Installation

Requirements

The plugin will work on a JetBrains product with minimum build of 141.1532, which is IDEA 14.1.4.

⚠️ Markdown plugins conflict with each other. If you have more than one markdown plugin installed then you need to make sure that only one is enabled at a time. The only exception to this is GFM which provides a preview rendered by chromium browser engine and markdown to HTML converted by GitHub. It does not provide any language based features that create the conflict between other markdown plugins.

Installation Procedure

You can install the plugin two different ways:

1. download the plugin from IntelliJ Markdown Navigator plugin page and install it from disk via Preferences > Plugins and clicking on Install plugin from disk...

2. Go to Preferences > Plugins and clicking on Browse Repositories...

   1. Select Markdown Navigator from the list of plugins. You can type 'markdown' into the search field to limit the list of plugins.
   2. In the right hand information panel click the install button .

3. Restart the IDE

4. You should see the Markdown Navigator document icon or the wiki page icon on all Markdown files in your project.

Choose Your Preview Type

Two HTML Preview options are available under Preferences on OS X and File/Settings on Windows and Linux, Languages & Settings > Markdown: Swing and JavaFx WebView based.

1. Swing based renderer is lightning fast, will run JDK as early as 1.6 but its limitations make it impossible to get close to GitHub look and some of its elements look jagged on retina displays. That said, it will show the result but not exactly like GitHub.

2. JavaFx WebView based renderer is close to browser HTML, CSS and JavaScript implementation, retina aware. It does require that your IDE's boot JDK is 1.8.0u40 or later and it is more resource demanding. It does look good.

⚠️ If you are running on JDK earlier than 1.8 you will need to change the boot JDK to get JavaFX preview. Please refer to the Changing Boot JDK instructions. The latest IDEs, with product numbers featuring year 2016 do not need additional steps to enable JavaFX preview.

❗ If you installed the plugin but are experiencing problems getting the JavaFX preview working please see the JavaFX WebView HTML Preview Not Working guide.

Configuring the Plugins

Being a feature rich plugin, Markdown Navigator has many configuration options to customize its behavior for your use. You can find the various configuration options by category and related functionality in Preferences on OS X and settings on Windows/Linux under Languages & Frameworks > Markdown section. Please review a brief description of configuration categories in the Configuration Settings section.

Entering Your License Code

If you have an Markdown Navigator license then you should enter it into the License Information text box or use the Load License from vladsch.com button to open a dialog box that will allow you to enter your licensee e-mail and name then proceed to download it from the vladsch.com server.

❗ You can set a license password on your license by logging into your vladsch.com account setting the password for your license in the license list. If you have not set a license password then you should leave the password text box empty.

Choosing an Update Channel

Default settings will use the official plugin release channel. If you want to get updates before they are officially releases you can select the Patch Release option in the Check updates for: drop down list box. Bleeding edge development releases can be accessed via Early Access Program option.

Selecting Rendering Browser

Default renderer is Swing which works on all IDE, JDK and OS combinations. If JavaFX WebView is available, you will be prompted to switch or disable the notification. To manually switch the rendering browser use the Rendering Browser drop down list box and select JavaFX WebView.

Configuration Settings

The screen image shows all the sections in preferences or settings, depending on your platform, that contain Markdown Navigator configuration items, with other sections removed from the image for brevity:

1. Code Folding - Fold by default settings
2. Colors & Fonts > Markdown - syntax highlighting color settings
3. Code Style > Markdown - wrap on typing, right margin, smart edit settings and element formatting styles.
4. Live Templates - Markdown template group contains the default live templates included in the plugin
5. Intentions - Markdown group contains the intention actions provided by the plugin. Individual intentions can be disabled here.
6. Languages & Frameworks > Markdown - this contains the main settings for the update channel selection, preview, application settings and licensing. Subsections include:
   1. Parser - Markdown parser extensions and options.
   2. Stylesheet - Preview stylesheet options and customizations
   3. HTML Generation - Preview HTML generation customizations
   4. Notice - Copyright notices for libraries and code used by the plugin