# Quick Help with Writing - Write in plaintext. - We recommend [Markdown](https://www.markdownguide.org/getting-started/) and using apps like iA Writer, Marked, Typora, Bear, or whatever you can find that is minimal, simple, and unbreakable. - Word and Pages documents break/corrupt/crash, and create "formatting block" where you see the page and margins and it's distracting [See this Article on Writing and Formatting](https://ia.net/topics/separate-writing-and-formatting) ## A TL;DR on Markdown and why it's great for writing a DMA Document Markdown is a plaintext "syntax" or "markup language" that uses symbols like #, \*\*, >, and some others to style and format your text. When typed into a Markdown App (like listed above) the text is formatted accordingly without the need of using a formatting bar in a word processor. While seemingly trivial, this limitation in formatting and simplicity of filetype, allows for the least distraction and likelihood of file corruption/loss and less lag/loading issues as the file grows. You can add diagrams, pictures, tables, and even footnotes/citations, etc. in markdown. Additionally, instead of one massive Pages or Docx or Google Doc file either for the whole document or one file per Chapter, you can break your Markdown files up by section, or chapter however you please, and the file size will be more manageable and navigable. Give it a try — and if you're not sold. Talk to Dr. Bissantz, and he'll try to sell you on it. For context, this *entire* documentation site is built on markdown files sitting in on a computer folder. Pretty neat.