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Sometimes we add a file readme.txt in our folder for notes or things to know about.

Using Markdown, it is pretty easy to make it into a nicely formatted document. Can we write a README.md and can use any free and reliable app and use the Mac to read it?

(So far I know Atom has a Markdown-preview which can be activated by using the keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + M, but if there is a one click preview app, it'd be the best. There is a Quick Look plug-in, but I am wondering if I should alter my OS? If there is a trustworthy app that can do it, it'd be best).

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  • does it take up a lot of memory? if installing Xcode it could take up a lot of hard drive space too
    – nonopolarity
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 9:47
  • no it stays below safari for me, if you're just editing. only building an app causes it to go over a gb. but yeah, 6 gigs for a markdown editor is expensive.
    – anki
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 9:53
  • @ankii not directly... some of those are paid apps and if it can be pointed out which one is trustworthy it'd be best... (if perhaps in the future Preview can show it, it'd be pretty cool)
    – nonopolarity
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 10:29

2 Answers 2

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  • Xcode : if you already use it.

  • Sublime text: https://www.sublimetext.com you can also install plugins suitable for you. It is much smaller than Xcode, doesn't exceed 100 MB, despite several packages.

    Install packages using cmd+shift+p and then typing "install package". Then type the name of the package, it would show you the webpage of the developer where you can find the documentation.

  • VSCode: with some extensions it can work.
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  • I installed Markdown-preview on SublimeText 3, except I can't find how to toggle it?
    – nonopolarity
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 9:56
  • cmd + shift+ P ? yeah learning it might take some time. facelessuser.github.io/MarkdownPreview/usage
    – anki
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 9:59
  • it seems it convert the file to HTML and let a browser display it? a little bit indirect... but functional
    – nonopolarity
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 10:01
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There are a plenty of free and lightweight 3rd party apps for macOS which you can use to easily preview Markdown files. You can google for Markdown editors for macOS.

I use MacDown, a free and lightweight Markdown editor for macOS, which shows the raw markdown and the HTML render side-by-side. The Markdown render gets updated in realtime as you edit the raw Markdown file.

enter image description here

If you prefer using command-line, you can install the original Markdown Perl script via Homebrew by running the following command:

brew install markdown

Once installed, you can quickly generate the HTML render of a README.md file by running the following command:

markdown README.md > README.html

Which can be easily previewed in any Web browser.

P.S.: In-fact, you can have a workflow where you have the Markdown file open in any text editor, Terminal open with the current directory changed to the one where the Markdown file is saved, and the HTML file, once generated, loaded into a Web browser. Every time you edit and save the Markdown file, simply re-run the command-line above, and reload the HTML file in the Web browser.

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