Following recording the most recent MPU episode, I got serious about Brett Terpstra’s Markdown Services. These are a really nice collection of tools that I’m completely incapable of replicating with my usual bag automation tools and chewing gum. I used to do this with TextExpander. I talked about this a little bit during the show but since recording, I’ve particularly picked up on using the services that convert inline links to reference links and the other that assembles reference links from open Safari tabs. Think about that one for a moment: Write an article, open Safari and find your links, run the service. Boom. It’s a service so it works anywhere you write text.

I’m not alone, since the episode hit the airwaves I’ve received several e-mails from bloggers and web-writers explaining how this changed their workflows. Nice work Mr. Terpstra, indeed.

Dr. Drang also covered this today and talked about how he pulls off these tricks with TextMate. (The good Doctor also is the first to publicly unmask me as a tramp.) While I get that you can do a lot more with a tools like TextMate, at this point I’m thinking Brett’s services plus Byword are enough for me.