Markdown editor with live preview

Write Markdown, see it rendered instantly — free, private, auto-saving.

Most online Markdown editors either upload your text to a server or wrap it in ads. JobStraight's Markdown editor does neither: you type on the left and see the rendered HTML on the right in real time, everything stays on your own device, and your draft auto-saves locally so it's still there when you come back.

It handles the Markdown you actually use — headings, bold and italic, inline and fenced code, ordered and unordered lists, links and blockquotes — and renders it safely (any raw HTML you paste is escaped, so it can't run scripts). When you're done, copy the HTML, copy the Markdown, or download either a .md or a self-contained .html file.

Great for drafting a README, a blog post, documentation, or notes you'll paste into GitHub, Notion or a CMS. Free, no signup, and it keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

• ✓Side-by-side live preview as you type
• ✓Headings, bold/italic, lists, links, code, quotes
• ✓Export to .md or .html, or copy either
• ✓Auto-saves locally — 100% in your browser

What Markdown actually is and why it saves time over switching tools

Markdown is a text format designed to be readable as plain text but easily convertible to HTML. A heading is a line starting with a hash, bold is text wrapped in asterisks, links are text in square brackets followed by a URL in parentheses. You type it faster than you'd use a graphical editor because you're typing characters rather than reaching for a menu. Once written, a Markdown file converts to HTML automatically. This matters because you can write once and use the output in multiple places: a README in GitHub, a blog post in a CMS, documentation, even a slide deck.

Most of the internet uses Markdown for exactly this reason. It's the format that Reddit uses, the format that GitHub uses for documentation, the format that Slack uses, the format that most note-taking apps have adopted. Learning to write Markdown is learning something that works everywhere. Versus learning the specific buttons in a Notion editor, or a Google Docs interface, which only work inside that single tool.

The practical advantage is this: if you write a README in Markdown and store it on GitHub, it's readable as plain text and automatically renders as formatted HTML on GitHub's site. If your company switches to Notion next year, you can copy-paste the Markdown into Notion and it renders there too. If you want to put the same content into your portfolio or a blog, the Markdown is already in a portable format. A format optimised for readability and portability saves you rewriting the same content in three different tools.

How safe rendering stops scripts while preserving formatting

A common reason people avoid pasting HTML into online tools is the fear that HTML containing scripts might run. If you paste something with a malicious script tag, an unsafe tool would execute it. JobStraight's Markdown editor escapes HTML - it treats angle brackets as literal text, not tags. If you paste raw HTML, you see the HTML as text, not rendered as a webpage. This is safe but it means you can't paste formatted HTML and have it become a heading; you have to write the Markdown yourself.

This is the right trade-off for a tool focused on Markdown. If you want to paste rich HTML from somewhere and have it work, you'd need an HTML editor, not a Markdown editor. If you're writing new content in Markdown, the HTML escape means you can safely paste text from anywhere - a PDF, an email, a webpage - without worrying that hidden scripts will execute. The format is more restricted (Markdown doesn't support everything HTML does) but the safety is higher.

Code blocks are a specific case. You can paste a code block in your Markdown (using backticks or indentation) and it renders safely, visible as text. If you were pasting raw HTML, the same code block would be executed as a script rather than displayed. The escaping means code stays visible, readable, and safe. This matters for documentation that includes code samples or tutorials that need people to see and copy the exact text.

When to export as Markdown versus HTML, and why the distinction matters for distribution

A Markdown file (.md) is portable but requires Markdown rendering to display properly. If you email someone a .md file, they can read it as plain text (it's readable), but it won't render as formatted HTML. It will look like a text file full of asterisks and hashes. A .md file is best used when you're putting it in a system that renders Markdown: GitHub, a static site generator, a blog platform that supports Markdown.

An HTML export is self-contained and renders the same way everywhere - in a browser, in an email, on a phone, anywhere. It's the right choice when you need something to display identically regardless of where someone opens it. An HTML file can be emailed, saved, or shared as an attachment, and it displays formatted without needing additional processing. The trade-off is that HTML is less portable across tools; you can't edit an HTML file in a Markdown editor the way you can edit a .md file.

For a README being committed to a GitHub repository, export as Markdown. For a document you're sending to someone who isn't a developer, export as HTML. For a blog post going into a CMS that renders Markdown natively, export as Markdown. For a one-off document you want to share that needs to look professional, export as HTML. The choice depends on where the document will live.

Frequently asked questions

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