Pandoc

• Talk title: Pandoc
• Presenter: Christian Krippes christian.krippes@bibsys.uni-giessen.de
• Date: 28. September 2022

Download and install

• Pandoc is available for MacOs, Windows and Linux.
• Installation instructions and an installer can be found at https://pandoc.org/installing.html

What is pandoc?

• Pandoc is free software and a universal document converter for the commandline
• Is was created 2006 by John MacFarlane
• It converts a lot of different markup formats between each other. E.g. markdown to docx or html to odt.
• It supports LaTeX.
• It has support for Figures, Tables, Synthax Highlighting, Cross References, Bibliography, Math (LaTeX)

Use cases

• Lots of different markup formats (e.g from Students) can be combined into one PDF.
• Use one markup and create output for lots of different publication channels. e.g. write in Markdown and create a PDF,HTML and Word-Document just by saving.
• Split bigger publications into one file per chapter and compile the full doucument out of many small ones.
• Its a command line tool, automation is possible.
• Write your own filter and templates to adapt pandoc to special use cases
• By empowering plain text it enables you to keep your documents in a version control system like git. Which makes it easier to track changes.
• Create slideshows that also make a great PDF-Handout.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Supports most common markup formats. Makes you more flexible.
• Plain text becomes powerful and enables version control
• Automation possible, makes repetitive tasks easier

Cons

• Details sometimes get complicated
• Learning curve, espacialy for those who not used to commandline tools
• No gui, which might be a hurdle for some people.