Markdown (.md) viewers (Microsoft and others)

There are at least two Markdown preview handlers that we know of, and both work in Directory Opus.


Microsoft have released a Markdown (.md file) preview handler which works in both File Explorer and Directory Opus.

Markdown is a bit like a simplified version of HTML, and used a lot for things like ReadMe files on Github. (It's also supported by the forum here, although you'd be unlikely to save forum posts into .md files.)

This viewer is part of Microsoft's PowerToys for Windows 10, which you can download from https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases.

Once PowerToys is installed, the viewer is enabled by default and should just work.

One issue I noticed is that clicking the viewer itself will not bring the window to the front; you have to click elsewhere. This also affects the viewer in File Explorer.

As this is a third party viewer, if you find problems or want to request features, you should do so at https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues.

:warning: Beware - PDF viewing: :warning:

PowerToys also installs a PDF viewer which is terrible.

(It will only display 10 pages, renders everything at a very low resolution where text is barely readable, and does not render properly when you scroll some documentes.)

If you install PowerToys for its other functionality, we recommend disabling the PDF viewer part of it. You can do so from PowerToys itself, or you can do it for just Opus (and also assign PDF back to some other viewer) via Preferences / Viewer / Plugins and configuring the ActiveX + Preview + Office + Web plugin, which acts as a proxy for preview handlers in general.


If you run into problems with Microsoft's Markdown preview handler, another option also exists:

That viewer also seems to work well in Directory Opus.

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Thanks a lot Leo!

Is there a quick way in DO viewer pane to toggle between the PowerToys .md preview handler and a normal .txt preview - like the Hex View button in the bottom of the viewer pane?

It would be very useful.

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If you right-click the viewer pane's titlebar (or its background, but only when it's the Text plugin or another native plugin, not a preview handler), the menu there has a Use Plugin sub-menu that can be used to switch to the Text plugin, or back to Default (to reset to the "natural" plugin for the file).

I don't think there's a command to do the same thing, so that's probably the only way, at least at the moment.

You can use Show PLUGIN=text.dll to show a file with a particular plugin, but it opens the standalone viewer rather than using the preview pane, which probably isn't what you want here.

Faster switch between Default (Markdown in this case).and Text plugin would be great in a future DO release - like the Hex View but it's ok for now. :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot for the info!

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Thanks for the info, Leo.
Is it possible though to get rid of this warning?

Clipboard Image

That warning comes from Microsoft's viewer. We have no control over it. Whether the viewer has a setting, I don't know, but probably not, although it could probably be modified since they have published the source code.

Asking the authors of the viewer via the GitHub page is your best bet. They know more about it than us.

Thank you.

It's an open issue, you can remind them.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention Leo!
Sadly with no linked media displaying, this is just teasing on microsofts part once again.

You mention in your OP:

There are at least two Markdown preview handlers that we know of, and both work in Directory Opus.

What is the other plug in called ?

It's linked at the bottom of the first post.

Oh sorry, I overlooked that.
I actaully spent the afternoon yesterday trying to get that to work one to work. The devoloper does not seem sure of it and links to Microsofts version as an alternative.

You confirming that it does infact work with Directory Opus is good news. I will try some more to get it to work then and maybe ask the devoloper for some help.
Thanks!