(Academic) Writing in Markdown

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Cite-while-you-write (CWYW) with Zotero

Cite-while-you-write (CWYW) is the important step in academic writing. A good setup can make writing with Markdown and formatting with Marked 2 app much more rewarding.

CWYW Solutions

  • Write with Zettlr
  • Write with other editors (macOS)
    • Zotpick.applescript by davepwsmith

      • Add the script file to ~/Library/Scripts folder, then find it via System Preferences/Keyboard/Services and create a hotkey combination

      • Or copy and paste the codes below into Alfred/Keyboard Maestro & run the script upon hotkey

      • tell application "System Events"
        	try
        		set appName to (the name of every process whose frontmost is true) as string
        	on error errMsg
        		display alert "Problem" message "Could not get the name of the frontmost application."
        		error number -128
        	end try
        end tell
        set zotRunning to do shell script "/usr/bin/curl 'http://localhost:23119/better-bibtex/cayw?probe=probe' 2>/dev/null; exit 0"
        if zotRunning is "" then
        	display alert "Zotero not running" message "This script will not work unless Zotero is running. Please launch Zotero and try again"
        	tell application appName
        		activate
        	end tell
        	error number -128
        else if zotRunning is "No endpoint found" then
        	display alert "Better BibTeX not installed" message "This script will not work unless Better BibTeX is installed. Please make sure that Better BibTeX is installed in the running instance of Zotero"
        	tell application appName
        		activate
        	end tell
        	error number -128
        else if zotRunning is "ready" then
        	set theReference to do shell script "/usr/bin/curl 'http://localhost:23119/better-bibtex/cayw?format=pandoc' 2>/dev/null; exit 0"
        	try
        		repeat until application appName is frontmost
        			tell application appName to activate
        		end repeat
        	on error errMsg
        		display alert errMsg
        	end try
        	tell application "System Events"
        		try
        			keystroke theReference
        		on error errMsg
        			display alert errMsg
        		end try
        	end tell
        end if
              
        
    • ZotHero via Alfred

Export Markdown Citation to “Live” Citation in Word Documents



Export to Desired Style (with Marked 2 app)

  • To share my writing with others, I use Marked 2 app (macOS) to convert the Markdown files into other formats, such as PDF or DOCX.

TL;DR:

  1. Configure Marked 2 to process citation in markdown files (.csl)

    Marked 2 App -> Preferences -> Advanced Set Path to: /usr/local/bin/pandoc Set Args to: -f markdown+smart -t html5 --filter=/usr/local/bin/pandoc-citeproc --bibliography ~/Zotero/Library.bib --csl ~/Documents/Zotero/Pandoc/CSL/amj.csl

  2. Preview/drag&drop markdown files in Marked 2 app

  3. Choose the styles for the document (.css)

  4. Export to PDF, DOCX, or HTML(special attention to references)


Configure Marked 2 App

You need:

  1. Zotero with BetterBibTex
  2. Pandoc and pandoc-citeproc
  3. Citation Style Language (CSL) file for the reference style of your choice. Preview and download at the Zotero Style Repository.

Marked 2 needs to be configured so that the “BibTex citekey” in the texts can be recognized. Also, this will create the corresponding references/bibliography section for your paper/manuscript.

To setup Marked 2 for processing the citations in your writing, you then navigate to the “Advanced” tab in “Preferences” and fill out the following:

  1. Check “Enable Custom Processor”
  2. Find the folder location of Pandoc on your machine (usually something like /usr/local/bin/pandoc) and make sure you have also installed pandoc-citeproc
  3. Paste the folder location in “Path”
  4. Find the path of Zotero library export (BibTex format)
  5. Find the path of the referencing style file (CSL format)
  6. Put the following in the “Args”:

-f markdown+smart -t html5 --filter=/usr/local/bin/pandoc-citeproc --bibliography [Zotero Library location from Step 4] --csl [CSL file location from step 5]

  1. On my machine, it looks like this:

-f markdown+smart -t html5 --filter=/usr/local/bin/pandoc-citeproc --bibliography /Users/xulelin/Documents/Zotero/Library.bib --csl /Users/xulelin/Documents/Zotero/Pandoc/CSL/amj.csl


Select Document Style

  • Marked 2 converts a Markdown file into HTML document file, which in turn gets formatted according to a chosen CSS template

  • CSS is a language that describes the style of an HTML document. CSS describes how HTML elements should be displayed.

Choose the Right Style

Style the “References/Bibliography” Section

  • Add # References/Bibliography at the end of your Markdown file

  • In my case, I use hanging indent, which is also used by APA style. Check out the codes of Chicago Academic.css, which is based on The Chicago Manual of Style. There is a section for formatting output of pandoc-citeproc. Feel free to change the code to meet your styling needs.

  • As many academic researchers usually read papers in PDF format and write with Microsoft Word. To share my writing, I then convert my writing into PDF or DOCX format.

  • To PDF: Marked 2 supports direct export to PDF format; alternatively, export to HTML format and print the HTML from your browser app.

  • To DOCX: export to HTML format and open and save to DOCX format in Microsoft Word or other word processors.

    • Marked 2 app seems to have issues with exporting files into Word documents. The formats defined by CSL files can be lost.
    • The page margins will likely be changed to the default setting for new documents. For example, I set the default margins of 1 inch for all new documents created in Microsoft Word. {: .notice–danger}

Alternative Solutions for Export

Ralph Kabo has developed DocDown, a native macOS app, to convert markdown files into Word documents. DocDown can use an existing Word document as the output template. It is a great solution for anyone looking to convert Markdown into Word documents on a regular basis.


Issues and Limitations

Export to Word documents with Marked 2

Marked 2 app seems to have issues with exporting files into Word documents. The formats defined by CSL files can be lost.

Solution 1: Export to HTML files and then open HTML file with Word. Then you can save to Word documents.

Solution 2: Use DocDown developed by Ralph Kabo. DocDown automates the conversion from Markdown to Word documents.