MarkSlate

A beautiful live-preview markdown editor for VS Code — write without ever leaving your editor.

MarkSlate renders markdown live and in place, Obsidian-style: headings render large, tables become editable grids, callouts get their icons, math and diagrams draw themselves. Your file stays plain markdown on disk — MarkSlate is an editor, not a format.

Features

Live preview, in place

• Headings, emphasis, lists, task lists, blockquotes, links, and images render as you type
• The active line reveals its raw markdown for precise edits, then re-renders when you leave it
• YAML frontmatter stays visible but dimmed
• Find & replace with Cmd+F / Cmd+Alt+F (Ctrl+F / Ctrl+Alt+F) — match count, case/word/regex toggles, in a VS Code-style widget

Tables

Excel-style grid editing on plain GFM tables:

• Click to select, double-click to edit; keyboard navigation between cells
• Range selection, markdown-aware copy/paste
• Drag to reorder rows and columns
• Auto-formats a table's source when you finish editing it (like format-on-save, scoped to the table — markslate.formatTablesOnEdit)

Callouts

Obsidian's full callout taxonomy — 13 types plus aliases:

• Custom titles: > [!tip] My title
• Foldable callouts: > [!tip]- / > [!tip]+
• Nested callouts, with per-level color, icon, and title
• Override icons/colors or add your own types via markslate.callouts — emoji, $(codicon), or raw SVG
• GitHub Alert syntax (> [!NOTE], > [!IMPORTANT], …) renders too, styled the Obsidian way

Math

• Inline $…$, block $$…$$, and ```math fences
• Rendered by MathJax to crisp SVG in your theme's colors
• A Copy SVG button on every block equation exports it for slides, docs, anywhere (markslate.mathExportColor controls the baked-in color)

Mermaid diagrams

• ```mermaid blocks render live, theme-matched
• Render inline (diagram replaces the block), below (diagram under the source), or disabled (markslate.mermaidRenderMode)

Code blocks

• Syntax-highlighted with Shiki, matched to your editor theme
• Copy and delete tools on hover; fences dim away while you read

Usage

MarkSlate registers as the default editor for .md files — just open one.

• Toggle raw markdown: Cmd+Shift+M (Ctrl+Shift+M), or the book icon in the editor title bar, switches between live preview and plain text, and back
• Playground: run MarkSlate: Open Playground from the Command Palette for a scratch file that tours every feature
• One-off raw open: right-click a file → Open With… → your text editor
• Opt out as default: set workbench.editorAssociations → "*.md": "default"

Commands

Every command except Open Playground appears in the Command Palette only while a .md file is focused.

Settings

License

MIT