OLWSpecialTags

Open Live Writer: convert special text markup into HTML entities

Introduction

The blog posts I write are mostly about code and the like. I found myself wishing for the ability to insert code identifiers into the main body of the document like this: someIdentifier. Yes, I could go into the Source view and manually add them, but I wanted to be able to type them markdown style: `someIdentifer`, press a couple of keystrokes and magically get it done.

Then, along the same lines, I wanted to be able to insert special entity characters into the text. Things like non-breaking spaces, the multiply character, trademarks, and so on.

Enter the Open Live Writer special tag/entity inserter.

Using with Open Live Writer

Compiling the code with Visual Studio will produce a DLL called OLWSpecialTags.dll. Make sure you are not running Open Live Writer, then copy this DLL to the Plugins folder off from the installation folder for Open Live Writer (you might need to create it if this is the first plugin you're using). Restart Open Live Writer.

To convert some text, select it, go to the Insert tab, and look in the Plug-ins group. Select Special Tag Inserter and the selected text will be converted.

Conversions made

These are the conversions made by the plug-in:

• `selectedtext` is converted to <code>selectedtext</code>
• ? is converted to a complete list of the entities known by the plug-in
• if the selected text is not one of the abbreviations below, it is converted as &selectedtext;

This is the list of known entity abbreviations, plus the converted character

• sp =>   non-breaking space
• >> => » chevron right
• << => « chevron left
• >> => » chevron right
• << => « chevron left
• (c) => © copyright
• S => § section mark
• P => ¶ paragraph mark
• * => • bullet
• . => · middle dot
• - => – dash
• -- => — long dash
• :> => ▶ large triangle pointing right
• :> => ▶ large triangle pointing right
• o => ◦ degree symbol
• [] => ▫ small middle square
• <> => ◇ diamond
• <> => ◇ diamond
• 1/2 => ½ 1/2 as character
• 1/4 => ¼ 1/4 as character
• 3/4 => ¾ 3/4 as character
• tm => ™ trademark
• (r) => ® registered trademark
• ... => … ellipsis
• x => × multiply operator
• / => ÷ divide operator

So for example, selecting the text :> and invoking the plug-in will replace the selected text with ▶.