ViewMarkdown — Markdown Editor

Description

ViewMarkdown brings a quiet split-pane Markdown workspace to Posts > ViewMarkdown.

Visit ViewMarkdown for our free online Markdown editor and converters.

• Syntax-highlighted source editor with undo/redo and keyboard shortcuts.
• Live preview rendered by the same server-side parser used for saving.
• Headings, emphasis, links, images, lists, blockquotes, tables, and fenced code.
• Markdown file import/export (UTF-8, maximum 256 KB).
• WordPress Media Library insertion for users with upload permission.
• Source-only, split, and preview layouts; focus mode and keyboard-resizable panes.
• Explicit server saves and unsaved-draft recovery in the current browser tab.
• Version checks to prevent stale ViewMarkdown tabs overwriting newer saved content.
• Original Markdown stored in post metadata and included in WordPress revisions.
• Normal WordPress publishing, scheduling, categories, and featured images.

ViewMarkdown saves sanitized HTML in a standard Custom HTML block. Published content remains readable when ViewMarkdown is disabled. Your active theme controls typography. A small stylesheet scoped to ViewMarkdown content keeps tables, quotes, and code readable in the block editor and on published posts. Without the plugin, your theme supplies all styling.

This first release supports posts created with ViewMarkdown. Existing non-Markdown content is protected from conversion. If content is changed outside ViewMarkdown, Markdown editing becomes read-only instead of overwriting it. It does not convert arbitrary Gutenberg blocks back to Markdown.

Raw HTML and shortcodes are displayed as text. Task-list checkboxes, Mermaid, math, front-matter metadata, two-way file sync, page-builder conversion, and automatic remote image importing are not supported. Relative image paths must be replaced with WordPress media URLs or absolute URLs. Interface strings are translation-ready; this release ships in English.

Privacy

ViewMarkdown does not contact an AI service or collect telemetry. Markdown is sent to your own WordPress REST API for preview and saving. Unsaved recovery copies use sessionStorage, scoped to the current site, WordPress user, and post; they normally disappear when the browser tab closes. Successfully saved copies are removed. Markdown images load their referenced URLs in the preview and on the published page, which can contact those image hosts. No images are automatically downloaded to the server.

Deleting or deactivating the plugin deliberately preserves posts and their Markdown metadata, including revision history. Delete the relevant posts through WordPress if you want that content removed.

Development

Unminified JavaScript, CSS, dependency lockfile, and build instructions are included in development/. Run npm ci followed by npm run build from that directory to reproduce assets. No external script CDN is used. The editor uses WordPress’s bundled CodeMirror library. No duplicate editor library is distributed.

Technical details