notlmn/copy-as-markdown

🖱 Browser extension to copy hyperlinks, images, and selected text as Markdown with GFM support

Copy as Markdown

Browser extension to copy hyperlinks, images, and selected text as Markdown

Install

• Chrome extension
• Firefox add-on

Screenshot

Features

The extension allows you to copy selected text on a page as Markdown with support for features including the following

• Ability to copy links, images, and selected text as Markdown.
• Linked images, will have options to individually select link or images.
• Formatted text such as italic, bold, strike-through, and inline code.
• Unordered and ordered lists, with task lists support.
• Tables, with respect to GFM.
• Fenced code blocks, with language detection using info strings.

Known Issues

Note: When copying links and images, Chrome doesn’t let you extract images alt text or anchors text content to be used in Markdown, instead the links themselves are used as link title. Firefox doesn’t have this limitation though.

Permissions

The extension requires the following permission from you for working.

1. contextMenus: to show option when right-clicking.
2. activeTab: to be able to access content on page.
3. clipboardWrite: to be able to write data to clipboard (we still can’t read from your clipboard).

Credits

Inspired by this tweet from @nicolo-ribaudo, and publishing made possible by @yakov116.

Related

• browser-extension-template - Barebones boilerplate with webpack, options handler and auto-publishing.

License

MIT © Laxman Damera

copy-as-markdown's Issues

There are unnecessary spaces when copying a list.

steps to reproduce issue

copy something like:

<ul>
<li>something</li>
<li>something</li>
<li>...</li>
</ul>

actual behavior:

-   something
-   something
-   ...

expected behavior

- something
- something
- ...

Multiple line codeblocks with triple backticks

When copying conversation from chat.openai.com ChatGPT / GPT4 , I believe multiple improvements could be made ( e.g. #33 ),

but one that I believe also would help on many other sides with codeblocks that are easy to copy and paste:

Current behaviour:

> after copy&paste of codeblock
> 
> `multi
> line
> code
> is surrounded by single backticks`
> unfortunately

Expected behaviour:

> after copy-as-markdown
> 
> ```
> multi line
> line code/text
> is surrounded by
>  triple backticks
> ```

P.S. I used > indentation because otherwise I don't know how to put triple backticks inside triple backticks in Markdown

"Copy selection as markdown" does not work in Firefox.

The "copy as markdown" feature is not working, though that would be the most useful feature for me ( "Copy image as markdown" and "Copy link as markdown" work). I am using

Browser: Firefox 73.0.1
OS: Fedora 31 or Windows

I tried it on:

1. a page with an advanced layout:
   https://start.fedoraproject.org/

• Select an entire entry including the image
• Copy selection as markdown (fails)

2. a page with a simple layout:
   https://wiki.minetest.org/main/list_of_minetest_mobs.html

• Go to the "Simple Mobs" section.
• Select an area starting before and ending after the image of the DM.
• Copy selection as markdown (fails)
• Select an area only containing text
• Copy selection as markdown (fails)

Strikethrough Support

Turndown supports Strikethrough. When doing a Strikethrough, you should be able to use 2 tilde characters before and after.

~~sample~~
renders as
sample

This does not appear to be supported using the copy as markdown feature. I had the following HTML that I had copied that didn't convert:

<strike>sample</strike>

Firefox extension needs to be manually activated before it works

Context menu actions for this extension don't appear on pages by default. You have to click the extension in the menu to activate it:

This doesn't happen with other extensions Tranquilize or LeechBlock - they are always shown.

If this can't be fixed, it would be great to make it so clicking the extension doesn't open the GitHub.

See #30 or yorkxin/copy-as-markdown#109 for other discussion

[Feature] Support shortcut keys

Very useful tool! Thanks a lot.

But it might be more convenient if can support setting a shortcut（chrome.commands） for triggering copy-as-markdown.

Misses out some superscripts when copying formulas

In this article, the $[x^k]f(x)^0$ two lines under 問题 turns into $[x^k]f(x)0$ when copied using this extension in Chrome version 122.0.6261.129, 64bit.

Copying Markdown from a web page and pasting it into a note causes extra characters to appear.

Copying Markdown from a web page and pasting it into a note causes extra characters to appear.
Chrome 120 | FireFox 120
Windows 10 19044
Extension latest version

The sample web page content is as follows:

<html><body>
<!--StartFragment--><strong>型号:</strong>
   <span class="value"><a href="https://www.zol.com.cn/BMO_codes/BMO">BMO</a>-593</span>
   
  <div class="panel-block">
  <strong>上市日期:</strong>
   <span class="value">2022-10-25</span>
</div>
<div class="panel-block">
  <strong>长度:</strong>
   <span class="value">125 公分</span>
</div><!--EndFragment-->
</body>
</html>

Steps to reproduce:

1. Use the extension to copy the above code into Markdown;
2. Paste into Markdown notes;
3. If you look at the actual effect, there will be extra characters;

Hello! Is there any way to prevent this extra character from appearing after pasting it into a note?

Copy as Markdown sometimes missing from Firefox context menu

I haven't been able to reproduce this reliably, sorry. Just noting observations and a workaround.

Sometimes when I select text in a page, then right click to copy-as-markdown, the menu item "Copy selection as Markdown" is missing from Firefox's context menu.

I have made sure the extension is allowed in private windows (though this happens on non-private windows).

---

What I have found fixes this, is to disable and then re-enable the extension, then reload the web page.

---

After reload and selecting the same text, the menu item is available and the copy-as-markdown works as usual.

(thank you for this extension, I use it a lot!)

Can't access options

Can't access options
Hi all, I am using Copy as Markdown in Brave Browser. I cannot seem to get to the options menu as it doesn't display completely. Just the first line appears. How can I see and change the options (maybe directly in the files), to get a shortcut to copy as Markdown?

When nothing is selected copy the [Title](Url) of the webpage

When nothing is selected copy the [Title](Url) of the webpage to clipboard.

For example: [The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Official Trailer Netflix - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RdncisZ_QA)

Ability to copy with stripped links?

Thanks for creating this plugin, looks very promising.

I wonder if you could add an option / menu item / setting to copy markdown selection without links. For example instead of

### [](https://github.com/notlmn/copy-as-markdown#known-issues)Known Issues

I'd like to have just

### Known Issues

Sometimes links get in a way and reduce readability.

Mobile support: Add contextual menu on toolbar icon click (instead of linking to the github)

Thank you very much for this awesome extension!

On mobile, there is there are some browsers such as Kiwi which support installing any Chrome extension. The issue is that it does not populate the contextual menu as it does on desktop, hence the only way to interact with extensions on mobile is by clicking on the extension's toolbar icon.

Currently, copy-as-markdown directly redirects to this github repo on click, but a simple solution would be to add a simple menu on icon click that simply displays the same options as the right-click contextual menu + a link to this github.

When copy texts including code block from github issues, code block not added with ```

link title is not right

So far I haven't found any better copy as markdown extension, but still, it has the following issue.

By right click on the following link
<a href="https://github.com/notlmn/copy-as-markdown">copy as markdown repository</a>
and selecting copy link as markdown option, it copies this:
[https://github.com/notlmn/copy-as-markdown](https://github.com/notlmn/copy-as-markdown)
whereas it should copy this:
[copy as markdown repository](https://github.com/notlmn/copy-as-markdown)

Copy issues when plain text

When copying just plain text, it does not appear to copy anything. So, if there's nothing special to convert to Markdown, it won't copy.

Firefox extension wraps strike-through text with single tilde instead double tilde

For example, when copying this text from the README of this project:

Formatted text such as italic, bold, strike-through, and inline code.

... it should produce this markdown:

- Formatted text such as _italic_, **bold**, ~~strike-through~~, and `inline code`.

... but current produces this markdown:

- Formatted text such as _italic_, **bold**, ~strike-through~, and `inline code`.

When using https://euangoddard.github.io/clipboard2markdown/ with the same example, that page will produce "correct" markdown.

I know that there are different flavors of markdown. But I find it a bit strange that this extension and the mentioned website produce different markdown, since both projects seem to be based on https://github.com/mixmark-io/turndown

According to https://github.com/mixmark-io/turndown/blob/48f9bace01a14f7f2ed4cf6052e0a89ba190bb3a/dist/to-markdown.js#L207 , turndown should indeed produce the double-tilde variant for strike-through text.

adding shortcut key functions to commands

Hi! friend! Your extension is great!

Hi! friend! Can you consider adding shortcut key functions to commands, so that you don't always have to open the right-click menu to select commands, so work efficiency will be greatly improved.

Thanks again for a great extension!

Chrome 120...
Windows 10

how to change the copied image save url?

I want to save the copy image to my Azure blog storage

Hello! Online images cannot be copied and pasted into notes

Hello!
Online images cannot be copied and pasted into notes
Windows 10 19044
Chrome 120 | FireFox 120

If this problem can be solved, the extension will be very powerful and perfect.
Example image:
https://docs.github.com/assets/cb-82878/mw-1440/images/help/repository/headings-toc.webp

Thanks again for providing a very powerful browser extension! 👍😜

Support `*` as default for lists according to Maring Fireball original Markdown specification

Thank you for great plugin.

Could you please make support, allowing to use * for bullet lists instead of - ?

* is default in original Daring Fireball https://daringfireball.net/ Markdown specification.

Of course allowing to have option to select default, in browser extension options would be great too!

Convert relative links to absolute links

From review: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cpy-as-md/reviews/1514624/

Relative links are rarely useful and the user has to convert them to absolute links anyway. (Except when copying as Markdown from GitHub rendered MD, but GH converts all relative links to absolute anyway).

Sample link: https://www.macports.org/install.php#help (last 2 paragraphs)

Support for mobile

右键复制，在移动端不能实现，希望能支持。
感谢开发者！

Right-click copy, which cannot be implemented on the mobile side. I hope it can be supported.
Thanks to the developer!

浏览器举例：kiwi 、 http://static.lemurbrowser.com/assets/gitlab/Lemur_1_0_1_178.apk

Examples of browsers: kiwi 、 http://static.lemurbrowser.com/assets/gitlab/Lemur_1_0_1_178.apk

Angle brackets not escaped in Markdown output

For example, the text <h1>1. Hello world</h1> is copied to the Markdown output <h1>1. Hello world</h1>, rather than the proper escaped version \<h1\>1. Hello world\</h1\>. I've filed a bug to turndown, since it looks like they're responsible for the escaping: mixmark-io/turndown#395

Features for ChatGPT / GPT4 dialogs

When copying conversation from chat.openai.com ChatGPT / GPT4 , I believe multiple improvements could be made.

E.g. when copying conversation it could separate "User:" and "Assistant:" somewhow (e.g. with ----- ?), and annotate whose which part is, e.g.:

-----
User:

Hello!
-----
Assistant:

Hello dear user, how can I help you?
-----

Chrome extension has been desactivated !!!

Download the crx file and drop it into the the Chrome tab chrome://extensions.

Problem : Chrome has desactivated my extension immediately !

It's only possible to use Chrome extension available or puiblished on Chrome Store !

Could you publish this extension on Chrome Store ?

Support for hr element

The Markdown code like this：

....

----

....

Preview

....

---

....

Copy As Markdown get this:

....

-

....

Thanks.

Could this plugin support Microsoft Edge?

I mean if it is possible to upload it on Microsoft edge store.......
thanks

Support for LaTeX formula

Hope to support copying latex formula as markdown. When the web page contains latex formula, it seems that there is something incompatible when using copy-as-markdown. One example is shown as follows, the left is the web page while the right is the markdown text converted by copy-as-markdown.

Copy page link as markdown with title

I'm not sure if this is the place for a feature request, but it would be great if this extension provided a way to copy the current page as a markdown link using the page title for the link name.

Optionally copy as HTML

This is the best plugin of its kind, thanks a lot for making it available and maintaining it. It really saves me a lot of time, and mostly MD is the format I need in my daily work. Only rarely, I need links in HTML, e.g. in emails and sometimes in forums or ticketing systems.

That's why I wonder if it were possible to add an option (with limited features) to copy links (and maybe images) in HTML format? All the other features (styling support, etc.) are not required, though. Just plain links, and since this plugin has all the infrastructure in place, this extra feature might be a reasonable enhancement, rather than installing yet another plugin for HTML links.

Shortcut not working ？

I tried setting multiple shortcuts to see if it works.
I couldn't. Not sure what the problem is.

Keyboard Shortcut

The Chrome extension supports setting a shortcut to activate the extension but I can't find a way to set a keyboard shortcut for "copy link as markdown".
Is it possible to add that ability to the extension?