Working with Markdown Features

This topic discusses how to implement Markdown features using Aspose.Words. Markdown is a simple way to format plain text that can easily be converted to HTML. Aspose.Words supports the following Markdown features:

• Headings
• Blockquotes
• Horizontal rules
• Bold emphasis
• Italic emphasis

The Markdown feature implementation mostly follows the CommonMark specification in Aspose.Words API and all the features are represented as corresponding styles or direct formatting. Which means that

• Bold and Italic are represented as Font.Bold and Font.Italic. 
• Headings are paragraphs with Heading 1 - Heading 6 styles. 
• Quotes are paragraphs with “Quote” in the style name. 
• HorizontalRule is a paragraph with a HorizontalRule shape.

There are nuances of translating Markdown to the Aspose.Words Document Object Model (DOM), described in the article Translate Markdown to Document Object Model (DOM).

Markdown Document with Emphases

This section demonstrates you how to produce a markdown document with emphases as given below:

Markdown treats asterisks (*) and underscores (_) as indicators of emphasis.
You can write **bold** or *italic* text. 
You can also write ***BoldItalic***text.

The following code snippet can be used to produce the above-given markdown document.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
Document doc = new Document();
DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(doc);
builder.writeln("Markdown treats asterisks (*) and underscores (_) as indicators of emphasis.");
builder.write("You can write ");
builder.getFont().setBold(true);
builder.write("bold");
builder.getFont().setBold(false);
builder.write(" or ");
builder.getFont().setItalic(true);
builder.write("italic");
builder.getFont().setItalic(false);
builder.writeln(" text. ");
builder.write("You can also write ");
builder.getFont().setBold(true);
builder.getFont().setItalic(true);
builder.write("BoldItalic");
builder.getFont().setBold(false);
builder.getFont().setItalic(false);
builder.write("text.");

builder.getDocument().save("EmphasesExample.md");

Markdown Document with Headings

This section demonstrates you how to produce a markdown document with headings as given below:

The following produces headings:
# Heading1
## Heading2
### Heading3
#### Heading4
##### Heading5
###### Heading6
# **Bold Heading1**

The following code snippet can be used to produce the above given markdown document.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
Document doc = new Document();
DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(doc);

// By default Heading styles in Word may have bold and italic formatting.
// If we do not want text to be emphasized, set these properties explicitly to
// false.
builder.getFont().setBold(false);
builder.getFont().setItalic(false);

builder.writeln("The following produces headings:");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 1"));
builder.writeln("Heading1");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 2"));
builder.writeln("Heading2");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 3"));
builder.writeln("Heading3");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 4"));
builder.writeln("Heading4");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 5"));
builder.writeln("Heading5");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 6"));
builder.writeln("Heading6");

// Note, emphases are also allowed inside Headings:
builder.getFont().setBold(true);
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Heading 1"));
builder.writeln("Bold Heading1");

doc.save(dataDir + "HeadingsExample.md");

Markdown Document with Block Quotes

This section demonstrates you how to produce a markdown document with block quotes as given below:

We support blockquotes in Markdown:
>*Lorem*
>*ipsum*
>The quotes can be of any level and can be nested:
>>>Quote level 3
>>>
>>>>Nested quote level 4
>
>*Back to first level*
>### Headings are allowed inside Quotes
>

The following code snippet can be used to produce the above given markdown document.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
Document doc = new Document();
DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(doc);

builder.writeln("We support blockquotes in Markdown:");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Quote"));
builder.writeln("Lorem");
builder.writeln("ipsum");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Normal"));
builder.writeln("The quotes can be of any level and can be nested:");
Style quoteLevel3 = doc.getStyles().add(StyleType.PARAGRAPH, "Quote2");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(quoteLevel3);
builder.writeln("Quote level 3");
Style quoteLevel4 = doc.getStyles().add(StyleType.PARAGRAPH, "Quote3");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(quoteLevel4);
builder.writeln("Nested quote level 4");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Quote"));
builder.writeln();
builder.writeln("Back to first level");
Style quoteLevel1WithHeading = doc.getStyles().add(StyleType.PARAGRAPH, "Quote Heading 3");
builder.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(quoteLevel1WithHeading);
builder.write("Headings are allowed inside Quotes");

doc.save(dataDir + "QuotesExample.md");

Markdown Document with Horizontal Rule

This section demonstrates you how to produce a markdown document with Horizontal Rule as given below:

We support Horizontal rules (Thematic breaks) in Markdown:
-----

The following code snippet can be used to produce the above-given markdown document.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder(new Document());

builder.writeln("We support Horizontal rules (Thematic breaks) in Markdown:");
builder.insertHorizontalRule();

builder.getDocument().save(dataDir + "HorizontalRuleExample.md");

Reading a Markdown Document

The following code snippet shows you how to read a markdown document.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
// This is Markdown document that was produced in example of
// MarkdownDocumentWithBlockQuotes.
Document doc = new Document(dataDir + "QuotesExample.md");

// Let's remove Heading formatting from a Quote in the very last paragraph.
Paragraph paragraph = doc.getFirstSection().getBody().getLastParagraph();
paragraph.getParagraphFormat().setStyle(doc.getStyles().get("Quote"));

doc.save(dataDir + "QuotesModifiedExample.md");

Specify Markdown Save Options

Aspose.Words API provides MarkdownSaveOptions class to specify additional options while saving a document into the Markdown format.

The following code example demonstrated how to specify various Markdown save options.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder();
builder.writeln("Some text!");

// specify MarkDownSaveOptions
MarkdownSaveOptions saveOptions = (MarkdownSaveOptions) SaveOptions.createSaveOptions(SaveFormat.MARKDOWN);

builder.getDocument().save(dataDir + "TestDocument.md", saveOptions);

How to Align Content Inside the Table while Exporting into Markdown

Aspose.Words API provides TableContentAlignment enumeration which defines alignment directions to align contents in tables while exporting into the Markdown document. The following code example demonstrates how to align content inside the table.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-words/Aspose.Words-for-Java
DocumentBuilder builder = new DocumentBuilder();

// Create a new table with two cells.
builder.insertCell();
builder.getParagraphFormat().setAlignment(ParagraphAlignment.RIGHT);
builder.write("Cell1");
builder.insertCell();
builder.getParagraphFormat().setAlignment(ParagraphAlignment.CENTER);
builder.write("Cell2");

MarkdownSaveOptions saveOptions = new MarkdownSaveOptions();
// Makes all paragraphs inside table to be aligned to Left.
saveOptions.setTableContentAlignment(TableContentAlignment.LEFT);
builder.getDocument().save(dataDir + "left.md", saveOptions);

// Makes all paragraphs inside table to be aligned to Right.
saveOptions.setTableContentAlignment(TableContentAlignment.RIGHT);
builder.getDocument().save(dataDir + "right.md", saveOptions);

// Makes all paragraphs inside table to be aligned to Center.
saveOptions.setTableContentAlignment(TableContentAlignment.CENTER);
builder.getDocument().save(dataDir + "center.md", saveOptions);

// Makes all paragraphs inside table to be aligned automatically.
// The alignment in this case will be taken from the first paragraph in
// corresponding table column.
saveOptions.setTableContentAlignment(TableContentAlignment.AUTO);
builder.getDocument().save(dataDir + "auto.md", saveOptions);