How do I fix my ziplinks to appear as links in markdown preview


In short: I believe there isn’t a way to do this, and for self-evident reasons. Let’s peel back a few (mis-)conceptions so as to address the problem:

  • there is no such thing as a ziplink, in terms of a link that can be addressed. The ‘ziplink’ method of making links simple makes Tinderbox text links.
  • Tinderbox text links are not exported in Markdown form, but as HTML. I suspect this is because Markdown is only a proxy for HTMl, that Tinderbox exports flawlessly.

So, the question becomes, how do I export a Tinderbox text link in Markdown mark-up , and not as an HTML link? In short I don’t think you can.

To the bemusement of those who only use Markdown, it is only a ‘lite’ method of marking up (a subset) of HTML. Tinderbox can export a note that contains Markdown mark-up as valid HTML. However, I don’t think there is a method to tell Tinderbox to process $Text and replace text links with Markdown. (there all sorts of good reasons I can see , to do with calculating the exported HTML filename, etc.).

This isn’t to say what you want is wrong, but the disconnect is in assuming Tinderbox is an Markdown-based app. It isn’t, but for the legitimate reason that Markdown post-dates Tinderbox by some years and the whole PKM genre of Markdown-centric wikis came a lot later.

If you want notes to export as Markdown, my hunch is that is a feature request. But, unless you’ve a dislike of actual HTML in MD files you should be fine. Don’t forget to look at the ‘Export’ tab and not just the ‘Preview’ tab.

I suspect you meant to write “there is NO such thing as a Ziplink”.

1 Like