How can I specify pandoc's markdown extensions using a YAML block?

Question

Background

Pandoc's markdown lets you specify extensions for how you would like your markdown to be handled:

Markdown syntax extensions can be individually enabled or disabled by appending +EXTENSION or -EXTENSION to the format name. So, for example, markdown_strict+footnotes+definition_lists is strict markdown with footnotes and definition lists enabled, and markdown-pipe_tables+hard_line_breaks is pandoc’s markdown without pipe tables and with hard line breaks.

My specific question

For a given pandoc conversion where, say, I use grid tables in my source:

pandoc myReport.md --from markdown+pipe_tables --to latex -o myReport.pdf

How can I write a pandoc YAML block to accomplish the same thing (specifying that my source contains grid tables?)

A generalized form of my question

How can I turn extensions on and off using pandoc YAML?

Stack Overflow Questions that I don't think completely answer my question

• Can I set command line arguments using the YAML metadata - This one deals with how to specify output options, but I'm trying to tell pandoc about the structure of my input
• What can I control with YAML header options in pandoc? - Answerers mention pandoc's templates, but neither the latex output template nor the markdown template indicate any sort of option for grid_tables. So, it's not clear to me from these answers how knowing about the templates will help me figure out how to structure my YAML.

There may also not be a way to do this

It's always possible that pandoc isn't designed to let you specify those extensions in the YAML. Although, I'm hoping it is.

Answer 1

You can use Markdown Variants to do this in an Rmarkdown document. Essentially, you enter your extensions into a variant option in the YAML header block at the start of the your .Rmd file.

For example, to use grid tables, you have something like this in your YAML header block:

--- title: "Habits" author: John Doe date: March 22, 2005 output: md_document variant: markdown+grid_tables ---

Then you can compile to a PDF directly in pandoc by typing in your command line something like:

pandoc yourfile.md -o yourfile.pdf

For more information on markdown variants in RStudio: http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/markdown_document_format.html#markdown_variants

For more information on Pandoc extensions in markdown/Rmarkdown in RStudio: http://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/authoring_pandoc_markdown.html#pandoc_markdown

Answer 2

You can specify pandoc markdown extension in the yaml header using md_extension argument included in each output format.

---
title: "Your title"
output:
  pdf_document:
    md_extensions: +grid_tables
---

This will activate the extension. See Rmarkdown Definitive Guide for details.

Answer 3

Outside Rmarkdown scope, you can use Pandocomatic to it, or Paru for Ruby.

---
 title: My first pandocomatic-converted document
 pandocomatic_:
     pandoc:
         from: markdown+footnotes
         to: html
 ...