Download this extension from the VS Gallery (VS 2022) or get the CI build.
A full featured Markdown editor with live preview and syntax highlighting. Supports GitHub flavored Markdown.
See the change log for changes and road map.
- Powered by Markdig - the best markdown parser
- Syntax highlighting
- Live preview window with scroll sync
- Mermaid chart support
- CommonMark and GitHub flavored Markdown
- High-DPI support
- Drag 'n drop of images supported
- Paste image from clipboard directly onto document
- Outlining/folding of code blocks
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Light Bulbs
- Brace completion with type-through
- Lightning fast
- Auto-generate HTML files
All fonts can be changed in Tools -> Options -> Environment -> Fonts and Colors dialog.
Advanced markdown extensions are supported to give more features to the syntax. This includes pipe tables, emoji, mathematics and a lot more.
The preview window opens up on the right side of the document when it opens.
Every time the markdown document is modified, the preview window will update.
Any code blocks receives full syntax highlighting in the preview window. Here's an example of JavaScript code rendered.
The preview window is automatically scrolled to match the scroll position of the document. As the document is scrolled up and down, the preview window will follow.
Live preview can be disabled in the settings.
The syntax highlighter is powered by Prism
The preview window supports loading of custom stylesheets. It will look for a file called md-styles.css in the same directory as the currently opened markdown file or any parent directory.
If no md-styles.css file is found it will look for it in %userprofile%. If it still isn't found it will use the built in stylesheet.
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.
The preview window also supports loading of HTML template, which will be detailed in Auto-generate HTML files section.
When the markdown document is updated, the markdown editor will
call onMarkdownUpdate function if it exists. With this feature,
you can support your own scripts, for example KaTeX for LaTeX.
Drag an image directly from Solution Explorer onto the document to insert the appropriate markdown that will render the image.
This is really helpful for copying images from a browser or for inserting screen shots. Simply copy an image into the clipboard and paste it directly into the document. This will prompt you for a file name relative to the document and then it inserts the appropriate markdown.
It will even parse the file name and make a friendly name to use for the alt text.
Any fenced code and HTML blocks can be collapsed, so that this:
...can be collapsed into this:
Ctrl B makes the selected text bold by wrapping it with **.
Ctrl I makes the selected text italic by wrapping it with _.
Ctrl Shift C wraps the selected text in a code block.
Ctrl Space checks and unchecks task list items.
- [x] task list itemTab increases indentation of list items.
Shift Tab decreases indentation of list items.
Ctrl K,C wraps the selection with HTML comments.
Ctrl K,U removes HTML comments surrounding the selection/caret.
Ctrl PgUp moves caret to previous heading
Ctrl PgDown moves caret to next heading
The suggested actions shown in light bulbs makes it easier to perform common tasks.
For instance, converting the selected text to a link will result in this:
By right-clicking any Markdown file in Solution Explorer, you can turn on automatic generation of a HTML file.
It will wrap the output rendered markdown in a HTML template that looks like this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>[title]</title>
</head>
<body>
[content]
</body>
</html>You can provide your own HTML template by dropping a file with the name md-template.html in the same or parent folder to the markdown file. If not found, it will search %userprofile%.
Just make sure to include the [content] token in the template. And the [title] token is optional if you need a title.
Control the settings for this extension under Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> Markdown
Check out the contribution guidelines if you want to contribute to this project.
For cloning and building this project yourself, make sure to install the Extensibility Tools 2015 extension for Visual Studio which enables some features used by this project.