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 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-Python-via-.NET
doc = aw.Document()
builder = aw.DocumentBuilder(doc)

builder.writeln("Markdown treats asterisks (*) and underscores (_) as indicators of emphasis.")
builder.write("You can write ")

builder.font.bold = True
builder.write("bold")

builder.font.bold = False
builder.write(" or ")

builder.font.italic = True
builder.write("italic")

builder.font.italic = False
builder.writeln(" text. ")

builder.write("You can also write ")
builder.font.bold = True

builder.font.italic = True
builder.write("BoldItalic")

builder.font.bold = False
builder.font.italic = False
builder.write("text.")

builder.document.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdown.emphases.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-Python-via-.NET
doc = aw.Document()
builder = aw.DocumentBuilder(doc)

# By default Heading styles in Word may have bold and italic formatting.
# If we do not want the text to be emphasized, set these properties explicitly to false.
builder.font.bold = False
builder.font.italic = False

builder.writeln("The following produces headings:")
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 1")
builder.writeln("Heading1")
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 2")
builder.writeln("Heading2")
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 3")
builder.writeln("Heading3")
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 4")
builder.writeln("Heading4")
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 5")
builder.writeln("Heading5")
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 6")
builder.writeln("Heading6")

# Note that the emphases are also allowed inside Headings.
builder.font.bold = True
builder.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Heading 1")
builder.writeln("Bold Heading1")

doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdown.headings.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-Python-via-.NET
doc = aw.Document()
builder = aw.DocumentBuilder(doc)

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

doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdown.block_quotes.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-Python-via-.NET
builder = aw.DocumentBuilder()

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

builder.document.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdown.horizontal_rule_example.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-Python-via-.NET
doc = aw.Document(docs_base.my_dir + "Quotes.md")

# Let's remove Heading formatting from a Quote in the very last paragraph.
paragraph = doc.first_section.body.last_paragraph
paragraph.paragraph_format.style = doc.styles.get_by_name("Quote")

doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdown.read_markdown_document.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-Python-via-.NET
doc = aw.Document()
builder = aw.DocumentBuilder(doc)

builder.writeln("Some text!")

doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "BaseConversions.docx_to_markdown.md")

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-Python-via-.NET
doc = aw.Document()
builder = aw.DocumentBuilder(doc)

builder.insert_cell()
builder.paragraph_format.alignment = aw.ParagraphAlignment.RIGHT
builder.write("Cell1")
builder.insert_cell()
builder.paragraph_format.alignment = aw.ParagraphAlignment.CENTER
builder.write("Cell2")

# Makes all paragraphs inside the table to be aligned.
saveOptions = aw.saving.MarkdownSaveOptions()
    
saveOptions.table_content_alignment = aw.saving.TableContentAlignment.LEFT
    
doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdownSaveOptions.left_table_content_alignment.md", saveOptions)

saveOptions.table_content_alignment = aw.saving.TableContentAlignment.RIGHT
doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdownSaveOptions.right_table_content_alignment.md", saveOptions)

saveOptions.table_content_alignment = aw.saving.TableContentAlignment.CENTER
doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdownSaveOptions.center_table_content_alignment.md", saveOptions)

# The alignment in this case will be taken from the first paragraph in corresponding table column.
saveOptions.table_content_alignment = aw.saving.TableContentAlignment.AUTO
doc.save(docs_base.artifacts_dir + "WorkingWithMarkdownSaveOptions.auto_table_content_alignment.md", saveOptions)