# Markdown Tools

## Using the built-in GitLab editor

The simplest way to edit the wiki is the [built-in editor on the website](Editing). Simply navigate to the Wiki page you want to change, and click the Edit button toward the upper right. There is a simple WYSIWYG editor toolbar with the most useful formatting tools.

## Offline tools

For large editing jobs, it may be helpful to edit or create files offline (on your own system) using a dedicated Markdown editing tool. You can either:

1. [Clone the Wiki locally](https://docs.gitlab.com/12.4/ee/user/project/wiki/index.html#adding-and-editing-wiki-pages-locally) using the "Clone" button at the top right of the navigation pane.
1. Create a file in a Markdown editor and past it into the built-in editing window

For creating or editing large numbers of pages, cloning the Wiki locally will probably be more productive.

### Suggested offline tools

As Markdown files are simple text files, any plain text editor can be used. This could include vim on UNIX® / Linux systems, and MS Windows.  There are also a number of specialized editors that make Markdown editing more productive through shortcuts, built-in previewing, etc.

If you are migrating documents form an existing format (e.g., MS Word), [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org) is worth a look - it is the "Swiss army knife" of document conversion and handles conversion to both AsciiDoc and Markdown format.

:warning: **Do not use document processors** (e.g. MS Word) as these use proprietary formats and will introduce unwanted characters.

#### Markdown

All Platforms:  [Atom](https://atom.io), the "hackable text editor for the 21st Century" is available for [OS X, Linux, or Windows](https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/tag/v1.41.0). Atom is heavily customizable and has previewers and syntax highlighting for Markdown. It also has built-in GitLab / Github support, making it very easy to manage large numbers of pages for more complex wikis.

![Atom](/images/Atom_screenshot.png "Atom Markdown Editing")

MacOS: [MultiMarkdown Composer](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/multimarkdown-composer-4/id1275176220?mt=12) is a powerful and simple to use Markdown editor for MacOS. This editor does not have built-in GitLab integration, but works with MacOS built-in Git integration.

iOS: The [Textastic](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/textastic-code-editor-8/id1049254261) text editor is a code editor for iOS that features Markdown syntax highlighting. It does not have a built-in GitLab support, but is tightly integrated with [Working Copy](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/working-copy-git-client/id896694807), an excellent Git client for iOS.

:notebook: A substantial part of this Wiki was written using Textastic and Atom.

Android: Recommendations welcome!