` both worked, but the trailing spaces didn’t work on a blank line or after a header line.
---
### Author:  [@jzr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jzr)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/7 "2021-08-06T19:11:11Z")
> [@pdeffebach](#):
>
> Can you expand on this? You are writing `
` in your markdown file? That can’t be right
Sometimes people say markdown is a superset of html. I don’t know if that’s technically true, but (depending on the implementation) html tags can work.
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/8 "2021-08-06T19:11:20Z")
Huh. Is there a particular reason you need new lines that are not paragraph separated?
One of the reasons markdown is great is because it binds you hands in this. If it’s hard to do, don’t do it, just get used to writing with less explicit formatting. Stop worrying and love the bomb and all that.
---
### Author:  [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 7:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/9 "2021-08-06T19:18:22Z")
> [@pdeffebach](#):
>
> Is there a particular reason you need new lines that are not paragraph separated?
I didn’t like how close the header was to the paragraph in the default preview (center). Then I opened an [enhanced previewer](https://shd101wyy.github.io/markdown-preview-enhanced/#/) (right) and the spacing was fine. However, then I wanted the horizontal line back … But yes, I think you are right that I need to forget about spacing details.
I am still concerned about making sure math, tables, and links all render correctly though. They could be difficult to read otherwise. Is there a surefire guide for these?
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/10 "2021-08-06T19:26:27Z")
Yeah definitely don’t worry about these things. They won’t be consistent depending on what software is used to render.
I’m not sure I have great advice for this scenario. In particular, math doesn’t render in github’s default markdown compiler, but it does with others… So there there is definitely no guarantee math will work consistently.
---
### Author:  [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/11 "2021-08-06T20:01:50Z")
I was also wondering how Julia Markdown `.jmd` files fit in. When do you use `.md` vs `.jmd` and what’s the major difference?
---
### Author:  [@jzr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jzr)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 8:07pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/12 "2021-08-06T20:07:27Z")
jmd contains executable julia code. Another option is to use [Pluto.jl](https://juliahub.com/docs/Pluto/OJqMt/0.7.4/).
---
### Author:  [@pdeffebach](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pdeffebach)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/13 "2021-08-06T20:09:34Z")
Don’t use `.jmd` to store things you want people to just open up and read. It’s a julia-specific file extension It will be more annoying than `.md`.
I’m assuming latex isn’t an option?
---
### Author:  [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/14 "2021-08-06T20:13:55Z")
> [@pdeffebach](#):
>
> I’m assuming latex isn’t an option?
I could use LaTeX … but that’s more overhead than I was hoping for to jot down some quick notes. I am not proficient at setting up a LaTeX document from scratch. I’d probably just go for Word at that point if I am going to keep both a source and PDF file around.
---
### Author:  [@tbeason](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tbeason)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 11:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/15 "2021-08-06T23:02:00Z")
I’d go with Markdown. The raw text could look basically the same even if you went with a plain text document, but you get the added formatting in the right viewer.
---
### Author:  [@magister-ludi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/magister-ludi)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/16 "2021-08-06T23:33:57Z")
> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> No default application on Windows when you double-click on a markdown file from File Explorer.
It might be considered a bit “heavy” (though not as heavy as Microsoft Word 😉), but I already have [Calibre](https://calibre-ebook.com/) installed on my Windows machine. It does a fairly good job of rendering Markdown. Mathematical rendering is not available, so that could be a showstopper for you.
---
### Author:  [@Nathan\_Boyer](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Nathan_Boyer)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/17 "2021-08-09T14:46:52Z")
There are plenty of good text editors and markdown viewers available. I just use VSCode since I am already using it for Julia. However, I am worried that the layman who doesn’t know what `.md` is could get stuck when Windows asks them to “Look for an app in the Microsoft Store”, not realizing they can open it with Notepad.
---
### Author:  [@lostella](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lostella)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2021, 6:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/18 "2021-08-13T06:03:15Z")
> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> However, I am worried that the layman who doesn’t know what `.md` is could get stuck when Windows asks them to “Look for an app in the Microsoft Store”, not realizing they can open it with Notepad.
I wouldn’t switch to `.doc(x)` or any other format because of this reason, the Windows universe will need to get a reasonable default app for Markdown files. No compromise, bad is bad, and `.docx` is pretty bad.
---
### Author:  [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2021, 8:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/19 "2021-08-24T08:16:49Z")
> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> For the reasons above, I am wondering if I am better off writing a README.doc instead. Everyone already has a word processor installed, and they all support Microsoft Word format now. Plus there won’t be any rendering surprises that way.
I think that MS Word is the epitome of rendering surprises, even for plain text, but especially with math. I had the same document render very differently on different machines, with page and line breaks in different places.
For _offline_ use with _math_, I would just write in LaTeX and also include the resulting PDF in the repository/archive. PDF readers are ubiquitous, PDF is future-proof and renders consistently, you have full control and can also include links.
---
### Author:  [@Bardo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Bardo)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2021, 5:10am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/markdown-best-choice-for-offline-readmes/65959/20 "2021-09-23T05:10:10Z")
> [@Nathan\_Boyer](#):
>
> No default application on Windows when you double-click on a markdown file from File Explorer.
Yes, but both Notepad++ as well as VScode render it nicely.