1. Catching on Markdown (for non-coders)
Are you a non-coder? I believe most of you are. You write but you don’t want to send your texts to the cloud through a content management system, because it would force you to use PHP commands. But code is everywhere, and no one can avoid reading and writing some piece of it. So then, what can you do to do what you want without getting fed up with the code?
Download: iPad-checked ePub, PDF.We non-coders are for real. We could create a major social movement if we wanted to. We need to write code, but only a small amount of it, and we will never get used to surfing into coarse specifications (CSS, XML, ePub, LaTeX, and the like).
Besides, starting a website by using Joomla, WordPress or MovableType is not an option for us, because it means having to deal with an Apache server, a MySQL database, and PHP code — unbearable. Those who don’t get deeply into these content management systems end up using a template which will never give them the sense of a personal space in the cloud. Nor will saying we don’t like Dreamweaver. Non-coders love code enough to dislike Microsoft-ish code. A good alternative would be Rapidweaver, for Mac users only. It seems powerful and not tiring to get used to it — I haven’t tried it yet.
Getting into the code allows non-coders to edit and copy edit coded texts, which is the real point for us. And there is the whole ePub matter. A non-coder can write some tags in order to publish an article in a basic ePub format. It isn’t a great deal. If only the code would finish at some point… But it won’t. Beyond the specifications I mentioned above there are XSLT, Javascript, MathML, BibTeX, OPML, and more, and more.
Going further, what is the point in talking about Markdown? First of all, it has got an appealing useful-for-non-coders aura. An h3 tag can be written simply by typing ### at the beginning of the line. It is true that Markdown doesn’t manage with <div> blocks, so we have to write thinking only of <p> and <span> levels. It doesn’t matter. After trying Markdown, Multimarkdown awaits us, and it will drive us to a world of full texts, filled with footnotes, tables, bibliographies, and formulas.
I’m aware I’m a bit late, because Markdown started in 2004. To me, there is nothing to worry about — non-coders spend a lot of time off the cloud and aren’t in a hurry to learn more code. Right now, I care only of having found out a cosier way to write for the web. Posts on this blog will be easily converted to ePub and PDF formats. I won’t really need InDesign or QuarkXPress, although they are powerful tools. Will Scrivener give me a helping hand with this? I expect so. It works with both Markdown and Multimarkdown.
That’s all for now. My blog is finally getting off the ground. I’ll be taking about writing tools, typesetting, editing, and code for authors and editors, mainly in English, but also in Catalan or Spanish. I invite you to follow this amateur but well-thought blog. I’’m sure it will be worthwhile for both you and me.
Please cite like this (unless you have a better way): Farrando, Pere. “Catching on Markdown (for non-coders)”. Typesetting + editing = preEdició, 1. April 27, 2011. <http://www.preedicio.com/blog/pE001_noncoders.html>.
License: Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Spain”.
Besides, starting a website by using Joomla, WordPress or MovableType is not an option for us, because it means having to deal with an Apache server, a MySQL database, and PHP code — unbearable. Those who don’t get deeply into these content management systems end up using a template which will never give them the sense of a personal space in the cloud. Nor will saying we don’t like Dreamweaver. Non-coders love code enough to dislike Microsoft-ish code. A good alternative would be Rapidweaver, for Mac users only. It seems powerful and not tiring to get used to it — I haven’t tried it yet.
Getting into the code allows non-coders to edit and copy edit coded texts, which is the real point for us. And there is the whole ePub matter. A non-coder can write some tags in order to publish an article in a basic ePub format. It isn’t a great deal. If only the code would finish at some point… But it won’t. Beyond the specifications I mentioned above there are XSLT, Javascript, MathML, BibTeX, OPML, and more, and more.
Going further, what is the point in talking about Markdown? First of all, it has got an appealing useful-for-non-coders aura. An h3 tag can be written simply by typing ### at the beginning of the line. It is true that Markdown doesn’t manage with <div> blocks, so we have to write thinking only of <p> and <span> levels. It doesn’t matter. After trying Markdown, Multimarkdown awaits us, and it will drive us to a world of full texts, filled with footnotes, tables, bibliographies, and formulas.
I’m aware I’m a bit late, because Markdown started in 2004. To me, there is nothing to worry about — non-coders spend a lot of time off the cloud and aren’t in a hurry to learn more code. Right now, I care only of having found out a cosier way to write for the web. Posts on this blog will be easily converted to ePub and PDF formats. I won’t really need InDesign or QuarkXPress, although they are powerful tools. Will Scrivener give me a helping hand with this? I expect so. It works with both Markdown and Multimarkdown.
That’s all for now. My blog is finally getting off the ground. I’ll be taking about writing tools, typesetting, editing, and code for authors and editors, mainly in English, but also in Catalan or Spanish. I invite you to follow this amateur but well-thought blog. I’’m sure it will be worthwhile for both you and me.
Please cite like this (unless you have a better way): Farrando, Pere. “Catching on Markdown (for non-coders)”. Typesetting + editing = preEdició, 1. April 27, 2011. <http://www.preedicio.com/blog/pE001_noncoders.html>.
License: Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Spain”.