Hello all! Little question, suppose it's an easy one: The default opener of "file.md" or "file.markdown" is on my computer Xcode. But how to render this file, which viewer?
I am writing my markdown files in MacVim. I realised that BBEdit has a possibility to "render" such a file going to the menu item Markup > Preview in BBEdit
Which tool BBEdit is using, to open this preview?
Thank you in advance
marek
I was using BBEdit 12.6.3 with a local README.md, and when I chose Preview in BBEdit, it popped an HTML window. So nothing extra to download — provided BBEdit does not disable the Preview in BBEdit feature after the trial expires.
If you want to convert your own markdown into HTML, or Word .docx, then I recommend the free pandoc command-line tool.
pandoc -t html5 -o rme.html README.md
pandoc -o rme.docx README.md
It can be installed from pandoc's site, or via homebrew (e.g. brew install pandoc).
I believe BBEdit is converting the markdown into HTML and displaying it as it would appear in a browser using a stripped down HTML viewer, possibly a minimal Safari window. From the older BBEdit 8.6 release notes:
I sifted through the BBEdit 12.6.3 application contents and found no specific tool by name that appears to be achieving the preceding conversion. There is no obvious "Markdown script" and the functionality may have been pulled inside the application executable in the current application.
Thank you VikingOSX
Very helpful! So that means I have to download an own Markdown-Viewer? By the way: the browsers I have installed, cannot render a markdown file. And that's clear, because they are made for HTML and indeed BBEdit seems to translate it first in HTML to render it.
Best Greetings
marek
Thx again VikingOSX
Looking over the Webpage of the inventor of Markdown-Syntax (John Gruber) apparently you have always the need to translate a file.markdown into html before "rendering" it. I thought you could view it without any deviation. pandoc is already installed (via homebrew) and is working. That means I need two commands to view it with MacVim:
:!pandoc -t html5 -o Markdown\ Readme.html Markdown\ Readme.text
:!open -a Opera Markdown\ Readme.html
Which is pretty cumbersome ...
Best greetings from Munich
One command (tested on MacVim 8.1.950):
:!pandoc -t html5 -o Markdown\ Readme.html Mardown\ Readme.txt && open -a Safari Markdown\ Readme.html
Seems like it is grounds for a .gvimrc macro. 🤓
Any use for a markdown Quick Look plug-in?
Wow! a real professional 🙂
Thank you again!
Markdown Viewer?