Preview markdown from Vim
Screenshot
Let's Build it up!
1. Python markdown
Type below command in your terminal to install it
easy_install markdown2. Markdown.css
We need a stylesheet to beauty our compiled doc, you can find a lot on the internet, or simply download this one for a basic look.
Save it with the name markdown.css at a certain path (Or if you don't want to download it, you can link it from the compiled html later, but you need the internet access when you want to preview the doc).
3. Bash script
Save below bash script into your /usr/bin with name md-prev.sh, pay attention to the variable values.
#!/bin/bash
tmpPath=/tmp/md-preview
previewHtml=$tmpPath/preview.html
# Replace markdown.css with the url if you prefer not to save it on local
cssFileName=markdown.css
if [ -d $tmpPath ]; then
rm $tmpPath/*
else
mkdir -p $tmpPath
fi
# Skip this line if you prefer not to save the markdown.css to local
cp "path/to/your/$cssFileName" $tmpPath
echo "<!DOCTYPE html>" > $previewHtml
echo "<html>" >> $previewHtml
echo "<head>" >> $previewHtml
echo "<meta http-equiv='content-type' content='text/html; charset=UTF-8' />" >> $previewHtml
echo "<link href='$css' rel='stylesheet'></link>" >> $previewHtml
echo "</head>" >> $previewHtml
echo "<body>" >> $previewHtml
python -m markdown "$1" -x tables >> $previewHtml
echo "</body></html>" >> $previewHtml
type -P xdg-open &> /dev/null && xdg-open $previewHtml || open $previewHtmlNow you can preview your markdown doc from terminal by type md-prev.sh your-markdown-file.
4. Map a key in Vim
Save below script in your .vimrc
noremap <silent> <F5> :!md-prev.sh "%:p"<CR>Now, open your vim and write your favourite markdown doc, press F5 to preview it.
Enjoy!
Written by Crusoe.Xia
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