Plugin to preview Markdown files in Notepad++
- lightweight plugin to preview markdown within Notepad++
- displaying rendered markdown HTML with WebView2 Edge (since 0.9.0) or an embedded IE11
- can save rendered html to a file
- Dark mode support (requires Notepad++ version 8.4.1 or later)
The current version is 0.9.0 it can be found here
- .NET 4.7.2 or higher
The plugin can be installed with the Notepad++ Plugin Admin. The name of the plugin is Markdown Panel.
Create the folder "NppMarkdownPanel" in your Notepad++ plugin folder (e.g. "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins") and extract the appropriate zip (x86 or x64) to it.
It should look like this:
Issues with manual installation: Windows blocks downloaded DLLs by default. That means you likely get the following error message:
Failed to load
NppMarkdownPanel.dll is not compatible with the current version of Notepad++
Make sure to unblock all DLLs of the plugin (also DLLs in subfolders).
For an detailed explanation check issue 57.
Note for Windows 7 users: WebView2 Edge is required for the plugin to function properly. Windows 7 does not include WebView2 Edge by default, so you must manually install the WebView2 Runtime from Microsoft's WebView2 download page before using the plugin. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2?form=MA13LH#download
After the installation you will find a small purple markdown icon in your toolbar. Just click it to show the markdown preview. Click again to hide the preview. Thats all you need to do ;)
With dark mode enabled in Notepad++:
To open the settings for this plugin: Plugins -> MarkdownPanel -> Settings
-
This option allows you to switch between two HTML Rendering Engines.
- Edge (WebView2)
- Internet Explorer 11 (WebView1)
Default option is Edge (WebView2). It is a modern browser implementation based on Chromium and it supports modern web standards. IE11 option is still available, but not recommended anymore due to its age.
-
This allows you to select a CSS file to use if you don't want the default style of the preview
-
This allows you to select a Dark mode CSS file. When the Notepad++ dark mode is enabled, this Css file is used. When no file is set, the default dark mode Css is used.
-
This allows you to set the zoom level of the preview
-
This allows you to select a file to save the rendered HTML to every time the preview is rendered. This is a way to automatically save the rendered content to use elsewhere. Leaving this empty disables the automatic saving.
Note: This is a global setting, so all previewed documents will save to the same file. -
This option allows you to skip file extension checking. Every active file will be processed by the markdown converter. But be careful, this option may have undesired effects. (e.g. rendering large logs or large source code files can be slow) The input field for supported file extensions is disabled when this option is checked.
-
This allows you to define a list of file extensions, which are supported and displayed in Markdown Panel. Other file type won't be displayed (there will be a warning). The file extensions have to be separated by a comma
,- character. No input allowed when option "Allow all file extensions" is checked. -
When this option is checked, Markdown Panel will open the preview window automatically for files with a supported extension. The preview will be closed for files with no supported extension.
-
Checking this box will enable the toolbar in the preview window. By default, this is unchecked.
-
Checking this box will show the status bar, which previews urls for links. By default, this is unchecked.
- Clicking this button allows you to save the rendered preview as an HTML document.
Enabling this in the plugin's menu (Plugins -> MarkdownPanel) makes the preview panel stay in sync with the caret in the markdown document that is being edited.
This is similar to the Synchronize Vertical Scrolling option of Notepad++ for keeping two open editing panels scrolling together.
When this option is enabled, the plugin ensures that the first visible line in the editor is also visible in the preview. (This is an alternative to Synchronize viewer with caret position)
- requirements
- .NET 4.7.2 or higher
- features
- WebView2 Edge integration (see settings to switch between HTML Rendering Engines)
- Linking to filesystem files #8 ( works only with WebView2 (Edge) )
- Disable file extension check #111, #112, #99
- bug fixes
- NppTbData.pszModuleName is not properly assigned when Markdown panel is docked (contributed by rdipardo) #90
- The keyboard shortcuts are not working on the Markdown Panel #91 (works only with WebView2 (Edge))
- Undocking the viewer from its default position crashes NotePad++ (contributed by rdipardo) #97, #106
- Meta tags in generated html not closed #100
- Links pointing to file with whitespace (%20) is incorrectly parsed (%2520) #101
- Incorrect opening of URL with CR encoded character (%0D) #105 (works only with WebView2 (Edge))
- Add mermaid graph markdown setting pre tag class #115
- bug fixes
- Settings file NppMarkdownPanel.ini isn't used anymore #78
- Plugin release v0.7.2 searches help files in wrong directory #76
- bug fixes
- Display images with Url-encoded space character (%20) in the filename (contributed by andrzejQ ) #39
- features
- Plugin-Menu entry renamed to MarkdownPanel
- Syntax highlighting is now controlled by CSS Styles. See
style.cssandstyle-dark.cssafter comment/* Syntax Highlighting */#71 - Feature to preprocess markdown files before they are send to the converter. Furthermore it's possible to postprocess the generated html files (created by markdig).
To enable this feature it's necessary to configure pre/post-processor commands (can be any commandline program) in the config file
plugins/Config/NppMarkdownPanel.ini. The placeholders%inputfile%and%outputfile%have to be set in the commandline and will be resolved at runtime (with temporary file names). An example C# commandline-project can be found under:misc\PPExtensions\MdpPrePostprocessorTemplate.sln
[Options]
PreProcessorExe=C:\temp\preprocessor.exe
PreProcessorArguments=%inputfile% %outputfile%
PostProcessorExe=C:\temp\preprocessor\postprocessor.exe
PostProcessorArguments=%inputfile% %outputfile%
- bug fixes
- Footnotes (links to footnotes) don't work #28
- Code fences not rendered for unknown languages (contributed by rdipardo) #55
- Errorhandling when libraries are missing #57
- Zoom label does not update on Settings panel init (contributed by vinsworldcom) #58
- Settings dialog should render only if visible (contributed by vinsworldcom) #66
- features
- Synchronize with first visible line in editor #14
- Select/follow active editor pane when using mulitple editors #20
- YAML Frontmatter is rendered as code block #46
- Status bar to preview URLs for links (contributed by vinsworldcom) #60
- Save As toolbar button provides default directory and filename (contributed by vinsworldcom) #61
- Menu includes Help to access README / menu item order improved (contributed by vinsworldcom) #64
- dark mode support (requires Notepad++ version 8.4.1 or later)
- new markdig 0.30.4 integrated
- code/syntax highlighting
- example C# code with highlighting:
- example C# code with highlighting:
- new zoom level range from 80 % to 800% (for 4K Displays)
- all html files are saved as utf-8 files
- restrict preview to files with a specific extension
- automatically open panel for supported files
- enhanced about dialog
Bugfix release
- viewer was crashed by too large documents (more than 10000 bytes)
- fix embedded images
- fix dark icon
- plugin headers for npp updated
- darkmode icon
- fixed refresh bug for 64-bit version of plugin
- new zoom level range from 40 % to 400%
- save html
- images for help file now included
- change zoomlevel for the preview in settings dialog
- change css file for the markdown style
- the new settings are persistent
- open settings dialog: Plugins-> NppMarkdownPanel -> Edit Settings
- switched from CommonMark.Net to markdig rendering library
- synchronize viewer with caret position
- Initial release
| Name | Version | Authors | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Markdig | 0.41.1 | xoofx | https://github.com/lunet-io/markdig |
| NotepadPlusPlusPluginPack.Net | 0.95 | kbilsted | https://github.com/kbilsted/NotepadPlusPlusPluginPack.Net |
| WebView2 Edge | 1.0.3296.44 | Microsoft | https://developer.microsoft.com/de-de/microsoft-edge/webview2?form=MA13LH |
| ColorCode (Portable) | 1.0.3 | Bashir Souid and Richard Slater | https://github.com/RichardSlater/ColorCodePortable |
| Markdig.SyntaxHighlighting | 1.1.7 | Richard Slater | https://github.com/RichardSlater/Markdig.SyntaxHighlighting |
| github-markdown-css | 3.0.1 | sindresorhus | https://github.com/sindresorhus/github-markdown-css |
| Markdown icon | dcurtis | https://github.com/dcurtis/markdown-mark |
The plugin uses portions of nea's MarkdownViewerPlusPlus Plugin code - https://github.com/nea/MarkdownViewerPlusPlus
Thanks to the contributors:
vinsworldcom, rdipardo, andrzejQ, RicoP, UrsineRaven and eeucalyptus
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.txt file for details