One advantage of plain text formats that I haven't seen mentioned is that they're easily and meaningfully diff-able.
You can run two versions of a markdown file or a LaTeX source file through a diff, and see what's been changed. Try that with a PDF or Word file or what have you.
As I like to keep my files in version control, I use plain text formats as much as possible.
You can run two versions of a markdown file or a LaTeX source file through a diff, and see what's been changed. Try that with a PDF or Word file or what have you.
As I like to keep my files in version control, I use plain text formats as much as possible.