By Jean-Claude Colette Mar 24, 2020
Markdown and Visual Studio Code Working with Markdown files in Visual Studio Code is simple, straightforward, and fun. Besides VS Code's basic editing, there are a number of Markdown specific features that will help you be more productive. Css visual-studio-code markdown. Improve this question. Follow edited Aug 8 '19 at 17:03. Peter Mortensen. 28k 21 21 gold badges 94 94 silver badges 123 123. To generate a custom stylesheet, simply right-click inside the markdown editor document and select Add Custom Stylesheet. The name of the custom stylesheet can be changed in the settings. Drag 'n drop images. Drag an image directly from Solution Explorer onto the document to insert the appropriate markdown that will render the image.
Description:
This article explains that Markdown can be installed in Visual Studio and used as a text editor and HTML converter or as a library, with examples of conversion on the fly.
This article shows how to install and use Markdown / MarkDig in Visual Studio.
Markdown can be integrated into Visual Studio and can be used as a text editor or a converter to HTML.
Interest of Markdown
The HTML language has a syntax that does not allow easy editing of a text. It requires an HTML code editor that you can find in Visual Studio for example.
But if a web developer decides to insert into a page of his website a comment editor, he has several possibilities:
- use a plain text box,
- use a rich text box,
- or design a WYSIWYG HTML editor
The last two solutions are ideal for a visitor to the site. Indeed, he will be able to format his comment, write text in italics, bold or color, etc.
The first solution allows to write only plain text and if posted it such, we would get an unsatisfactory result. To make more attractive viewing of comments, it is possible to use tags to represent emoticons, to create links to other sites, etc. But avoid asking a visitor to encode its comments in HTML.
Currently, the solution the most widespread is to ask the user to type his comment under certain rules, like placing his text between two dashes _ to get it in italics, etc.
This text is then automatically converted into HTML and viewed in another part of the page.
There are many languages including basic text formatting rules, but one that is widely used is Markdown. An interesting extension of Markdown is Markdig and can be installed on Visual Studio.
Markdown has other uses. Some web master uses it to create the content of the pages of their site. The text of a page is placed in a text file, automatically converted to HTML and inserted into a web page template. In keeping with the style of their site, they customize the CSS file that is created by default by Markdown. Pages may be also generated by the server, by converting on the fly the Markdown files to HTML.
On the other hand, Markdown can be useful for developers to write documentation for their software.
Use of Markdown as text editor
You can find a Markdown for Visual Studio editor at the following address:
MadsKristensen.MarkdownEditor
It is powered by the Markdig parser.
After installing, just create a text file with the .md extension in Visual Studio.
By double clicking on the file name in solution Explorer, it brings up two windows side by side.
Type a few lines of text in the left window:
We can see the result in the preview window:
Converting a Markdown file to HTML
To convert a Markdown file to HTML in VS, we right click on the file and select Generate HTML file.
A HTML file with the same name is created.
Give an example. Type the following text file:
File.mdIn the preview window, we get:
And converting to HTML:
We remark that the header is reduced to a minimum and there is no link to bootstrap for example.
You can resolve this problem by creating the md-template.html template file and placing the necessary references to style sheets and JavaScript files.
It is possible to change the default template file name in Visual Studio. You can search: Tools > Options > Markdown > Advanced HTML > Template file name > file name.
This is the default template file:
Conversion of Markdown in HTML code by programming
If we stored Markdown text in files or in a database, such as for example comments, it may be useful to convert to HTML and insert the code into a Web page.
This conversion can be done on the server side when generating a page. We will give an example in ASP.NET MVC.
Create an ASP.NET MVC application, install the Markdig package on Nuget and in the index.cshtml file, insert the following instructions:
The display shows:
This is a text with some emphasis
In fact, we have not all features of Markdig. For example, missing citations, task lists, media links, ... If we want to use emoticons, for example, we need to add a few lines of code:
We get:
Now, load the file.md file, convert it to HTML:
Conclusion
That conversion can of course be done in an ASP.NETWebforms application.
If your site is not extremely fast, I advise you to convert Markdown files beforehand.
Working with Markdown files in Visual Studio Code is simple, straightforward, and fun. Besides VS Code's basic editing, there are a number of Markdown specific features that will help you be more productive.
Markdown extensions
In addition to the functionality VS Code provides out of the box, you can install an extension for greater functionality.
Tip: Click on an extension tile above to read the description and reviews to decide which extension is best for you. See more in the Marketplace.
Markdown preview
VS Code supports Markdown files out of the box. You just start writing Markdown text, save the file with the .md extension and then you can toggle the visualization of the editor between the code and the preview of the Markdown file; obviously, you can also open an existing Markdown file and start working with it. To switch between views, press ⇧⌘V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+V) in the editor. You can view the preview side-by-side (⌘K V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+K V)) with the file you are editing and see changes reflected in real-time as you edit.
Here is an example with a very simple file.
Tip: You can also right-click on the editor Tab and select Open Preview (⇧⌘V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+V)) or use the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) to run the Markdown: Open Preview to the Side command (⌘K V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+K V)).
Dynamic previews and preview locking
By default, Markdown previews automatically update to preview the currently active Markdown file:
You can lock a Markdown preview using the Markdown: Toggle Preview Locking command to keep it locked to its current Markdown document. Locked previews are indicated by [Preview] in the title:
Editor and preview synchronization
VS Code automatically synchronizes the Markdown editor and the preview panes. Scroll the Markdown preview and the editor is scrolled to match the preview's viewport. Scroll the Markdown editor and the preview is scrolled to match its viewport:
You can disable scroll synchronization using the markdown.preview.scrollPreviewWithEditor and markdown.preview.scrollEditorWithPreviewsettings.
The currently selected line in the editor is indicated in the Markdown preview by a light gray bar in the left margin:
Additionally, double clicking an element in the Markdown preview will automatically open the editor for the file and scroll to the line nearest the clicked element.
Outline view
The Outline view is a separate section in the bottom of the File Explorer. When expanded, it will show the symbol tree of the currently active editor. For Markdown files, the symbol tree is the Markdown file's header hierarchy.
The Outline view is a great way to review your document's header structure and outline.
Extending the Markdown preview
Extensions can contribute custom styles and scripts to the Markdown preview to change its appearance and add new functionality. Here's a set of example extensions that customize the preview:
Using your own CSS
See Full List On Docs.microsoft.com
You can also use your own CSS in the Markdown preview with the 'markdown.styles': []setting. This lists URLs for style sheets to load in the Markdown preview. These stylesheets can either be https URLs, or relative paths to local files in the current workspace.
For example, to load a stylesheet called Style.css at the root of your current workspace, use File > Preferences > Settings to bring up the workspace settings.json file and make this update:
Keep trailing whitespace in order to create line breaks
To create hard line breaks, Markdown requires two or more spaces at the end of a line. Depending on your user or workspace settings, VS Code may be configured to remove trailing whitespace. In order to keep trailing whitespace in Markdown files only, you can add these lines to your settings.json:
Markdown preview security
For security reasons, VS Code restricts the content displayed in the Markdown preview. This includes disabling script execution and only allowing resources to be loaded over https.
When the Markdown preview blocks content on a page, an alert popup is shown in the top right corner of the preview window:
You can change what content is allowed in the Markdown preview by clicking on this popup or running the Markdown: Change preview security settings command in any Markdown file:
The Markdown preview security settings apply to all files in the workspace.
Here are the details about each of these security levels:
Strict
This is the default setting. Only loads trusted content and disables script execution. Blocks http images.
It is strongly recommended that you keep Strict security enabled unless you have a very good reason to change it AND you trust all markdown files in the workspace.
Allow insecure content
Keeps scripts disabled but allows content to be loaded over http.
Disable
Disables additional security in the preview window. This allows script execution and also allows content to be loaded over http.
Snippets for Markdown
There are several built-in Markdown snippets included in VS Code - press ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space) (Trigger Suggest) and you get a context specific list of suggestions.
Tip: You can add in your own User Defined Snippets for Markdown. Take a look at User Defined Snippets to find out how.
Compiling Markdown into HTML
VS Code integrates with Markdown compilers through the integrated task runner. We can use this to compile .md files into .html files. Let's walk through compiling a simple Markdown document.
Step 1: Install a Markdown compiler
For this walkthrough, we use the popular Node.js module, markdown-it.
Note: There are many Markdown compilers to choose from beyond markdown-it. Pick the one that best suits your needs and environment.
Step 2: Create a simple MD file
Open VS Code on an empty folder and create a sample.md file.
Note: You can open a folder with VS Code by either selecting the folder with File > Open Folder or navigating to the folder and typing 'code .' at the command line.
Place the following source code in that file:
Step 3: Create tasks.json
The next step is to set up the task configuration file tasks.json. To do this, run Terminal > Configure Tasks and click Create tasks.json file from templates. VS Code then presents a list of possible tasks.json templates to choose from. Select Others since we want to run an external command.
Katex: This Is Where Credits For Fast Rendering TeX Math In HTML Go To.
This generates a tasks.json file in your workspace .vscode folder with the following content:
To use markdown-it to compile the Markdown file, change the contents as follows:
Visual Studio Markdown To Pdf
Tip: While the sample is there to help with common configuration settings, IntelliSense is available for the tasks.json file as well to help you along. Use ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space) to see the available settings.
Step 4: Run the Build Task
Since in more complex environments there can be more than one build task we prompt you to pick the task to execute after pressing ⇧⌘B (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+B) (Run Build Task). In addition, we allow you to scan the output for compile problems. Since we only want to convert the Markdown file to HTML select Never scan the build output from the presented list.
Web Essentials Is A Great Plug-in If You Want To See Markdown Files Inside Of Visual Studio. It Has An Editor With Live Preview For Markdown. Also...
At this point, you should see an additional file show up in the file list sample.html.
If you want to make the Compile Markdown task the default build task to run execute Configure Default Build Task from the global Terminal menu and select Compile Markdown from the presented list. The final tasks.json file will then look like this:
Automating Markdown compilation
Let's take things a little further and automate Markdown compilation with VS Code. We can do so with the same task runner integration as before, but with a few modifications.
Step 1: Install Gulp and some plug-ins
We use Gulp to create a task that automates Markdown compilation. We also use the gulp-markdown plug-in to make things a little easier.
We need to install gulp both globally (-g switch) and locally:
Note: gulp-markdown-it is a Gulp plug-in for the markdown-it module we were using before. There are many other Gulp Markdown plug-ins you can use, as well as plug-ins for Grunt.
You can test that your gulp installation was successful by typing gulp -v. You should see a version displayed for both the global (CLI) and local installations.
Step 2: Create a simple Gulp task
Open VS Code on the same folder from before (contains sample.md and tasks.json under the .vscode folder), and create gulpfile.js at the root.
Place the following source code in that file:
What is happening here?
- We are watching for changes to any Markdown file in our workspace, i.e. the current folder open in VS Code.
- We take the set of Markdown files that have changed, and run them through our Markdown compiler, i.e.
gulp-markdown-it. - We now have a set of HTML files, each named respectively after their original Markdown file. We then put these files in the same directory.
Step 3: Run the gulp default Task
To complete the tasks integration with VS Code, we will need to modify the task configuration from before to run the default Gulp task we just created. You can either delete the tasks.json file or empty it only keeping the 'version': '2.0.0' property. Now execute Run Task from the global Terminal menu. Observe that you are presented with a picker listing the tasks defined in the gulp file. Select gulp: default to start the task. We allow you to scan the output for compile problems. Since we only want to convert the Markdown file to HTML select Never scan the build output from the presented list. At this point, if you create and/or modify other Markdown files, you see the respective HTML files generated and/or changes reflected on save. You can also enable Auto Save to make things even more streamlined.
If you want to make the gulp: default task the default build task executed when pressing ⇧⌘B (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+B) run Configure Default Build Task from the global Terminal menu and select gulp: default from the presented list. The final tasks.json file will then look like this:
Visual Studio Code Markdown Extension
Step 4: Terminate the gulp default Task
The gulp: default task runs in the background and watches for file changes to Markdown files. If you want to stop the task, you can use the Terminate Task from the global Terminal menu.
Next steps
Read on to find out about:
- CSS, SCSS, and Less - Want to edit your CSS? VS Code has great support for CSS, SCSS, and Less editing.
Common questions
Is there spell checking?
Not installed with VS Code but there are spell checking extensions. Check the VS Code Marketplace to look for useful extensions to help with your workflow.
Does VS Code support GitHub Flavored Markdown?
No, VS Code targets the CommonMark Markdown specification using the markdown-it library. GitHub is moving toward the CommonMark specification which you can read about in this update.
In the walkthrough above, I didn't find the Configure Task command in the Command Palette?
You may have opened a file in VS Code rather than a folder. You can open a folder by either selecting the folder with File > Open Folder or navigating to the folder and typing 'code .' at the command line.