Confluence Markdown Support

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Bitbucket Data Center and Server uses Markdown for formatting text, as specified in CommonMark (with a few extensions). You can use Markdown in the following places: any pull request's descriptions or comments, or; in README files (if they have the.md file extension). Use Control-Shift-P or Command-Shift-P to preview your markdown. Markdown syntax. We are a global leader in data-driven investment management solutions partnering with our clients to deliver products and services designed to optimize efficiency and control. Stack Overflow The World’s Largest Online Community for Developers. Markdown from an attachment — Markdown from a Confluence attachment Admins can set up profiles so users can easily and safely bring in Markdown content from Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, or other URLs Admins can enable or disable Javascript usage in Markdown macros.

Overview

Nearly all Markdown applications support the basic syntax outlined in John Gruber’s original design document. There are minor variations and discrepancies between Markdown processors — those are noted inline wherever possible.

Headings

To create a heading, add number signs (#) in front of a word or phrase. The number of number signs you use should correspond to the heading level. For example, to create a heading level three (<h3>), use three number signs (e.g., ### My Header).

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
# Heading level 1<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
## Heading level 2<h2>Heading level 2</h2>

Heading level 2

### Heading level 3<h3>Heading level 3</h3>

Heading level 3

#### Heading level 4<h4>Heading level 4</h4>

Heading level 4

##### Heading level 5<h5>Heading level 5</h5>
Heading level 5
###### Heading level 6<h6>Heading level 6</h6>
Heading level 6

Alternate Syntax

Alternatively, on the line below the text, add any number of characters for heading level 1 or -- characters for heading level 2.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
Heading level 1
<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
Heading level 2
---------------		<h2>Heading level 2</h2>

Heading level 2

Heading Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle a missing space between the number signs (#) and the heading name. For compatibility, always put a space between the number signs and the heading name.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
# Here's a Heading
 #Here's a Heading

Paragraphs

To create paragraphs, use a blank line to separate one or more lines of text.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
I really like using Markdown.
I think I'll use it to format all of my documents from now on. 		<p>I really like using Markdown.</p>
<p>I think I'll use it to format all of my documents from now on.</p>

I really like using Markdown.

I think I'll use it to format all of my documents from now on.

Paragraph Best Practices

Unless the paragraph is in a list, don’t indent paragraphs with spaces or tabs.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
Don't put tabs or spaces in front of your paragraphs.
Keep lines left-aligned like this.
 This can result in unexpected formatting problems.
Don't add tabs or spaces in front of paragraphs.

Line Breaks

To create a line break (<br>), end a line with two or more spaces, and then type return.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
This is the first line.
And this is the second line. 		<p>This is the first line.<br>
And this is the second line.</p>

This is the first line.
And this is the second line.

Line Break Best Practices

You can use two or more spaces (commonly referred to as “trailing whitespace”) for line breaks in nearly every Markdown application, but it’s controversial. It’s hard to see trailing whitespace in an editor, and many people accidentally or intentionally put two spaces after every sentence. For this reason, you may want to use something other than trailing whitespace for line breaks. Fortunately, there is another option supported by nearly every Markdown application: the <br> HTML tag.

For compatibility, use trailing white space or the <br> HTML tag at the end of the line.

There are two other options I don’t recommend using. CommonMark and a few other lightweight markup languages let you type a backslash () at the end of the line, but not all Markdown applications support this, so it isn’t a great option from a compatibility perspective. And at least a couple lightweight markup languages don’t require anything at the end of the line — just type return and they’ll create a line break.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
First line with two spaces after.
And the next line.
First line with the HTML tag after.<br>
And the next line.
 First line with a backslash after.
And the next line.
First line with nothing after.
And the next line.

Emphasis

You can add emphasis by making text bold or italic.

Bold

To bold text, add two asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold the middle of a word for emphasis, add two asterisks without spaces around the letters.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
I just love **bold text**.I just love <strong>bold text</strong>.I just love bold text.
I just love __bold text__.I just love <strong>bold text</strong>.I just love bold text.
Love**is**boldLove<strong>is</strong>boldLoveisbold

Bold Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
Love**is**bold Love__is__bold

Italic

To italicize text, add one asterisk or underscore before and after a word or phrase. To italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add one asterisk without spaces around the letters.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
Italicized text is the *cat's meow*.Italicized text is the <em>cat's meow</em>.Italicized text is the cat’s meow.
Italicized text is the _cat's meow_.Italicized text is the <em>cat's meow</em>.Italicized text is the cat’s meow.
A*cat*meowA<em>cat</em>meowAcatmeow

Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
A*cat*meow A_cat_meow

Bold and Italic

To emphasize text with bold and italics at the same time, add three asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add three asterisks without spaces around the letters.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
This text is ***really important***.This text is <strong><em>really important</em></strong>.This text is really important.
This text is ___really important___.This text is <strong><em>really important</em></strong>.This text is really important.
This text is __*really important*__.This text is <strong><em>really important</em></strong>.This text is really important.
This text is **_really important_**.This text is <strong><em>really important</em></strong>.This text is really important.
This is really***very***important text.This is really<strong><em>very</em></strong>important text.This is reallyveryimportant text.

Bold and Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
This is really***very***important text. This is really___very___important text.

Blockquotes

To create a blockquote, add a > in front of a paragraph.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

Blockquotes with Multiple Paragraphs

Blockquotes can contain multiple paragraphs. Add a > on the blank lines between the paragraphs.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

The Witch bade her clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.

Nested Blockquotes

Blockquotes can be nested. Add a >> in front of the paragraph you want to nest.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

The Witch bade her clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.

Blockquotes with Other Elements

Blockquotes can contain other Markdown formatted elements. Not all elements can be used — you’ll need to experiment to see which ones work.

The rendered output looks like this:

The quarterly results look great!

  • Revenue was off the chart.
  • Profits were higher than ever.

Everything is going according to plan.

Lists

You can organize items into ordered and unordered lists.

Ordered Lists

To create an ordered list, add line items with numbers followed by periods. The numbers don’t have to be in numerical order, but the list should start with the number one.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item
4. Fourth item 		<ol>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ol>
  1. First item
  2. Second item
  3. Third item
  4. Fourth item
1. First item
1. Second item
1. Third item
1. Fourth item 		<ol>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ol>
  1. First item
  2. Second item
  3. Third item
  4. Fourth item
1. First item
8. Second item
3. Third item
5. Fourth item 		<ol>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ol>
  1. First item
  2. Second item
  3. Third item
  4. Fourth item
1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item
1. Indented item
2. Indented item
4. Fourth item 		<ol>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item
<ol>
<li>Indented item</li>
<li>Indented item</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ol>
  1. First item
  2. Second item
  3. Third item
    1. Indented item
    2. Indented item
  4. Fourth item

Ordered List Best Practices

CommonMark and a few other lightweight markup languages let you use a parenthesis ()) as a delimiter (e.g., 1) First item), but not all Markdown applications support this, so it isn’t a great option from a compatibility perspective. For compatibility, use periods only.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
1. First item
2. Second item 		1) First item
2) Second item

Unordered Lists

To create an unordered list, add dashes (-), asterisks (*), or plus signs (+) in front of line items. Indent one or more items to create a nested list.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
- First item
- Second item
- Third item
- Fourth item 		<ul>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ul>
  • First item
  • Second item
  • Third item
  • Fourth item
* First item
* Second item
* Third item
* Fourth item 		<ul>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ul>
  • First item
  • Second item
  • Third item
  • Fourth item
+ First item
+ Second item
+ Third item
+ Fourth item 		<ul>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ul>
  • First item
  • Second item
  • Third item
  • Fourth item
- First item
- Second item
- Third item
- Indented item
- Indented item
- Fourth item 		<ul>
<li>First item</li>
<li>Second item</li>
<li>Third item
<ul>
<li>Indented item</li>
<li>Indented item</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Fourth item</li>
</ul>
  • First item
  • Second item
  • Third item
    • Indented item
    • Indented item
  • Fourth item

Starting Unordered List Items With Numbers

If you need to start an unordered list item with a number followed by a period, you can use a backslash () to escape the period.

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
- 1968. A great year!
- I think 1969 was second best. 		<ul>
<li>1968. A great year!</li>
<li>I think 1969 was second best.</li>
</ul>
  • 1968. A great year!
  • I think 1969 was second best.

Unordered List Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle different delimiters in the same list. For compatibility, don’t mix and match delimiters in the same list — pick one and stick with it.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
- First item
- Second item
- Third item
- Fourth item 		+ First item
* Second item
- Third item
+ Fourth item

Adding Elements in Lists

To add another element in a list while preserving the continuity of the list, indent the element four spaces or one tab, as shown in the following examples.

Paragraphs

The rendered output looks like this:

  • This is the first list item.

  • Here’s the second list item.

    I need to add another paragraph below the second list item.

  • And here’s the third list item.

Blockquotes

The rendered output looks like this:

  • This is the first list item.

  • Here’s the second list item.

    A blockquote would look great below the second list item.

  • And here’s the third list item.

Code Blocks

Code blocks are normally indented four spaces or one tab. When they’re in a list, indent them eight spaces or two tabs.

Confluence Markdown Support

The rendered output looks like this:

  1. Open the file.

  2. Find the following code block on line 21:

  3. Update the title to match the name of your website.

Images

The rendered output looks like this:

Confluence Markdown Support Tools

  1. Open the file containing the Linux mascot.

  2. Marvel at its beauty.

  3. Close the file.

Lists

You can nest an unordered list in an ordered list, or vice versa.

The rendered output looks like this:

  1. First item
  2. Second item
  3. Third item
    • Indented item
    • Indented item
  4. Fourth item

Code

To denote a word or phrase as code, enclose it in backticks (`).

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
At the command prompt, type `nano`.At the command prompt, type <code>nano</code>. At the command prompt, type nano.

Escaping Backticks

If the word or phrase you want to denote as code includes one or more backticks, you can escape it by enclosing the word or phrase in double backticks (``).

MarkdownHTMLRendered Output
``Use `code` in your Markdown file.``<code>Use `code` in your Markdown file.</code>Use `code` in your Markdown file.

Code Blocks

To create code blocks, indent every line of the block by at least four spaces or one tab.

The rendered output looks like this:

Note: To create code blocks without indenting lines, use fenced code blocks.

Horizontal Rules

To create a horizontal rule, use three or more asterisks (***), dashes (---), or underscores (___) on a line by themselves.

The rendered output of all three looks identical:

Horizontal Rule Best Practices

For compatibility, put blank lines before and after horizontal rules.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
Try to put a blank line before...
---
...and after a horizontal rule. 		Without blank lines, this would be a heading.
---
Don't do this!

Links

To create a link, enclose the link text in brackets (e.g., [Duck Duck Go]) and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses (e.g., (https://duckduckgo.com)).

The rendered output looks like this:

My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go.

Adding Titles

You can optionally add a title for a link. This will appear as a tooltip when the user hovers over the link. To add a title, enclose it in parentheses after the URL.

The rendered output looks like this:

My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go.

URLs and Email Addresses

To quickly turn a URL or email address into a link, enclose it in angle brackets.

The rendered output looks like this:

https://www.markdownguide.org
fake@example.com

Formatting Links

To emphasize links, add asterisks before and after the brackets and parentheses. To denote links as code, add backticks in the brackets.

The rendered output looks like this:

I love supporting the EFF.
This is the Markdown Guide.
See the section on code.

Reference-style Links

Reference-style links are a special kind of link that make URLs easier to display and read in Markdown. Reference-style links are constructed in two parts: the part you keep inline with your text and the part you store somewhere else in the file to keep the text easy to read.

Formatting the First Part of the Link

The first part of a reference-style link is formatted with two sets of brackets. The first set of brackets surrounds the text that should appear linked. The second set of brackets displays a label used to point to the link you’re storing elsewhere in your document.

Although not required, you can include a space between the first and second set of brackets. The label in the second set of brackets is not case sensitive and can include letters, numbers, spaces, or punctuation.

This means the following example formats are roughly equivalent for the first part of the link:

  • [hobbit-hole][1]
  • [hobbit-hole] [1]

Formatting the Second Part of the Link

The second part of a reference-style link is formatted with the following attributes:

  1. The label, in brackets, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ).
  2. The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets.
  3. The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses.

This means the following example formats are all roughly equivalent for the second part of the link:

  • [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle
  • [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles'
  • [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles'
  • [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles)
  • [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles'
  • [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles'
  • [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles)

You can place this second part of the link anywhere in your Markdown document. Some people place them immediately after the paragraph in which they appear while other people place them at the end of the document (like endnotes or footnotes).

An Example Putting the Parts Together

Say you add a URL as a standard URL link to a paragraph and it looks like this in Markdown:

Though it may point to interesting additional information, the URL as displayed really doesn’t add much to the existing raw text other than making it harder to read. To fix that, you could format the URL like this instead:

In both instances above, the rendered output would be identical:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

and the HTML for the link would be:

Link Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle spaces in the middle of a URL. For compatibility, try to URL encode any spaces with %20.

✅ Do this❌ Don't do this
[link](https://www.example.com/my%20great%20page) [link](https://www.example.com/my great page)

Images

To add an image, add an exclamation mark (!), followed by alt text in brackets, and the path or URL to the image asset in parentheses. You can optionally add a title after the URL in the parentheses.

The rendered output looks like this:

Linking Images

To add a link to an image, enclose the Markdown for the image in brackets, and then add the link in parentheses.

The rendered output looks like this:

Escaping Characters

To display a literal character that would otherwise be used to format text in a Markdown document, add a backslash () in front of the character.

The rendered output looks like this:

* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.

Characters You Can Escape

You can use a backslash to escape the following characters.

CharacterName
backslash
`backtick (see also escaping backticks in code)
*asterisk
_underscore
{ }curly braces
[ ]brackets
< >angle brackets
( )parentheses
#pound sign
+plus sign
-minus sign (hyphen)
.dot
!exclamation mark
|pipe (see also escaping pipe in tables)

HTML

Many Markdown applications allow you to use HTML tags in Markdown-formatted text. This is helpful if you prefer certain HTML tags to Markdown syntax. For example, some people find it easier to use HTML tags for images. Using HTML is also helpful when you need to change the attributes of an element, like specifying the color of text or changing the width of an image.

To use HTML, place the tags in the text of your Markdown-formatted file.

The rendered output looks like this:

This word is bold. This word is italic.

HTML Best Practices

For security reasons, not all Markdown applications support HTML in Markdown documents. When in doubt, check your Markdown application’s documentation. Some applications support only a subset of HTML tags.

Use blank lines to separate block-level HTML elements like <div>, <table>, <pre>, and <p> from the surrounding content. Try not to indent the tags with tabs or spaces — that can interfere with the formatting.

You can’t use Markdown syntax inside block-level HTML tags. For example, <p>italic and **bold**</p> won’t work.

Take your Markdown skills to the next level.

Learn Markdown in 60 pages. Designed for both novices and experts, The Markdown Guide book is a comprehensive reference that has everything you need to get started and master Markdown syntax.

Get the Book
Want to learn more Markdown?

Don't stop now! 😎 Star the GitHub repository and then enter your email address below to receive new Markdown tutorials via email. No spam!

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.

Markdown extensions

In addition to the functionality VS Code provides out of the box, you can install an extension for greater functionality.

Tip: Click on an extension tile above to read the description and reviews to decide which extension is best for you. See more in the Marketplace.

Markdown preview

VS Code supports Markdown files out of the box. You just start writing Markdown text, save the file with the .md extension and then you can toggle the visualization of the editor between the code and the preview of the Markdown file; obviously, you can also open an existing Markdown file and start working with it. To switch between views, press ⇧⌘V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+V) in the editor. You can view the preview side-by-side (⌘K V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+K V)) with the file you are editing and see changes reflected in real-time as you edit.

Here is an example with a very simple file.

Tip: You can also right-click on the editor Tab and select Open Preview (⇧⌘V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+V)) or use the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) to run the Markdown: Open Preview to the Side command (⌘K V (Windows, Linux Ctrl+K V)).

Dynamic previews and preview locking

By default, Markdown previews automatically update to preview the currently active Markdown file:

You can lock a Markdown preview using the Markdown: Toggle Preview Locking command to keep it locked to its current Markdown document. Locked previews are indicated by [Preview] in the title:

Editor and preview synchronization

VS Code automatically synchronizes the Markdown editor and the preview panes. Scroll the Markdown preview and the editor is scrolled to match the preview's viewport. Scroll the Markdown editor and the preview is scrolled to match its viewport:

You can disable scroll synchronization using the markdown.preview.scrollPreviewWithEditor and markdown.preview.scrollEditorWithPreviewsettings.

The currently selected line in the editor is indicated in the Markdown preview by a light gray bar in the left margin:

Additionally, double clicking an element in the Markdown preview will automatically open the editor for the file and scroll to the line nearest the clicked element.

Outline view

The Outline view is a separate section in the bottom of the File Explorer. When expanded, it will show the symbol tree of the currently active editor. For Markdown files, the symbol tree is the Markdown file's header hierarchy.

The Outline view is a great way to review your document's header structure and outline.

Extending the Markdown preview

Extensions can contribute custom styles and scripts to the Markdown preview to change its appearance and add new functionality. Here's a set of example extensions that customize the preview:

Using your own CSS

You can also use your own CSS in the Markdown preview with the 'markdown.styles': []setting. This lists URLs for style sheets to load in the Markdown preview. These stylesheets can either be https URLs, or relative paths to local files in the current workspace.

For example, to load a stylesheet called Style.css at the root of your current workspace, use File > Preferences > Settings to bring up the workspace settings.json file and make this update:

Keep trailing whitespace in order to create line breaks

To create hard line breaks, Markdown requires two or more spaces at the end of a line. Depending on your user or workspace settings, VS Code may be configured to remove trailing whitespace. In order to keep trailing whitespace in Markdown files only, you can add these lines to your settings.json:

Markdown preview security

For security reasons, VS Code restricts the content displayed in the Markdown preview. This includes disabling script execution and only allowing resources to be loaded over https.

When the Markdown preview blocks content on a page, an alert popup is shown in the top right corner of the preview window:

You can change what content is allowed in the Markdown preview by clicking on this popup or running the Markdown: Change preview security settings command in any Markdown file:

The Markdown preview security settings apply to all files in the workspace.

Here are the details about each of these security levels:

Strict

This is the default setting. Only loads trusted content and disables script execution. Blocks http images.

It is strongly recommended that you keep Strict security enabled unless you have a very good reason to change it AND you trust all markdown files in the workspace.

Allow insecure content

Keeps scripts disabled but allows content to be loaded over http.

Disable

Disables additional security in the preview window. This allows script execution and also allows content to be loaded over http.

Snippets for Markdown

There are several built-in Markdown snippets included in VS Code - press ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space) (Trigger Suggest) and you get a context specific list of suggestions.

Tip: You can add in your own User Defined Snippets for Markdown. Take a look at User Defined Snippets to find out how.

Compiling Markdown into HTML

VS Code integrates with Markdown compilers through the integrated task runner. We can use this to compile .md files into .html files. Let's walk through compiling a simple Markdown document.

Confluence Markdown Support Center

Step 1: Install a Markdown compiler

For this walkthrough, we use the popular Node.js module, markdown-it.

Note: There are many Markdown compilers to choose from beyond markdown-it. Pick the one that best suits your needs and environment.

Step 2: Create a simple MD file

Open VS Code on an empty folder and create a sample.md file.

Note: You can open a folder with VS Code by either selecting the folder with File > Open Folder or navigating to the folder and typing 'code .' at the command line.

Place the following source code in that file:

Step 3: Create tasks.json

The next step is to set up the task configuration file tasks.json. To do this, run Terminal > Configure Tasks and click Create tasks.json file from templates. VS Code then presents a list of possible tasks.json templates to choose from. Select Others since we want to run an external command.

Confluence Markdown Code

This generates a tasks.json file in your workspace .vscode folder with the following content:

To use markdown-it to compile the Markdown file, change the contents as follows:

Tip: While the sample is there to help with common configuration settings, IntelliSense is available for the tasks.json file as well to help you along. Use ⌃Space (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Space) to see the available settings.

Confluence Wiki Markdown

Step 4: Run the Build Task

Since in more complex environments there can be more than one build task we prompt you to pick the task to execute after pressing ⇧⌘B (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+B) (Run Build Task). In addition, we allow you to scan the output for compile problems. Since we only want to convert the Markdown file to HTML select Never scan the build output from the presented list.

At this point, you should see an additional file show up in the file list sample.html.

If you want to make the Compile Markdown task the default build task to run execute Configure Default Build Task from the global Terminal menu and select Compile Markdown from the presented list. The final tasks.json file will then look like this:

Automating Markdown compilation

Let's take things a little further and automate Markdown compilation with VS Code. We can do so with the same task runner integration as before, but with a few modifications.

Step 1: Install Gulp and some plug-ins

We use Gulp to create a task that automates Markdown compilation. We also use the gulp-markdown plug-in to make things a little easier.

We need to install gulp both globally (-g switch) and locally:

Note: gulp-markdown-it is a Gulp plug-in for the markdown-it module we were using before. There are many other Gulp Markdown plug-ins you can use, as well as plug-ins for Grunt.

You can test that your gulp installation was successful by typing gulp -v. You should see a version displayed for both the global (CLI) and local installations.

Step 2: Create a simple Gulp task

Open VS Code on the same folder from before (contains sample.md and tasks.json under the .vscode folder), and create gulpfile.js at the root.

Place the following source code in that file:

Convert Confluence To Markdown

What is happening here?

  1. We are watching for changes to any Markdown file in our workspace, i.e. the current folder open in VS Code.
  2. We take the set of Markdown files that have changed, and run them through our Markdown compiler, i.e. gulp-markdown-it.
  3. We now have a set of HTML files, each named respectively after their original Markdown file. We then put these files in the same directory.

Step 3: Run the gulp default Task

To complete the tasks integration with VS Code, we will need to modify the task configuration from before to run the default Gulp task we just created. You can either delete the tasks.json file or empty it only keeping the 'version': '2.0.0' property. Now execute Run Task from the global Terminal menu. Observe that you are presented with a picker listing the tasks defined in the gulp file. Select gulp: default to start the task. We allow you to scan the output for compile problems. Since we only want to convert the Markdown file to HTML select Never scan the build output from the presented list. At this point, if you create and/or modify other Markdown files, you see the respective HTML files generated and/or changes reflected on save. You can also enable Auto Save to make things even more streamlined.

If you want to make the gulp: default task the default build task executed when pressing ⇧⌘B (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+B) run Configure Default Build Task from the global Terminal menu and select gulp: default from the presented list. The final tasks.json file will then look like this:

Step 4: Terminate the gulp default Task

Confluence Markdown Support Tool

The gulp: default task runs in the background and watches for file changes to Markdown files. If you want to stop the task, you can use the Terminate Task from the global Terminal menu.

Next steps

Read on to find out about:

  • CSS, SCSS, and Less - Want to edit your CSS? VS Code has great support for CSS, SCSS, and Less editing.

Common questions

Is there spell checking?

Not installed with VS Code but there are spell checking extensions. Check the VS Code Marketplace to look for useful extensions to help with your workflow.

Does VS Code support GitHub Flavored Markdown?

No, VS Code targets the CommonMark Markdown specification using the markdown-it library. GitHub is moving toward the CommonMark specification which you can read about in this update.

In the walkthrough above, I didn't find the Configure Task command in the Command Palette?

You may have opened a file in VS Code rather than a folder. You can open a folder by either selecting the folder with File > Open Folder or navigating to the folder and typing 'code .' at the command line.