Ask HN: Markdown, for students viable?

2 pointsmohsinr9y ago2 comments

I wanted to show to my sister how great Mark Down is when I see her struggle with Ms Word formatting. She liked the approach, then she asked how can I create pdf and word doc as mostly is needed by teachers as end document. It ruined my morning so far, as pandoc needed command line, she is on Windows, command line is out of question due to paths and all that stuff. I could not find easy , free editor for Windows with .doc, .docx and pdf export option.

Anyone has any experience or suggestions in this regard or markdown is just not viable for non tech student...

Also please know that online editors or converters not applicable as internet dependency can be deal breaker in her case. Thanks in advance for any suggestions in this regard.

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

Cozumel9y ago

Markdown is fantastic and it's great your sister is learning it. But at school and work nearly everyone will use MS Word formatting, she should also invest the time to learn it. Your tools won't always be available to her and you don't want to put her at an unintentional disadvantage.

brudgers9y ago

My advice: write some simple scripts to automate pandoc production of pdf and doc from markdown and teach your sister how to fire up a command line and run those scripts. Show her the power of building simple tools.

I think a lot of aversion to the command line is learned helplessness.

Good luck.

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