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Answers to common questions about MultiMarkdown. Contributions welcome!
Please see [How do I install MultiMarkdown?].
The syntax of MultiMarkdown can be a challenge for beginners especially when it comes to using Table and Link syntax. The challenge comes in understanding how it looks after the conversion.
For Mac users, you can download a free program NValt (http://brettterpstra.com/code/) that contains a preview mode. Thus, you can enter your markdown with a dynamic preview window to show how the formatting appears. I've found this useful until I was comfortable with the syntax.
Note also that MultiMarkdown can also be installed to MarsEdit (http://red-sweater.com/marsedit/) which also has a preview mode. This is even more effective for for bloggers as it will handle inline image upload to most popular blog software and display the interpreted output of your MMD syntax.
--I don't know of any Windows software that does the same--
For absolute beginners to Markdown, you may want to try http://peg.gd/ which provides a web site for writing in Markdown syntax and display. You can also save the pages for forwarding to other people.
For the reverse requirement, you can visit http://heckyesmarkdown.com/ which will attempt to take a given HTML Page and convert it into Markdown, usually with good accuracy.
There are a number of programs available for use on the iPhone and iPad that support regular Markdown, but not MultiMarkdown (yet!).
Elements is a iPhone / iPad app that also has a markdown preview mode. Second Gear has also made MarkdownMail which is simpler, but also very usable for learning Markdown.
Textastic is a syntax highlighting text editor for the iPad that includes a preview mode for Markdown. It will even preview MathJax equations if you include the proper metadata and a working MathJax installation!
Now that MultiMarkdown is available in C (as of version 3.0), I would like to work on modifying it to work with iOS.
divide and conquer
latest version?
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is error reported
- github issues
- discussion list
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verify syntax is correct
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make sure starting with plain text file (from Scriv, etc)
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test command line to look for error messages
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check output
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recursive halving
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how to submit error report
- need minimal example
- your output
- expected output
- best way is github
If you are looking for more information about MultiMarkdown, the first place to search is using the search box on the right of this web site. It uses Google, but focuses the results on "official" MultiMarkdown web sites, discussion lists, etc. This will often give you the best search results, if your topic exists in an official location.
If that fails, you can use the search engine of your choice for a more general search.
You can also check the User's Manual on the wiki, which includes a FAQ section.
You can also send an email to the MultiMarkdown discussion list on the web page, or via email.
If you have a bug report, you can submit it at github. (Please check to see if your issue has already been submitted first.)
If those fail, you can also email me or message me on twitter.
XSLT
Latex Input files
- How do I submit a feature request
- my philosophy on new features
- avoiding feature-bloat
- can it be done with existing setup
- how does raw source look
- how many people will use it
flow chart?
- Difference between MMD 2 and MMD 3
- xslt vs not
- repeated metadata doesn't overwrite
- metadata and Latex
github
RTF
google docs
mac - textutil
xslt
OPML
linking to images
(figure-1 and figure--1 incompatibility)
Difference in footnotes
What is a PEG
mmd_merge
Ideas for development:
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multimarkdown support in github wiki (gollum/sinatra)
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embedd support for cross-platform xslt processing libxslt
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editing the multimarkdown library code to be iOS compatible - replace GString and GSList with Cocoa variants.
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memory leaks
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RTF export --- I will probably not develop this myself, but am willing to include it if someone else contributes. Instead, I will work on OpenDocument support, and then you can convert from OpenDocument to RTF if necessary.
Anything placed in an HTML comment will be passed along unaltered - this can include raw LaTeX code. For example:
This is raw LaTeX: <!-- e^{i \cdot \pi} = -1 -->
will generate:
This is raw LaTeX: e^{i \cdot \pi} = -1
This is still a "beta" feature and is not perfect. Please let me know when you have trouble.
First - the vast majority of the time, this is not really a MMD problem, but rather a LaTeX problem, or (honestly) user error. Very occasionally, there are instances where MMD produces invalid LaTeX output when given unusual input, but these are rare.
First, if you are having problems with a more "complicated" MMD tool (such as
the TextMate bundle, or the Drag and Drop versions), use the command line
approach when you are really having difficulties. See if your document will
compile to HTML using the MultiMarkdown.pl utility. Once you've got that
working, try moving on to LaTeX, and then a PDF (if that's your goal).
If that doesn't work, you need to track down the source of the error. The best approach is similar to the old program Conflict Catcher. Keep dividing your document into halves, and test each half. One half will likely compile without complaint, and the other won't. Take the problem half, and repeat this process until you are able to find the paragraph, sentence, word that causes the error.
Using a real text editor (e.g. TextMate), examine the trouble section and make sure to view the invisible characters, and look for something odd. If you can't do that, you can also delete the faulty sentence and retype it (don't copy and paste --- you'll simply replicate the problem).
If none of that fixes your problem, post the problem section to the MultiMarkdown Discussion List and you will likely find out what you're doing wrong. Or perhaps you found an error and I will fix it. ;)
You are using an automated tool to create "complete" content. The tool is
adding the format: complete metadata for you, but you don't have any other
metadata in your document.
Start your document with a blank line to indicate that there is no more metadata.
Because that's what I use, and because Platypus made it really easy to create a GUI for a shell script.
Anyone is welcome to create something similar for any OS they choose.
Several users have written with suggestions for additional syntax for tables in order to allow cells to span multiple rows, to allow the MMD source for a single table row to span multiple text rows, etc.
My concern here is that the table should be easily understood in plain text, without too much markup. Ideally, there would be no markup, but it's just too complicated to have MMD figure out what the layout means.
I welcome suggestions, but I plan to be somewhat strict on this one.... And remember, for complex tables you can always enter the raw HTML.
This is less likely to happen, but it seems that adding some sort of basic syntax to manage forms would be pretty easy, and not very intrusive. Something like:
Please check all that apply:
[ ] Option A
[ ] Option B
[ ] Option C
Please choose one of the following:
( ) Option A
( ) Option B
( ) Option C
Please enter your first name:
[_______________________]
The idea would be to allow you to easily enter the necessary fields for a form, but not have to be concerned with the HTML nonsense.... As always, input welcome.