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Comment by aragilar | Hacker News Reader

I've done .doc -> .md -> .tex -> .pdf via pandoc (e.g. to convert a confluence document to a nicely typeset PDF), so I'm not sure there's much difference.

Naturally, a format with more metadata loses metadata when converted to one with less (and the reverse, you may need to add metadata in when going up the chain), but unless your document is bound to a specific format (in which case, I'd pick RST for HTML and LaTeX for pdf), markdown gives you the content and pandoc lets you specify a template (and with pandoc, you can take the markdown and generate slides in HTML, PDF and create notes through the different outputs).

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Conversions don't just loose metadata, you loose the ability to specify things. LaTeX shines because it can do everything by itself, markdown clearly can't and even with a TeX template you loose much of TeX's power.

You should start out by defining your desired output and needed input. I realize that 99% of document content can be fully realized in markdown, but the 1% can easily be a total deal breaker and make using markdown a complete nonstarter.

Markdown doesn't give you a table of contents, an index, page breaks, control over typesetting, control over table layout, captioned figures, diagramming tools, etc. The difference is about the same magnitude as between Pong and Call of Duty. Yes they're both video games, sometimes one is preferable over the other, but they are not equivalent.

Pandoc/Quarto markdown gives you most of these.

In my experience, it rarely really matters fine control. If the effort is too big to tweak the templates/markdown you export it to an intermediate state (LaTeX/Office/whatever) and drop the original markdown source.

There is no lock-in.

Exactly, and I need those features, I'd use LaTeX (and if collaboration is needed, either git or overleaf depending on who I'm working with). For a ~1 page document of text, where there is minimal markup required, markdown through pandoc produces a nicer looking document than using the output from web-based editors (e.g. google docs, confluence), which is typically where I'm starting with .doc.

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