying bills, a fork was created and called HackMD EE, which is a SaaS (Software as a Service) product available at hackmd.io.
While similar on several points to Etherpad-lite, another great collaborative text editor (which we recently updated), CodiMD comes with enough smart feature to be an excellent alternative and the 2 solutions complete each others.
For example, CodiMD will let you integrate many more things than just text in your notes. Oh and the previous contains living examples of those features, so we encourage you to check it out! Overall CodiMD comes with many more possibilities of a lean output if you are willing to discover and use Markdown (which is also used on Turtl, Kanboard and Gitlab). It has some pitfalls though, such as the impossibility to invite outsiders to a private note (with password access, like Etherpad+mypads).
keeping it all together
Though nowhere as organised as Turtl, CodiMD will keep your notes and provides tagging so that you can mark your notes to find them later on (you should really look into this if you start using the service extensively).
How do I choose?
As discussed, CodiMD relates to both Etherpad-lite and Turtl. Based on our testing we have created the following flowchart from the excellent draw.io website to help you determine which tool should be favoured depending on the use you are planning to make of it or your requirements. It was quite fun to draw that diagram and show that indeed CodiMD is a great complement to our catalogue:
That’s it for today, time to jump in and start using CodiMD!
