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My organization is interested in migrating our local Wiki from the office into Google Sites. I see that Google Sites supports some sort of Wiki interface, but I don't really like the GUI editor. Is it possible to use Markdown syntax instead?

This is a Unix-heavy shop, with many Unix-heads and engineers. Many of us prefer the code-friendly wiki syntax provided by Markdown.

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  • Now that would be truly awesome ... Great question
    – Miro A.
    Jul 8, 2010 at 19:48

4 Answers 4

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I've hunted around the interwebs for just this solution, and HIGHLY recommend using Markdown Here. It is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox and Safari that lets one toggle back-and-forth between Markdown and HTML. It's original use-case is for in composing e-mail, but it "works great" in Google Sites. Also, it supports TeX math formula, which for researchers, I would imagine could be quite useful.

FWIW, I started down the path of using the Markdown Site Editor suggested by @dnozay, but it seemed overly complicated for a few reasons:

  • It forces each site maintainer to add it for Markdown functionality.
  • It has the potential to break as Google's tools change, and someone then has to get the latest version (possibly for each site).
  • Some environments have scripting and/or google app engine hobbled for security/policy/etc. reasons
  • Philosophically, it makes Google Sites try to be something it's not.

Using Markdown Here means

  • No additional code needs to be added to each google site.
  • It is a well maintained tool that is installed once in a browser and useful is in many places (e-mail, sites, blogger, facebook, tumblr, tinymce, etc.)
  • The onus of responsibility is on the individual who wants to use Markdown (and TeX).
  • It let's Sites be Sites, and Markdown writers be Markdown writers.
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  • And did I mention that it's open source?
    – kungfuchicken
    Oct 17, 2013 at 17:47
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    I was little overzealous, perhaps. :/ It seems saving a page in sites may strip out the html markers that let you toggle back-and-forth to Markdown with MDH. I still recommend it for other purposes.
    – kungfuchicken
    Oct 17, 2013 at 17:58
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    THIS IS AMAZING!
    – JasonG
    Jun 12, 2015 at 17:52
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    Actually does work in sites, including after you've saved, but if you add any html manually using the WYSIWYG editor, you can no longer transform that particular page back to Markdown.
    – Dave
    Aug 27, 2015 at 17:35
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    Cool! Thanks for following up. Don't add any additional html? Unfortunately, I'm sorry. I'm afraid i can't do that, @Dave.
    – kungfuchicken
    Aug 28, 2015 at 0:34
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While I'm impressed that your organization would rather use Markdown than a WYSIWYG editor, I'm afraid that Google sites does not currently support Markdown syntax. You could write the text in Markdown locally using an editor like Textmate, and use a bundle or a script to convert that to HTML, and then paste the HTML into your site (Google Sites will let you add raw HTML to your sites -- inside certain form elements) but that feels like overkill.

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    This is a National Lab, and nearly everyone here uses Unix, writes code or is very technical. I'm promoting my bias for a code-friendly Wiki ;)
    – Stefan Lasiewski
    Jul 1, 2010 at 23:04
  • It would work for the first version, but how do you get back markdown from HTML ? Unless you keep 2 versions - local and online HTML, not very practical.
    – Miro A.
    Jul 8, 2010 at 19:52
  • @Stefan -- indeed! Love that bias. @Miro -- indeed! Not very practical.
    – Michael Sippey
    Jul 10, 2010 at 22:47
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    If you're willing to do some programming, you could perhaps integrate your Google Site with Google Drive. Create a folder in Google Drive that is designated as Site content, and give Site editors access to the folder. Then write a Google Apps script that imports the folder's contents to the Site (using the Sites API: developers.google.com/google-apps/sites/docs/1.0/…), while converting it from Markdown to HTML. This would allow editors to edit content locally (via Google Drive sync), with any text editor they want.
    – Vidar S. Ramdal
    Feb 25, 2013 at 11:28
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You can use https://sites.google.com/site/gashackja/markdownsiteeditor

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And you can install it for your own use:

  1. get a copy of Markdown Site Editor.

    making a copy of Markdown Site Editor

  2. adding the libraries.

    adding the library

  3. get the Showdown library by looking it up (ID: M6WggW1B7uEj1Nu0p7S6Pf-Mffa6w-w2J)

    adding showdown library

  4. make sure to change the identifier to Showdown (instead of GASShowdown)

  5. get the Bootstrap library (ID: MKvZneZcEte-sNijM1TaY_eMffa6w-w2J)

  6. make sure the identifier is Bootstrap (instead of GASBootstrap)

  7. save everything

  8. create a version (File > Manage versions)

  9. deploy as a web app (Publish > Deploy as a web app...)

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  • Thank you! That looks interesting. I followed instructions 1-9 above, but I am not sure how to make use of this script. How would I use this with Google Sites? Should I expect to see something under Google Apps Scripts?
    – Stefan Lasiewski
    Aug 28, 2013 at 0:02
  • I don't like that these scripts contain references to some dropbox user files. Thank you, though.
    – Alex Sorokoletov
    Jun 26, 2017 at 22:03
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Might be worth checking out these:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/27175

Fluid app userscript, build to support Markdown in Highrise and Basecamp

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/2531

Based on js-markdown and it enables you to convert Markdown formatted text to HTML in one single click.

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