6 free Markdown (.md) WYSIWYG desktop Editors – Part3

A practical guide to Markdown Editors for writing GitHub Readme.md files.

Abstract: A practical guide to 6 free WYSIWYG Markdown desktop Editors for writing GitHub Readme.md files on the Windows platform (as of September 2024).

1 Busy .NET/C# programmer doing Markdown (.md) files

I am a busy .NET/C# programmer who decided to dive a bit into the Markdown markup language world.

1.1 Markdown editors tested

Here are the tools/editors tested:

• GitHub.com site (website, but a reference for rendering)
• Haroopad editor (Windows desktop app)
• Visual Studio Code + Extensions (Windows desktop app)
• KeenWrite editor (Windows desktop app)
• Zettlr editor (Windows desktop app)
• Texts editor (Windows desktop app)
• Notepad++ + Plugin (Windows desktop app)

1.2 Articles in this series

For practical reasons, I will organize this text into several articles:

• 6 free Markdown (.md) WYSIWYG desktop Editors – Part1
• 6 free Markdown (.md) WYSIWYG desktop Editors – Part2
• 6 free Markdown (.md) WYSIWYG desktop Editors – Part3

2 KeenWrite Editor

2.1 Basic tool info

Product name: KeenWrite

Where to get it:
https://keenwrite.com/

License:
Freeware/BSD 2-Clause License

Version tested:
Java version
KeenWrite version 3.5.11
Copyright 2016-2024 White Magic Software, Ltd.

Install instructions:
https://keenwrite.com/
Download Java version of app
Then install:
https://download.oracle.com/java/22/archive/jdk-22.0.1_windows-x64_bin.exe
Command line:
java -jar --enable-preview KEENWRITE.jar
(create .bat file)

2.2 KeenWrite Editor functionality

Here is the main window:

The split window showing the editor and preview is standard today for Markdown editors.

Here is a menu option to make bold some text

2.3 KeenWrite Rendering functionality

Rendering/preview functionality is important to see the results of your work and correct any errors before publishing on GitHub or similar.

KeenWrite Preview. Here we see how text is rendered:

KeenWrite Preview. Here we see how the picture is rendered:

KeenWrite Preview. Here we see how the code is rendered. Note it failed on code syntax coloring.

KeenWrite Preview. Here we see how the non-standard markup is rendered. It looks like it supports some non-standard features.

2.4 KeenWrite Editor Comments

• The split window showing the editor and preview is standard today for Markdown editors.
• It has a toolbar, but not with all the options. After a few months of not writing .md files, one can not remember syntax and that is why help from tools is welcome. I would like to see more buttons, H1..H6 etc.
• Java app is a bit slower than previous apps.
• Application GUI looked user-friendly and visually similar to any other text editor
• Regarding Markdown rendering, it looks like it supports some non-standard features.

3 Zettlr editor

3.1 Basic tool info

Product name: Zettlr

Where to get it:
https://www.zettlr.com/download

License: Free and Open Source Software

Version tested:
Zettlr 3.2.0 for Windows

3.2 Zettlr editor functionality

Here is the main window:

I do not see a traditional split window for one document, but one window. It can show split windows for different documents, but not the editor/preview combination.

Preview is available as a Print option when the document is rendered.

3.3 Zettlr Editor Comments

• I do not see a traditional split window for one document, but one window. It can show split windows for different documents, but not editor/preview the combination.
• Preview is available as a Print option when the document is rendered.
• It seems that is LaTeX style editor, where documents are first written and then compiled to be rendered
• The toolbar is a bit humble
• Without seeing a split window and a good toolbar, I decided not to look into this editor anymore.

4 Texts editor

4.1 Basic tool info

Product name: Texts

Where to get it:
http://www.texts.io/

License: Freeware

Version tested:
Texts 1.5 for Windows

4.2 Texts editor functionality

Here is the main window:

I do not see a traditional split window for one document, but one window.

4.3 Texts Editor Comments

• I do not see a traditional split window for one document, but one window.
• Preview is the default view and raw text view is not possible.
• It has a simple toolbar
• Without seeing a split window and a good toolbar, I decided not to look into this editor anymore.

5 Notepad++ + Plugin

5.1 Basic tool info

Product name:
Notepad++
Plugin NppMarkdownPanel

Where to get it:
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Plugin: inside Plugin Admin

License: Freeware/Donationware.

Version tested:
Notepad++ Version 8.6.9
Plugin NppMarkdownPanel 0.7.3

5.2 Notepad++ Editor functionality

Here is the main window:

The split window showing the editor and preview is standard today for Markdown editors.

I didn’t see any support for editing in the form of a toolbar or context right-click.

5.3 Notepad++ Rendering functionality

Rendering/preview functionality is important to see the results of your work and correct any errors before publishing on GitHub or similar.

Notepad++ Preview. Here we see how text is rendered:

Notepad++ Preview. Here we see how the picture is rendered:

Notepad++ Preview. Here we see how the code is rendered. Note it did some code syntax coloring.

Notepad++ Preview. Here we see how the non-standard markup is rendered. It looks like it supports some non-standard features.

5.4 Notepad++ Comments

• Actually, Notepad++ does not support .md files natively, so we installed Plugins to handle .md files. This evaluation is based on available Plugins.
• The split window showing the editor and preview is standard today for Markdown editors.
• I didn’t see any support for editing .md files in the form of a toolbar or context right-click.
• Windows application felt well, responded fast, and was stable in my test
• Application GUI looked user-friendly and visually similar to any other text editor
• Regarding Markdown rendering, it looks like it supports similar non-standard features that GitHub is supporting. Rendering/preview functionality is important to see the results of your work and correct any errors before publishing on GitHub or similar.
• I am a great user of Notepad++ and it will be useful for previewing, but not for editing.

6 Conclusion

Every developer has his/her own favorite text editor, so that will probably apply to the world of Markdown editors.
I personally, from the above presented FREEWARE tools, liked Haroopad editor and will use it together with Visual Studio Code, since that is a tool I am already using.

I focused this discussion/presentation only on FREEWARE tools since I think it is a waste of time and energy to obtain skills with one “community edition” tool in the home environment and then need to learn/use another tool in the work/company environment because project budget does not allow for buying of “licensed edition” tool that is going to be used infrequently.

7 References

[1] Markdown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown