Setting Up Sublime Text For Markdown Files

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language and uses a plain-text-formatting syntax. Markdown is often used to format readme files and can create rich text using a plain text editor.

Its design allows it to be converted to many output formats and I often convert markdown documentation to Word or PDF formats.

Packages

Packages extend Sublime Text’s functionality significantly and, with the help of Package Control, are very easy to install.

I use these packages to help me write markdown documentation:

• MarkdownEditing
• MarkdownTableFormatter
• MarkdownPreview
• Pandoc

Installing Package Control

Package Control makes it easy to find, install, and update packages in Sublime Text.

• Open the command palette: CTRL+SHIFT+P
• Type Install Package Control
• Press Enter

MarkdownEditing

Markdown plugin for Sublime Text. Provides a decent Markdown color scheme (light and dark) with more robust syntax highlighting and useful Markdown editing features for Sublime Text.

https://github.com/SublimeText-Markdown/MarkdownEditing

• Open Package Control’s Command Pallet: CTRL+SHIFT+P
• Type install package and press Enter. A list of available packages will be displayed.
• Type MarkdownEditing and press Enter again.
• Restart Sublime Text 3

WYSIWYG with MarkdownPreview

Preview and build your markdown files quickly in your web browser using Sublime Text 3

https://github.com/facelessuser/MarkdownPreview

• Open Package Control’s Command Pallet: CTRL+SHIFT+P
• Type install package and press Enter. A list of available packages will be displayed.
• Type MarkdownPreview and press Enter again.
• Restart Sublime Text 3

Converting Markdown to Other File Types

Markdown can be easily converted to other formats and I find this usesful for sharing documents with other users.

I use Pandoc which needs to be installed outside of Sublime. You can find the installation steps here:
https://pandoc.org/installing.html

Once installed you can add the Pandoc package to Sublime.

• Open Package Control’s Command Pallet: CTRL+SHIFT+P
• Type install package and press Enter. A list of available packages will be displayed.
• Type Pandoc and press Enter again.

To use the Pandoc package:

• Open Package Control’s Command Pallet: CTRL+SHIFT+P
• Type Pandoc and press Enter.
• Pick the exported file type from the list.
• Your file will open in your default viewer for that file type.