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vscode-docs-authoring

This repo contains code for the Docs Markdown VS Code extension, which provides Markdown authoring assistance for contributing to docs.microsoft.com. The Docs Markdown extension ships in the VS Code Marketplace, either as an individual extension or bundled with other useful extensions as part of the Docs Authoring Pack.

The Docs Authoring Pack also includes markdownlint, a popular linter by David Anson, and Docs Preview. The Docs engineering team is now extending markdownlint to catch issues in custom Docs Markdown, starting with the zone and monikers extensions. More custom linting is coming soon!

Prerequisites and Assumptions

To accurately insert relative links, images, and other embedded content with Docs Markdown, you must have your VS Code workspace scoped to the root of your cloned OPS repo. Some syntax supported by the extension, such as alerts and snippets, are custom Markdown for OPS, and will not render correctly unless published via OPS.

How to Use the Docs Markdown Extension

To access the Docs Markdown menu, type ALT+M. You can click or use up/down arrows to select the function you want, or type to start filtering, then hit ENTER when the function you want is highlighted in the menu. The following are available:

Function Command Description
Bold formatBold Formats text bold.
Italic formatItalic Formats text italic.
Code formatCode If one line or less is selected, formats text as inline code.

If multiple lines are selected, formats them as a fenced code block, and allows you to optionally select a programming language supported by OPS.

If no language is selected, inserts an empty fenced code block.
Alert insertAlert Inserts a Note, Important, Warning, or Tip.

Select Alert from the menu, then select the alert type. If you have previously selected text, it will be surrounded with the selected alert syntax. If no text is selected, a new alert will be added with placeholder text.
Numbered list insertNumberedList Inserts a new numbered list.

If multiple lines are selected, each will be a list item. Note that numbered lists show in the Markdown as all 1s, but will render on docs.microsoft.com as sequential numbers or, for nested lists, letters. To create a nested numbered list, tab from within the parent list.
Bulleted list insertBulletedList Inserts a new bulleted list.
Table insertTable Inserts a Markdown table structure.

After you select the table command, specify the number of columns and rows in the format columns:rows, such as 3:4. Note that the maximum number of columns you can specify via this extension is 5, which is the recommended maximum for readability.
Link selectLinkType Inserts a link. When you select this command, the following sub-menu appears.

External: Link to a web page by URI. Must include "http" or "https".
Internal: Insert a relative link to another file in the same repo. After selecting this option, type in the command window to filter files by name, then select the file you want.
Bookmark in this file: Choose from a list of headings in the current file to insert a properly formatted bookmark.
Bookmark in another file: First, filter by file name and select the file to link to, then choose the appropriate heading within the selected file.
Image insertImage Type alternate text (required for accessibility) and select it, then call this command to filter the list of supported image files in the repo and select the one you want. If you haven't selected alt text when you call this command, you will be prompted for it before you can select an image file.
Include insertInclude Find a file to embed in the current file.
Snippet insertSnippet Find a code snippet in the repo to embed in the current file.
Video insertVideo Add an embedded video.
Preview previewTopic Preview the active topic in a side-by-side window using the DocFX extension. If the DocFX extension is not installed or is installed but disabled, the topic will not render.

How to Assign Keyboard Shortcuts

  1. Type CTRL+K then CTRL+S to open the Keyboard Shortcuts list.

  2. Search for the command, such as formatBold, for which you want to create a custom keybinding.

  3. Click the plus that appears near the command name when you mouse over the line.

  4. After a new input box is visible, type the keyboard shortcut you want to bind to that particular command. For example, to use the common shortcut for bold, type ctrl+b.

  5. It's a good idea to insert a when clause into your keybinding, so it won't be available in files other than Markdown. To do this, open keybindings.json and insert the following line below the command name (be sure to add a comma between lines):

    "when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'markdown'"

    Your completed custom keybinding should look like this in keybindings.json:

    // Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults
[
    {
        "key": "ctrl+b",
        "command": "formatBold",
        "when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'markdown'"
    }
]

  6. Save keybindings.json.

See Keybindings in the VS Code docs for more information.

How to Show the Legacy Toolbar

Former users of the extension code-named "Gauntlet" will notice that the authoring toolbar no longer appears at the bottom of the VS Code window when the Docs Markdown Extension is installed. This is because the toolbar took up a lot of space on the VS Code status bar and did not follow best practices for extension UX, so it is deprecated in the new extension. However, you can optionally show the toolbar by updating your VS Code settings.json file as follows:

  1. In VS Code, go to File -> Preferences -> Settings (CTRL+Comma).
  2. Select User Settings to change the settings for all VS Code workspaces, or Workspace Settings to change them for just the current workspace.
  3. In the Default Settings pane, find Docs Authoring Extension Configuration, click the pencil icon next to the desired setting, and select true. VS Code will automatically add the value to the settings.json file and you will be prompted to reload the window for the changes to take effect.

Known Issues

  • [External bookmarks] Linux: File list is displayed but no headings are shown to select.
  • [Includes] Linux: File list is displayed but no link is added after selection is made.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.