How to Open and View .md Files on Any Device

A file ending in .md is a Markdown file. It is plain text with a few symbols, such as # for headings and ** for bold. You can open it with any text editor, but to see it formatted you need a Markdown viewer. Here are the ways to do it on each device.

Fastest way: the online viewer

1. Open the Markdown viewer.
2. Click Open .md file, or drag the file onto the editor.
3. Read the formatted result in the preview panel.

It works on desktop and mobile browsers, and the file is read on your device, not uploaded.

Open it as plain text

Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac) and gedit or Kate (Linux) all open .md files. You will see the raw text, which is readable but not formatted. If your system asks which app to use, choose a text editor.

Use a Markdown app

• Windows: Markdown editors and viewers for Windows
• Mac: Markdown viewers for Mac
• Linux: Markdown viewers for Linux
• Developers: Markdown preview in VS Code or the terminal

On a phone or tablet

The simplest approach is to open the online viewer in your mobile browser and use Open .md file to pick the file from your device, or paste the text. If you read Markdown notes often, apps such as Obsidian and iA Writer have mobile versions.

Turn it into another format

Pandoc can convert a Markdown file to HTML, Word or PDF from the command line, for example pandoc notes.md -o notes.html. In the online viewer you can also download the rendered HTML or print the preview and choose Save as PDF.

Common problems

• Strange characters instead of accents or symbols: the file is probably not UTF-8. Reopen it in an editor that lets you choose the encoding, and save it as UTF-8.
• The file opens in the wrong program: change the default app for .md files in your system settings.
• Other extensions: Markdown files are sometimes named .markdown or .mdown, or saved as .txt. They are opened the same way.