I love Markdown. It’s super easy to remember and write. I think that it looks less cluttered when you’re writing (especially links) and it gets a bunch of HTML markup out of your way.
What I hate is the WordPress support for it in the editor. I’ve never found a plugin that works properly. Either we have issues with shortcodes that have more than one _ in them or we have issues with custom post types not picking up the markdown.
When the markdown isn’t parsed you end up with the user seeing all the funny marks in my copy. That is simply not acceptable.
At this point I’ve resolved to stop putting markdown in the WordPress editor. I still write in it in Byword but I copy the HTML out and paste that HTML in to the WordPress editor.
Have any of you found a great Markdown plugin for WordPress?
5 responses to “Less in love with markdown”
The plugin I’ve been using for some time now is Markdown On Save, but unfortunately as you outlined it too falls victim to some Shortcode issues (I think). I haven’t taken the time to fully flesh out where the issue is taking place, but what I usually run into isn’t so much a problem with parsing the Shortcode, it’s the handling of the whitespace around said shortcode(s). I usually end up with a bunch of empty paragraphs, or other issues with unwanted empty tags messing up the content around the Shortcode. I like how simple Markdown On Save is, and that if I decide to turn it off, I won’t lose a step due to the way it actually stores the content.
I don’t use Shortcodes a lot, but when I do I’ve resorted to turning off Markdown and sticking with HTML myself (sometimes).
I’ve had issues with Markdown on Save just not working with CPT’s. Specifically with my EDD store the content would look fine for a while then suddenly I’d realize the Markdown wasn’t getting parsed. I couldn’t ever get it to parse again either.
I’m just planning on sticking with HTML in the post editor. At some point in the next 6 months I’ll simply remove the Markdown plugins since the Markdown content will be older by that point and not get as much traffic.
Same here Curtis, I always copy my html out. I cannot stand this issue, it always seems to be a problem with WordPress. I stopped using shortcodes a longtime ago because of inconsistencies and now I create everything mostly using custom CSS and create custom page or post templates along with custom fields. I was spending more time fighting with WordPress than going custom. I also prefer not to use plugins as much as possible to avoid lag and more frustration.
Plugins are not really a problem, bad code is the problem. You can have bad code in a theme just as easily as you can have it in a plugin. I just use well written plugins.
I’m divided on shortcodes. There is a good reason to use them when you want to add complex functionality (like Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce) to themes. They are not an end all solution and need to be approached with great care.
I agree, with some plugins you simply have to use their shortcodes no matter what.