Textarea and Markdown Updates

Leveling Up Text Editing in STAPLE: Markdown + Previews

Managing research projects means keeping track of a lot of text: project descriptions, milestones, tasks, notes, and announcements. Until now, our text areas worked like simple plain-text boxes — you could type long passages, but formatting options were limited, and contributors had no way to see how their notes would appear to others.

That changes today. 🚀

From Plain Text to Markdown

We’ve upgraded all major text fields in STAPLE to support Markdown formatting. That means you can now add structure to your writing with:

• Bulleted lists
• Numbered lists
• Headings
• Links
• Emphasis (bold, italics, code)

Markdown is a lightweight syntax many researchers and developers already know, and it gives contributors a simple way to make their content more readable.

✨ For example:
Typing 1. First item + 2. Second item now creates a numbered list in the preview.

Live Preview Mode

Formatting is only helpful if you can see it. That’s why we added a Preview toggle to textareas across the app:

• Edit mode: Write your text in Markdown.
• Preview mode: See exactly how contributors will see it.

This toggle appears in project descriptions, milestones, tasks, roles, and even notes. For notes, we also made the preview box more readable with padding, borders, and heading adjustments.

Clickable Links (Done Right)

Links written in Markdown ([Open Science](https://example.org)) now render as clickable links. To keep things safe, they always open in a new window with noopener noreferrer. We’ve styled them in STAPLE’s primary color so they stand out.

Cleaner Styling

To make Markdown content look consistent across the app, we added shared styling for .markdown-display. That means:

• Proper spacing for paragraphs and lists
• Compact, readable headings (h1–h4)
• Background and padding so notes don’t look cramped

This creates a polished, professional look while staying lightweight.

Why This Matters

Researchers deserve tools that make project documentation easy to read and easy to write. With Markdown + Previews, STAPLE now helps contributors:

• Communicate ideas clearly
• Structure complex notes
• Share resources with clickable links
• Trust that what they type is what others see

This is just the beginning—we’ll continue refining how text, metadata, and documentation are handled across the platform.