This is a test, a test of text, in my new markdown editor, Byword. Since I switched over my blog from Wordpress to Octopress, I’ve had to start becoming familiar with markdown. With this, I wanted a basic text editor that not only supported previewing markdown text (to make sure links and images are inserted properly) but also just a good plain-text editor for distraction-free writing.

I believe I may have purchased WriteRoom at one time and if I did, I must not have liked it since I can hardly remember using it much. Nonetheless, I found a nice article describing how Byword was much more up with the times, especially in terms of markdown editing for the Mac. After Byword’s website and glossing over the screenshots, I was sold and purchased it at the Mac App Store.

So far, I like it. I just changed from the dark background to the light background to see if I prefer typing with this color scheme. It’s a very minimalistic app which I very much appreciate. The preferences are a single, simple pane of options, yet the functionality of the app is enough to make really useful. For instance, it has a couple of tools to help you focus; one of them is called the paragraph focus mode which actually dims all the other text except for the paragraph you are currently typing. You can also set this up for individual lines. These little details make it a worthy and appropriate Mac app as well as one I will enjoy writing in.