*pandoc.txt* For Vim version 7.3 Last change: 2011 Sep 05
[This document is formatted as a markdown file _and_ as a vim helpfile.
If viewing from within vim, set ft=help to view it as a helpfile, and
set ft=pandoc to view it as a (pandoc) markdown file.]
Vim Plugin for *pandoc*
=======================
This is a bundle for writing and editing documents in [pandoc][]'s
[extended markdown][]. It provides
- some settings to make vim a pleasant |pandoc-writing-environment|,
- |pandoc-syntax-highlighting|, with support for pandoc's extended
markdown,
- |pandoc-snippets| for use with [snipMate][],
- |pandoc-section-folding|,
- |pandoc-citation-completion|,
- some simple |pandoc-conversion-functions| and
|pandoc-tidying-functions|,
- a few |pandoc-localleader-mappings|
Download and Install
====================
For the latest version, see <https://github.com/vim-pandoc/vim-pandoc>.
There are many different ways to manage and install vim plugins. Use
your favorite method. If you don't have a favorite method, we recommend
using [Vundle][] or [Pathogen][].
If using Vundle, add
Bundle 'vim-pandoc/vim-pandoc'
to your `~/.vimrc` file and run `:BundleInstall`.
If using Pathogen,
cd ~/.vim/bundle
git clone git@github.com:vim-pandoc/vim-pandoc.git
If using Pathogen and managing plugins as submodules,
cd ~/.vim
git submodule add https://github.com/vim-pandoc/vim-pandoc.git bundle/vim-pandoc
If you don't want to (or can't) use git, you can download a tarball from
the github page and unzip it into \~/.vim/bundle.
Dependencies
============
To run this plugin, your Vim needs to be compiled with python support.
To see if your Vim has python support,
vim --version
and look for `+python`.
Mac Users: [MacVim][] is compiled with python support. But the
system default `/usr/bin/vim` may not be. For information about how to
override the system vim, and have `vim` use MacVim's binary, see this
discussion on [superuser.com][].
Debian Wheezy Users: the default `vim` package is not compiled with python
support. Try installing `vim-nox` instead.
Filetype Detection and File Extensions
======================================
If you have this plugin installed alongside [vim-markdown][], be aware
that both plugins attempt to claim the common markdown extensions for
their own. We match the following extensions:
+ .markdown, .md, .mkd, .pd, .pdk, .pandoc, and .text
In our experience, vim-pandoc trumps vim-markdown.
We do not claim files with the `.txt` extension, since that would seem
a bit presumptuous. If you want `.txt` files to be treated as pandoc
files, add
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.txt set filetype=pandoc
to your `.vimrc`.
*pandoc-writing-environment*
===========================
The bundle sets the following options, in an effort to provide a
pleasant writing environment:
setlocal linebreak
setlocal breakat-=*
|linebreak| tells vim to break lines at word boundaries. The |breakat|
setting is to account for asterisks used for emphasis.
setlocal display=lastline
If you are using soft-wrapping, this will tell vim to go ahead and
show part of a long line that runs off the bottom of the screen.
setlocal nojoinspaces
|nojoinspaces| allows you to use SHIFT-J in normal mode to join the next
line with the current line without adding extra unwanted spaces.
setlocal commentstring=<!--%s-->
setlocal comments=s:<!--,m:\ \ \ \ ,e:-->
tells vim to use HTML style comments in your markdown files. For more, see
|comments| and |commentstring|.
*pandoc-hard-wrapping*
----------------------
By default, the bundle assumes that you will be using soft wrapping, and
applies
setlocal formatoptions=1
If you prefer hard wrapping, set g:pandoc_use_hard_wraps, i.e., put
something like
let g:pandoc_use_hard_wraps = 1
in your vimrc. When that is set, the bundle instead sets
setlocal formatoptions=tn
If you also want autoformatting, set g:pandoc_auto_format:
let g:pandoc_auto_format = 1
in your vimrc. For more information, see |formatoptions|. (Note that
autoformatting can slow things down.)
*pandoc-syntax-highlighting*
============================
The syntax highlighting should be fairly accurate and complete. By
default, the bundle tries to be smart, and only highlight implicit links
if there is a matching link definition. This can be expensive on large
files and slow things down. To disable it, set
g:pandoc_no_empty_implicits:
let g:pandoc_no_empty_implicits = 1
Due to the way they are handled, span elements (emphasis, bold, tt, subscript
and superscript) can cause slowdowns. If you desire to disable highlighting of
them altogether, set g:pandoc_no_spans:
let g:pandoc_no_spans = 1
Note that this will also disable highlighting of embedded html, because
otherwise stuff like `<code>` (which is unformatted) is detected as containing
html that doesn't end.
*pandoc-snippets*
=================
If you use |snipMate|, take a look at snippets/pandoc.snippets to see what
is available. Here are a couple of examples:
- type `%%<TAB>` to generate a title block, with the filename as
title, the value of `g:snips_author` as author, and the current
date.
- type `[*<TAB>` to generate an inline link with the contents of the clipboard
as the url.
*pandoc-section-folding*
========================
The bundle tells vim to fold documents by section. If you haven't used
folding before, see |fold-commands|.
Folding can slow things down. To disable it, set
g:pandoc_no_folding:
let g:pandoc_no_folding = 1
For more powerful folding and outline support, use [VOoM][]. If you are using
VOoM, you can use `<localleader>o` to open it in markdown mode when editing a
pandoc file.
*pandoc-citation-completion*
============================
*pandoc-bibfiles*
-----------------
In order to complete citation keys, we need to know the location of your
bibliographical database. When opening a file, we try to find something
appropiate. We look in various places for files with the extension `.bib`,
`.biblatex` (BibTeX), `.mods` (MODS), `.ris` (RIS), or `.json` (citeproc's
JSON), in that order. We add them to a buffer-local variable called
b:pandoc_bibfile.
If you want, you can set a default bibliography to add to this list by
putting something like
let g:pandoc_bibfiles = ['/the/path/to/your/bibtex/file.bib']
in your vimrc.
You can set b:pandoc_bibfiles and g:pandoc_bibfiles to any format citeproc-hs
supports.
*Please note the following regarding the searches we perform in order to
determine the value of b:pandoc_bibfiles*: The first place we look is in the
directory that contains the file in the current buffer. In that directory, we
first look for a file that shares the same basename as the file in the current
buffer, but with a bibfile extension. So, for example, if you are editing
/some/long/path/to/your/file.markdown
we will look for
/some/long/path/to/your/file.bib
/some/long/path/to/your/file.biblatex
/some/long/path/to/your/file.xml
and so on. If no such file is in the directory, we then look for a file
named `default` with an appropriate extension.
If we can't find anything in the directory of file in the current buffer,
we proceed to look for files named `default` with an appropriate extension
in your pandoc data directory (~/.pandoc on POSIX systems). If you want to
use a single global bibliographic database for all your documents, we
recommend that you put it (or a symlink to it) here.
If we don't find anything in your data directory, we look in your local
texmf tree, using the path specified by
kpsewhich -var-value TEXMFHOME
Again, we look for a file named `default` with an appropriate extension.
You can always check to see what we've settled on for the buffer by
:echo b:pandoc_bibfiles
Using Citation Completion
-------------------------
To use completion, start typing a citekey, e.g.,
@geac
and then, while still in insert mode, hit CTRL-X CTRL-O (vim's shortcut
for |omni-completion|), and you'll get a popup window with a list of
matching keys, e.g.,
@geach1970 Geach, P. T. – Entailment
@geach1972 Geach, P. T. – Logic Matters
Regular expressions work too:
@le.*90
should suggest both '@leftow1990' and '@lewis1990', assuming those are
both keys in your bibliography.
The plugin also provides support for using this with [SuperTab][]. You
will want something like this in your vimrc:
let g:SuperTabDefaultCompletionType = "context"
Then you can just hit `<TAB>` in the middle of typing a citation
to complete the citation.
|pandoc-use-bibtool|
--------------------
By default, citation completion only matches entries by citekey. If you
have [bibtool][] installed, and your bibliography is a bibtex file, and
you set
let g:pandoc_use_bibtool = 1
we will match by all keyword in all fields, so that
@armstrong
might return both
@armstrong1989 Armstrong, David M. - A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility
@lewis1992 Lewis, David - Armstrong on Combinatorial Possibility
*pandoc-citation-dictionary*
----------------------------
Omni-completion of citations is quick and powerful. But maybe you just
want dictionary completion of citations? If you create a text file,
~/.pandoc/citationkeys.dict
that contains a list of citation keys, one per line, like so
@adams1967a
@adams1971
@adams1972a
@adams1974
@adams1977
@adams1986a
we will add those keys to vim's |dictionary|, allowing for completion by
typing part of a citekey, e.g.,
@adams19
and then hitting CTRL-X CTRL-K (or via SuperTab).
*pandoc-conversion-functions*
=============================
Pandoc can be used to perform lots of different conversions. For one-off
conversions, it is easy to do something like
:!pandoc -o example.rtf %
*PandocRegisterExecutor*
------------------------
For conversions you use regularly, you can define a leader mapping in your
vimrc, e.g.,
nmap <leader>p !pandoc -o %:r.pdf % --latex-engine xelatex
--number-sections<CR>
Alternatively, you can define a command and a mapping using the
`PandocRegisterExecutor` command. It tells vim-pandoc to register some
local commands and mappings for a certain set of pandoc parameters. We
call this an executor. The syntax of `PandocRegisterExecutor` is
:PandocRegisterExecutor NAME MAP TYPE COMMAND
where NAME is the name of the Command, MAP is the mapping for it, TYPE
is the extension of the created file, and COMMAND is a description of
the command to create the document. For example:
:PandocRegisterExecutor PdcPdf <Leader>pdf pdf markdown2pdf %%
registers a command, named PdcPdf, that runs markdown2pdf on the current
file, and it maps <Leader>pdf to that command. It also creates a command, PdcPdfOpen, that opens the generated pdf file using your default pdf viewer, and maps <Leader>pdf+ to that command.
Executors are registered before opening a file.
Executors depend on the `pandoc_execute` function, which can be called
like this:
:py pandoc_execute(COMMAND, TYPE, OPEN)
where COMMAND is a string describing some pandoc arguments, TYPE is the
extesion of the created file, and OPEN isn flag determining wether to
open the created file or not. COMMAND can include some variables:
1. `%%` for the current filename
2. `%:r` for the current filename without the extension
3. `PANDOC#P_BIBS` for a sequence of --bibliography arguments for every
value in `b:pandoc_bibfiles`.
4. `PANDOC#BIBS` for a list of the values in `b:pandoc_bibfiles`.
Those will be evaluated before executing the command, so the user can
define executors that can access those variables. For example:
:PandocRegisterExecutor PdcPdfB <Leader>pdfb pdf markdown2pdf PANDOC#P_BIBS %%
The value of command in PandocRegisterExecutor and pandoc\_execute can
describe an \*NIX pipeline, like:
pandoc -t json %% | filter | pandoc -f json -t odt -o %:r.odt
Default executors
-----------------
By default, vim-pandoc provides some handy executors:
- *PandocPdf* (`<localleader>pdf`), which runs pandoc, passing the
value of `g:pandoc_bibfile` as the argument of `--bibliography`.
- *PandocPdfOpen* (<localleader>pdf+), same as above, but opens the
pdf using your default pdf viewer.
- *PandocHtml* (`<localleader>html`), which creates a standalone html.
- *PandocHtmlOpen* (<localleader>html+), same as above, but opens the
html file in your default browser.
- *PandocOdt* (`<localleader>odt`), which creates an ODT file, passing
the value of `g:pandoc_bibfile` as the argument of `--bibliography`.
- *PandocOdtOpen* (`<localleader>odt+`), same as above, but opens the
ODT in your default ODT viewer.
For the mappings to work, you must have |maplocalleader| defined in your
vimrc, e.g.,
let maplocalleader = ","
Then, for example, you can type something like `,pdf` and a PDF version
of your current buffer will be generated, or ,pdf+, and a PDF version of
your current buffer will be generated and displayed.
*pandoc-tidying-functions*
==========================
The plugin defines two functions designed for tidying up your markdown:
*MarkdownTidy* and *MarkdownTidyWrap*. Running MarkdownTidyWrap is
equivalent to
:%!pandoc -t markdown -s
Note that this can have some unexpected effects: it will replace all of
your reference link ids with implicit reference links; it will replace
all of your footnote ids with numbers; it will transform any setext
style headers into atx style headers; it will process any latex macros
you may have defined and delete the macro definitions; if your document
lacks a title block, it will add one.
The plugin also sets
setlocal equalprg=pandoc\ -t\ markdown\ --reference-links
In practice, this value for |equalprg| makes it easy to hard-wrap
paragraphs nicely, using vim's `=` command. If you prefer soft wrapping,
you might want to change this to
setlocal equalprg=pandoc\ -t\ markdown\ --reference-links\ --no-wrap
Note that this will *remove* any title block, as well as processing any
custom latex macros. So you might not want to do something like `ggvG=`.
*pandoc-localleader-mappings*
=============================
If |maplocalleader| is defined, vim-pandoc defines a handful of
localleader mappings in addition to the mappings for the default executors.
First,
<localleader>www
when invoked from within a url, like http://example.com, will open that
url in your default browser.
Second, there are two commands for jumping back and forth between a
reference-style link and its definition:
<localleader>gr
<localleader>br
`gr` jumps from the link to its definition; `br` jumps back. If you want
to try this out on this document, and you are reading this within vim,
first
:let maplocalleader = ","
:set ft=pandoc
then move your cursor [somewhere in here][], and type `,gr`. Wasn't that
fun?[^note] Now you probably want to go ahead and
:set ft=help
to get back to viewing this as a help file.
[somewhere in here]: http://example.com "Now type `,br` to jump back."
[^note]: Also supports footnotes. Type `,br` to jump back.
Finally, there is
<localleader>nr
`,nr` creates a new reference definition from within a reference link.
So if you have typed something like
This is a [link][id]. And here is another sentence.
and type `,nr` from somewhere within `[link][id]`, you will get
This is a [link][id]. And here is another sentence.
[id]: <your cursor here>
Of course, when you are done filling in the link, you can hit `,br` to
jump back to where you were.
Known Issues
============
See the github [issues][] page for a current set of issues.
Maintainers
===========
+ [Felipe Morales](https://github.com/fmoralesc/)
+ [David Sanson](https://github.com/dsanson/)
Thanks also to [Wei Dai][] for bug fixes and improvements.
Borrowings
==========
The syntax file ~~derives from Jeremy Schultz's [pdc.vim][] as
githubbed by [wunki][]~~ has been completely rewritten from the
ground up by Felipe Morales.
The snippets file is a slight extension (and contraction) of the
markdown.snippets file that is part of many of the [vim-markdown
repositories on github][].
Autocompletion was implemented by hacking away at [LaTeX Box][]'s
implementation of bibtex citation completion, even if the results don't
look much like the original.
* * * *
[pandoc]: http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/
[extended markdown]: http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#pandocs-markdown
[snipMate]: https://github.com/garbas/vim-snipmate
[Vundle]: https://github.com/gmarik/vundle
[Pathogen]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen
[Vimmer]: https://github.com/densitypop/Vimmer
[VOoM]: http://vim-voom.github.com/
[Wei Dai]: https://github.com/clvv
[pdc.vim]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2389
[wunki]: https://github.com/wunki/vim-pandoc
[vim-markdown repositories on github]: https://github.com/hallison/vim-markdown
[LaTeX Box]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=3109
[SuperTab]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1643
[FoldList]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=500
[vim-markdown]: http://plasticboy.com/markdown-vim-mode/
[issues]: https://github.com/vim-pandoc/vim-pandoc/issues
[bibtool]: http://www.gerd-neugebauer.de/software/TeX/BibTool/index.en.html
[MacVim]: https://code.google.com/p/macvim/
[superuser.com]: http://superuser.com/questions/334252/the-best-way-to-make-macvims-vim-console-not-mvim-the-default-instead-of-mac
vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl: