Installing a Markdown Editor

What Markdown Is

Markdown is plain text with a few simple conventions: # starts a heading, - starts a bullet, **bold** makes bold text. A Markdown file has the extension .md, and it is an ordinary ASCII text file — you can read it in any editor. A Markdown editor simply adds a formatted preview alongside the text.

Markdown is the standard format for writing instructions to an AI assistant, and we will use it throughout the course.

Two Ways to Go

You have two good options, and either one is fine for this course:

A lightweight Markdown editor. A small app that does one thing: it shows the Markdown text and the formatted result side by side. Easiest to learn, and all you need for writing prompts. The recommended app differs by platform — see below.
VS Code. A full programming editor that also previews Markdown. It is heavier, but it is the same editor we recommend for python later in the course, so one install serves the whole semester.

If you are unsure, start with the lightweight editor. You can always add VS Code in Lab 2.

Option 1: A Lightweight Editor

Mac: MacDown (free). Download it, open the disk image, and drag MacDown into your Applications folder. If macOS refuses to open it the first time, right-click the app and choose Open.
Windows: ghostwriter (free). Download the Windows installer from the ghostwriter page and run it.
Linux: ghostwriter (free). Install it with your package manager, for example sudo apt install ghostwriter on Ubuntu.

MacDown shows the text and the formatted result in two panes at once. In ghostwriter, open the preview pane from the View menu (or press F9).

Option 2: VS Code

Visual Studio Code is free and runs on all three platforms.

Mac: download the app from code.visualstudio.com, open the downloaded file, and drag VS Code into your Applications folder.
Windows: download the installer from code.visualstudio.com and run it, accepting the defaults.
Linux: download the .deb or .rpm package from code.visualstudio.com and install it with your package manager, or use sudo snap install --classic code.

To preview a Markdown file in VS Code, press Cmd+Shift+V on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+V on Windows or Linux.

Try It

Whichever editor you chose, create a new file, save it as test.md, and type a heading and a few bullets:

# My Test File
- first item
- second item

Open the preview. You should see your text formatted, with the heading large and the bullets indented. You now have a working Markdown editor.