TechNote: Investigating Markdown systems

TechNote-2, December 16, 2024: Investigating various Markdown systems and testing a few wiki implementations

Docmost interface (dark theme)

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Markdown systems

For several years, I’ve been enamored with — and using! — various text editing systems that employ Markdown for formatting. I simply find it easier and faster to type # Heading to get a level 1 title on a page rather than type the text, mouse up to find the right formatting option (sometimes hidden under a pulldown menu), and select that option. Markdown is a stable formatting system, unlike the big-name commercial word editing programs that can change how they apply formatting at any time.

Recently, I noticed that a lot of the information that needs to be communicated with others in my daily work is tabular data. I also know that at least three of my team members need to be able to make edits at any time. We’ve been using a WordPress site to do this — and occasionally Google Docs — but it gets a bit clunky and time-consuming at times. Seeking something a bit easier to use, I began thinking about using a Markdown editor/publisher for this.

Markdown editors I investigated

mdBook

I looked at mdBook which worked well until I started moving the internal structure around. Somewhere, mdBook got stuck on what the structure was instead of seeing what the structure is. I spent hours trying to make it work but never resolved the problem. Scratch mdBook.

Jekyll

Then I looked at Jekyll on GitHub. I just can’t seem to figure out the sidebar menu in Jekyll. Knowing my team members, that means they’ll find it unusable. Scratch Jekyll.

HackMD

HackMD looks very interesting. Free for up to three users! Pretty easy to enter information and create links. The interface is clean and attractive. Where HackMD fell short was the search function. In the free account system, the only thing that is searched is the titles of documents; the content of other documents in the collection are not searched. That’s a bit of a buzzkill. Apparently, search is better with a Prime plan, but a Prime Personal plan is $48/year. Four bucks a month isn’t really very much so HackMD remains on my list of possibilities.

HedgeDoc

HedgeDoc looks like the most promising variation, evolving from HackMD and CodiMD. It looks to be usable by multiple users. You can self-host it on your own machine/server, run it in a Docker container, or rent a small instance at PikaPods.com for $1.40/month. I have to say that less than a buck-and-a-half monthly to test HedgeDoc looks like a great way to test this platform.

Typora

Now I’m testing Typora. A 15-day free trial is offered; after that one license is $14.99. This is a one-time payment (yay!), not a subscription plan. A licensed user can use Typora on up to three devices. The interface is fast and clean. Typora falls short in not offering a multi-user system. Unfortunately, it looks like Typora only searches the open document, not the documents in a collection.

Zettler

Zettler is a nice program but it is a one-person show, so that’s out.

iA Writer

iA Writer is notable for its polish. The animated home page intro is particularly entertaining and informative. You can use it on multiple computers, including Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Windows platforms. The license costs $29.99 and includes minor updates:

Purchase is like buying software in a box. You get the current version, designed for a specific operating system and its version. Minor updates are free, while major updates may incur costs. The timeline for updates is uncertain. iA Writer experienced nearly a decade of free updates, so you might get lucky—or not.

(Their companion product, iA Presenter, is awfully slick. If you watch the introduction, it makes creating a presentation look very easy. However, iA Presenter is only available for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone platforms.)

Obsidan

Obsidian is also quite polished but looks like it is focused on the solo writing experience.

MarkText

MarkText is fast with a very simple interface that promotes writing focus and it is free. Unfortunately, it also seems to support a single user.

Google Docs

But guess what? Google Docs now supports Markdown and since GDocs can be worked on by multiple parties, this seems like a simple solution. GDocs was the surprise find in my research.

Joplin

My primary note-taking app is Joplin, with my Joplin files saved to OneDrive. Joplin supports Markdown. Joplin also allows collaboration through sharing although I’ve not tried that feature.

Simplenote

I also use Simplenote for note taking but it isn’t designed to be a collaborative platform. Nevertheless, I was surprised to learn that Simplenote supports Markdown and that you can publish notes to the web. I made two notes with Markdown and published them as a simple test. The second note is linked from the first note. Start here to see how it looks: WACD Resolutions. For very simple Markdown use, Simplenote works.

Conclusions

Bottom line for me? It looks like Google Docs will be an easy solution. I also like the looks of HackMD and HedgeDoc. I’m testing HedgeDoc now in a PikaPods.com instance.

But what about wikis?

Markdown is a syntax for formatting content. A key for me is providing a collaborative environment. (What is a wiki? See Wikipedia’s description!)

For a wiki, a fundamental decision point is whether to use a database as a backend or the computer’s file system. For example, Wikipedia is based on MediaWiki which uses a MySQL (or MariaDB) backend. DokuWiki, on the other hand, does not use a database system, instead relying on the file system.

What does this have to do with Markdown? Many wikis use Markdown and since a wiki is designed to be edited by the community it serves, it is inherently collaborative. I like the overall simplicity of DokuWiki so I’ll test it.

Since I also installed Docker on my homelab server, I’m also running Docmost in a Docker container as a test. I don’t have much time using Docker to feel comfortable with the stability of Docker containers, but my guess is Docmost will run just fine in a container.

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