Blogging in Markdown—Without a Plug-in

Go around please sign

by C.K. MacLeod

Writing in markdown can make your blogging process more efficient. If you’ve been blogging in WordPress, until now, you’ve been able to use a markdown plug-in, such as Markdown Quicktags, to convert markdown to HTML for reliably formatted blog posts.

Unfortunately, Markdown Quicktags no longer works with WordPress 4.0, and the developers have no plans to update the plug-in (thanks to Nina Amir for this information). What’s a blogger to do? Until better options become apparent to me, it’s time for a temporary workaround.

A Workaround

This workaround involves a few extra steps, but it’ll work.

  1. Write your blog post in markdown, in a word processor of your choice.

  2. Copy and paste your post into the left pane of the Jon Combe markdown editor.

Text written in markdown is on the left; the formatted version is on the right

 

 

  1. Download the HTML file generated by the Jon Combe markdown editor by clicking on the button with the angle brackets (highlighted in yellow).

Jon Combe HTML button

 

  1. Open the HTML file in a code editor like Notepad++ (free). Open the code editor first, then open the file from within the code editor. Note how you’re now able to see the HTML tags in blue.

HTML in Notepad++

  1. Select the text with HTML tags and paste it into the Text tab in WordPress’ editor.

This workaround works for Blogger, too. In Blogger, you’ll paste the text with HTML tags into the HTML tab.

Do you write in markdown? Have you discovered a new markdown plug-in that works with  Wordpress 4.0? Do you have another workaround?

Image by Taber Andrew Bain