What is a .MKD file?
A .MKD file is a type of text document that uses the Markdown language, which is a simple way to format text. This file is saved in a plain text format, which means it can be opened and edited with basic text editing software. However, what makes .MKD files special is that they include certain symbols and characters in the text that tell the computer how to display the text with different styles, such as making text bold, creating headers, or organizing text into tables.
The .MKD file extension stands for Markdown Documentation File. It's important to note that these files can also appear with other extensions like .MD, .MARKDOWN, or .MDOWN, but they all serve the same purpose.
You can open .MKD files with a variety of programs. Simple text editors like Microsoft Notepad and Apple TextEdit, which are included with their respective operating systems, can open these files. More advanced text editors like Vim, GNU Emacs, gVim, MacVim, and MacroMates TextMate also support .MKD files. These advanced editors often provide additional features like syntax highlighting, which makes it easier to see how the Markdown will format the text.
Typora is another program that can open .MKD files. It provides a "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) interface, which means as you type the Markdown syntax, you can see how it will look when it's formatted right away.
Daring Fireball Markdown, the original tool developed by John Gruber who created Markdown, can also be used to handle .MKD files.
Besides being used for creating formatted text documents, .MKD files are useful in other ways. They are often used in HTML documentation systems where the Markdown text is converted into HTML for web pages. Additionally, because they are plain text, they are useful in source code version control systems. This allows developers to track changes to documentation alongside their code, and because the files are text-based, it's easy to compare different versions of the document to see what has changed. This wouldn't be as straightforward with binary files, which can't be easily read by humans in their raw form.
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