I was a Windows user since the day I started using computers, but over a six months back, I switched to OS X. I loved it and prefer it to Windows, but there’s one thing which bugged me, and that’s there is no good free blogging client for Mac. Sure, there’s MarsEdit but it costs over 40$, which I think is really costly.
Windows on the other hand has Live Writer – Microsoft’s own blogging client which is pretty good. This is where Markdown comes in, making blogging on Mac awesome.
So what’s Markdown?
It’s a light weight markup language which converts plain text into HTML.
It started as a project by John Gruber – famous for his blog, Daring Fireball.
The syntax is pretty easy to learn, for example, if you put a # before a sentence, Markdown turns it into a h1. Put ##, it’ll be turned into a h2.
To make a word bold, wrap it in two asterisks – like this.
These are just a few examples, the full syntax is available on Daring Fireball.
Blogging should be solely about writing stuff and not code, that’s why Markdown is ideal for it.
Mou for Mac
Markdown clients are in plenty for OS X (and iOS) and that’s apparent as Markdown is made by Gruber himself. I’ve tried many of them, but Mou impressed me with its minimal interface and features while still being free.
The concept is simple, you write marked text on the left column of app and it shows the live preview on right. After you’re done, you can post to Tumblr or Scriptogr.am if your blog is hosted there, otherwise you can just copy the HTML (that’s what I do).
In the preferences, you can change fonts, default CSS applied and theme used.
Mou can also be great for web developers who want to quickly write HTML without any fuss.
Link: Mou