I’ve been looking for a Markdown editor on Windows that’s good enough to match MWeb and Ulysses. Unfortunately, there are few good editors on Windows, so I looked at the Atom editor, designed for programmers.

The Markdown editor I used before I got the idea for Atom was MAC Dumbo. Not only does It sync with Evernote, but it also has the advantage of inserting images. I tried Typora before but wasn’t used to its wySIWYG, preferring the split screen edit + preview format. So I started looking for a Markdown editor for Windows.


Atom is an excellent editor with full editing features, fast updates, rich themes, full Github support, and optimized for a variety of programming languages. Because of the modular design, the degree of customization is very high. Its extensibility and rich plug-ins are a highlight, calling it “the programmable editor of the 21st century”.

By chance, I found that the Markdown plug-in for Atom was relatively mature and easy to install. Plus Atom’s flexibility makes it ideal for customizing your own Markdown editor.

On the basic literacy of Markdown editor

I think a good Markdown editor should have the following features:

  • Enough convenient editing functions, with comprehensive keyboard shortcuts
  • You can export HTML and PDF files
  • Easy and quick insertion of images, links, etc
  • LaTeX formulas and tables are supported

A few more plus points:

  • Beautiful highlights
  • Access to various cloud services
  • You can customize CSS styles
  • Beautiful interface, rich themes, custom fonts

The Markdown editor, adapted from Atom, already meets most of the criteria.

So let’s get started.

Step 1: Download and install Atom

You need to download Atom from Atom’s official website (for Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD systems) and install it.


Step 2: Install the Chinese patch

The Chinese environment helps us get used to the Atom editor faster. This step is not required, so skip it if you prefer an English environment.

Locate Settings in File to go to the Settings page.


Click Install at the bottom, search for Chinese, find “simplified- Chinese-Menu”, and then click Install.


  • If you have a poor network environment, you can download the Chinese patch from the Github page of the plugin.

Step 3: Download and install the Markdown enhancement plug-in

After comparison, I chose the Markdown-Preview-Enhanced plug-in, which provides most of the markdown-related features in a very comprehensive way.

The installation method is similar to the Chinese patch. Search “Markdown-Preview-Enhanced” on the plug-in installation screen and click Install.


  • If you have a poor network environment, you can download MarkDown-Preview-Enhanceed from the plugin’s Github page.

Once you’ve done this, you can use the Markdown-enabled Atom editor.

Learn to use the new editor Atom

Atom is an excellent editor in its own right, with support for various languages, custom fonts, custom keyboard shortcuts, lots of themes, plugins, and Github support.

Atom also comes with complete Markdown syntax support, which is enhanced by the markdown-preview-Enhanceed plugin. Since this is your first time using the editor, you will need to learn a little about it.

Improvement of basic sexual function

Editing improvements in this plugin:

  • Automatically highlight Markdown syntax
  • Support preview sliding sync
  • Support LaTeX
  • TikZ, Chemfig, etc can be rendered with code

This is the basic function of the Markdown editor in terms of editing. The biggest highlight is to generate flow charts, sequence diagrams, and so on through code.

I generated a flow chart with a few simple lines of code.


Improvements to import and export functions

Improvements in import and export:

  • Supports the import of external files
  • Support to export PNG and JPEG files (phantomJS is required)
  • Support for exporting HTML files (mobile support)

While importing images, press Ctrl + Shift + I to bring up the Image Import assistant. Support link, drag and drop import, upload pictures to map bed and other functions.

You can also drag and drop images directly into Atom, which automatically uploads to the map bed, which is limited to imgur.com and SM.ms. After testing, imgur.com can upload about 25 pictures in a short period of time (traffic may be limited), users inside the wall suggest using SM.MS, unlimited free upload pictures, enough for daily use. However, if there is a lot of traffic to the article, it is recommended to use your own CDN.


The original syntax for importing images in Markdown is! [Name](image.png).

This plugin not only uses this syntax, but also adds the @import “image.png” syntax. @import “form.csv” import table files will be converted into Markdown tables. @import also supports other formats, such as PDF and HTML, that need to be explored on your own.


Together with Atom’s built-in “project Folder” feature, you can manage documents by category tree for local folders, much like MWeb’s document library pattern.

More advanced features

In addition to the common features described above, the Markdown-preview-enhanced plug-in provides some more advanced features:

  • Support compilation to GitHub chinglish Markdown
  • You can customize preview CSS (to make your exported HTML look better)
  • You can export ePub, Mobi, and PDF files
  • Support TOC generation
  • You can draw flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and various other kinds of graphics through code

If the above advanced features are not yet available, try this practical one.

All you have to do is add a few lines of code at the top of your article

---
export_on_save:
  html: true
---
Copy the code

Atom will automatically generate an HTML file at the same time you save the MD file.

  • If you want to learn more about this plugin, you can check it out on the plugin introduction page.

An easy way to manually install the Atom plug-in

For well-known reasons, however, Atom’s plug-in installation features sometimes fail to download or are very slow, so you may need to go online scientifically or learn how to install Atom plug-ins manually.

Take the Markdown-Preview-Enhanced plug-in as an example.

Download the plugin

To download the plugin from Github, click “Clone or Download” in the upper right corner and click “Download ZIP.”


After the download is complete, decompress the ZIP package.

Installing a plug-in

Copy the unzipped folder into the directory “C:\Users\ your computer username \.atom\packages\”

(You can see the location of this directory in Atom File → Settings → Install)


After copying to the directory, press Windows key + R and enter CMD to open the local command window.

Enter APM install Markdown-preview-enhanced. (Change the name if you install other plug-ins.)

After a while, Installing markdown-preview-enhanced to… done

Install the activate-power-mode plug-in

Re-open Atom, and the plug-in is installed manually.

More Markdown related personalization plugins

If you find markdown-preview-enhanced features unnecessary and cumbersome, you can customize your own editor with the help of the following plug-ins.

  • Markdown Preview – Plus Real-time preview enhancement plugin
  • Markdown-scroll-sync synchronization scroll plug-in
  • Language-markdown Markdown syntax enhancement plug-in
  • Markdown-writer makes it easier to manage images, links, and so on
  • Markdown-table-editor table editing plug-in
  • Markdown-themeable- PDF PDF export plugin
  • Markdown-img-paste plug-in for image paste

There are a lot of great personalization plug-ins on Atom, as well as activate-power-Mode, which is very personal. If you’re familiar with Github, you can also use Github as a cloud storage solution.


These improvements satisfy most of my requirements for the Markdown editor. At this point, an Atom-modified Markdown editor is complete.

Enjoy it !

In addition to this article, Minority has also recommended these Markdown editors that are useful for Windows:

  • Want to try another writing tool? 11 good Markdown editors to recommend

  • Make Markdown writing easier with a free minimalist editor: Typora

  • Simplicity and power are never in conflict: the writing tool MarkEditor features in detail

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