Integrated Markdown WYSIWYG text editor
In looking for a straightforward WYSIWYG editor for Markdown code, I am not finding a comparible UI to that of CkEditor, TinyMCE, ect.
Specifically, the Markdown "WYSIWYG" editors that are often recommended (such as posts like this ) are not pure WYSIWYG editors in the sense that users either still write raw Markdown ( MarkItUp ) or go to the other extreme of having in-line editing without standard controls ( Hallo ).
I need something in-between.
I'm looking for a Markdown editor that looks and functions like a stripped down CkEditor text box, and that accepts and outputs Markdown. There should be a toolbar with a minimum set of formatting options (B, I, U, lists, ect), and the text entry area should show the converted Markdown, not the raw code. There should be a Source button that will allow users to edit the raw Markdown, but even that is optional. Ex:
I get the reason for Markdown/wiki, ect - the security it offers. I don't mind entering raw code like here at SE, but my users are not geeks and do not find this enjoyable. They don't want to see * * * ___ and spaces mixed in with their text. They are used to "Word" style editing, and are most productive in that environment.
So - is there a truly integrated WYSIWYG editor for Markdown? I'm writing in a PHP, so something that I can invoke with a class would be perfect.
Sept 23, 2015 Update
CKEditor now has a Markdown addon that does this exact thing. The addon project is hosted on github.
Screenshots:
Apr 13, 2015 Update
Someone professing to develop CKEditor says that the appearance of CommonMark is a game changer, and we could possibly see a proper markup interface for CKEditor (read comments for the full story).
Feb 6, 2015 Update
CKEditor now comes with a plugin that outputs (and accepts as input) BBCode.
Demo: http://ckeditor.com/demo#bbcode
SimpleMDE, a newcomer, may be the answer. I've been searching for something just like this for a month now. I'm surprised that this does not show up higher in search results. I had to go through a notice on lepture/editor to find this.
I was researching in this subject the other day and I haven't found any decent WYSIWYG editor with Markdown output. In fact, first you have to have to create a WYSIWG Markdown editor is WYSIWG HTML editor and there are just few of them that are usable on the market.
There's a chance that you'll be able to create dataProcessor for CKEditor that will change HTML editor into Markdown editor. We've got a plugin for BBCode that works like this (check out http://nightly-v4.ckeditor.com/3737/samples/bbcode.html).
All you have to do is implement this interface http://nightly-v4.ckeditor.com/ckeditor_api/#!/api/CKEDITOR.dataProcessor. If you check BBCode plugin's code you'll see some hacks and tricks, because unfortunately current CKEditor's architecture isn't ready (yet) to create such a data processor. However, I believe that if you want to provide only few styling options you should be able to implement Markdown support pretty quickly.
EDIT Sept 23, 2015
CKEditor now has a Markdown addon that does this exact thing. The addon project is hosted on github.
Screenshots:
As posted in my Feb 6, 2015 update, CKEditor now includes plugins that allow BBCode input and output.
A demo is available here: http://ckeditor.com/demo#bbcode
EDIT Apr 13, 2015:
Someone professing to develop CKEditor says that the appearance of CommonMark is a game changer, and we could possibly see a proper markup interface for CKEditor (read comments for the full story).
Pen is a new (active as of 2014) WYSIWYG editor that outputs Markdown.
It's not perfect—I've had issues with pasting HTML there—but it works.
Edit: Sorry! It doesn't output Markdown. Walery Strauch pointed out in the comments that the Markdown formatting signs I saw were actually CSS pseudo element rules:
Still, I'll leave it here as an option since some people upvoted this answer and it may have been of use to somebody.
