Pandoc’s Markdown
Pandoc understands an extended and slightly revised version of John
Gruber’s Markdown syntax.
This document explains the syntax, noting differences from standard
Markdown. Except where noted, these differences can be suppressed by
using the markdown_strict format instead of
markdown. Extensions can be enabled or disabled to specify
the behavior more granularly. They are described in the following. See
also Extensions above, for extensions that
work also on other formats.
Philosophy
Markdown is designed to be easy to write, and, even more importantly,
easy to read:
A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain
text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting
instructions. ' John
Gruber
This principle has guided pandoc’s decisions in finding syntax for
tables, footnotes, and other extensions.
There is, however, one respect in which pandoc’s aims are different
from the original aims of Markdown. Whereas Markdown was originally
designed with HTML generation in mind, pandoc is designed for multiple
output formats. Thus, while pandoc allows the embedding of raw HTML, it
discourages it, and provides other, non-HTMLish ways of representing
important document elements like definition lists, tables, mathematics,
and footnotes.
Paragraphs
A paragraph is one or more lines of text followed by one or more
blank lines. Newlines are treated as spaces, so you can reflow your
paragraphs as you like. If you need a hard line break, put two or more
spaces at the end of a line.
Extension:
escaped_line_breaks
A backslash followed by a newline is also a hard line break. Note: in
multiline and grid table cells, this is the only way to create a hard
line break, since trailing spaces in the cells are ignored.
Headings
There are two kinds of headings: Setext and ATX.
Setext-style headings
A setext-style heading is a line of text “underlined” with a row of
= signs (for a level-one heading) or - signs
(for a level-two heading):
A level-one heading
===================
A level-two heading
-------------------
The heading text can contain inline formatting, such as emphasis (see
Inline formatting, below).
ATX-style headings
An ATX-style heading consists of one to six # signs and
a line of text, optionally followed by any number of #
signs. The number of # signs at the beginning of the line
is the heading level:
## A level-two heading
As with setext-style headings, the heading text can contain
formatting:
# A level-one heading with a [link](/url) and *emphasis*
Standard Markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a
heading. Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning
of the document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too
easy for a # to end up at the beginning of a line by
accident (perhaps through line wrapping). Consider, for example:
I like several of their flavors of ice cream:
#22, for example, and #5.
Many Markdown implementations do not require a space between the
opening #s of an ATX heading and the heading text, so that
#5 bolt and #hashtag count as headings. With
this extension, pandoc does require the space.
Heading identifiers
See also the auto_identifiers
extension above.
Headings can be assigned attributes using this syntax at the end of
the line containing the heading text:
{#identifier .class .class key=value key=value}
Thus, for example, the following headings will all be assigned the
identifier foo:
# My heading {#foo}
## My heading ## {#foo}
My other heading {#foo}
---------------
(This syntax is compatible with PHP Markdown
Extra.)
Note that although this syntax allows assignment of classes and
key/value attributes, writers generally don’t use all of this
information. Identifiers, classes, and key/value attributes are used in
HTML and HTML-based formats such as EPUB and slidy. Identifiers are used
for labels and link anchors in the LaTeX, ConTeXt, Textile, Jira markup,
and AsciiDoc writers.
Headings with the class unnumbered will not be numbered,
even if --number-sections is specified. A single hyphen
(-) in an attribute context is equivalent to
.unnumbered, and preferable in non-English documents.
So,
# My heading {-}
is just the same as
# My heading {.unnumbered}
Pandoc behaves as if reference links have been defined for each
heading. So, to link to a heading
# Heading identifiers in HTML
you can simply write
[Heading identifiers in HTML]
or
[Heading identifiers in HTML][]
or
[the section on heading identifiers][heading identifiers in
HTML]
instead of giving the identifier explicitly:
[Heading identifiers in HTML](#heading-identifiers-in-html)
If there are multiple headings with identical text, the corresponding
reference will link to the first one only, and you will need to use
explicit links to link to the others, as described above.
Like regular reference links, these references are
case-insensitive.
Explicit link reference definitions always take priority over
implicit heading references. So, in the following example, the link will
point to bar, not to #foo:
# Foo
[foo]: bar
See [foo]
Block quotations
Markdown uses email conventions for quoting blocks of text. A block
quotation is one or more paragraphs or other block elements (such as
lists or headings), with each line preceded by a >
character and an optional space. (The > need not start
at the left margin, but it should not be indented more than three
spaces.)
> This is a block quote. This
> paragraph has two lines.
>
> 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
> 2. Second item.
A “lazy” form, which requires the > character only on
the first line of each block, is also allowed:
> This is a block quote. This
paragraph has two lines.
> 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
2. Second item.
Among the block elements that can be contained in a block quote are
other block quotes. That is, block quotes can be nested:
> This is a block quote.
>
> > A block quote within a block quote.
If the > character is followed by an optional space,
that space will be considered part of the block quote marker and not
part of the indentation of the contents. Thus, to put an indented code
block in a block quote, you need five spaces after the
>:
> code
Extension:
blank_before_blockquote
Standard Markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a block
quote. Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning of
the document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too easy
for a > to end up at the beginning of a line by accident
(perhaps through line wrapping). So, unless the
markdown_strict format is used, the following does not
produce a nested block quote in pandoc:
> This is a block quote.
>> Nested.
Verbatim (code) blocks
Indented code blocks
A block of text indented four spaces (or one tab) is treated as
verbatim text: that is, special characters do not trigger special
formatting, and all spaces and line breaks are preserved. For
example,
if (a > 3) {
moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
The initial (four space or one tab) indentation is not considered
part of the verbatim text, and is removed in the output.
Note: blank lines in the verbatim text need not begin with four
spaces.
Fenced code blocks
Extension:
fenced_code_blocks
In addition to standard indented code blocks, pandoc supports
fenced code blocks. These begin with a row of three or more
tildes (~) and end with a row of tildes that must be at
least as long as the starting row. Everything between these lines is
treated as code. No indentation is necessary:
~~~~~~~
if (a > 3) {
moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
~~~~~~~
Like regular code blocks, fenced code blocks must be separated from
surrounding text by blank lines.
If the code itself contains a row of tildes or backticks, just use a
longer row of tildes or backticks at the start and end:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
code including tildes
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extension:
backtick_code_blocks
Same as fenced_code_blocks, but uses backticks
(`) instead of tildes (~).
Extension:
fenced_code_attributes
Optionally, you may attach attributes to fenced or backtick code
block using this syntax:
~~~~ {#mycode .haskell .numberLines startFrom="100"}
qsort [] = []
qsort (x:xs) = qsort (filter (< x) xs) ++ [x] ++
qsort (filter (>= x) xs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here mycode is an identifier, haskell and
numberLines are classes, and startFrom is an
attribute with value 100. Some output formats can use this
information to do syntax highlighting. Currently, the only output
formats that uses this information are HTML, LaTeX, Docx, Ms, and
PowerPoint. If highlighting is supported for your output format and
language, then the code block above will appear highlighted, with
numbered lines. (To see which languages are supported, type
pandoc --list-highlight-languages.) Otherwise, the code
block above will appear as follows:
<pre id="mycode" class="haskell numberLines" startFrom="100">
<code>
...
</code>
</pre>
The numberLines (or number-lines) class
will cause the lines of the code block to be numbered, starting with
1 or the value of the startFrom attribute. The
lineAnchors (or line-anchors) class will cause
the lines to be clickable anchors in HTML output.
A shortcut form can also be used for specifying the language of the
code block:
```haskell
qsort [] = []
```
This is equivalent to:
``` {.haskell}
qsort [] = []
```
If the fenced_code_attributes extension is disabled, but
input contains class attribute(s) for the code block, the first class
attribute will be printed after the opening fence as a bare word.
To prevent all highlighting, use the --no-highlight
flag. To set the highlighting style, use --highlight-style.
For more information on highlighting, see Syntax highlighting, below.
Line blocks
Extension: line_blocks
A line block is a sequence of lines beginning with a vertical bar
(|) followed by a space. The division into lines will be
preserved in the output, as will any leading spaces; otherwise, the
lines will be formatted as Markdown. This is useful for verse and
addresses:
| The limerick packs laughs anatomical
| In space that is quite economical.
| But the good ones I've seen
| So seldom are clean
| And the clean ones so seldom are comical
| 200 Main St.
| Berkeley, CA 94718
The lines can be hard-wrapped if needed, but the continuation line
must begin with a space.
| The Right Honorable Most Venerable and Righteous Samuel L.
Constable, Jr.
| 200 Main St.
| Berkeley, CA 94718
This syntax is borrowed from reStructuredText.
Lists
Bullet lists
A bullet list is a list of bulleted list items. A bulleted list item
begins with a bullet (*, +, or
-). Here is a simple example:
* one
* two
* three
This will produce a “compact” list. If you want a “loose” list, in
which each item is formatted as a paragraph, put spaces between the
items:
* one
* two
* three
The bullets need not be flush with the left margin; they may be
indented one, two, or three spaces. The bullet must be followed by
whitespace.
List items look best if subsequent lines are flush with the first
line (after the bullet):
* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.
But Markdown also allows a “lazy” format:
* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.
Block content in list items
A list item may contain multiple paragraphs and other block-level
content. However, subsequent paragraphs must be preceded by a blank line
and indented to line up with the first non-space content after the list
marker.
* First paragraph.
Continued.
* Second paragraph. With a code block, which must be indented
eight spaces:
{ code }
Exception: if the list marker is followed by an indented code block,
which must begin 5 spaces after the list marker, then subsequent
paragraphs must begin two columns after the last character of the list
marker:
* code
continuation paragraph
List items may include other lists. In this case the preceding blank
line is optional. The nested list must be indented to line up with the
first non-space character after the list marker of the containing list
item.
* fruits
+ apples
- macintosh
- red delicious
+ pears
+ peaches
* vegetables
+ broccoli
+ chard
As noted above, Markdown allows you to write list items “lazily,”
instead of indenting continuation lines. However, if there are multiple
paragraphs or other blocks in a list item, the first line of each must
be indented.
+ A lazy, lazy, list
item.
+ Another one; this looks
bad but is legal.
Second paragraph of second
list item.
Ordered lists
Ordered lists work just like bulleted lists, except that the items
begin with enumerators rather than bullets.
In standard Markdown, enumerators are decimal numbers followed by a
period and a space. The numbers themselves are ignored, so there is no
difference between this list:
1. one
2. two
3. three
and this one:
5. one
7. two
1. three
Extension: fancy_lists
Unlike standard Markdown, pandoc allows ordered list items to be
marked with uppercase and lowercase letters and roman numerals, in
addition to Arabic numerals. List markers may be enclosed in parentheses
or followed by a single right-parentheses or period. They must be
separated from the text that follows by at least one space, and, if the
list marker is a capital letter with a period, by at least two spaces.
The fancy_lists extension also allows ‘#’
to be used as an ordered list marker in place of a numeral:
#. one
#. two
Extension: startnum
Pandoc also pays attention to the type of list marker used, and to
the starting number, and both of these are preserved where possible in
the output format. Thus, the following yields a list with numbers
followed by a single parenthesis, starting with 9, and a sublist with
lowercase roman numerals:
9) Ninth
10) Tenth
11) Eleventh
i. subone
ii. subtwo
iii. subthree
Pandoc will start a new list each time a different type of list
marker is used. So, the following will create three lists:
(2) Two
(5) Three
1. Four
* Five
If default list markers are desired, use #.:
#. one
#. two
#. three
Extension: task_lists
Pandoc supports task lists, using the syntax of GitHub-Flavored
Markdown.
- [ ] an unchecked task list item
- [x] checked item
Definition lists
Extension:
definition_lists
Pandoc supports definition lists, using the syntax of PHP Markdown
Extra with some extensions.
Term 1
: Definition 1
Term 2 with *inline markup*
: Definition 2
{ some code, part of Definition 2 }
Third paragraph of definition 2.
Each term must fit on one line, which may optionally be followed by a
blank line, and must be followed by one or more definitions. A
definition begins with a colon or tilde, which may be indented one or
two spaces.
A term may have multiple definitions, and each definition may consist
of one or more block elements (paragraph, code block, list, etc.), each
indented four spaces or one tab stop. The body of the definition
(including the first line, aside from the colon or tilde) should be
indented four spaces. However, as with other Markdown lists, you can
“lazily” omit indentation except at the beginning of a paragraph or
other block element:
Term 1
: Definition
with lazy continuation.
Second paragraph of the definition.
If you leave space before the definition (as in the example above),
the text of the definition will be treated as a paragraph. In some
output formats, this will mean greater spacing between term/definition
pairs. For a more compact definition list, omit the space before the
definition:
Term 1
~ Definition 1
Term 2
~ Definition 2a
~ Definition 2b
Note that space between items in a definition list is required. (A
variant that loosens this requirement, but disallows “lazy” hard
wrapping, can be activated with compact_definition_lists:
see Non-pandoc extensions,
below.)
Numbered example lists
Extension:
example_lists
The special list marker @ can be used for sequentially
numbered examples. The first list item with a @ marker will
be numbered ‘1’, the next ‘2’, and so on, throughout the document. The
numbered examples need not occur in a single list; each new list using
@ will take up where the last stopped. So, for example:
(@) My first example will be numbered (1).
(@) My second example will be numbered (2).
Explanation of examples.
(@) My third example will be numbered (3).
Numbered examples can be labeled and referred to elsewhere in the
document:
(@good) This is a good example.
As (@good) illustrates, ...
The label can be any string of alphanumeric characters, underscores,
or hyphens.
Note: continuation paragraphs in example lists must always be
indented four spaces, regardless of the length of the list marker. That
is, example lists always behave as if the four_space_rule
extension is set. This is because example labels tend to be long, and
indenting content to the first non-space character after the label would
be awkward.
Compact and loose lists
Pandoc behaves differently from Markdown.pl on some
“edge cases” involving lists. Consider this source:
+ First
+ Second:
- Fee
- Fie
- Foe
+ Third
Pandoc transforms this into a “compact list” (with no
<p> tags around “First”, “Second”, or “Third”), while
Markdown puts <p> tags around “Second” and “Third”
(but not “First”), because of the blank space around “Third”. Pandoc
follows a simple rule: if the text is followed by a blank line, it is
treated as a paragraph. Since “Second” is followed by a list, and not a
blank line, it isn’t treated as a paragraph. The fact that the list is
followed by a blank line is irrelevant. (Note: Pandoc works this way
even when the markdown_strict format is specified. This
behavior is consistent with the official Markdown syntax description,
even though it is different from that of Markdown.pl.)
Ending a list
What if you want to put an indented code block after a list?
- item one
- item two
{ my code block }
Trouble! Here pandoc (like other Markdown implementations) will treat
{ my code block } as the second paragraph of item two, and
not as a code block.
To “cut off” the list after item two, you can insert some
non-indented content, like an HTML comment, which won’t produce visible
output in any format:
- item one
- item two
<!-- end of list -->
{ my code block }
You can use the same trick if you want two consecutive lists instead
of one big list:
1. one
2. two
3. three
<!-- -->
1. uno
2. dos
3. tres
Horizontal rules
A line containing a row of three or more *,
-, or _ characters (optionally separated by
spaces) produces a horizontal rule:
* * * *
---------------
Tables
Four kinds of tables may be used. The first three kinds presuppose
the use of a fixed-width font, such as Courier. The fourth kind can be
used with proportionally spaced fonts, as it does not require lining up
columns.
Extension:
table_captions
A caption may optionally be provided with all 4 kinds of tables (as
illustrated in the examples below). A caption is a paragraph beginning
with the string Table: (or just :), which will
be stripped off. It may appear either before or after the table.
Extension:
simple_tables
Simple tables look like this:
Right Left Center Default
------- ------ ---------- -------
12 12 12 12
123 123 123 123
1 1 1 1
Table: Demonstration of simple table syntax.
The header and table rows must each fit on one line. Column
alignments are determined by the position of the header text relative to
the dashed line below it:
- If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the right side
but extends beyond it on the left, the column is right-aligned.
- If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the left side
but extends beyond it on the right, the column is left-aligned.
- If the dashed line extends beyond the header text on both sides, the
column is centered.
- If the dashed line is flush with the header text on both sides, the
default alignment is used (in most cases, this will be left).
The table must end with a blank line, or a line of dashes followed by
a blank line.
The column header row may be omitted, provided a dashed line is used
to end the table. For example:
------- ------ ---------- -------
12 12 12 12
123 123 123 123
1 1 1 1
------- ------ ---------- -------
When the header row is omitted, column alignments are determined on
the basis of the first line of the table body. So, in the tables above,
the columns would be right, left, center, and right aligned,
respectively.
Extension:
multiline_tables
Multiline tables allow header and table rows to span multiple lines
of text (but cells that span multiple columns or rows of the table are
not supported). Here is an example:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Centered Default Right Left
Header Aligned Aligned Aligned
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
First row 12.0 Example of a row that
spans multiple lines.
Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note
the blank line between
rows.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Table: Here's the caption. It, too, may span
multiple lines.
These work like simple tables, but with the following
differences:
- They must begin with a row of dashes, before the header text (unless
the header row is omitted).
- They must end with a row of dashes, then a blank line.
- The rows must be separated by blank lines.
In multiline tables, the table parser pays attention to the widths of
the columns, and the writers try to reproduce these relative widths in
the output. So, if you find that one of the columns is too narrow in the
output, try widening it in the Markdown source.
The header may be omitted in multiline tables as well as simple
tables:
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
First row 12.0 Example of a row that
spans multiple lines.
Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note
the blank line between
rows.
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
: Here's a multiline table without a header.
It is possible for a multiline table to have just one row, but the
row should be followed by a blank line (and then the row of dashes that
ends the table), or the table may be interpreted as a simple table.
Extension: grid_tables
Grid tables look like this:
: Sample grid table.
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Fruit | Price | Advantages |
+===============+===============+====================+
| Bananas | $1.34 | - built-in wrapper |
| | | - bright color |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Oranges | $2.10 | - cures scurvy |
| | | - tasty |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
The row of =s separates the header from the table body,
and can be omitted for a headerless table. The cells of grid tables may
contain arbitrary block elements (multiple paragraphs, code blocks,
lists, etc.). Cells that span multiple columns or rows are not
supported. Grid tables can be created easily using Emacs table mode.
Alignments can be specified as with pipe tables, by putting colons at
the boundaries of the separator line after the header:
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Right | Left | Centered |
+==============:+:==============+:==================:+
| Bananas | $1.34 | built-in wrapper |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
For headerless tables, the colons go on the top line instead:
+--------------:+:--------------+:------------------:+
| Right | Left | Centered |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
Grid Table Limitations
Pandoc does not support grid tables with row spans or column spans.
This means that neither variable numbers of columns across rows nor
variable numbers of rows across columns are supported by Pandoc. All
grid tables must have the same number of columns in each row, and the
same number of rows in each column. For example, the Docutils sample
grid tables will not render as expected with Pandoc.
Extension: pipe_tables
Pipe tables look like this:
| Right | Left | Default | Center |
|------:|:-----|---------|:------:|
| 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| 123 | 123 | 123 | 123 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
: Demonstration of pipe table syntax.
The syntax is identical to PHP
Markdown Extra tables. The beginning and ending pipe characters are
optional, but pipes are required between all columns. The colons
indicate column alignment as shown. The header cannot be omitted. To
simulate a headerless table, include a header with blank cells.
Since the pipes indicate column boundaries, columns need not be
vertically aligned, as they are in the above example. So, this is a
perfectly legal (though ugly) pipe table:
fruit| price
-----|-----:
apple|2.05
pear|1.37
orange|3.09
The cells of pipe tables cannot contain block elements like
paragraphs and lists, and cannot span multiple lines. If a pipe table
contains a row whose printable content is wider than the column width
(see --columns), then the table will take up the full text
width and the cell contents will wrap, with the relative cell widths
determined by the number of dashes in the line separating the table
header from the table body. (For example ---|- would make
the first column 3/4 and the second column 1/4 of the full text width.)
On the other hand, if no lines are wider than column width, then cell
contents will not be wrapped, and the cells will be sized to their
contents.
Note: pandoc also recognizes pipe tables of the following form, as
can be produced by Emacs’ orgtbl-mode:
| One | Two |
|-----+-------|
| my | table |
| is | nice |
The difference is that + is used instead of
|. Other orgtbl features are not supported. In particular,
to get non-default column alignment, you’ll need to add colons as
above.
Extension:
pandoc_title_block
If the file begins with a title block
% title
% author(s) (separated by semicolons)
% date
it will be parsed as bibliographic information, not regular text. (It
will be used, for example, in the title of standalone LaTeX or HTML
output.) The block may contain just a title, a title and an author, or
all three elements. If you want to include an author but no title, or a
title and a date but no author, you need a blank line:
%
% Author
% My title
%
% June 15, 2006
The title may occupy multiple lines, but continuation lines must
begin with leading space, thus:
% My title
on multiple lines
If a document has multiple authors, the authors may be put on
separate lines with leading space, or separated by semicolons, or both.
So, all of the following are equivalent:
% Author One
Author Two
% Author One; Author Two
% Author One;
Author Two
The date must fit on one line.
All three metadata fields may contain standard inline formatting
(italics, links, footnotes, etc.).
Title blocks will always be parsed, but they will affect the output
only when the --standalone (-s) option is
chosen. In HTML output, titles will appear twice: once in the document
head ' this is the title that will appear at the top of the window in a
browser ' and once at the beginning of the document body. The title in
the document head can have an optional prefix attached
(--title-prefix or -T option). The title in
the body appears as an H1 element with class “title”, so it can be
suppressed or reformatted with CSS. If a title prefix is specified with
-T and no title block appears in the document, the title
prefix will be used by itself as the HTML title.
The man page writer extracts a title, man page section number, and
other header and footer information from the title line. The title is
assumed to be the first word on the title line, which may optionally end
with a (single-digit) section number in parentheses. (There should be no
space between the title and the parentheses.) Anything after this is
assumed to be additional footer and header text. A single pipe character
(|) should be used to separate the footer text from the
header text. Thus,
% PANDOC(1)
will yield a man page with the title PANDOC and section
1.
% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals
will also have “Pandoc User Manuals” in the footer.
% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals | Version 4.0
will also have “Version 4.0” in the header.
A YAML metadata block is a valid YAML object, delimited by a line of
three hyphens (---) at the top and a line of three hyphens
(---) or three dots (...) at the bottom. A
YAML metadata block may occur anywhere in the document, but if it is not
at the beginning, it must be preceded by a blank line. (Note that,
because of the way pandoc concatenates input files when several are
provided, you may also keep the metadata in a separate YAML file and
pass it to pandoc as an argument, along with your Markdown files:
pandoc chap1.md chap2.md chap3.md metadata.yaml -s -o book.html
Just be sure that the YAML file begins with --- and ends
with --- or ....) Alternatively, you can use
the --metadata-file option. Using that approach however,
you cannot reference content (like footnotes) from the main markdown
input document.
Metadata will be taken from the fields of the YAML object and added
to any existing document metadata. Metadata can contain lists and
objects (nested arbitrarily), but all string scalars will be interpreted
as Markdown. Fields with names ending in an underscore will be ignored
by pandoc. (They may be given a role by external processors.) Field
names must not be interpretable as YAML numbers or boolean values (so,
for example, yes, True, and 15
cannot be used as field names).
A document may contain multiple metadata blocks. The metadata fields
will be combined through a left-biased union: if two metadata
blocks attempt to set the same field, the value from the first block
will be taken.
When pandoc is used with -t markdown to create a
Markdown document, a YAML metadata block will be produced only if the
-s/--standalone option is used. All of the metadata will
appear in a single block at the beginning of the document.
Note that YAML escaping rules must be followed. Thus, for example, if
a title contains a colon, it must be quoted. The pipe character
(|) can be used to begin an indented block that will be
interpreted literally, without need for escaping. This form is necessary
when the field contains blank lines or block-level formatting:
---
title: 'This is the title: it contains a colon'
author:
- Author One
- Author Two
keywords: [nothing, nothingness]
abstract: |
This is the abstract.
It consists of two paragraphs.
...
Template variables will be set automatically from the metadata. Thus,
for example, in writing HTML, the variable abstract will be
set to the HTML equivalent of the Markdown in the abstract
field:
<p>This is the abstract.</p>
<p>It consists of two paragraphs.</p>
Variables can contain arbitrary YAML structures, but the template
must match this structure. The author variable in the
default templates expects a simple list or string, but can be changed to
support more complicated structures. The following combination, for
example, would add an affiliation to the author if one is given:
---
title: The document title
author:
- name: Author One
affiliation: University of Somewhere
- name: Author Two
affiliation: University of Nowhere
...
To use the structured authors in the example above, you would need a
custom template:
$for(author)$
$if(author.name)$
$author.name$$if(author.affiliation)$ ($author.affiliation$)$endif$
$else$
$author$
$endif$
$endfor$
Raw content to include in the document’s header may be specified
using header-includes; however, it is important to mark up
this content as raw code for a particular output format, using the raw_attribute
extension), or it will be interpreted as markdown. For example:
header-includes:
- |
```{=latex}
\let\oldsection\section
\renewcommand{\section}[1]{\clearpage\oldsection{#1}}
```
Backslash escapes
Extension:
all_symbols_escapable
Except inside a code block or inline code, any punctuation or space
character preceded by a backslash will be treated literally, even if it
would normally indicate formatting. Thus, for example, if one writes
*\*hello\**
one will get
<em>*hello*</em>
instead of
<strong>hello</strong>
This rule is easier to remember than standard Markdown’s rule, which
allows only the following characters to be backslash-escaped:
\`*_{}[]()>#+-.!
(However, if the markdown_strict format is used, the
standard Markdown rule will be used.)
A backslash-escaped space is parsed as a nonbreaking space. It will
appear in TeX output as ~ and in HTML and XML as
\  or \ .
A backslash-escaped newline (i.e. a backslash occurring at the end of
a line) is parsed as a hard line break. It will appear in TeX output as
\\ and in HTML as <br />. This is a nice
alternative to Markdown’s “invisible” way of indicating hard line breaks
using two trailing spaces on a line.
Backslash escapes do not work in verbatim contexts.
Emphasis
To emphasize some text, surround it with *s or
_, like this:
This text is _emphasized with underscores_, and this
is *emphasized with asterisks*.
Double * or _ produces strong
emphasis:
This is **strong emphasis** and __with underscores__.
A * or _ character surrounded by spaces, or
backslash-escaped, will not trigger emphasis:
This is * not emphasized *, and \*neither is this\*.
Extension:
intraword_underscores
Because _ is sometimes used inside words and
identifiers, pandoc does not interpret a _ surrounded by
alphanumeric characters as an emphasis marker. If you want to emphasize
just part of a word, use *:
feas*ible*, not feas*able*.
Strikeout
Extension: strikeout
To strikeout a section of text with a horizontal line, begin and end
it with ~~. Thus, for example,
This ~~is deleted text.~~
Superscripts and subscripts
Extension:
superscript, subscript
Superscripts may be written by surrounding the superscripted text by
^ characters; subscripts may be written by surrounding the
subscripted text by ~ characters. Thus, for example,
H~2~O is a liquid. 2^10^ is 1024.
If the superscripted or subscripted text contains spaces, these
spaces must be escaped with backslashes. (This is to prevent accidental
superscripting and subscripting through the ordinary use of
~ and ^.) Thus, if you want the letter P with
‘a cat’ in subscripts, use P~a\ cat~, not
P~a cat~.
Verbatim
To make a short span of text verbatim, put it inside backticks:
What is the difference between `>>=` and `>>`?
If the verbatim text includes a backtick, use double backticks:
Here is a literal backtick `` ` ``.
(The spaces after the opening backticks and before the closing
backticks will be ignored.)
The general rule is that a verbatim span starts with a string of
consecutive backticks (optionally followed by a space) and ends with a
string of the same number of backticks (optionally preceded by a
space).
Note that backslash-escapes (and other Markdown constructs) do not
work in verbatim contexts:
This is a backslash followed by an asterisk: `\*`.
Extension:
inline_code_attributes
Attributes can be attached to verbatim text, just as with fenced code blocks:
`<$>`{.haskell}
Small caps
To write small caps, use the smallcaps class:
[Small caps]{.smallcaps}
Or, without the bracketed_spans extension:
<span class="smallcaps">Small caps</span>
For compatibility with other Markdown flavors, CSS is also
supported:
<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Small caps</span>
This will work in all output formats that support small caps.
Math
Extension:
tex_math_dollars
Anything between two $ characters will be treated as TeX
math. The opening $ must have a non-space character
immediately to its right, while the closing $ must have a
non-space character immediately to its left, and must not be followed
immediately by a digit. Thus, $20,000 and $30,000 won’t
parse as math. If for some reason you need to enclose text in literal
$ characters, backslash-escape them and they won’t be
treated as math delimiters.
TeX math will be printed in all output formats. How it is rendered
depends on the output format:
- LaTeX
-
It will appear verbatim surrounded by
\(...\) (for inline
math) or \[...\] (for display math).
- Markdown, Emacs Org mode, ConTeXt, ZimWiki
-
It will appear verbatim surrounded by
$...$ (for inline
math) or $$...$$ (for display math).
- XWiki
-
It will appear verbatim surrounded by
{{formula}}..{{/formula}}.
- reStructuredText
-
It will be rendered using an interpreted
text role
:math:.
- AsciiDoc
-
For AsciiDoc output format (
-t asciidoc) it will appear
verbatim surrounded by latexmath:[$...$] (for inline math)
or [latexmath]++++\[...\]+++ (for display math). For
AsciiDoctor output format (-t asciidoctor) the LaTex
delimiters ($..$ and \[..\]) are omitted.
- Texinfo
-
It will be rendered inside a
@math command.
- roff man, Jira markup
-
It will be rendered verbatim without
$’s.
- MediaWiki, DokuWiki
-
It will be rendered inside
<math> tags.
- Textile
-
It will be rendered inside
<span class="math"> tags.
- RTF, OpenDocument
-
It will be rendered, if possible, using Unicode characters, and will
otherwise appear verbatim.
- ODT
-
It will be rendered, if possible, using MathML.
- DocBook
-
If the
--mathml flag is used, it will be rendered using
MathML in an inlineequation or
informalequation tag. Otherwise it will be rendered, if
possible, using Unicode characters.
- Docx
-
It will be rendered using OMML math markup.
- FictionBook2
-
If the
--webtex option is used, formulas are rendered as
images using CodeCogs or other compatible web service, downloaded and
embedded in the e-book. Otherwise, they will appear verbatim.
- HTML, Slidy, DZSlides, S5, EPUB
-
The way math is rendered in HTML will depend on the command-line options
selected. Therefore see Math rendering
in HTML above.
Raw HTML
Extension: raw_html
Markdown allows you to insert raw HTML (or DocBook) anywhere in a
document (except verbatim contexts, where <,
>, and & are interpreted literally).
(Technically this is not an extension, since standard Markdown allows
it, but it has been made an extension so that it can be disabled if
desired.)
The raw HTML is passed through unchanged in HTML, S5, Slidy,
Slideous, DZSlides, EPUB, Markdown, CommonMark, Emacs Org mode, and
Textile output, and suppressed in other formats.
For a more explicit way of including raw HTML in a Markdown document,
see the raw_attribute
extension.
In the CommonMark format, if raw_html is enabled,
superscripts, subscripts, strikeouts and small capitals will be
represented as HTML. Otherwise, plain-text fallbacks will be used. Note
that even if raw_html is disabled, tables will be rendered
with HTML syntax if they cannot use pipe syntax.
Extension:
markdown_in_html_blocks
Standard Markdown allows you to include HTML “blocks”: blocks of HTML
between balanced tags that are separated from the surrounding text with
blank lines, and start and end at the left margin. Within these blocks,
everything is interpreted as HTML, not Markdown; so (for example),
* does not signify emphasis.
Pandoc behaves this way when the markdown_strict format
is used; but by default, pandoc interprets material between HTML block
tags as Markdown. Thus, for example, pandoc will turn
<table>
<tr>
<td>*one*</td>
<td>[a link](http://google.com)</td>
</tr>
</table>
into
<table>
<tr>
<td><em>one</em></td>
<td><a href="http://google.com">a link</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
whereas Markdown.pl will preserve it as is.
There is one exception to this rule: text between
<script> and <style> tags is not
interpreted as Markdown.
This departure from standard Markdown should make it easier to mix
Markdown with HTML block elements. For example, one can surround a block
of Markdown text with <div> tags without preventing
it from being interpreted as Markdown.
Extension: native_divs
Use native pandoc Div blocks for content inside
<div> tags. For the most part this should give the
same output as markdown_in_html_blocks, but it makes it
easier to write pandoc filters to manipulate groups of blocks.
Extension:
native_spans
Use native pandoc Span blocks for content inside
<span> tags. For the most part this should give the
same output as raw_html, but it makes it easier to write
pandoc filters to manipulate groups of inlines.
Extension: raw_tex
In addition to raw HTML, pandoc allows raw LaTeX, TeX, and ConTeXt to
be included in a document. Inline TeX commands will be preserved and
passed unchanged to the LaTeX and ConTeXt writers. Thus, for example,
you can use LaTeX to include BibTeX citations:
This result was proved in \cite{jones.1967}.
Note that in LaTeX environments, like
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}\hline
Age & Frequency \\ \hline
18--25 & 15 \\
26--35 & 33 \\
36--45 & 22 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
the material between the begin and end tags will be interpreted as
raw LaTeX, not as Markdown.
For a more explicit and flexible way of including raw TeX in a
Markdown document, see the raw_attribute
extension.
Inline LaTeX is ignored in output formats other than Markdown, LaTeX,
Emacs Org mode, and ConTeXt.
Generic raw attribute
Extension:
raw_attribute
Inline spans and fenced code blocks with a special kind of attribute
will be parsed as raw content with the designated format. For example,
the following produces a raw roff ms block:
```{=ms}
.MYMACRO
blah blah
```
And the following produces a raw html inline
element:
This is `<a>html</a>`{=html}
This can be useful to insert raw xml into docx
documents, e.g. a pagebreak:
```{=openxml}
<w:p>
<w:r>
<w:br w:type="page"/>
</w:r>
</w:p>
```
The format name should match the target format name (see
-t/--to, above, for a list, or use
pandoc --list-output-formats). Use openxml for
docx output, opendocument for odt
output, html5 for epub3 output,
html4 for epub2 output, and
latex, beamer, ms, or
html5 for pdf output (depending on what you
use for --pdf-engine).
This extension presupposes that the relevant kind of inline code or
fenced code block is enabled. Thus, for example, to use a raw attribute
with a backtick code block, backtick_code_blocks must be
enabled.
The raw attribute cannot be combined with regular attributes.
LaTeX macros
Extension:
latex_macros
When this extension is enabled, pandoc will parse LaTeX macro
definitions and apply the resulting macros to all LaTeX math and raw
LaTeX. So, for example, the following will work in all output formats,
not just LaTeX:
\newcommand{\tuple}[1]{\langle #1 \rangle}
$\tuple{a, b, c}$
Note that LaTeX macros will not be applied if they occur inside a raw
span or block marked with the raw_attribute
extension.
When latex_macros is disabled, the raw LaTeX and math
will not have macros applied. This is usually a better approach when you
are targeting LaTeX or PDF.
Whether or not latex_macros is enabled, the macro
definitions will still be passed through as raw LaTeX.
Links
Markdown allows links to be specified in several ways.
Automatic links
If you enclose a URL or email address in pointy brackets, it will
become a link:
<http://google.com>
<sam@green.eggs.ham>
Inline links
An inline link consists of the link text in square brackets, followed
by the URL in parentheses. (Optionally, the URL can be followed by a
link title, in quotes.)
This is an [inline link](/url), and here's [one with
a title](http://fsf.org "click here for a good time!").
There can be no space between the bracketed part and the
parenthesized part. The link text can contain formatting (such as
emphasis), but the title cannot.
Email addresses in inline links are not autodetected, so they have to
be prefixed with mailto:
[Write me!](mailto:sam@green.eggs.ham)
Reference links
An explicit reference link has two parts, the link itself
and the link definition, which may occur elsewhere in the document
(either before or after the link).
The link consists of link text in square brackets, followed by a
label in square brackets. (There cannot be space between the two unless
the spaced_reference_links extension is enabled.) The link
definition consists of the bracketed label, followed by a colon and a
space, followed by the URL, and optionally (after a space) a link title
either in quotes or in parentheses. The label must not be parseable as a
citation (assuming the citations extension is enabled):
citations take precedence over link labels.
Here are some examples:
[my label 1]: /foo/bar.html "My title, optional"
[my label 2]: /foo
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org (The free software foundation)
[my label 4]: /bar#special 'A title in single quotes'
The URL may optionally be surrounded by angle brackets:
[my label 5]: <http://foo.bar.baz>
The title may go on the next line:
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org
"The free software foundation"
Note that link labels are not case sensitive. So, this will work:
Here is [my link][FOO]
[Foo]: /bar/baz
In an implicit reference link, the second pair of brackets
is empty:
See [my website][].
[my website]: http://foo.bar.baz
Note: In Markdown.pl and most other Markdown
implementations, reference link definitions cannot occur in nested
constructions such as list items or block quotes. Pandoc lifts this
arbitrary seeming restriction. So the following is fine in pandoc,
though not in most other implementations:
> My block [quote].
>
> [quote]: /foo
Extension:
shortcut_reference_links
In a shortcut reference link, the second pair of brackets
may be omitted entirely:
See [my website].
[my website]: http://foo.bar.baz
Internal links
To link to another section of the same document, use the
automatically generated identifier (see Heading identifiers). For example:
See the [Introduction](#introduction).
or
See the [Introduction].
[Introduction]: #introduction
Internal links are currently supported for HTML formats (including
HTML slide shows and EPUB), LaTeX, and ConTeXt.
Images
A link immediately preceded by a ! will be treated as an
image. The link text will be used as the image’s alt text:
![movie reel]
[movie reel]: movie.png
An image with nonempty alt text, occurring by itself in a paragraph,
will be rendered as a figure with a caption. The image’s alt text will
be used as the caption.
How this is rendered depends on the output format. Some output
formats (e.g. RTF) do not yet support figures. In those formats, you’ll
just get an image in a paragraph by itself, with no caption.
If you just want a regular inline image, just make sure it is not the
only thing in the paragraph. One way to do this is to insert a
nonbreaking space after the image:
\
Note that in reveal.js slide shows, an image in a paragraph by itself
that has the stretch class will fill the screen, and the
caption and figure tags will be omitted.
Extension:
link_attributes
Attributes can be set on links and images:
An inline {#id .class width=30 height=20px}
and a reference ![image][ref] with attributes.
[ref]: foo.jpg "optional title" {#id .class key=val key2="val 2"}
(This syntax is compatible with PHP Markdown
Extra when only #id and .class are
used.)
For HTML and EPUB, all attributes except width and
height (but including srcset and
sizes) are passed through as is. The other writers ignore
attributes that are not supported by their output format.
The width and height attributes on images
are treated specially. When used without a unit, the unit is assumed to
be pixels. However, any of the following unit identifiers can be used:
px, cm, mm, in,
inch and %. There must not be any spaces
between the number and the unit. For example:
{ width=50% }
- Dimensions are converted to inches for output in page-based formats
like LaTeX. Dimensions are converted to pixels for output in HTML-like
formats. Use the
--dpi option to specify the number of
pixels per inch. The default is 96dpi.
- The
% unit is generally relative to some available
space. For example the above example will render to the following.
- HTML:
<img href="file.jpg" style="width: 50%;" />
- LaTeX:
\includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth,height=\textheight]{file.jpg}
(If you’re using a custom template, you need to configure
graphicx as in the default template.)
- ConTeXt:
\externalfigure[file.jpg][width=0.5\textwidth]
- Some output formats have a notion of a class (ConTeXt)
or a unique identifier (LaTeX
\caption), or both
(HTML).
- When no
width or height attributes are
specified, the fallback is to look at the image resolution and the dpi
metadata embedded in the image file.
Divs and Spans
Using the native_divs and native_spans
extensions (see above), HTML syntax can be
used as part of markdown to create native Div and
Span elements in the pandoc AST (as opposed to raw HTML).
However, there is also nicer syntax available:
Extension: fenced_divs
Allow special fenced syntax for native Div blocks. A Div
starts with a fence containing at least three consecutive colons plus
some attributes. The attributes may optionally be followed by another
string of consecutive colons. The attribute syntax is exactly as in
fenced code blocks (see Extension:
fenced_code_attributes). As with fenced code blocks,
one can use either attributes in curly braces or a single unbraced word,
which will be treated as a class name. The Div ends with another line
containing a string of at least three consecutive colons. The fenced Div
should be separated by blank lines from preceding and following
blocks.
Example:
::::: {#special .sidebar}
Here is a paragraph.
And another.
:::::
Fenced divs can be nested. Opening fences are distinguished because
they must have attributes:
::: Warning ::::::
This is a warning.
::: Danger
This is a warning within a warning.
:::
::::::::::::::::::
Fences without attributes are always closing fences. Unlike with
fenced code blocks, the number of colons in the closing fence need not
match the number in the opening fence. However, it can be helpful for
visual clarity to use fences of different lengths to distinguish nested
divs from their parents.
Extension:
bracketed_spans
A bracketed sequence of inlines, as one would use to begin a link,
will be treated as a Span with attributes if it is followed
immediately by attributes:
[This is *some text*]{.class key="val"}
Pandoc’s Markdown allows footnotes, using the following syntax:
Here is a footnote reference,[^1] and another.[^longnote]
[^1]: Here is the footnote.
[^longnote]: Here's one with multiple blocks.
Subsequent paragraphs are indented to show that they
belong to the previous footnote.
{ some.code }
The whole paragraph can be indented, or just the first
line. In this way, multi-paragraph footnotes work like
multi-paragraph list items.
This paragraph won't be part of the note, because it
isn't indented.
The identifiers in footnote references may not contain spaces, tabs,
or newlines. These identifiers are used only to correlate the footnote
reference with the note itself; in the output, footnotes will be
numbered sequentially.
The footnotes themselves need not be placed at the end of the
document. They may appear anywhere except inside other block elements
(lists, block quotes, tables, etc.). Each footnote should be separated
from surrounding content (including other footnotes) by blank lines.
Extension:
inline_notes
Inline footnotes are also allowed (though, unlike regular notes, they
cannot contain multiple paragraphs). The syntax is as follows:
Here is an inline note.^[Inlines notes are easier to write, since
you don't have to pick an identifier and move down to type the
note.]
Inline and regular footnotes may be mixed freely.
Citations
Extension: citations
Using an external filter, pandoc-citeproc, pandoc can
automatically generate citations and a bibliography in a number of
styles. Basic usage is
pandoc --filter pandoc-citeproc myinput.txt
In order to use this feature, you will need to specify a bibliography
file using the bibliography metadata field in a YAML
metadata section, or --bibliography command line argument.
You can supply multiple --bibliography arguments or set
bibliography metadata field to YAML array, if you want to
use multiple bibliography files. The bibliography may have any of these
formats:
| BibLaTeX |
.bib |
| BibTeX |
.bibtex |
| Copac |
.copac |
| CSL JSON |
.json |
| CSL YAML |
.yaml |
| EndNote |
.enl |
| EndNote XML |
.xml |
| ISI |
.wos |
| MEDLINE |
.medline |
| MODS |
.mods |
| RIS |
.ris |
Note that .bib can be used with both BibTeX and BibLaTeX
files; use .bibtex to force BibTeX.
Note that pandoc-citeproc --bib2json and
pandoc-citeproc --bib2yaml can produce .json
and .yaml files from any of the supported formats.
In-field markup: In BibTeX and BibLaTeX databases, pandoc-citeproc
parses a subset of LaTeX markup; in CSL YAML databases, pandoc Markdown;
and in CSL JSON databases, an HTML-like
markup:
<i>...</i>-
italics
<b>...</b>-
bold
<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">...</span>
or <sc>...</sc>-
small capitals
<sub>...</sub>-
subscript
<sup>...</sup>-
superscript
<span class="nocase">...</span>-
prevent a phrase from being capitalized as title case
pandoc-citeproc -j and -y interconvert the
CSL JSON and CSL YAML formats as far as possible.
As an alternative to specifying a bibliography file using
--bibliography or the YAML metadata field
bibliography, you can include the citation data directly in
the references field of the document’s YAML metadata. The
field should contain an array of YAML-encoded references, for
example:
---
references:
- type: article-journal
id: WatsonCrick1953
author:
- family: Watson
given: J. D.
- family: Crick
given: F. H. C.
issued:
date-parts:
- - 1953
- 4
- 25
title: 'Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose
nucleic acid'
title-short: Molecular structure of nucleic acids
container-title: Nature
volume: 171
issue: 4356
page: 737-738
DOI: 10.1038/171737a0
URL: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v171/n4356/abs/171737a0.html
language: en-GB
...
(pandoc-citeproc --bib2yaml can produce these from a
bibliography file in one of the supported formats.)
Citations and references can be formatted using any style supported
by the Citation Style Language,
listed in the Zotero Style
Repository. These files are specified using the --csl
option or the csl metadata field. By default,
pandoc-citeproc will use the Chicago Manual of Style
author-date format. The CSL project provides further information on finding and editing
styles.
To make your citations hyperlinks to the corresponding bibliography
entries, add link-citations: true to your YAML
metadata.
Citations go inside square brackets and are separated by semicolons.
Each citation must have a key, composed of ‘@’ + the citation identifier
from the database, and may optionally have a prefix, a locator, and a
suffix. The citation key must begin with a letter, digit, or
_, and may contain alphanumerics, _, and
internal punctuation characters (:.#$%&-+?<>~/).
Here are some examples:
Blah blah [see @doe99, pp. 33-35; also @smith04, chap. 1].
Blah blah [@doe99, pp. 33-35, 38-39 and *passim*].
Blah blah [@smith04; @doe99].
pandoc-citeproc detects locator terms in the CSL locale
files. Either abbreviated or unabbreviated forms are accepted. In
the en-US locale, locator terms can be written in either
singular or plural forms, as book,
bk./bks.; chapter,
chap./chaps.; column,
col./cols.; figure,
fig./figs.; folio,
fol./fols.; number,
no./nos.; line,
l./ll.; note,
n./nn.; opus,
op./opp.; page,
p./pp.; paragraph,
para./paras.; part,
pt./pts.; section,
sec./secs.; sub verbo,
s.v./s.vv.; verse,
v./vv.; volume,
vol./vols.; ¶/¶¶;
§/§§. If no locator term is used, “page” is
assumed.
pandoc-citeproc will use heuristics to distinguish the
locator from the suffix. In complex cases, the locator can be enclosed
in curly braces (using pandoc-citeproc 0.15 and higher
only):
[@smith{ii, A, D-Z}, with a suffix]
[@smith, {pp. iv, vi-xi, (xv)-(xvii)} with suffix here]
A minus sign (-) before the @ will suppress
mention of the author in the citation. This can be useful when the
author is already mentioned in the text:
Smith says blah [-@smith04].
You can also write an in-text citation, as follows:
@smith04 says blah.
@smith04 [p. 33] says blah.
If the style calls for a list of works cited, it will be placed in a
div with id refs, if one exists:
::: {#refs}
:::
Otherwise, it will be placed at the end of the document. Generation
of the bibliography can be suppressed by setting
suppress-bibliography: true in the YAML metadata.
If you wish the bibliography to have a section heading, you can set
reference-section-title in the metadata, or put the heading
at the beginning of the div with id refs (if you are using
it) or at the end of your document:
last paragraph...
# References
The bibliography will be inserted after this heading. Note that the
unnumbered class will be added to this heading, so that the
section will not be numbered.
If you want to include items in the bibliography without actually
citing them in the body text, you can define a dummy nocite
metadata field and put the citations there:
---
nocite: |
@item1, @item2
...
@item3
In this example, the document will contain a citation for
item3 only, but the bibliography will contain entries for
item1, item2, and item3.
It is possible to create a bibliography with all the citations,
whether or not they appear in the document, by using a wildcard:
---
nocite: |
@*
...
For LaTeX output, you can also use natbib or biblatex to render
the bibliography. In order to do so, specify bibliography files as
outlined above, and add --natbib or --biblatex
argument to pandoc invocation. Bear in mind that
bibliography files have to be in respective format (either BibTeX or
BibLaTeX).
For more information, see the pandoc-citeproc
man page.
Non-pandoc extensions
The following Markdown syntax extensions are not enabled by default
in pandoc, but may be enabled by adding +EXTENSION to the
format name, where EXTENSION is the name of the extension.
Thus, for example, markdown+hard_line_breaks is Markdown
with hard line breaks.
Extension: old_dashes
Selects the pandoc <= 1.8.2.1 behavior for parsing smart dashes:
- before a numeral is an en-dash, and -- is an
em-dash. This option only has an effect if smart is
enabled. It is selected automatically for textile
input.
Extension:
angle_brackets_escapable
Allow < and > to be
backslash-escaped, as they can be in GitHub flavored Markdown but not
original Markdown. This is implied by pandoc’s default
all_symbols_escapable.
Extension:
lists_without_preceding_blankline
Allow a list to occur right after a paragraph, with no intervening
blank space.
Extension:
four_space_rule
Selects the pandoc <= 2.0 behavior for parsing lists, so that four
spaces indent are needed for list item continuation paragraphs.
Extension:
spaced_reference_links
Allow whitespace between the two components of a reference link, for
example,
[foo] [bar].
Extension:
hard_line_breaks
Causes all newlines within a paragraph to be interpreted as hard line
breaks instead of spaces.
Extension:
ignore_line_breaks
Causes newlines within a paragraph to be ignored, rather than being
treated as spaces or as hard line breaks. This option is intended for
use with East Asian languages where spaces are not used between words,
but text is divided into lines for readability.
Extension:
east_asian_line_breaks
Causes newlines within a paragraph to be ignored, rather than being
treated as spaces or as hard line breaks, when they occur between two
East Asian wide characters. This is a better choice than
ignore_line_breaks for texts that include a mix of East
Asian wide characters and other characters.
Extension: emoji
Parses textual emojis like :smile: as Unicode
emoticons.
Extension:
tex_math_single_backslash
Causes anything between \( and \) to be
interpreted as inline TeX math, and anything between \[ and
\] to be interpreted as display TeX math. Note: a drawback
of this extension is that it precludes escaping ( and
[.
Extension:
tex_math_double_backslash
Causes anything between \\( and \\) to be
interpreted as inline TeX math, and anything between \\[
and \\] to be interpreted as display TeX math.
Extension:
markdown_attribute
By default, pandoc interprets material inside block-level tags as
Markdown. This extension changes the behavior so that Markdown is only
parsed inside block-level tags if the tags have the attribute
markdown=1.
Extension:
mmd_title_block
Enables a MultiMarkdown style
title block at the top of the document, for example:
Title: My title
Author: John Doe
Date: September 1, 2008
Comment: This is a sample mmd title block, with
a field spanning multiple lines.
See the MultiMarkdown documentation for details. If
pandoc_title_block or yaml_metadata_block is
enabled, it will take precedence over mmd_title_block.
Extension:
abbreviations
Parses PHP Markdown Extra abbreviation keys, like
*[HTML]: Hypertext Markup Language
Note that the pandoc document model does not support abbreviations,
so if this extension is enabled, abbreviation keys are simply skipped
(as opposed to being parsed as paragraphs).
Extension:
autolink_bare_uris
Makes all absolute URIs into links, even when not surrounded by
pointy braces <...>.
Extension:
mmd_link_attributes
Parses multimarkdown style key-value attributes on link and image
references. This extension should not be confused with the link_attributes
extension.
This is a reference ![image][ref] with multimarkdown attributes.
[ref]: http://path.to/image "Image title" width=20px height=30px
id=myId class="myClass1 myClass2"
Parses multimarkdown style heading identifiers (in square brackets,
after the heading but before any trailing #s in an ATX
heading).
Extension:
compact_definition_lists
Activates the definition list syntax of pandoc 1.12.x and earlier.
This syntax differs from the one described above under Definition lists in several respects:
- No blank line is required between consecutive items of the
definition list.
- To get a “tight” or “compact” list, omit space between consecutive
items; the space between a term and its definition does not affect
anything.
- Lazy wrapping of paragraphs is not allowed: the entire definition
must be indented four spaces.
Markdown variants
In addition to pandoc’s extended Markdown, the following Markdown
variants are supported:
markdown_phpextra (PHP Markdown Extra)-
footnotes, pipe_tables, raw_html,
markdown_attribute, fenced_code_blocks,
definition_lists, intraword_underscores,
header_attributes, link_attributes,
abbreviations, shortcut_reference_links,
spaced_reference_links.
markdown_github (deprecated GitHub-Flavored
Markdown)-
pipe_tables, raw_html,
fenced_code_blocks, auto_identifiers,
gfm_auto_identifiers, backtick_code_blocks,
autolink_bare_uris, space_in_atx_header,
intraword_underscores, strikeout,
task_lists, emoji,
shortcut_reference_links,
angle_brackets_escapable,
lists_without_preceding_blankline.
markdown_mmd (MultiMarkdown)-
pipe_tables, raw_html,
markdown_attribute, mmd_link_attributes,
tex_math_double_backslash,
intraword_underscores, mmd_title_block,
footnotes, definition_lists,
all_symbols_escapable,
implicit_header_references, auto_identifiers,
mmd_header_identifiers,
shortcut_reference_links, implicit_figures,
superscript, subscript,
backtick_code_blocks, spaced_reference_links,
raw_attribute.
markdown_strict (Markdown.pl)-
raw_html, shortcut_reference_links,
spaced_reference_links.
We also support commonmark and gfm
(GitHub-Flavored Markdown, which is implemented as a set of extensions
on commonmark).
Note, however, that commonmark and gfm have
limited support for extensions. Only those listed below (and
smart, raw_tex, and
hard_line_breaks) will work. The extensions can, however,
all be individually disabled. Also, raw_tex only affects
gfm output, not input.
gfm (GitHub-Flavored Markdown)-
pipe_tables, raw_html,
fenced_code_blocks, auto_identifiers,
gfm_auto_identifiers, backtick_code_blocks,
autolink_bare_uris, space_in_atx_header,
intraword_underscores, strikeout,
task_lists, emoji,
shortcut_reference_links,
angle_brackets_escapable,
lists_without_preceding_blankline.
