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[Jongware]
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[Ann] Markdown To InDesign with MarkdownID

Jun 4, 2012 3:43 PM

Tags: #javascript #indesign #import #plain_text #markdown

"Markdown" is the name of a versatile plain text formatting syntax, designed by John Gruber a surprising number of years ago (2004) and has steadily gained popularity ever since. You *might* not realize it, but you might be using it *already*! (And this is _exactly_ what Markdown text looks like!)

 

The original Markdown is a Perl script that converts plain text and its embedded codes into properly formatted HTML; nowadays, lots of on-line editors support it through Python and even Javascript, so you can enter and edit formatted text with ease, even when using an extremely basic text editor.

 

There are no import filters for InDesign to convert MD straight into InDesign formatted text; there is a workaround, using its native to-HTML capabilities followed by Rorohiko's HTML-to-InDesign, but that's what it is: a workaround.

 

I wrote a script that imports and translates MD formatted text straight into InDesign. It has a couple of limitations, due to the different Document Models of HTML and InDesign. In HTML, for example, you can nest 'paragraph' and 'character' objects at will; for example, a header inside a blockquote, or code inside italic text. For InDesign that's not as easy without resorting to lots of 'local' overrides, which I personally abhor. (And so should _you_ -- if you just change the style of your text, all overrides could be gone!) So I opted for an easier way: one-level paragraph and one-level character styles only. Still, that's enough to nicely format most of the blog posts and online documentation I experimented with!

... I even found some time to add two nice additions: tables and easy-accented characters.

 

Read all about my version at my own web site: http://www.jongware.com/markdownid.html, and don't forget to check out the Daring Fireball In Person's original web site on same (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) and the original version of my web page in Markdown format.

 

Markdown bears the following copyright statement:

Copyright © 2004, John Gruber

http://daringfireball.net/

All rights reserved.

1041 Views   3 Replies   Latest reply: [Jongware], Jul 3, 2012 1:33 AM
 
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  • [Jongware]
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    1. [Jongware],
    Jun 5, 2012 2:50 PM   in reply to [Jongware]
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    Ain't it the truth, as soon as I make it public I find not one, but a *couple* of bugs that, honestly, ought to have worked!

     

    1. Two or more spaces at the end of regular text should be translated to a soft break. Well, that works, but of course neither a heading nor a horizontal rule are 'regular text'. When there are spaces at the end of these, they should be discarded -- and not end up messing up the system determining it is a header/rule, please.

     

    2. Indented text after an indented item (bullet or numbered) should indent as well, on a paragraph of its own.

     

        And of course it should not reset a numbered list back to '1'.

     

    3. Anyone actually has a use for this?

     

    Fixxed (1) and (2); (3) was only there to illustrate (2) is working fine again.

     
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  • ian murren
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    2. ian murren,
    Jul 2, 2012 4:14 PM   in reply to [Jongware]
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    What's the minimum version of indesign for this script? I get an error, using CS1 on the Mac,

     

    Error Number: 3

    Error String: "Cannot assign Value"

    Line: 701

    Source "     match = In.match(/^ {0,3}\[([^\]]+)\]:/s+(\S+)\s*(".+?\s*$/)||"

    Offending Text "="

     

    Thanks,

      Ian

     
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  • [Jongware]
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    3. [Jongware],
    Jul 3, 2012 1:33 AM   in reply to ian murren
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    That's *way* beyond any current version. I wrote it using CS4, and I didn't use even any extremely modern function so at least theoretically it could work with a (slightly) older version.

     

    It seems your version of InDesign is so old, it doesn't recognise the fairly basic match command. Of course one can work around it, by replacing this command with a series of simple string operations. However, I do not consider doing that just to cater for compatibility with a version that's going to be a decade old next year.

     

    Sorry. (On the other hand, you might already be used to InDesign tips, scripts, templates, and other stuff not working for you if it's anything as recent as 5 years or so.)

     
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