Visual Studio Markdown

Posted on  by



What is it ...

mdmath allows to use Visual Studio Code as a markdown editor capable of typesetting and rendering TeX math.K,In fact it now reuses the built in markdown viewer. KaTeX works inside as a fast math renderer.

Add 'markdown-pdf.convertOnSave': true option to settings.json; Restart Visual Studio Code; Open the Markdown file; Auto convert on save; Extension Settings. Visual Studio Code User and Workspace Settings. Select File Preferences UserSettings or Workspace Settings; Find markdown-pdf settings in the Default Settings; Copy markdown-pdf. settings. A handy Markdown Cheatsheet is also available here, and can serve as a useful refresher for the formatting required in your markdown in order to use automatic formatting features such as headings, table of contents, tables, links, image embedding and comments. Visual Studio Code for Working with Markdowns.

Mar 24, 2020 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. 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.

You can install the extension directly from Visual Studio Code Marketplace.

What is new in mdmath 2.5.0 ...

  • Markdown+Math is compatible with Pandoc. So with dollars namespace inline usage of $$..$$ math expressions will result in display math notation (output on separate line).
  • Multiline math expressions in blockquote blocks are supported.
  • Code size is reduced.
  • Regular expressions were simplified.
  • Runtime performance is improved.

Features

Markdown

Simplify the process of authoring and live previewing markdown documents containing math formulas.This extension is a comfortable tool for scientists, engineers and students with markdown as their first choicedocument format.

  • Inline math
  • Display math
  • Formula numbering
  • Inline math with tables
  • Works offline.
  • Integrated in native markdown viewer. So after installing the extension, TeX math is properly displayed in the markdown preview window.
  • Based on markdown-it plugin markdown-it-texmath.
  • Using vscode's Markdown Extension API.
  • Editor view and Preview are synchronized while scrolling.
  • Copy resulting HTML code to the system clipboard.
  • Due to markdown-it-texmath's support of different formula delimiters, these are also available and user configurable with mdmath:
    • 'dollars' (default)
      • inline: $...$
      • display: $$...$$
      • display + equation number: $$...$$ (1)
    • 'brackets'
      • inline: (...)
      • display: [...]
      • display + equation number: [...] (1)
    • 'gitlab'
      • inline: $`...`$
      • display: ```math ... ```
      • display + equation number: ```math ... ``` (1)
    • 'julia'
      • inline: $...$ or ``...``
      • display: ```math ... ```
      • display + equation number: ```math ... ``` (1)
    • 'kramdown'
      • inline: $$...$$
      • display: $$...$$
      • display + equation number: $$...$$ (1)

Installation ...

... from inside of VSCode

Press F1 key inside of Visual Studio Code and type extension. Choose Extensions: Install Extensionand then select the Markdown+Math extension from the list.

... from Mac & Linux Command Line

... from Windows Command Line

Usage

  • Launch VS Code, create or open a markdown file (.md).
  • Open a preview window.
  • Typeset in your markdown source window and see the preview window live updating.
  • Press Ctrl+K, or run the command Save Markdown+Math to HTML to save the corresponding HTML source to the file system.
  • Press Ctrl+K. or run the command Clip Markdown+Math to HTML to copy the corresponding HTML source to the underlying systems clipboard.

User Settings

Default Settings

Example Settings

Dependencies

  • markdown-it: The markdown renderer also used in VS Code.
  • katex: This is where credits for fast rendering TeX math in HTML go to.

FAQ

  • How to define my own CSS file for HTML export ?

    • Define it by the user setting mdmath.style as an absolute URL. So for an example you might choose mdmath.style: 'file://c:/mystyle/mystyle.css' with windows.

  • How to define and use macros ?

    • Define them in user settings. For example ...
    • Use them in your markdown document. For example ...

  • How to define macros in a user macro file?

    • Create a JSON file containing the macros and define its path in user settings. For example ...
    • Define the macros the same way as in the user settings.
    • User macro definition file has priority over user defined macro settings, which are ignored then.

  • Are there global predefined macros ?

    • No. Macros are user defined with user settings mdmath.macros. So they are available in all user specific markdown documents.

  • Can I write the HTML source to a file ?

    • Yes. Use the Markdown: Save Markdown+Math to Html command or the key binding Ctrl+K,.
    • The Html file is written to the folder where the markdown file resides in. This is the default.
    • You can change the destination folder by specifying a relative path to your working directory with the help of the user setting mdmath.savePath. So for an example you might choose mdmath.savePath: './html/${file.name}.html'.

  • Can I synchronously let the HTML source file update ?

    • Yes. Simply set the user setting mdmath.autosave: true for this (default is false).
    • Now, whenever you save your markdown file, the corresponding Html file is also saved.
    • The destination folder mdmath.savePath is used for this.

  • Formula highlighting is broken ?

    • It is implemented only for $ delimiters at present.
    • $ characters in markdown text are sometimes confused with math delimiters. Enclose them by backticks (`) then.
    • Formula highlighting is possible only for formulas on a single line. It breaks with every newline character.
    • Math highlighting is completely different from LaTeX math parsing.

  • Which functions does KaTeX support ?

    • See them listed at KaTeX Supported Functions and KaTeX Support Table.

  • What if I need to use the currency symbol $ also in my markup ?

    • It should be safe to use it. If in doubt escape it.

  • What are the restrictions with inline formulas ?

    • Whitespace after opening $ and before closing $ is not allowed.
    • Numeric character before opening $ and after closing $ is not allowed.
    • At least one character (whitespace ?) is required between two consecutive inline formulas.
    • Line break inside is not allowed.

  • What are the restrictions with display formulas ?

    • Not allowed inline of text.
    • Not allowed inside of tables. Use inline math there instead.
    • Blank lines before and behind required.
    • Restrictions for inline formulas do not apply.

  • Can I use math markup in blockquotes ?

    • We can use inline and display formulas in blockquote sections.
    • Multiline display math expressions require leading > characters on each line.
    • Multilevel blockquote sections work as expected.

  • Can I use math markup in code blocks ?

    • No, math markup in code blocks is shown - as expected - as markup. This is consistent now, but in contrast to mdmath versions prior to 2.0.

  • Can I access the HTML source of the markdown file ?

    • Yes. Use the Markdown: Clip Markdown+Math to Html command or the key binding Ctrl+K..
    • The markdown preview window has to be opened once for this in order to function properly.
    • You need to have the markdown source window activated here (not the preview window!).
    • Please note, that the resulting HTML source references 'CDN'-located remote css files. Change those references to local URL's if necessary.

  • Is PDF output supported ?

    • Not directly. In order to create *.pdf output from your Markdown you can create a *.html document first and print it then using a PDF printer or use Pandoc.
    • See Compiling Markdown into HTML.

  • Can I use custom CSS styles for the preview window ?

    • Yes. Set mdmath.style in user settings to the location of your custom CSS file. Its path must be relative to this extension root.

  • Can we store Latex macros with mdmath ?

    • Yes, there is a new section mdmath.globalMacros in package.json. Try to expand it with your own macros.

Thank You

The following folks helped to make mdmath even better.

  • elviswolcott: Implemented the feature of directly saving HTML to the file system including autosave ability.
  • colinfang: helped with implementing macros for mdmath 2.3.5.
  • lincr: Helped with fixing problems with mdmath.clipToHtml under Ubuntu.
  • TonySFU: Helped with fixing encoding problems with Chinese language under macOS when using mdmath.clipToHtml.
  • floatdrop: Verifying that clipboardy is a better alternative to copy-paste by implementing.
  • zhanglix: Helped with fixing the newline bug with gitlab delimiters.
Visual Studio Markdown

Contributing

See .github/CONTRIBUTING.md

Changelog

File

See changelog.md

License

Visual studio markdown pdf

Markdown+Math for VS Code is licensed under the MIT License

More Videos For Visual Studio Markdown »

© Stefan Gössner