A markdown document is plain text but includes some simple formatting markup that can be interpreted to display the file in different styles for components such as headings, lists, URLs, code blocks, etc.
- Generic Markdown
- Getting started - including how it works
- Github flavored markdown
Markdown documents have the file extension .md. We will later also look at Rmarkdown, which is a flavor of markdown specific to R.
You can use any text editor to create a markdown document but it's good to have a text editor that can display the rendered markdown in real time or toggle quickly between source text and formatted output. RStudio has a built in markdown editor that can do this. It has both a source text view and a visual editing view (you need the latest RStudio version).
I don't like to start up RStudio just to work with markdown though. There are so many other options out there it's really down to personal preference. Try a bunch out. I prefer a simple editor that 1) toggles between markdown and source-text views, 2) opens quickly (e.g. many Electron apps open very slowly), 3) is open source, and 4) works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Marktext is what I'm currently using. It is an electron app but it opens fast. My previous favorite was Typora ($15, not open source), on which Marktext is based.
I have heard a lot of people like the open-source VS code (also Electron) from Microsoft for markdown editing. However, it's not just a markdown editor; it's the software industry standard and most popular IDE for coding in just about any language. You would need to research how to best set it up for markdown.
Let me know if you find a text editor for markdown that you like!