Multimarkdown

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MultiMarkdown for Windows is free, opensource and has an postable version already. 'MultiMarkdown, or MMD, is a tool to help turn minimally marked-up plain text into well formatted documents, including HTML, PDF (by way of LaTeX), OPML, or OpenDocument (specifically, Flat OpenDocument or ‘.fodt’, which can in turn be converted into RTF. The MultiMarkdown User’s Guide is in the process of being rewritten for v6. In the meantime, if you’re looking for something that isn’t here, check the version 5 User’s Guide. MultiMarkdown User's Guide. MultiMarkdown Version 6.4.0 Last Revised 2018-10-08. You can view the MultiMarkdown User’s Guide as a single document: HTML; EPUB 3. As the world goes multi-platform with all of the new mobile operating systems, MultiMarkdown provides an easy way to share formatting between all of my devices. It’s easy to learn (even for us mortals) and immediately useful. — David Sparks, MacSparky.com. Enter MultiMarkdown. When you write in an application that supports MultiMarkdown, you can format your text as you type. You don’t have to remember code, and your fingers never have to leave the keyboard. Where might you use markdown?

Markdown 1.0.1 (18 KB) — 17 Dec 2004

Introduction

Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdownallows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain textformat, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

Thus, “Markdown” is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax;and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain textformatting to HTML. See the Syntax page for details pertaining toMarkdown’s formatting syntax. You can try it out, right now, using theonline Dingus.

The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to makeit as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatteddocument should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without lookinglike it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. WhileMarkdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTMLfilters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’ssyntax is the format of plain text email.

The best way to get a feel for Markdown’s formatting syntax is simplyto look at a Markdown-formatted document. For example, you can viewthe Markdown source for the article text on this page here:http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/index.text

(You can use this ‘.text’ suffix trick to view the Markdown source forthe content of each of the pages in this section, e.g. theSyntax and License pages.)

Markdown is free software, available under a BSD-style open sourcelicense. See the License page for more information.

Discussion List

I’ve set up a public mailing list for discussion about Markdown.Any topic related to Markdown — both its formatting syntax andits software — is fair game for discussion. Anyone who is interestedis welcome to join.

It’s my hope that the mailing list will lead to good ideas for futureimprovements to Markdown.

Installation and Requirements

Markdown requires Perl 5.6.0 or later. Welcome to the 21st Century.Markdown also requires the standard Perl library module Digest::MD5, which is probably already installed on your server.

Movable Type

Markdown works with Movable Type version 2.6 or later (includingMovable Type 3.0).

1. Copy the “Markdown.pl” file into your Movable Type “plugins”directory. The “plugins” directory should be in the same directoryas “mt.cgi”; if the “plugins” directory doesn’t already exist, useyour FTP program to create it. Your installation should look likethis:

2. Once installed, Markdown will appear as an option in Movable Type’sText Formatting pop-up menu. This is selectable on a per-post basis:

   Markdown translates your posts to HTML when you publish; the poststhemselves are stored in your MT database in Markdown format.

3. If you also install SmartyPants 1.5 (or later), Markdown willoffer a second text formatting option: “Markdown WithSmartyPants”. This option is the same as the regular “Markdown”formatter, except that it automatically uses SmartyPants to createtypographically correct curly quotes, em-dashes, and ellipses. Seethe SmartyPants web page for more information.

4. To make Markdown (or “Markdown With SmartyPants”) your defaulttext formatting option for new posts, go to Weblog Config:Preferences.

Note that by default, Markdown produces XHTML output. To configureMarkdown to produce HTML 4 output, see “Configuration”, below.

Blosxom

Markdown works with Blosxom version 2.0 or later.

1. Rename the “Markdown.pl” plug-in to “Markdown” (case isimportant). Movable Type requires plug-ins to have a “.pl”extension; Blosxom forbids it.

2. Copy the “Markdown” plug-in file to your Blosxom plug-ins folder.If you’re not sure where your Blosxom plug-ins folder is, see theBlosxom documentation for information.

3. That’s it. The entries in your weblog will now automatically beprocessed by Markdown.

4. If you’d like to apply Markdown formatting only to certainposts, rather than all of them, Markdown can optionally be used inconjunction with Blosxom’s Meta plug-in. First, install theMeta plug-in. Next, open the Markdown plug-in file in a texteditor, and set the configuration variable $g_blosxom_use_metato 1. Then, simply include a “meta-markup: Markdown” header lineat the top of each post you compose using Markdown.

BBEdit

Markdown works with BBEdit 6.1 or later on Mac OS X. It also workswith BBEdit 5.1 or later and MacPerl 5.6.1 on Mac OS 8.6 or later. Ifyou’re running Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), you may need to install thePerl module Digest::MD5 from CPAN; Digest::MD5 comespre-installed on Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther).

1. Copy the “Markdown.pl” file to appropriate filters folder in your“BBEdit Support” folder. On Mac OS X, this should be:

   See the BBEdit documentation for more details on the location ofthese folders.

   You can rename “Markdown.pl” to whatever you wish.

2. That’s it. To use Markdown, select some text in a BBEdit document,then choose Markdown from the Filters sub-menu in the “#!” menu, orthe Filters floating palette

Configuration

By default, Markdown produces XHTML output for tags with empty elements.E.g.:

Markdown can be configured to produce HTML-style tags; e.g.:

Movable Type

You need to use a special MTMarkdownOptions container tag in eachMovable Type template where you want HTML 4-style output:

The easiest way to use MTMarkdownOptions is probably to put theopening tag right after your <body> tag, and the closing tag rightbefore </body>.

To suppress Markdown processing in a particular template, i.e. topublish the raw Markdown-formatted text without translation into(X)HTML, set the output attribute to ‘raw’:

Command-Line

Use the --html4tags command-line switch to produce HTML output from aUnix-style command line. E.g.:

Type perldoc Markdown.pl, or read the POD documentation within theMarkdown.pl source code for more information.

Acknowledgements

Aaron Swartz deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his feedback on thedesign of Markdown’s formatting syntax. Markdown is much better thanksto Aaron’s ideas, feedback, and testing. Also, Aaron’s html2textis a very handy (and free) utility for turning HTML intoMarkdown-formatted plain text.

Nathaniel Irons, Dan Benjamin, Daniel Bogan, and Jason Perkinsalso deserve thanks for their feedback.

Michel Fortin has ported Markdown to PHP; it’s a splendid port, and highly recommended for anyone looking for a PHP implementation of Markdown.

Overview

The basic syntax outlined in John Gruber’s original design document added many of the elements needed on a day-to-day basis, but it wasn’t enough for some people. That’s where extended syntax comes in.

Several individuals and organizations took it upon themselves to extend the basic syntax by adding additional elements like tables, code blocks, syntax highlighting, URL auto-linking, and footnotes. These elements can be enabled by using a lightweight markup language that builds upon the basic Markdown syntax, or by adding an extension to a compatible Markdown processor.

Availability

Not all Markdown applications support extended syntax elements. You’ll need to check whether or not the lightweight markup language your application is using supports the extended syntax elements you want to use. If it doesn’t, it may still be possible to enable extensions in your Markdown processor.

Lightweight Markup Languages

There are several lightweight markup languages that are supersets of Markdown. They include Gruber’s basic syntax and build upon it by adding additional elements like tables, code blocks, syntax highlighting, URL auto-linking, and footnotes. Many of the most popular Markdown applications use one of the following lightweight markup languages:

Markdown Processors

There are dozens of Markdown processors available. Many of them allow you to add extensions that enable extended syntax elements. Check your processor’s documentation for more information.

Tables

To add a table, use three or more hyphens (---) to create each column’s header, and use pipes (|) to separate each column. You can optionally add pipes on either end of the table.

The rendered output looks like this:

Cell widths can vary, as shown below. The rendered output will look the same.

Alignment

You can align text in the columns to the left, right, or center by adding a colon (:) to the left, right, or on both side of the hyphens within the header row.

The rendered output looks like this:

Formatting Text in Tables

You can format the text within tables. For example, you can add links, code (words or phrases in backticks (`) only, not code blocks), and emphasis.

You can’t add headings, blockquotes, lists, horizontal rules, images, or HTML tags.

Escaping Pipe Characters in Tables

You can display a pipe (|) character in a table by using its HTML character code (|).

Fenced Code Blocks

The basic Markdown syntax allows you to create code blocks by indenting lines by four spaces or one tab. If you find that inconvenient, try using fenced code blocks. Depending on your Markdown processor or editor, you’ll use three backticks (```) or three tildes (~~~) on the lines before and after the code block. The best part? You don’t have to indent any lines!

The rendered output looks like this:

Syntax Highlighting

Many Markdown processors support syntax highlighting for fenced code blocks. This feature allows you to add color highlighting for whatever language your code was written in. To add syntax highlighting, specify a language next to the backticks before the fenced code block.

The rendered output looks like this:

Footnotes

Footnotes allow you to add notes and references without cluttering the body of the document. When you create a footnote, a superscript number with a link appears where you added the footnote reference. Readers can click the link to jump to the content of the footnote at the bottom of the page.

To create a footnote reference, add a caret and an identifier inside brackets ([^1]). Identifiers can be numbers or words, but they can’t contain spaces or tabs. Identifiers only correlate the footnote reference with the footnote itself — in the output, footnotes are numbered sequentially.

Add the footnote using another caret and number inside brackets with a colon and text ([^1]: My footnote.). You don’t have to put footnotes at the end of the document. You can put them anywhere except inside other elements like lists, block quotes, and tables.

The rendered output looks like this:

Here’s a simple footnote,¹ and here’s a longer one.²

1. This is the first footnote. ↩

2. Here’s one with multiple paragraphs and code.

   Indent paragraphs to include them in the footnote.

   { my code }

   Add as many paragraphs as you like. ↩

Heading IDs

Many Markdown processors support custom IDs for headings — some Markdown processors automatically add them. Adding custom IDs allows you to link directly to headings and modify them with CSS. To add a custom heading ID, enclose the custom ID in curly braces on the same line as the heading.

The HTML looks like this:

Linking to Heading IDs

You can link to headings with custom IDs in the file by creating a standard link with a number sign (#) followed by the custom heading ID.

Other websites can link to the heading by adding the custom heading ID to the full URL of the webpage (e.g, [Heading IDs](https://www.markdownguide.org/extended-syntax#heading-ids)).

Definition Lists

Some Markdown processors allow you to create definition lists of terms and their corresponding definitions. To create a definition list, type the term on the first line. On the next line, type a colon followed by a space and the definition.

The HTML looks like this:

The rendered output looks like this:

First Term

This is the definition of the first term.

Second Term

This is one definition of the second term.

This is another definition of the second term.

Strikethrough

You can strikethrough words by putting a horizontal line through the center of them. The result looks like this. This feature allows you to indicate that certain words are a mistake not meant for inclusion in the document. To strikethrough words, use two tilde symbols (~~) before and after the words.

The rendered output looks like this:

The world is flat. We now know that the world is round.

Task Lists

Task lists allow you to create a list of items with checkboxes. In Markdown applications that support task lists, checkboxes will be displayed next to the content. To create a task list, add dashes (-) and brackets with a space ([ ]) in front of task list items. To select a checkbox, add an x in between the brackets ([x]).

The rendered output looks like this:

Emoji

There are two ways to add emoji to Markdown files: copy and paste the emoji into your Markdown-formatted text, or type emoji shortcodes.

Copying and Pasting Emoji

In most cases, you can simply copy an emoji from a source like Emojipedia and paste it into your document. Many Markdown applications will automatically display the emoji in the Markdown-formatted text. The HTML and PDF files you export from your Markdown application should display the emoji.

Using Emoji Shortcodes

Some Markdown applications allow you to insert emoji by typing emoji shortcodes. These begin and end with a colon and include the name of an emoji.

The rendered output looks like this:

Gone camping! ⛺ Be back soon.

That is so funny! 😂

Automatic URL Linking

Many Markdown processors automatically turn URLs into links. That means if you type http://www.example.com, your Markdown processor will automatically turn it into a link even though you haven’t used brackets.

The rendered output looks like this:

Disabling Automatic URL Linking

If you don’t want a URL to be automatically linked, you can remove the link by denoting the URL as code with backticks.

The rendered output looks like this:

http://www.example.com

Take your Markdown skills to the next level.

Learn Markdown in 60 pages. Designed for both novices and experts, The Markdown Guide book is a comprehensive reference that has everything you need to get started and master Markdown syntax.

Multimarkdown Vs Pandoc

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