Export to markdown: headings not prefixed with # but different numbers of hyphens - under, why?

[yuliu]

Using ver. 0.90.12 Windows app.

After exported a note to the markdown format (.md file), headings in the note

## heading
contents..

will become

heading
----
contests...

seems setext-style headings here are not compatible with many markdown editors. Why does TriliumNext notes export md files this way? Could it be changed to using #?

[yuliu]

Sorry, exporting to markdown file doesn't work that way. Seems there's bug in this function. I'll test a bit more.

[yuliu]

OK. Here's the result of playing with import from and export to markdown files.

First, import this markdown file into a note.
test.md

contents of which:

# l1 heading

this is contents in an l1 heading.

# another l1 heading

this is contents in the second l1 heading.

# a third l1 heading

this is contents in the third l1 heading.

## l2 heading

what's here in an l2 heading.

## l2 heading again

....

## a third l2 heading

1234567890

All level 1 headings will become level 2.

And then, export the note to a markdown file, which in my TriliumNext note generated this file:
test-imported.md

contents of which:

l1 heading
----------

this is contents in an l1 heading.

another l1 heading
------------------

this is contents in the second l1 heading.

a third l1 heading
------------------

this is contents in the third l1 heading.

l2 heading
----------

what's here in an l2 heading.

l2 heading again
----------------

....

a third l2 heading
------------------

1234567890

[pano9000]

https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/#headings

There are two type of headings:

the # based ones which have more levels or the - and = ones, which only allow for two levels

Converting

# heading level 1

to

heading level 1
---------------------

seems like a bug to me, because it converts level 1 heading to a level 2 heading, which is theoretically a loss of semantics.

But I generally wonder, why Trilium even converts the headings from # to ---- in general, when exporting?

@eliandoran do you know if there is a special reason for that?

[eliandoran]

@pano9000 ,

seems like a bug to me, because it converts level 1 heading to a level 2 heading, which is theoretically a loss of semantics.

Not sure exactly how you tested, but converting <h1> to <h2> is by design. <h1> is reserved for the note title, any <h1> which is part of the note content gets converted.

But I generally wonder, why Trilium even converts the headings from # to ---- in general, when exporting?

Just to clarify, Trilium does not convert headings from # to ---- when exporting. There are two operations here: import from markdown to HTML and export from HTML to markdown. The problem is with the markdown export configuration, I will solve it soon.

[eliandoran]

Done in https://github.com/TriliumNext/Notes/issues/1251.

For information, there are two formats of headings (settext and ATX) due to lack of standardization for Markdown. Considering setext supports only two levels of headings, it's not a very good candidate. Switching to ATX by default.