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MacDownApp logomacdown

Open source Markdown editor for macOS.

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Top Related Projects

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📝A simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows.

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The Markdown-based note-taking app that doesn't suck.

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Not Just A Notepad! (golang + mongodb) http://leanote.org

Quick Overview

MacDown is an open-source Markdown editor for macOS, designed to provide a native and user-friendly experience for writing Markdown documents. It offers a clean interface with live preview, customizable themes, and support for various Markdown flavors and extensions.

Pros

  • Native macOS application with a polished, intuitive interface
  • Live preview with synchronous scrolling
  • Customizable themes for both editor and preview
  • Support for various Markdown flavors and extensions (e.g., GitHub Flavored Markdown, MathJax)

Cons

  • Limited to macOS platform, not available for Windows or Linux
  • Some advanced features may require a learning curve for new users
  • Occasional stability issues reported by some users
  • Limited collaboration features compared to web-based Markdown editors

Getting Started

  1. Visit the MacDown website: https://macdown.uranusjr.com/
  2. Click on the "Download MacDown" button
  3. Once downloaded, open the DMG file and drag the MacDown application to your Applications folder
  4. Launch MacDown from your Applications folder
  5. Start writing Markdown in the left pane and see the live preview in the right pane

To customize MacDown:

  1. Go to MacDown > Preferences (⌘,)
  2. Explore the various tabs to adjust editor settings, preview styles, and Markdown rendering options
  3. You can also install custom themes or create your own by placing CSS files in the appropriate directory

MacDown is ready to use out of the box, but taking some time to explore its preferences and customization options can greatly enhance your Markdown writing experience on macOS.

Competitor Comparisons

46,332

📝A simple and elegant markdown editor, available for Linux, macOS and Windows.

Pros of marktext

  • Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • More modern UI with real-time preview
  • Active development with frequent updates

Cons of marktext

  • Larger application size due to Electron framework
  • May have higher resource usage compared to native apps
  • Steeper learning curve for some users

Code comparison

Both projects are primarily written in JavaScript, but marktext uses Vue.js for its UI while macdown uses Objective-C. Here's a simple comparison of how they handle markdown parsing:

marktext:

import MarkdownIt from 'markdown-it'

const md = new MarkdownIt()
const result = md.render(markdownText)

macdown:

#import "MMMarkdown.h"

NSString *html = [MMMarkdown HTMLStringWithMarkdown:markdownText
                                            extensions:MMMarkdownExtensionsGitHubFlavored
                                               error:&error];

Summary

marktext offers a more feature-rich, cross-platform experience with a modern UI, while macdown provides a lightweight, native macOS application. The choice between them depends on user preferences for platform support, UI design, and resource usage.

22,543

The Markdown-based note-taking app that doesn't suck.

Pros of Notable

  • Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • More feature-rich with advanced note organization and tagging
  • Active development with frequent updates

Cons of Notable

  • Larger application size and resource usage
  • Steeper learning curve due to more complex features
  • Less native macOS integration compared to MacDown

Code Comparison

MacDown (Objective-C):

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.view.autoresizingMask = NSViewWidthSizable | NSViewHeightSizable;
    [self setupWebView];
}

Notable (TypeScript):

componentDidMount () {
  super.componentDidMount ();
  this.initializeEditor ();
  this.initializeNotes ();
}

Summary

MacDown is a lightweight, macOS-specific Markdown editor with a focus on simplicity and native integration. Notable offers a more comprehensive note-taking experience with cross-platform support and advanced organization features. MacDown may be preferable for users seeking a straightforward Markdown editor on macOS, while Notable caters to those requiring a feature-rich note-taking solution across multiple platforms. The code comparison highlights the different languages and approaches used in each project, with MacDown utilizing Objective-C for native macOS development and Notable employing TypeScript for cross-platform compatibility.

11,647

Not Just A Notepad! (golang + mongodb) http://leanote.org

Pros of Leanote

  • Full-featured note-taking application with web, desktop, and mobile clients
  • Supports collaboration and sharing features
  • Includes a built-in blog platform

Cons of Leanote

  • More complex setup and maintenance due to server requirements
  • Steeper learning curve for users accustomed to simpler Markdown editors
  • Less focused on pure Markdown editing experience

Code Comparison

MacDown (Objective-C):

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    self.view.autoresizingMask = NSViewWidthSizable | NSViewHeightSizable;
    [self setupWebView];
}

Leanote (Go):

func (this *NoteController) Index(notebook string, pageNumber int, sortField string, isAsc bool, tags []string) revel.Result {
    userId := this.GetUserId()
    page := this.GetPage(pageNumber)
    pageSize := 20
    notes, pageInfo, err := noteService.ListNotes(userId, notebook, tags, page, pageSize, sortField, isAsc)
    return this.RenderJson(notes)
}

MacDown is a lightweight Markdown editor for macOS, while Leanote is a more comprehensive note-taking and knowledge management system. MacDown focuses on providing a clean Markdown editing experience, whereas Leanote offers a broader range of features including synchronization, collaboration, and multi-platform support. The code snippets reflect their different focuses, with MacDown's code relating to UI setup and Leanote's handling note listing and API responses.

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README

MacDown

Total downloads Build Status

MacDown is an open source Markdown editor for OS X, released under the MIT License. The author stole the idea from Chen Luo’s Mou so that people can make crappy clones.

Visit the project site for more information, or download MacDown.app.zip directly from the latest releases page.

Install

Download, unzip, and drag the app to Applications folder. MacDown is also available through Homebrew Cask:

brew install --cask macdown

Screenshot

screenshot

License

MacDown is released under the terms of MIT License. You may find the content of the license here, or inside the LICENSE directory.

You may find full text of licenses about third-party components in the LICENSE directory, or the About MacDown panel in the application.

The following editor themes and CSS files are extracted from Mou, courtesy of Chen Luo:

  • Mou Fresh Air
  • Mou Fresh Air+
  • Mou Night
  • Mou Night+
  • Mou Paper
  • Mou Paper+
  • Tomorrow
  • Tomorrow Blue
  • Tomorrow+
  • Writer
  • Writer+
  • Clearness
  • Clearness Dark
  • GitHub
  • GitHub2

Development

Requirements

If you wish to build MacDown yourself, you will need the following components/tools:

  • OS X SDK (10.14 or later)
  • Git
  • Bundler

Note: Old versions of CocoaPods are not supported. Please use Bundler to execute CocoaPods, or make sure your CocoaPods is later than shown in Gemfile.lock.

Note: The Command Line Tools (CLT) should be unnecessary. If you failed to compile without it, please install CLT with

xcode-select --install

and report back.

An appropriate SDK should be bundled with Xcode 5 or later versions.

Environment Setup

After cloning the repository, run the following commands inside the repository root (directory containing this README.md file):

git submodule update --init
bundle install
bundle exec pod install
make -C Dependency/peg-markdown-highlight

and open MacDown.xcworkspace in Xcode. The first command initialises the dependency submodule(s) used in MacDown; the second one installs dependencies managed by CocoaPods.

Refer to the official guides of Git and CocoaPods if you need more instructions. If you run into build issues later on, try running the following commands to update dependencies:

git submodule update
bundle exec pod install

Translation

Please help translation on Transifex.

Transifex translation percentage

Discussion

Gitter

Join our Gitter channel if you have any problems with MacDown. Any suggestions are welcomed, too!

You can also file an issue directly on GitHub if you prefer so. But please, search first to make sure no-one has reported the same issue already before opening one yourself. MacDown does not update in your computer immediately when we make changes, so something you experienced might be known, or even fixed in the development version.

MacDown depends a lot on other open source projects, such as Hoedown for Markdown-to-HTML rendering, Prism for syntax highlighting (in code blocks), and PEG Markdown Highlight for editor highlighting. If you find problems when using those particular features, you can also consider reporting them directly to upstream projects as well as to MacDown’s issue tracker. I will do what I can if you report it here, but sometimes it can be more beneficial to interact with them directly.

Tipping

If you find MacDown suitable for your needs, please consider giving me a tip through PayPal. Or, if you prefer to buy me a drink personally instead, just send me a tweet when you visit Taipei, Taiwan, where I live. I look forward to meeting you!