Pandoc Instant Markdown-to-HTML

If you write HTML by hand, you already know the pain of typing <ul><li> over and over. Here’s a trick that lets you write plain Markdown inline and convert it on the spot using pandoc as a Vim filter.

The Basic Idea

Vim’s ! command pipes a range of lines through an external program and replaces them with the output. Pandoc reads Markdown on stdin and writes HTML to stdout — a perfect match.

Three Useful Incantations

Original file:

Here is a thing.
- one
- two
Something else.

Convert just a few lines (current line plus the next):

:.,.+1!pandoc

Useful when you only want to convert a list or a short block without touching the surrounding content.

Output:

Here is a thing.
<ul>
<li>one</li>
<li>two</li>
</ul>
Something else.

Convert from the cursor to end of file:

:.,$!pandoc

Wraps everything in proper block-level tags (<p>, <ul>, etc.) but leaves out the <html> boilerplate — great for partials or template fragments.

Output:

<p>Here is a thing.</p>
<ul>
<li>one</li>
<li>two</li>
</ul>
<p>Something else.</p>

Generate a complete standalone HTML document:

:.,$!pandoc -s

The -s flag produces a full page with <!DOCTYPE html>, <head>, default pandoc CSS, and <body>. Handy when you want a self-contained file you can open straight in a browser.

Output:

some.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8" />
  <meta name="generator" content="pandoc" />
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" />
  <title>-</title>
  <style>
    /* Default styles provided by pandoc.
    ** See https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#variables-for-html for config info.
    */
    html {
      color:
#1a1a1a;
      background-color:
#fdfdfd;
    }
    body {
      margin: 0 auto;
      max-width: 36em;
      padding-left: 50px;
      padding-right: 50px;
      padding-top: 50px;
      padding-bottom: 50px;
      hyphens: auto;
      overflow-wrap: break-word;
      text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;
      font-kerning: normal;
    }
    @media (max-width: 600px) {
      body {
        font-size: 0.9em;
        padding: 12px;
      }
      h1 {
        font-size: 1.8em;
      }
    }
    @media print {
      html {
        background-color: white;
      }
      body {
        background-color: transparent;
        color: black;
        font-size: 12pt;
      }
      p, h2, h3 {
        orphans: 3;
        widows: 3;
      }
      h2, h3, h4 {
        page-break-after: avoid;
      }
    }
    p {
      margin: 1em 0;
    }
    a {
      color:
#1a1a1a;
    }
    a:visited {
      color:
#1a1a1a;
    }
    img {
      max-width: 100%;
    }
    svg {
      height: auto;
      max-width: 100%;
    }
    h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
      margin-top: 1.4em;
    }
    h5, h6 {
      font-size: 1em;
      font-style: italic;
    }
    h6 {
      font-weight: normal;
    }
    ol, ul {
      padding-left: 1.7em;
      margin-top: 1em;
    }
    li > ol, li > ul {
      margin-top: 0;
    }
    blockquote {
      margin: 1em 0 1em 1.7em;
      padding-left: 1em;
      border-left: 2px solid
#e6e6e6;
      color:
#606060;
    }
    code {
      font-family: Menlo, Monaco, Consolas, 'Lucida Console', monospace;
      font-size: 85%;
      margin: 0;
      hyphens: manual;
    }
    pre {
      margin: 1em 0;
      overflow: auto;
    }
    pre code {
      padding: 0;
      overflow: visible;
      overflow-wrap: normal;
    }
    .sourceCode {
     background-color: transparent;
     overflow: visible;
    }
    hr {
      border: none;
      border-top: 1px solid
#1a1a1a;
      height: 1px;
      margin: 1em 0;
    }
    table {
      margin: 1em 0;
      border-collapse: collapse;
      width: 100%;
      overflow-x: auto;
      display: block;
      font-variant-numeric: lining-nums tabular-nums;
    }
    table caption {
      margin-bottom: 0.75em;
    }
    tbody {
      margin-top: 0.5em;
      border-top: 1px solid
#1a1a1a;
      border-bottom: 1px solid
#1a1a1a;
    }
    th {
      border-top: 1px solid
#1a1a1a;
      padding: 0.25em 0.5em 0.25em 0.5em;
    }
    td {
      padding: 0.125em 0.5em 0.25em 0.5em;
    }
    header {
      margin-bottom: 4em;
      text-align: center;
    }
    #TOC li {
      list-style: none;
    }
    #TOC ul {
      padding-left: 1.3em;
    }
    #TOC > ul {
      padding-left: 0;
    }
    #TOC a:not(:hover) {
      text-decoration: none;
    }
    code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
    span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
    div.columns{display: flex; gap: min(4vw, 1.5em);}
    div.column{flex: auto; overflow-x: auto;}
    div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
    /* The extra [class] is a hack that increases specificity enough to
       override a similar rule in reveal.js */
    ul.task-list[class]{list-style: none;}
    ul.task-list li input[type="checkbox"] {
      font-size: inherit;
      width: 0.8em;
      margin: 0 0.8em 0.2em -1.6em;
      vertical-align: middle;
    }
    .display.math{display: block; text-align: center; margin: 0.5rem auto;}
  </style>
</head>
<body>
<p>Here is a thing.</p>
<ul>
<li>one</li>
<li>two</li>
</ul>
<p>Something else.</p>
</body>
</html>

Why This Works So Well

The filter approach means you never leave your editor. Write a quick Markdown list, visually select it, run the filter, and the raw HTML is sitting right there — no browser tab, no separate tool, no copy-paste.

Pandoc supports a huge range of input and output formats, so the same trick works for converting to Markdown, reStructuredText, or even LaTeX if the mood strikes.