For years I treated Markdown as a convenience I would use occasionally. In fact, I went back and forth on its value for my particular workflow and needs. After several months of leaning on it heavily for writing and administrative work, however, and especially after pairing it with Claude’s Cowork, I now think of Markdown as nearly essential rather than a mere periodic convenience.
You already know the core arguments for markdown, so I will spare you my rendition of them. What I want to share is how fast and effective I find Markdown when I pair it with AI, especially Cowork. I rediscovered the point yesterday during my extensive work reorganizing and moving thousands of files. I realize most of you will read this and think, “well, duh.” But keep in mind that I have zero coding experience, and that I have spent my entire writing life in education and career inside MS Office and, for the last fifteen years, Apple’s products and apps. My evolving and enthusiastic adoption of Markdown as a primary writing format is not the norm for most people in my world. I know no one in my personal or professional life who uses it. Most have never heard of it and would roll their eyes if I suggested it.
Because AIs use Markdown natively, I can send a chapter draft to Claude for editorial review (I do my own writing and use AI only for ideation and editing) and Claude hands the revision back in the same form, ready for me to paste straight into the manuscript without reformatting. Since the text comes back structurally intact, I can ask Claude to focus entirely on grammar, syntax, and clarity rather than wrestle with formatting. Markdown also works across every writing application I use, so Claude can read those files directly, synthesize across them, and consolidate information for my review.
Cowork is where I really see the payoff. In Cowork, I give Claude permission to read, edit, and create files in folders I specify, so Claude can complete tasks rather than merely describe how to do them. I can point Claude at a folder of chapter drafts and ask it to compile a unified table of contents, audit terminology for consistency, generate template chapters, and combine all 33 chapters into a single iA Writer document I will finalize in Word and Vellum.
A current example is the extensive strategic plan I am drafting. Most of my recent work has centered on building a multi-year plan and the supporting documents. Historically, I would have done all of this in Word and Excel, or in Pages and Numbers. Instead, I have had Claude produce a SWOT analysis based on my draft, markdown tables, rework a testing results summary, gather U.S.-focused, APA-cited research from reputable sources on personalization, school choice, and confidence in the value of college, and help me refine an accreditation reaction report. I have also used Claude to edit board surveys, summarize comparative national, association, and local data, organize the full inventory of plan data inputs by theme, and renumber citations after I consolidated duplicates. Throughout, I have used Claude as editor and research assistant rather than ghostwriter, holding it to my standards and asking it to return everything in Markdown for use in iA Writer. Because I keep every file in plain text, Cowork reads it quickly, edits it, and returns the results with no conversion required. It also helps identify gaps or redundancies.
I would not have predicted any of this a year ago. I assumed serious writing required a word processor with its styles and templates. I have discovered the opposite. Though I will still finish some work, the book and the strategic plan among them, in Word or Pages, Markdown lets me focus on thinking, flow, data, and word choice rather than on formatting and compatibility headaches. It syncs faster across my devices, backs up quickly, and works far better with AI models. For someone who has spent his career in word processors and proprietary file formats, I find this a pleasant surprise and refreshing.
I share this not because it will be new to most here, but because I wanted to describe my journey toward using Markdown and AI tools together, not to replace the hard work of thinking deeply and writing well, but to free me from what David calls “donkey work” so I can focus on what matters most.
I’m a markdown convert. Claude Cowork was the evangelist. 