Question

On GitHub, several projects have README.md files. It seems like a simple format file to express text and pictures.

I guess there is an editor or syntax explanation somewhere.

Where can I find an introduction to .md files?

I guess this is evidence in favor of using the .markdown extension instead, though it's so awfully long... — May 22 '12 at 19:30
is a nice application for MarkDown editing in Windows. It presents you with the preview of the edits. — Aug 31 '13 at 20:23
User can try , a Chrome extension for editing and viewing markdown file inside the browser. — Jan 20 '14 at 6:48
Full guide to help you start with markdown: . You should try to write markdown with a way to live visualizing the result (with an application like ). Did you know that stackoverflow post and comment syntax is based on markdown ? :) — Jul 4 '14 at 10:07

score 548 · Accepted Answer

The extensions .md and .markdown are just text files written in syntax. If you have a Readme.md in your repo, GitHub will show the contents on the home page of your repo. Read the documentation:

You can edit the Readme.md file in GitHub itself. Click on Readme.md, you will find an edit button. You can preview your changes and even commit them from there.

Since it is a text file, Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac) or any other text editor can be used to edit and modify it. Specialized editors exist that automatically parse the markdown as you type it and generate a preview, while others apply various syntax coloring and decorations to the displayed text. In both cases though, the saved file is still a readable text file.

If you want to create an md file with preview and if you prefer not to install any special editors, you can use online editors like and . They provide live preview. You can also export your files to or .

On Windows you might want to use WordPad to make use of the formatting for an easier read. — Nov 8 '14 at 16:21
@GO'Rilla, IMHO avoid WordPad like the plague unless writing little notes to yourself that you will never share with anyone. What it adds to the .txt file can wreak havoc on other editors (vim, Notepad++, etc). Much better to work in plain text when dealing with .txt and use a word processor or Acrobat for non .txt textual files like .doc and .pdf. — Mar 24 '15 at 20:56
can we add images or through link in .md file... is it possible? — Jan 22 at 4:54

score 68 · Answer 2 · 2012-05-18 10:44:44Z

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If you are looking for an editor, I suggest you use . It is a simple browser-based text editor that can render Markdown on the fly.

However, if you prefer an app, and you are using OS X, you could try . It is quite good and full of examples.

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May 18 '12 at 10:44

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It seems to be back to life? –

Mar 7 '13 at 15:04

Mou is a nice tool ! –

Jul 22 '13 at 10:20

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works nicely on Window. –

Aug 31 '13 at 20:20

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I'd like suggest , another really cool browser-based text editor. It also allows you to link Dropbox, Github and Google drive. –

Feb 6 '14 at 15:01

The Notepad link in this answer triggers a RAR file download. Why is there no webpage, didn't you say it was a browser-based editor? –

Jul 31 '14 at 3:31

1,273 5 23 · Answer 3 · 2014-05-26 16:27:00Z

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Github's has a for markdown files. The keyboard shortcut is CTRL+SHIFT+M.

It can be activated from the editor using the CTRL+SHIFT+M key-binding and is currently enabled for .markdown, .md, .mkd, .mkdown, and .ron files.

enter image description here

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May 26 '14 at 16:27

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score 14 · Answer 4 · 2013-06-04 09:59:12Z

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Extension '.md' refers to Markdown files.

If you don't want to install an app to read them in that format, you can simply use TextEdit or Xcode itself to open it on Mac.

On any other OS, you should be able to open it using any text editor, though as expected, you will not see it in Markdown format.

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Jun 4 '13 at 9:59

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Actually, you will see it in Markdown format. You won't see it as bold, italics, indents and code blocks, though.–

Oct 4 '13 at 14:08

19.2k 7 48 88 · Answer 5 · 2012-07-28 21:36:22Z

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Yup, just . Including a README file in your repository will help others quickly determine what it's about and how to install it. Very helpful to include in your repos.

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Jul 28 '12 at 21:36

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Downvoted. By “one” in “including one in your repository” you should mean “a README file in any format”, not just “a README.md file”. But the question is asking about “.md” files in general, not about READMEs in general. So this answer is irrelevant to the question. Also, the ambiguity with “one” could make a reader think that Markdown READMEs are necessarily better than other READMEs, which is wrong. –

Dec 23 '12 at 6:36

I made the change specified in the previous comment, because it makes sense and I think it could help avoid confusion. I don't think this is a very good answer, though, as it adds nothing new that's relevant. This question isn't about README's, it is about the .md extension. There's no reason to add this answer six weeks after the accepted answer provided the same information. –

Oct 2 '13 at 18:36

1,744 3 14 35 · Answer 6 · 2014-02-14 15:18:19Z

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is an online markdown editor with the ability to save to Google Drive and DropBox.

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Feb 14 '14 at 15:18

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17.6k 9 83 95 · Answer 7 · 2014-03-06 06:32:42Z

Markdown is just a text file which optionally has .md, or .markdown extensions. It can be converted to HTML. To know syntax of Markdown, Check out

.

You can use any text editor for markdown. If you are sublime text user, you can check out Markdown Preview plugin which will display the rendered markdown content in browser and updates whenever you change the markdown file.

Some of the online markdown editor

score 4 · Answer 8 · 2012-10-04 17:06:57Z

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will also display MD on the mac.

and here is a to display them when you preview them.

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Oct 4 '12 at 17:06

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34 8 · Answer 9 · 2014-05-29 19:37:09Z

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is a very nice online tool for editing Markdown syntax

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May 29 '14 at 19:37

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101 1 3 · Answer 10 · 2014-09-04 17:56:50Z

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There is an ongoing effort to standardize Markdown and as of now, this is probably the best place to learn about markdown:

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Sep 4 '14 at 17:56

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15 Answers