The main idea of Writage is to provide the opportunity to write in Markdown to those who like to use Microsoft Word. There are lots of Markdown editors such as iA Writer, Texts, WriteMonkey or Byword and online Markdown writing services, like StackEdit, Dillinger or Markable for people who like to have a minimalistic, distraction-free interface. However there is nothing available for those who prefer to use the rich interface and features of Microsoft Word.
So Writage is designed for everyone who would like to start writing well-structured documents and doesn’t have time for or doesn’t want to dive into the details of Markdown syntax, or prefers to use Word as a text editor.
Writage enables Microsoft Word to create and edit Markdown files (with .md extension), as well as save your .docx files as Markdown files. It is also capable of copying selected rich-text as Markdown, and pasting Markdown as rich text.
2. Installation
The installation process is very simple and takes just a few minutes.
Download the latest version of Writage on your computer from the Download section on our website.
Double-click on file «Writage.msi» and follow the instructions. Please, note that you should have «Administrator» rights on your computer.
Launch Microsoft Word and start writing in a new format.
Enjoy!
Installation process:
Note
Before starting installation, please, make sure that you have «Administrator» rights on your computer.
How to uninstall
We are sorry to hear that you are not going to use Writage in future, but if you need to uninstall Writage, you can do it in a few simple steps:
Press the "Windows Key" on your keyboard.
Open "Settings/Apps&Features" window.
Click on «Writage» and follow the instructions.
Writage plugin is uninstalled and no longer present on your computer.
3. How to use
Writage helps you to save your Word document as a Markdown file or your Markdown file as Microsoft Word document without any other converters.
Moreover, Writage turns Word into your Markdown WYSIWYG editor, so you will be able to open a Markdown file and edit it, like you normally edit any document in Microsoft Word.
3.1 Open Markdown file
On receiving a Markdown document from another person or downloading from the web, you don’t have to install any additional software to be able to render and read it as a normal document (without the distraction of formatting tags).
Launch Microsoft Word.
Choose «Open» command and select the Markdown document you would like to open. Or simply double-click on a Markdown file in File Explorer
File will be shown in the Microsoft Word interface like any other document.
3.2 Convert Microsoft Word documents to Markdown
If you don’t like the idea of using Microsoft Word as a text editor, you could simply save any Word document which you receive from your colleague as a Markdown file and continue to work with your favorite Markdown tool.
Launch Microsoft Word.
Create a document or open an existing DOCX file.
Choose «Save as…» command and choose «Markdown» from «Save as type» field
3.3 Convert Markdown files to DOCX documents
To be able to use the rich formatting functions of Microsoft Word or simply to share your Markdown file with people who use Microsoft Word, you should convert a Markdown file into a Word document.
Launch Microsoft Word.
Open an existing Markdown file.
Choose «Save as…» command and choose «Word Document(*.docx)» from «Save as type» field
3.4 Using Markdown syntax
With Writage it is easy to start writing in Markdown format, zero knowledge of syntax is required and you don’t have to know what document styles are supported in Markdown.
Most of the supported Markdown styles are available through the Writage tab on the MS Word ribbon. So all you need is to apply a style to selected text or insert an image or a table like you usually do when writing documents.
You can open the "Welcome.md" document at any time, by pressing the "Welcome" button on the ribbon, and see what different styles look like. Moreover you can save it somewhere on your disc and have some practice with editing a Markdown document using Microsoft Word.
3.5 Paste Markdown from clipboard
If you need to paste some text from Markdown syntax into a Microsoft Word document, using a simple "Copy/Paste" action, it can be easily done by Writage. The text will be displayed as it was predefined in source syntax.
To be able to paste raw Markdown code into a DOCX file you need to:
Copy Markdown code into the clipboard by selecting the code and using the "Copy" button from the Context menu.
Launch Microsoft Word and open your file.
Press "Paste Markdown" button on "Writage" tab.
You will see your selected text pasted into your document with all the predefined styles applied.
3.6 Copy Markdown to clipboard
In case you need to copy selected text from Microsoft Word into a Markdown document, please, follow the instructions below. The text will be inserted in CommonMark syntax.
Copy selected text from your Microsoft Word document by making a selection and using the "Copy Markdown" button on the Writage tab
Open your Markdown document.
Use "Paste" command from the Context menu
You will see the text from the Microsoft Word document pasted into your Markdown file with all the syntax.
3.7 Convert Markdown file to PDF
If you need to convert your Markdown files to PDF format, use Writage to open them in Microsoft Word and simply export them as PDF-files, using the standard Microsoft Word feature.
Open your Markdown file in Microsoft Word
Use "File/Export" command and follow the instructions.
3.8 Custom document styles
Writage provides the possibility to change default styles when opening a Markdown document in Microsoft Word to comply with your requirements.
All you need to do is to create a new custom styles set with all the necessary changes in styles.
How to create a custom styles set:
Launch Microsoft Word and open "Welcome.md" by pressing the "Welcome" button in Writage tab. This document contains all the styles,used by Writage for Markdown documents.
Make all the necessary changes in styles, then open the "Design" tab and press the dropdown button in the bottom right corner.
In the opened dialog box choose “Save as a New Style Set” option.
The "Save as a New Style Set" dialog window will appear, please save the new style set as "Writage" and press the "Save" button.
After that the created "Writage" style set will appear in the list of all the Style Sets in the "Custom" section.
All the Markdown documents will be opened with the created "Writage" style set.
How to delete a custom styles set:
If you decide to come back to default Writage styles, please delete the custom "Writage" style set:
Open the "Design" tab and choose the "Writage" style set in the "Custom" section.
Open the context menu, using the mouse right-click and choose the "Delete" command.
Confirm your choice by pressing the "Yes" button.
After that the "Writage" style set will disappear in the list of all the Style Sets in the "Custom" section.
All the Markdown documents will be opened with the default styles.
3.9 Settings
Writage implements the CommonMark standard syntax. However there are many Markdown syntax variations available and there are many different software products with different syntax requirements. In order to comply with them and integrate Writage smoothly into your workflow, you can use customized settings for paragraphs and lists.
You can find these settings by pressing the "Settings" button on the "Writage" tab (see picture above)
Paragraph Options
By default Writage inserts soft breaks at 80 characters when converting DOCX documents to Markdown format. It makes your content more comprehensible, because it is much easier to understand shorter fragments of text.
If you prefer to avoid that and to keep you paragraphs as a single line, please select the "Keep paragraph on single line" option (see picture above).
List Options
Writage inserts empty lines between elements of both types of lists: ordered and unordered. It makes a difference when you have lists with multiple paragraphs inside the single list item and lists with items which contain just one line of text. These empty lines will keep your lists look similar.
Writage inserts empty lines between elements of both types of lists: ordered and unordered. Without these extra lines lists with multiple paragraphs inside the single list item, and lists with items which contain just one line of text, will look different.
In case you would like to get rid of empty lines, please select the "No empty lines between list items" option (see picture above).
Code Block options
Code blocks in Markdown may be formatted with three tildes ( ~~~ ) symbols or three backticks ( ``` ). It is based on the Markdown syntax you use or the current settings of your Markdown editor or processor.
Writage by default formats Code block with backticks. In case you would like to use tildes, please select the "Format with tildes (~~~). You can change it back to backticks at any time.
Media Options
Writage stores all the document's images in the "media" folder located inside the same folder where your document is kept. If your workflow process requires a different name for the images folder, you can change it using the "Media Options" (see picture below).
4. Supported syntax
Writage utilises CommonMark as it is a widely used and very well documented Markdown syntax, which was adopted by: Discourse, GitHub, GitLab, Reddit, Stack Overflow and many more.
In addition to the standard CommonMark syntax, Writage provides support for tables (using GitHub Flavored Markdown syntax) and footnotes, which are common in scientific documents.
4.1 CommonMark standard syntax
In the table below you can see CommonMark standard syntax elements and how they will be appear in a Microsoft Word document and Markdown raw code.
You can use as many heading styles in your documents as needed. In the table above only Heading1 - Heading3 are shown to give you an idea of what headings look like in Markdown documents.
4.2 Extended Syntax
In the table below you can see the Extended Syntax used by Writage for tables and footnotes and how those elements will appear in a Microsoft Word document and Markdown raw code.
Style name:
Microsoft Word document:
Markdown document:
Tables
Footnotes
Code blocks with language name
5. Resources
On this page we have published links on some useful resources to help you get started using Markdown in no time.
In this section you can find a collection of frequently encountered questions.
6.1 Installation
Is there a version available for Mac OS?
The current version of Writage is for Windows users only. However we are exploring the possibility to make Writage available for Mac OS users.
Does Writage support Office 365?
Yes, Writage support Office 365, as well as 2010/2013/2016/2019.
I can't install Writage, what's wrong?
Please, make sure that you have «Administrator» rights on your computer.
6.2 Licensing
What's the difference between a personal and commercial license?
Personal license is intended for individual use. Therefore only one licence per user is available and the license will be issued on your own name.
Commercial license is designated for companies. The license will be issued on your company name, not on the name of an individual user. There is an option to purchase as many licenses as your company needs.
Can I use Writage on more than one computer?
Yes, you can use your licence on multiple computers (at home, at University, school, etc) as long as you have a license valid for the person who uses Writage and not someone else.
Can I buy a licence for my team?
If you are purchasing a licence for more than one person, you need to choose the Commercial licence at check-out.
6.3 Pricing
How do you process orders?
All our orders are processed by FastSpring. FastSpring is a well-known company that has been offering a full service e-commerce platform for companies that sell software since 2005.
How can I change the number of licences?
If you are going to buy some licenses for commercial use, you can enter the quantity you need on the checkout page. If you are going to buy a licence for your personal use, there will be only one licence available.
I bought a license, how to activate it?
In order to activate your license, please open the "Writage" tab in Microsoft Word, press "License" button and paste your license code into the dialog box.
I lost my licence, what to do?
If you lost your licence, please send us an email and we will resend you the licence code.
Have more questions?
Simply send us an email. We're always happy to help.