Welcome to StackEdit! {#welcome}

Hello, I am your first Markdown document within StackEdit[^stackedit]. Don't delete me, I can be helpful. I can be recovered anyway in the Utils tab of the Settings dialog.

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Documents

StackEdit stores your documents in your browser, which means all your documents are automatically saved locally and are accessible offline!

NOTE:

• StackEdit is accessible offline after the application has been loaded for the first time.
• Your local documents are not shared between different browsers or computers.
• Clearing your browser's data may delete all your local documents! Make sure your documents are backed up using Google Drive or Dropbox synchronization (see Synchronization section).

Create a document

You can create a new document by clicking the button in the navigation bar. It will switch from the current document to the new one.

Switch to another document

You can list all your local documents and switch from one to another by clicking the button in the navigation bar.

Rename a document

You can rename the current document by clicking the document title in the navigation bar.

Delete a document

You can delete the current document by clicking the button in the navigation bar.

Save a document

You can save the current document to a file using the Save as... sub-menu from the menu.

Tip: See Publish a document section for a description of the different output formats.

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Synchronization

StackEdit can be combined with Google Drive and Dropbox to have your documents centralized in the Cloud. The synchronization mechanism will take care of uploading your modifications or downloading the latest version of your documents.

NOTE:

• Full access to Google Drive or Dropbox is required to be able to import any document in StackEdit.
• Imported documents are downloaded in your browser and are not transmitted to a server.
• If you experience problems exporting documents to Google Drive, check and optionally disable browser extensions, such as Disconnect.

Import a document

You can import a document from the Cloud by going to the Google Drive or the Dropbox sub-menu and by clicking Import from.... Once imported, your document will be automatically synchronized with the Google Drive / Dropbox file.

Export a document

You can export any document by going to the Google Drive or the Dropbox sub-menu and by clicking Export to.... Even if your document is already synchronized with Google Drive or Dropbox, you can export it to a another location. StackEdit can synchronize one document with multiple locations.

Tip: Using Google Drive, you can create collaborative documents to work in real time with other users. Just check the box Create a real time collaborative document in the dialog options when exporting to Google Drive.

Synchronize a document

Once your document is linked to a Google Drive or a Dropbox file, StackEdit will periodically (every 3 minutes) synchronize it by downloading/uploading any modification. Any conflict will be detected, and a local copy of your document will be created as a backup if necessary.

If you just have modified your document and you want to force the synchronization, click the button in the navigation bar.

NOTE: The button is disabled when you have no document to synchronize.

Manage document synchronization

Since one document can be synchronized with multiple locations, you can list and manage synchronized locations by clicking Manage synchronization in the menu. This will open a dialog box allowing you to add or remove synchronization links that are associated to your document.

NOTE: If you delete the file from Google Drive or from Dropbox, the document will no longer be synchronized with that location.

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Publication

Once you are happy with your document, you can publish it on different websites directly from StackEdit. As for now, StackEdit can publish on Blogger, Dropbox, Gist, GitHub, Google Drive, Tumblr, WordPress and on any SSH server.

Publish a document

You can publish your document by going to the Publish on sub-menu and by choosing a website. In the dialog box, you can choose the publication format:

• Markdown, to publish the Markdown text on a website that can interpret it (GitHub for instance),
• HTML, to publish the document converted into HTML (on a blog for instance),
• Template, to have a full control of the output.

NOTE: The default template is a simple webpage wrapping your document in HTML format. You can customize it in the Services tab of the Settings dialog.

Update a publication

After publishing, StackEdit will keep your document linked to that publish location so that you can update it easily. Once you have modified your document and you want to update your publication, click on the button in the navigation bar.

NOTE: The button is disabled when the document has not been published yet.

Manage document publication

Since one document can be published on multiple locations, you can list and manage publish locations by clicking Manage publication in the menu. This will open a dialog box allowing you to remove publication links that are associated to your document.

NOTE: In some cases, if the file has been removed from the website or the blog, the document will no longer be published on that location.

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Markdown Extra

StackEdit supports Markdown Extra, which extends Markdown syntax with some nice features.

Tip: You can disable any Markdown Extra feature in the Extensions tab of the Settings dialog.

Tables

Markdown Extra has a special syntax for tables:

Item	Value
Computer	1600 USD
Phone	12 USD
Pipe	1 USD

You can specify column alignment with one or two colons:

Item	Value	Qty
Computer	1600 USD	5
Phone	12 USD	12
Pipe	1 USD	234

Definition Lists

Markdown Extra has a special syntax for definition lists too:

Term 1

Term 2

Definition A

Definition B

Term 3

Definition C

Definition D

part of definition D

Fenced code blocks

GitHub's fenced code blocks[^gfm] are also supported with Prettify syntax highlighting:

// Foo
var bar = 0;

Tip: To use Highlight.js instead of Prettify, just configure the Markdown Extra extension in the Settings dialog.

Footnotes

You can create footnotes like this[^footnote].

[^footnote]: Here is the text of the footnote.

SmartyPants

SmartyPants converts ASCII punctuation characters into "smart" typographic punctuation HTML entities. For example:

	ASCII	HTML
Single backticks	'Isn't this fun?'	‘Isn’t this fun?’
Quotes	"Isn't this fun?"	“Isn’t this fun?”
Dashes	-- is an en-dash and --- is an em-dash	– is an en-dash and — is an em-dash

Table of contents

You can insert a table of contents using the marker [TOC]:

[TOC]

Comments

Usually, comments in Markdown are just standard HTML comments. StackEdit extends HTML comments in order to produce useful, highlighted comments in the preview but not in your exported documents.

MathJax

You can render LaTeX mathematical expressions using MathJax, as on math.stackexchange.com:

The Gamma function satisfying $\Gamma(n) = (n-1)!\quad\forall n\in\mathbb N$ is via the Euler integral

$$\Gamma(z) = \int_0^\infty t^{z-1}e^{-t}dt\,.$$

Tip: Make sure you include MathJax into your publications to render mathematical expression correctly. Your page/template should include something like:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://stackedit.io/libs/MathJax/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS_HTML"></script>

NOTE: You can find more information:

• about Markdown syntax here,
• about Markdown Extra extension here,
• about LaTeX mathematical expressions here,
• about Prettify syntax highlighting here,
• about Highlight.js syntax highlighting here.

[^stackedit]: StackEdit is a full-featured, open-source Markdown editor based on PageDown, the Markdown library used by Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites.

[^gfm]: GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) is supported by StackEdit.