CLion
 
2022.1
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  1. Language and framework-specific guidelines
  2. Markdown

Markdown

Last modified: 25 July 2022

Required plugin: Markdown (bundled)

Configure: Settings/Preferences | Languages & Frameworks | Markdown

Filename patterns: *.md and *.markdown

Markdown is a lightweight markup language for adding formatting elements to plain text. CLion recognizes Markdown files, provides a dedicated editor with highlighting, completion, and formatting, and shows the rendered HTML in a live preview pane.

Create a new Markdown file

By default, CLion recognizes any file with the .md or .markdown extension as a Markdown file.

  1. Right-click a directory in the Project tool window Alt+1 and select New | File.

    Alternatively, you can select the necessary directory, press Alt+Insert, and then select File.

  2. Enter a name for your file with a recognized extension, for example: readme.md.

Formatting and completion

The Markdown editor provides several basic formatting actions in the floating toolbar that appears when you select a text fragment. You can use the preview pane to see the rendered HTML.

Markdown editor formatting toolbar

There is also completion for links to files in the current project, for example, if you need to reference source code, images, or other Markdown files.

Markdown editor completion popup

Code blocks

To insert a fenced code block, use triple backticks ``` before and after the code block. If you specify the language for the code block, by default, the Markdown editor injects the corresponding language.

This enables syntax highlighting and other coding assistance features for the specified language: completion, inspections, and intention actions.

Insert a fenced code block in Markdown

Disable coding assistance in code blocks

If your code blocks are not meant to be syntactically correct, you may want to disable code injection and syntax errors in code blocks.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

  2. Clear the following options:

    • Inject languages in code fences

    • Show errors in code fences

  3. Click OK to apply the changes.

Run commands from Markdown files

When you clone a project, there is usually a README.md file with instructions and commands to run the application, configure your environment, and so on. CLion detects these commands and provides gutter icons for running the commands.

  • Click the corresponding gutter icon or press Ctrl+Shift+F10 with the cursor on the command that you want to run.

Gutter icons for running commands detected in Markdown files

You can disable the gutter icons for running commands in Markdown files in IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S under Languages & Frameworks | Markdown: clear the Detect commands that can be run right from Markdown files checkbox.

Diagrams

The Markdown editor can render diagrams defined with Mermaid and PlantUML. This is disabled by default and requires the corresponding Markdown extensions.

Mermaid diagram in Markdown

Enable diagram support

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

  2. Enable either Mermaid or PlantUML under Markdown extensions.

  3. After CLion downloads the relevant extensions, click OK to apply the changes.

HTML preview

note

The preview does not work on Android Studio. This is a known issue and there is a workaround: use JetBrains Runtime instead of the default Android Studio runtime. For more information, see Fix Markdown Plugin in Android Studio.

By default, the Markdown editor shows a preview pane for rendered HTML code based on the Markdown file. You can use The Show Editor Only button or The Show Preview Only button in the top right corner of the Markdown editor to show only the editor or the preview pane.

Split editor and preview horizontally

By default, the editor and preview are split vertically (side by side), which is convenient for wide monitors and high resolutions.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

  2. Select Split horizontally under Preview layout.

  3. Click OK to apply the changes.

Markdown editor and live preview pane split horizontally

Disable editor and preview scrollbar synchronization

By default, the scrollbars in the editor and in the preview pane are synchronized, meaning that the location in the preview pane corresponds to the location in the source.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

  2. Clear Sync scroll in the editor and preview.

  3. Click OK to apply the changes.

Custom CSS

CLion provides default style sheets for rendering HTML in the preview pane. These style sheets were designed to be consistent with the default UI themes. You can configure specific CSS rules to make small presentation changes (for example, change the font size for headings or line spacing in lists) or you can provide an entirely new CSS to better match your expected output (for example, if you want to replicate the GitHub Markdown style).

Markdown preview with a custom CSS that resembles GitHub rendering style

Configure CSS for rendering HTML preview

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

  2. Configure the settings under Custom CSS:

    • Select Load from to specify the location of a custom CSS file.

    • Select CSS rules rules to enter specific CSS rules that you want to override.

  3. Click OK to apply the changes.

Here is an example of custom CSS rules:

body {
    background: #DDDDDD;
    color: #888888;
    font-size: 250% !important;
}

strong { text-decoration: underline; }

Images

By default, Markdown uses the following syntax for images, which you can enter yourself with completion for paths inside your project:

![alt-text](path/to/file.png "optional-title")
Inserted image in a Markdown document

Insert image

  1. Press Ctrl+U.

    Alternatively, press Alt+Insert to open the Insert… popup, and select Image.

  2. Specify the path to the image in the Insert Image dialog.

    Markdown Insert Image dialog

  3. Click OK.

To configure the image, click The Configure image icon in the gutter on the line where the image is inserted. For example, you can select Convert to HTML in the Insert Image dialog to insert the image with raw HTML markup in the Markdown file.

Insert Image with raw HTML

This will produce the following:

Image inserted with raw HTML

Links

You can define links with the following syntax:

[link-text](link-url "optional-title")

Insert link

  • Press Ctrl+Shift+U.

    Alternatively, press Alt+Insert to open the Insert… popup, and select Link.

    If you had some text highlighted, it will be enclosed in [ ] as the text of the link. If you had a URL copied to the clipboard, it will be enclosed in ( ) as the link URL.

Insert a link in a Markdown file

Tables

CLion provides support for creating and editing tables in Markdown.

Insert table

  1. Press Alt+Insert to open the Insert… popup, and select Table.

  2. Select the size of the table (number of rows and columns).

  3. Type the contents of each cell and press Tab to move the caret from one cell to the next. To add a new row, press Shift+Enter.

By default, CLion shows table column and row markers in the editor. Use these markers to select, move, insert, remove, and align the columns and rows. The markers are a special type of inlay hints specific to Markdown files. If you don't see these markers, press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings, go to Editor | Inlay Hints, and check the Other | Markdown | Table inlays option.

Editing a table in a Markdown file

Click the column marker to perform the following actions:

  • The Move Column Left button Move Column Left

  • The Move Column Right button Move Column Right

  • The Insert Column Left button Insert Column Left

  • The Insert Column Right button Insert Column Right

  • The Select Column Cells button Select Column Cells

  • The Align Left button Align Left

  • The Align Center button Align Center

  • The Align Right button Align Right

  • The Remove Column button Remove Column

Click the row marker to perform the following actions:

  • The Move Row Up button Move Row Up

  • The Move Row Down button Move Row Down

  • The Insert Row Above button Insert Row Above

  • The Insert Row Below button Insert Row Below

  • The Select Row button Select Row

  • The Remove Row button Remove Row

Floating toolbar

When you select some text in a Markdown file, CLion shows a floating toolbar with various formatting options:

  • Select a header level or set the whole line to be normal text

  • Bold Bold Ctrl+B

  • Italic Italic Ctrl+I

  • Strikethrough Strikethrough Ctrl+Shift+S

  • Code Code Ctrl+Shift+C

  • Create Link Create Link Ctrl+Shift+U

  • Unordered List Unordered List

Customize the floating toolbar

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Appearance & Behavior | Menus and Toolbars.

  2. Add or remove the necessary actions under Markdown Editor Floating Toolbar.

    For more information, see Custom actions, menus, and toolbars.

  3. Click OK to apply changes.

Hide the floating toolbar

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Languages & Frameworks | Markdown.

  2. Select Hide floating toolbar.

  3. Click OK to apply changes.

Reformat Markdown files

CLion can reformat Markdown files with proper line wrappings, blank lines, and indentation.

CLion formats the contents according to the code style settings for Markdown files.

Configure Markdown code style settings

  • Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and select Editor | Code Style | Markdown.

Markdown code style settings include the following:

Configure the options for breaking lines.

Hard wrap at

Specify at which column to put a line break. CLion shows a vertical line at the specified column and breaks lines between words, not within words.

Wrap on typing

Add line breaks as you type. Disable this option to add line breaks only when CLion performs formatting.

Visual guides

Show an additional vertical line at the specified column.

Convert Markdown files

CLion can use Pandoc for converting to and from Markdown files.

Configure Pandoc

CLion should be able to detect your Pandoc installation automatically. If not, perform the following:

  1. From the main menu, select Tools | Markdown Converter | Configure Pandoc….

  2. Under Pandoc Settings specify the location of the Pandoc executable and the location where you want to store images imported from Microsoft Word documents.

  3. Click OK to apply the changes.

Import from Microsoft Word

  1. From the main menu, select Tools | Markdown Converter | Import Word Document….

  2. Specify the location of the document.

Export Markdown file to another format

  1. From the main menu, select Tools | Markdown Converter | Export Markdown File To….

  2. In the Export Markdown dialog, specify the name, location, and format for the output file and click OK.

    The Markdown Export dialog

CLion can export to Microsoft Word (requires Pandoc), PDF, and HTML.

Productivity tips

Customize highlighting for Markdown

CLion highlights various Markdown elements according to the color scheme settings.

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), select Editor | Color Scheme | Markdown.

  2. Select the color scheme, accept the highlighting settings inherited from defaults, or customize them as described in Colors and fonts.

Navigate in a large Markdown file

  • Use the Structure tool window Alt+7 or the File Structure popup Ctrl+F12 to view and jump to the relevant headings.

Add comments to a Markdown file

Markdown does not have dedicated syntax for commenting out lines. However, it is possible to emulate a comment line using a link label without an address, like this: 

[comment]: <> (Your comment text)

note

There must be a blank line before the link label.

  • Put the caret at the line that you want to comment out and press Ctrl+/.

    This will add a link label with the commented out text in parentheses and a blank line before it if necessary. Press the same shortcut to uncomment.