A slightly extended markdown table syntax proposed by David Wheeler from 2009 contains the proposal for “continued content”. He proposes the colon (:) to replace the pipe (|) in lines that continue cells from the preceeding line. I would propose the apostrophe (') instead, but that’s merely a matter of taste.
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| a | b | c |
: a : b : c :
| | | |
variant with ' …
| | | |
|---|---|---|
| a | b | c |
' a ' b ' c '
| | | |
The big advantage of this syntax is that it allows block-level-elements.
However, the drawback may be that (just like gridtables) it disrupts the text into several parts, seperated by random other elements, e.g. if you search the text for “a a” you wouldn’t find it, because the raw text reads “a b c a”. This could be a problem for git/diff or the like.
In comparison, the syntax i proposed above (with space + bar in a new line) is more git/diff-friendly, but doesn’t retain the form of a table as much.