I find that they work well enough for me, such that I never felt the need to switch to a dedicated app.
I save the doc in BBEdit and the preview in Marked updates almost instantly.
Now note that my oldest licensee email for BBEdit is from 2005, and it’s for an upgrade. So I’ve been using BBEdit for quite some time. This no doubt plays into my preference.
Alas, I can’t help you with this bit. 
Weird. Text from another started reply wound up in this one. Cleaned it up. Thanks!
One issue I’ve found with Marked 2 is that conversions to .docx don’t translate markdown’s heading levels into Word’s. It’s as if you individually styled every heading from the base text style using the ribbon.
So when I need to export to Word (vs. just producing a nice looking PDF or printout), I use Pandoc or export from iA Writer, while knowing I’m still going to have to do some work to get the Word file looking right.
I gave up on trying to use VS Code for markdown because afaik there’s no setting or extension to automatically insert typographic quotes on the fly, which was a deal-breaker for me.
I’m looking at Typora, as I have a need for a web clipper (Agenda doesn’t have one) and I’m using the MarkDownload Safari extension to grab what I need. But I usually save articles in .pages format as they’re easier to read for me that way, so Typora’s export through pandoc seems to work well.
I tried PanWriter, but the default font size is huge (20 pt); I tried MarkEdit, but when I set MarkEdit as default, the markdown files acquired Agenda’s file icon?! Hopefully, Typora is better behaved.
Typora is where I ultimately wound up myself. I like it quite a bit for my relatively-simple workflow.
Once I cleared the icon caches in the terminal, Typora’s icon appeared. Just bought it.
Did the clearing of your cache also clear the MarkEdit icon issue?
When I did that in my testing before I settled for Typora, it did not solve the wrong icon problem with MarkEdit.
PanWriter really held onto its pairing when I tried it. I needed to be persistent; it took a couple of boots into Safe Boot plus running those commands, to clear it.
Thank you - it feels more painful than it should be!
It’s nice that they fade the markdown symbols so they don’t compete with the words…unlike a certain iconic markdown app. (Cough, cough, iA Writer, cough cough)
It’s nice that they fade the markdown symbols so they don’t compete with the words…unlike a certain iconic markdown app
I concur completely. This was discussed in another thread, so I won’t repeat it here. But, if iA Writer developers would make this one change I’d use their app a whole lot more. Per the other thread on this matter, there are those who have an entirely different opinion. 
I’d like to give a shout-out to Paper. It’s 100 % built around files. (I use it alongside NotePlan - and have all my notes stored in that folder.)
It’s a bit weird in terms of pricing: It has a very generous free option - and the paid stuff are all cosmetic. But it’s very expensive…
(I splurged for the lifetime option after getting a freelance payment, heh. I can’t claim that it’s worth it, but I’m glad I have it - and the guy behind it is a small developer I’d like to support.)
This is very nice if you want to rewrite a point, but don’t want to write the symbols again. Hitting the hotkey again easily selects the symbol if you wanted to select that as well.(More info on details in the devs write-up here.)
There are many good options in this thread (I used Panda previously 
) - but I think Paper’s the best I’ve tried. And I think people should give it a go! (And then decide if it’s worth it to you, or if the free option is enough.)
The iOS versions are also good!
I have it and I agree, it is outstanding.
I gave up on testing Papers within 30 minutes. For some reason the developer has implemented ‘smooth cursor movement’ as the default option, with normal traditional cursor movement a PRO feature requiring £30 a month. I’ve no objection to paying for software at all, and don’t usually baulk at the price because developers deserve to be paid, but this design decision is very odd.
I find smooth cursor movement to be completely distracting when I’m writing and I turn it off whenever I use a program daft enough to implement it. To my mind it’s a perfect example of the trend to make things look ‘cooler’ but perform worse than the traditional version.
So in Papers, I can either try out the program for free, but not be able to type properly, or turn on the Pro features and be interrupted every 200 characters or so with a popup. That doesn’t make a sensible trial of the program possible, so I’ve uninstalled it.
Obviously, if people are not fazed by smooth cursor sickness, then I’m sure it’s well worth checking out: I’m really not trying to disparage the developer here at all.
I must not be because I’ve never noticed it. That said, I do the vast majority of my writing in Pages and Scrivener. I only use markdown editors for short articles for quick posting.
I find it completely distracting, even for a couple of sentences. I suspect it’s because I type quite quickly and the cursor always lags behind slightly and randomly instead of just doing the decent thing and staying ahead of the last letter I typed. It’s not device speed either – I’m typing this on a M4 iPad Pro and my other devices are also more than quick enough to deal with what is after all just simple text entry, a problem that was solved back in the 80s…
& @Erlend
Have either of you figured out how to make Paper default to .md instead of .markdown for new documents?
Paper’s lack of a proper settings panel in the Mac app seems odd. I know a few extra settings show up in some of the pull-down menus if you hold down the option key, which is also unusual.
@brookter and @Bmosbacker: Hah, it’s funny, because I have noticed, and I really like those types of animations. Same in Bike! 🫶🏻
And I am really sensitive to delays in stuff: I tested running home row mods, through QMK, on my keyboard, but I couldn’t handle the tiny, tiny delay (that my mates didn’t notice at all). I might not type as fast as you, though (I type around 100 wpm if I go for it, but obviously slower in normal typing), but I just think it makes things feel smooth and nice. So to me, going Bike and Paper, makes other apps and context feel cheap by comparison.
Speaking of (not) cheap: The price is bonkers, though! What is he charging for lifetime at the moment?
@Synchronicity: I haven’t found a way for it not to save in .md? 
It says “Markdown” on this screen:
But that saves as a .md I believe?
