in markdown mode, emacs allows SHIFT-TAB to cycle between content view (1 level), outline view (all levels), and document view (all text). I would like to have one of them go down only two levels or add another view that just has two levels. Is there a customization variable I could stick into .emacs that would do this?
I don't see a way to add an additional cycling level by way of user customization.
A separate command that should show the 2-level view is C-2 M-x outline-hide-sublevels. But, it isn't convenient breaking the cycle.
One possibility is writing a custom version of markdown-shifttab, which doesn't require too much copy pasta.
(defun my-markdown-shifttab ()
"Do `markdown-shifttab' with added 2-level view."
(interactive)
(cond ((markdown-table-at-point-p)
(call-interactively #'markdown-table-backward-cell))
(t (cond ((and (eq last-command this-command)
(eq markdown-cycle-global-status 3))
;; Add extra view between "CONTENTS" and "SHOW ALL"
(setq this-command 'my-markdown-shifttab--extra)
(outline-hide-sublevels 2)
(markdown-outline-fix-visibility))
(t (when (eq last-command 'my-markdown-shifttab--extra)
;; Enter back into default cycling
(setq last-command 'my-markdown-shifttab))
(markdown-cycle t))))))