Backslash before markdown after sharing

Actions - Help & Questions
1

Hi there, sorry in advance if this is a complete noob question, I’m very new to markdown and my knowledge is limited.

I’m taking notes in Drafts with it set to markdown then, sending to Ulysses.

When I look at the note in Ulysses all the markdown symbols are preceded by a backslash, mucking up the intended formatting in Ulysses.

When I delete the backslash, the formatting is restored. The backslash still occurs if I choose mulitmarkdown or github markdown.

It would be great if someone could guide me on how to stop this happening.

2

I’m not a Ulysses user, but I might be able to offer up some useful questions.

  1. How are you sending it to Ulysses? Share sheet, action, copy and paste?
  2. What happens if you share in the same way (if possible) to another app? i.e. is is Drafts sending the slashes or is Ulysses introducing them?
  3. What happens if you temporarily change the syntax for the draft in Drafts to plain text rather than Markdown, and share that to Ulysses?

It sounds like the Markdown codes are being “escaped” so that the Markdown syntax is interpreted literally. The questions is, at what point is the Markdown being escaped and how can we circumvent that?

Usually I would just expect Markdown to be passed directly from Drafts as plain text (it does for me in my uses), as Markdown is simply plain text and it is the author/reader/processor that interprets and puts meaning behind some of the text. i.e. until it is rendered as something else, it is plain text.

3

Thanks for your help.

I’m sending to Ulysses using the Share sheet. If I share using plain text rather than Markdown, the same thing occurs.

I’ve copied the same draft contents and pasted into Bear and it looks correct. Then I used the Share sheet in Bear to send to Ulysses and I now get the Markdown in Ulysses is being interpreted in a different way, the backslash has gone but now the H1 & H2 tags are all strong instead. I fear Bear might be muddying the waters somewhat!

However, I’ve figured it out.

Ulysses defaults to Markdown XL. By changing it to Markdown, the formatting in Drafts carries across as intended to Ulysses, which, for now, will do for me.

Thank you for your help!

1 Like