Markdown Editor

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight way to format text using plain characters instead of buttons and menus. You write # Heading for a title, **bold** for emphasis and - item for a list, and the formatting renders automatically. Created to be readable even in its raw form, Markdown has become the default language for READMEs, documentation, notes apps, chat tools and static-site content.

A Markdown editor with live preview shows your raw Markdown on one side and the rendered result on the other, so you get instant feedback as you write. This tool does exactly that, and lets you export the result as clean HTML or a Markdown file — all in your browser, with nothing uploaded.

How to use it

1. Type or paste Markdown in the left pane. Click Sample to load an example if you want to see the syntax in action.
2. Watch the preview on the right update live as you type.
3. Use the toolbar (bold, italic, heading, link, list, code) to insert Markdown at the cursor — handy when you do not remember the exact syntax.
4. Copy HTML to grab the rendered HTML source, or Download your work as a .md or .html file.
5. Clear resets the editor when you want a blank slate.

On wide screens the editor and preview sit side by side; on narrow screens they stack, so it works on a phone too.

Common Markdown syntax

These cover the vast majority of everyday writing:

Fenced code blocks use three backticks before and after the code, and a language name after the opening fence enables syntax context. Headings, lists and quotes can be nested to build up structured documents.

GitHub-flavored Markdown

Plain Markdown is small on purpose, so GitHub added a widely adopted superset called GitHub-flavored Markdown (GFM). This editor renders GFM, which adds the features people actually reach for:

• Tables, written with pipes and dashes (like the one above).
• Fenced code blocks with language hints.
• Task lists using - [ ] and - [x] for checkable items.
• Automatic links and sensible single-line-break handling, so the preview matches what you see on GitHub.

Because GFM is the dialect behind READMEs and pull requests, this tool doubles as a faithful preview before you commit documentation to a repository.

Why the preview is sanitized

Markdown allows raw HTML, which is powerful but risky: a snippet copied from an untrusted source could contain a <script> tag or an onclick handler designed to run code. Before rendering, this editor passes the generated HTML through a small sanitizer that removes script, style and similar elements, strips inline event handlers, and neutralizes javascript: URLs. That keeps the live preview safe to use even with pasted content.

It is a safety net, not a fortress. If you are building a system that renders Markdown from many untrusted users, pair this kind of front-end cleaning with a hardened server-side sanitizer. For writing your own documents and previewing them, it does exactly what you need.

Use cases

• READMEs and docs. Draft a project README, see it rendered the way GitHub will show it, then download the .md.
• Notes and drafts. Markdown is fast to write and stays readable as plain text, so it is ideal for personal notes you might reuse anywhere.
• Blog and CMS content. Many publishing systems accept Markdown; compose here and paste it in, or export the HTML directly — and if you're writing to a length target, the word & character counter tracks the draft as it grows.
• Email and issue templates. Many tools support a Markdown subset; this is a quick way to format a message before pasting it.
• Learning Markdown. The live preview and toolbar make it easy to learn the syntax by watching what each character does.

It works offline and locally

Once the page has loaded, the editor needs no connection. Rendering happens with a Markdown parser running in your browser, so your text never travels over the network. That means you can draft something sensitive — internal docs, private notes, an unpublished post — without it touching a server. Nothing is stored, and refreshing or closing the tab wipes the slate clean.

Tips for writing better Markdown

• Keep one idea per line in the source. It makes diffs in version control small and readable, even though the rendered output flows normally.
• Use reference-style links for documents with many repeated URLs to keep the prose uncluttered.
• Prefer headings over bold for structure. Real headings build a document outline; bold text does not — and a case converter makes it quick to enforce consistent title casing across them.
• Preview before you publish. Different renderers vary slightly, so checking your content in a GFM preview catches most surprises before they reach readers.
• Export early. Download your .md as you go so a closed tab never costs you your draft.

Free, login-free and private

No account, no upload, no ads in your way. Write Markdown, watch it render, and export exactly the format you need. Everything runs on your machine, so the only copy of your work is the one you choose to save.