I think the best approach for this is to combine 

1. [Converting Markdown to HTML][1] &
2. [Displaying HTML in WinForms][2]

The most up to date Markdown Library seems to be [**markdig**][3] which you can install [via nuget][4]

[![Nuget > Markdig][5]][5]

A simple implementation might be to:

1. Add a `SplitContainer` to a `Form` control, set `Dock = Fill`
2. Add a `TextBox`, set `Dock = Fill` and set to `Multiline = True`
3. Add a `WebBrowser`, set `Dock = Fill`

Then handle the `TextChanged` event, parse the text into html and set to `DocumentText` like this:

```cs
private void textBox1_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var md = textBox1.Text;
    var html = Markdig.Markdown.ToHtml(md);
    webBrowser1.DocumentText = html;
}
```

Here's a recorded demo:

[![Demo screen share][6]][6]


  [1]: https://stackoverflow.com/q/460483/1366033
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12724381/1366033
  [3]: https://github.com/lunet-io/markdig
  [4]: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Markdig/
  [5]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/Gl8UV.png
  [6]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/XcOsX.gif

[We have a Windows Forms database front-end application that, among other things, can be used as a CMS; clients create the structure, fill it, and then use a ASP.NET WebForms-based site to present the results to publicly on the Web. For added flexibility, they are sometimes forced to input actual HTML markup right into a text field, which then ends up as a varchar in the database. This works, but it's far from user-friendly.]

As such… some clients want a WYSIWYG editor for HTML. I'd like to convince them that they'd benefit from using simpler language (namely, Markdown). Ideally, what I'd like to have is a WYSIWYG editor for that. They don't need tables, or anything sophisticated like that.

A cursory search reveals [a .NET Markdown to HTML converter][1], and then we have [a Windows Forms-based text editor that outputs HTML][2], but apparently nothing that brings the two together. As a result, we'd still have our varchars with markup in there, but at least it would be both quite human-readable and still easily parseable.

Would this — a WYSIWYG editor that outputs Markdown, which is then later on parsed into HTML in ASP.NET — be feasible? Any alternative suggestions?


  [1]: http://aspnetresources.com/blog/markdown_announced.aspx
  [2]: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/edit/editor_in_windows_forms.aspx