Issues with the Preview HTML plugin

[Robk Blue]

Hi,

I use the Preview HTML plugin when I am coding in HTML. It seems to operate as expected except that it won’t scroll to in page links like this: <a href=“#box-shadow”> box-shadow</a> where the box-shadow id will be linked to a heading further down the page.

The HTML previewer works perfectly for external links. My code works in any other html previewer or in a live web page.

Anyone had this issue before?

[Lachlanmax]

Hi @robk-blue,

I have also had some issues with this plugin before. From the project history, it looks like Preview HTML has been around for quite a long time, and the original project was later deprecated, so some problems are maybe not so surprising.

The current fork still tries to keep it usable, but the embedded preview can depend a lot on the Notepad++ version, the Windows browser component being used, and the local system setup. Because of this, modern HTML, CSS, and JavaScript do not always behave exactly like in a real browser.

One thing I noticed is that the project still seems to carry some compatibility logic from older browser assumptions, so the result can differ from one machine to another.

If the live preview is not reliable, the more stable way is often View -> View Current File In -> Browser, and then using a normal browser for testing.

So for me, the main issue is not really that the plugin is bad, but more that it is operating in an area where browser behavior, Windows web components, and Notepad++ compatibility have all changed quite a lot over time.

Hope that helped!