About

After working as an anthropologist, I got a job as an account planner in advertising. That job took me to London, Hong Kong and Shanghai. After coming back to South Africa, my wife and I started an eco-business building technologies to convert food waste into compost. After selling that business we travelled across the USA for three months and then came back home to Johannesburg.

I immediately set about fulfilling one of my life ambitions: to write and publish a novel (the 90,000 word novel is with my editor).

I have been using Scrivener for more than ten years and never cracked how the Compile function worked (this is quite important as you need to compile your book into Word, usually, in order to send it to an agent or editor). I am not the only person with the problem!

Also, I work on an iPad (laptop replacement) and a Mac desktop. Scrivener uses Dropbox to keep these in sync. But the syncing doesn’t always work properly (I’ve had unknown conflicts arise, corruption occur, and nonsensical warnings give me sleepless nights). So I also wanted a simple safe solution for using multiple devices on the same document (this will work for collaborators as well; just build a shared folder).

Markdown is a lightweight plain-text formatting language. The top three reasons for using it are:

1. Simplicity and speed

• Easy to learn: you can master the basic syntax (like using # for headers or ** for bold text) in just a few minutes.
• No complex menus: you write directly in plain text without lifting your hands to use a mouse or navigate heavy formatting toolbars in a word processor.
• Focus on content: it separates writing from visual styling, letting you concentrate purely on your ideas.

2. Portability and future-proofing

• Works everywhere: Markdown files are simple .md plain text files that open on any operating system or device.
• No proprietary lock-in: unlike Microsoft Word or other closed formats, your data is never trapped inside a specific software application.
• Long-term durability: plain text has lasted for decades and will remain readable even if modern publishing apps or platforms disappear.

3. Broad compatibility and conversion

• Easy to convert: Markdown easily transforms into HTML, PDFs, Rich Text, and Word documents using simple tools or converters like Pandoc.
• Developer and AI friendly: it integrates cleanly with version control systems like Git and is widely used across technical documentation, GitHub, and AI interfaces (such as ChatGPT and Claude) to structure responses efficiently.

You can find a guide to Markdown syntax here.