Anki Markdown Formatting

Add-ons
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Hi there! Long-time Anki user, first time forum poster.

I’ve long used Anki via Markdown formatting; I’m a software developer, I work effectively in Markdown.

For as long as possible, I avoided upgrading to Anki 2.1, just so I could retain access to the Power Format Pack: Markdown, code blocks, lists, tables, syntax highlight & more add-on, so I could use a functioning markdown package.

Since I had to upgrade to Anki 2.1, I cannot find a reliable markdown package.

I’m using Auto Markdown, which has an issue that I’ve been unable to find a satisfactory solution to, despite many hours of effort.

I’m using iOS 10.15 Catalina and I use my Mac with Dark Mode enabled; this is the root of the problem.

So, are there other iOS users, who run with Dark Mode enabled, who want to make notecards with markdown? Surely I’m not the only one.

If I am the only one, I’ll figure out how to fix this issue, but it’ll mean a bunch more forum posts.

Before I pour time into learning python, Anki’s plugin system, and exploring the code for this particular issue, I thought I’d check in the forum first.

Is there anyway to make Anki play nicely with markdown-formatted notes?

Otherwise, I’ll pick up where the others who have worked on similar packages have left off, like:

Oh, ironically, this editor in which I type these forum posts support Markdown. I find it so pleasant to use. I just want the same functionality in Anki. I assume it will be some work, and am happy to do it.

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Official support of Markdown in Anki was asked a few months ago. Damien answer was that native markdown support will come in the future, althoug is not a priority. So perhaps adding this capability into the main code would be better than via add-on, as you may learn Python just for the sake of the add-on. Anki backend is being rebuilt in Rust, in case you are familiar with it.

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Hi @guillempalausalva,

Thanks for the response!

I’ve hello-world’d Rust, but little more.

I’d be happy to take a stab at adding Markdown somewhere in Anki, if it could help Damien/others. I’ve got friends in the Rust community that I could get help from as I needed it.

Is there a github feature I could claim or jump into to start building this out?

I know the OSS life is hard - I don’t want Damien to feel like I’m asking him to do something and not offering to do it myself or pay him for his work or something.

Ah, it might be this: https://github.com/ankitects/anki

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Integrating it properly is not a trivial task, and I’m afraid it’s likely to be months before I have the bandwidth to look into it. For now I’d recommend going the add-on route - presumably night mode issues won’t be too hard to work around.