Pandoc Syntax

Themes/Styling

The content is being converted well, now how can I customize the converted document look and feel?

Pandoc has its:

Asciidoctor has its:

Usage

The goal is to convert asciidoc (.adoc or .txt) files to html, docx and pdf. Here are sample commands to do that.

From experimenting, docbook seems to be a format that keeps all of the layout of asciidoc. Therefore, to generate a docbook xml file:

  • asciidoctor -b docbook filename.adoc

Note: asciidoctor is a ruby gem that was installed in folder '/usr/local/bin.'

Converting to docx:

  • pandoc -f docbook -t docx -o filename.docx filename.xml

Converting to pdf:

  • pandoc -f docbook -o pdf -o filename.pdf filename.xml

    • good but had missing borders around tables

  • OR asciidoctor-pdf filename.adoc

    • did a nice job

Refs:

1 'Using AsciiDoc and Asciidoctor to write documentation - Tutorial,' http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/AsciiDoc/article.html 1 'AsciiDoc cheatsheet,' https://powerman.name/doc/asciidoc 1 http://asciidoctor.org/ 1 'AsciiDoc Frequently Asked Questions,' http://asciidoc.org/faq.html 1 'How to Convert AsciiDoc to PDF with Asciidoctor,' http://asciidoctor.org/docs/convert-asciidoc-to-pdf/ 1 'Asciidoctor PDF Theming Guide,' https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor-pdf/blob/master/docs/theming-guide.adoc

Using Homebrew

Update: Wed, 2017-02-22

I had switched to Homebrew, several years earlier. It is lightweight and flexible as to where I can install it. Pandoc requires Latex to be installed before I can use it. I could not install Latex in a user account, but it worked from the admin. Here are the terminal commands:

  • to install the caskroom for homebrew:

    • brew cask search basictex

  • to install the software package installer into the admin’s '/usr/local/Caskroom/basictex/2016.1009' folder:

    • brew cask install basictex

  • in the finder, go to '/usr/local/Caskroom/basictex/2016.1009'

  • double click on the package to start the installer

  • follow it’s instructions.

The Latex utilities were placed in folder '/usr/local/texlive/2016basic/bin/x86_64-darwin' with a sibling folder of 'universal-darwin' as well. This path will probably need to be added to the shell profile or rc file.

Using Macport

For various reasons, I use the Textile markup language for documentation. The Pandoc text conversion library converts it to other formats. I have pandoc installed through macports. Here is an example syntax to convert to rtf:

  • pandoc -r textile -s -w rtf -o pma_test_table_backup.rtf pma_test_table_backup.textile

where:

  • '-r textile' is the read input file format

  • '-s' is the switch to create a standalone document with pandoc’s builtin output file format template

  • '-w rtf' is to write out in the rtf format

  • '-o output_filename.rtf' is the output file name, i.e. pma_test_table_backup.rtf

  • 'input_filename.textile' is the input file name, i.e. pma_test_table_backup.textile

To see the format of the builtin standalone template file use:

  • "pandoc -D 'output_format'" i.e. pandoc -D rtf

'Use Pandoc to Easily Convert Text File To PDF or eBook Format' has a nice summary of the conversion syntax for html, open document format, pdf and epub.

 — MarlonAGriffith - 29 Aug 2013