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Re: Inserting images with Markdown

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I’d like to insert an image in my base guide. I think I’m using the proper Markdown syntax, but it’s simply not working. I get the impression from this page that this should be possible. It says

You can also use Markdown within the base guide to add headers, links, emojis and images.

It works here in the Community. Here’s the exact Markdown I’m using, followed by the result here. Can I get the same result in the Base Guide?

![Pooh](upload://nNWwf1lM4074Bcqwn8iIHyipzZB.jpeg "")

Pooh

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Hmmm. I was just about to reflexively protest that it’s totally orthodox Markdown, but then I noticed that “upload:” part of the image URL. I must say I don’t know what the heck that is or where it came from.

I went back to my base to look at the line there. It wasn’t what showed up in my earlier post. HERE is the exact code I’m using. (Well, was using until a few minutes ago. See down below.)

![Pooh](upload://nNWwf1lM4074Bcqwn8iIHyipzZB.jpeg "")

If that doesn’t get rewritten when I post, you should see the line beginning with an exclamation point, then a bit of descriptive text (“Pooh”) inside square brackets, followed by an https link to an image on Imgur. Here’s the result (and in the preview pane it’s working:

Pooh

Completely valid, at least per the Markdown “Bible”. Yet doesn’t work in my Base Guide.

But I tried something: I removed the empty quotation marks after the URL. Those are legal per John Gruber, but apparently Airtable’s Markdown parser doesn’t like them. When I eliminated the quotation marks, eureka, it works!!

THANKS, BILL.

Base Guide

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8 Replies 8

Despite the fact that it runs in the community pages, it doesn’t strike me as valid Markdown.

Hmmm. I was just about to reflexively protest that it’s totally orthodox Markdown, but then I noticed that “upload:” part of the image URL. I must say I don’t know what the heck that is or where it came from.

I went back to my base to look at the line there. It wasn’t what showed up in my earlier post. HERE is the exact code I’m using. (Well, was using until a few minutes ago. See down below.)

![Pooh](upload://nNWwf1lM4074Bcqwn8iIHyipzZB.jpeg "")

If that doesn’t get rewritten when I post, you should see the line beginning with an exclamation point, then a bit of descriptive text (“Pooh”) inside square brackets, followed by an https link to an image on Imgur. Here’s the result (and in the preview pane it’s working:

Pooh

Completely valid, at least per the Markdown “Bible”. Yet doesn’t work in my Base Guide.

But I tried something: I removed the empty quotation marks after the URL. Those are legal per John Gruber, but apparently Airtable’s Markdown parser doesn’t like them. When I eliminated the quotation marks, eureka, it works!!

THANKS, BILL.

Base Guide

Yep - that caught my attention, but it was the upload:// protocol that made me double take; I wasn’t familiar with that.

I know John from way back, and if I were Airtable, I would implement Markdown as described by its founder. They thought they knew better; they didn’t. Whatever Airtable’s implementation is, isn’t really Markdown.

LOL. This should be their tagline for their entire product, followed by a little shrug emoji.

Well, I agree with you. But there are quite a few flavors of Markdown. As someone who uses Markdown more or less all the time, I find these tiny differences annoying, but part of life.

What’s odd in this case is that Airtable Community does NOT have a problem with the empty quotes after the URL, where the Airtable app seems to. Anyway, glad to have sorted it out and appreciate responses from you and @ScottWorld.

I just noticed that the Community’s Markdown parser is rewriting my Markdown even within a code block, which strikes me as most unexpected. I had entered a URL to my image that begins “https://imgur…” and it got turned into “upload://…”. Odd.

The community platform is based on a completely different technology from an unrelated vendor and is only rented by Airtable. Ergo, just different interpretations of MD by different vendors.

Oh, of course it is. Yes I’ve noticed that a lot of these tech community sites look suspiciously similar. :slightly_smiling_face: