When I first started studying design, I heard a few times:
Hey, you should learn how to use a drawing tablet for everything; it's faster and way more ergonomic than a mouse.
Not a tablet just for drawing, but as an only alternative to a mouse. Overall, I ignored this advice, as you get so used to using a mouse for so many years that using another device like a drawing tablet just took too much effort to re-learn habits with it. As I started working full-time as a designer, I wished I was better at using a drawing tablet, but I couldn't afford to dedicate the time to learning with it to utilize it to its fullest.
I say all that because I also have regretted not learning about markdown text sooner (As a side note, this whole website was written with markdown).
What is Markdown?
Markdown has existed for a long time but started to gain popularity in 2004. You can read more about the history of markdown here if you are interested. But basically, it's a form of text formatting without the need of a word processor, and loads of things use it.
Why use Markdown?
Exporting
Because markdown is such a well-supported text format with a markdown editor, you can export to nearly any file format you would need: PDF, rich-text, or even full HTML web-pages.
Speed
If you are writing HTML pages, writing in markdown can save you time by not worrying about closing tags. No mouse is required as it would be in some text-editors to click bold or create a table. But not only that, but the final document is easy to read as the formatting doesn't get in the way (unlike actual HTML)!
Archive and Collaberation
If you've ever created a Microsoft Word document, and years later tried to open it up only to discover that you don't have it installed anymore because you switched to Google Docs or Apple Pages... well, fear not; because markdown is system agnostic, which means it isn't actually tied to anything you can open it up in something as simple as a text editor (e.g. notepad.exe or TextEdit.app) or a specific markdown editor
How to learn Markdown
Chances are you probably already know some of it and don't even know it. If you've ever written a message and tried to *emphasize* it by adding Asterix to a word, then you already know a basic markdown.
You can watch two minutes of this video to get the basics:
tip
An easy to follow syntax guide is here: https://docs.github.com/en/github/writing-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax
Once you know a bit of markdown, apps you use every day probably already support it to varying extents; Slack, Discord, Facebook Messenger, and lots of desktop email clients. Wikipedia even uses a modified Markdown syntax they call wikitext.
Markdown Apps
- Mac/Windows/Linux (Free): https://typora.io/
- Mac/Windows/Linux (Free):https://notable.app/
- Mac/iPad/iOS ($15/yr): https://bear.app/
- Web Browser extension: https://markdown-here.com/get.html
- Mac/Windows/Linux (Free): https://obsidian.md/ (with powerful backlinks)