Change:
Scenario: Markdown file is open in left editor group. This file has a lot of links to other .md files that I want to preview in the right editor group. But Markdown links can currently only be opened into the same editor. Please consider. Thanks!
Adding per our discussion about this one
Do you mean that you would like an option to make the command to open the preview to the left instead of to the right of the current editor?
No, sorry, I should have been more specific. Here's what I mean: -click to open a .md file in a persistent editor in Code, preferably a file with many links to other local .md files. the file, Ctrl+click a link to another .md file. other file opens in a new editor, in the same editor group. Desired: open the link as a raw .md file in a new or existing (separate) editor group. Then, when I go back to the original file and ctrl+click another .md link, open that raw .md into the same editor group the previous one opened into. So I can quickly ctrl+click through a bunch of links and see the raw .md while my original file (the one with all the links) stays in view.
Ok, thanks for explaining the expected behavior in more detail. Marking as help wanted if anyone wants to investigate this. To get started, look at: This is where we map markdown links to command links This is where we convert the command into an editor action. Instead of opening in the current editor, we would want to open in a new editor group here
For verification: new setting was called are two options: (the default) and links in md text files (not the preview) should respect this option default behavior should be to open links in the current group
Can't verify because of
I can verify this on Mac.
Thanks for adding this!

Discussion:
"%configuration.markdown.preview.openMarkdownLinks.inEditor%" ] }, <ins> "markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks": { "type": "string", "default": "currentGroup", "description": "%configuration.markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks.description%", "scope": "resource", "enum": [ "currentGroup", "openToSide" ], "enumDescriptions": [ "%configuration.markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks.inCurrentGroup%", "%configuration.markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks.openToSide%" ] }, </ins> "markdown.trace": { "type": "string", "enum": [

"markdown.preview.toggleLock.title": "Toggle Preview Locking", "configuration.markdown.preview.openMarkdownLinks.description": "How should clicking on links to markdown files be handled in the preview.", "configuration.markdown.preview.openMarkdownLinks.inEditor": "Try to open links in the editor", <del> "configuration.markdown.preview.openMarkdownLinks.inPreview": "Try to open links in the markdown preview" } </del>  No newline at end of file <ins> "configuration.markdown.preview.openMarkdownLinks.inPreview": "Try to open links in the markdown preview", "configuration.markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks.description": "How following links to markdown files be handled in the editor.", "configuration.markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks.inCurrentGroup": "Try to open links in the current editor group", "configuration.markdown.editor.openMarkdownLinks.openToSide": "Try to open links to the Side" } </ins>

return this.tryRevealLine(vscode.window.activeTextEditor, args.fragment); } } <ins> const config = vscode.workspace.getConfiguration('markdown', resource); const openLinks = config.get<string>('editor.openMarkdownLinks', 'currentGroup'); let column: vscode.ViewColumn; switch (openLinks) { case 'openToSide': column = vscode.ViewColumn.Beside; break; case 'currentGroup': default: column = vscode.ViewColumn.Active; } </ins> return vscode.workspace.openTextDocument(resource) <del> .then(vscode.window.showTextDocument) </del> <ins> .then(document => vscode.window.showTextDocument(document, column)) </ins> .then(editor => this.tryRevealLine(editor, args.fragment)); }

return document.uri; } return undefined; <del> } </del>  No newline at end of file <ins> } </ins>