If you’re a writer, a programmer, or anyone who works with text, you’ve likely come across Markdown. A lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax, Markdown is designed to be converted to HTML and many other formats. It’s user-friendly, straightforward, and increasingly popular for writing on the web. This guide will help you get the hang of Markdown in no time!
Headers
In Markdown, you create headers using the # symbol. This is similar to the way HTML uses to , with # being the largest header and ###### the smallest.
# H1
## H2
### H3
#### H4
##### H5
###### H6
Emphasis
Emphasizing your text is done using asterisks (*) or underscores (_). One of each will make the text italic, and two will make it bold. You can even combine them!
*This text will be italic*
_This will also be italic_
**This text will be bold**
__This will also be bold__
*You **can** combine them*
Lists
Making lists in Markdown is as simple as using regular text characters.
Unordered
* Item 1
* Item 2
* Item 2a
* Item 2b
Ordered
1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3
* Item 3a
* Item 3b
Links and Images
Adding links and images is a breeze with Markdown. Just remember to use square brackets for the display text or alt text, and parentheses for the URL.
Links:
[GitHub](http://github.com)
Images:
![GitHub Logo](/images/logo.png)
Format: ![Alt Text](url)
Blockquotes
Want to quote someone or create a text block that stands out? Use the > symbol.
As Kanye West said:
> We're living the future so
> the present is our past.
Code
Markdown can highlight code in the middle of text using backticks (`), or create blocks of code with three backticks.
Inline code:
I think you should use an
`<addr>` element here instead.
Code blocks:
Use three backticks to
start and end a code block
Tables
You can also create tables in Markdown using a combination of pipes (|) and hyphens (-).
| Tables | Are | Cool |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 3 is | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is | centered | $12 |
| zebra stripes | are neat | $1 |
Strikethrough and Horizontal Lines
Strike through your text using two tildes (~~), and create a horizontal line using three hyphens, asterisks, or underscores.
Strikethrough:
~~this is strikethrough text~~
Horizontal line:
---
***
___
Conclusion
And there you have it—a quick primer on the most commonly used aspects of Markdown! With just a bit of practice, these commands will become second nature. Remember, Markdown is designed to be an easy-to