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<h1 id="markdown-basics">Markdown: Basics</h1> <ul id="ProjectSubmenu"> <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li> <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li> <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li> <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li> <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="getting-the-gist-of-markdowns-formatting-syntax">Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2> <p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown. The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> provides complete, detailed documentation for every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the HTML output produced by Markdown.</p> <p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text and translate it to XHTML.</p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using Markdown; you can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p> <h2 id="paragraphs-headers-blockquotes">Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2> <p>A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.</p> <p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and <em>atx</em>. Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and <code><h2></code> are created by "underlining" with equal signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively. To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (<code>#</code>) at the beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting HTML header level.</p> <p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' angle brackets.</p> <p>Markdown:</p> <pre><code>A First Level Header ==================== A Second Level Header --------------------- Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. This is just a regular paragraph. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back. ### Header 3 > This is a blockquote. > > This is the second paragraph in the blockquote. > > ## This is an H2 in a blockquote </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><h1>A First Level Header</h1> <h2>A Second Level Header</h2> <p>Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. This is just a regular paragraph.</p> <p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back.</p> <h3>Header 3</h3> <blockquote> <p>This is a blockquote.</p> <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p> <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2> </blockquote> </code></pre><h3 id="phrase-emphasis">Phrase Emphasis</h3> <p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.</p> <p>Markdown:</p> <pre><code>Some of these words *are emphasized*. Some of these words _are emphasized also_. Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**. Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__. </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>. Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p> <p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>. Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p> </code></pre><h2 id="lists">Lists</h2> <p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (<code>*</code>, <code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list markers. These three markers are interchangable; this:</p> <pre><code>* Candy. * Gum. * Booze. </code></pre><p>this:</p> <pre><code>+ Candy. + Gum. + Booze. </code></pre><p>and this:</p> <pre><code>- Candy. - Gum. - Booze. </code></pre><p>all produce the same output:</p> <pre><code><ul> <li>Candy.</li> <li>Gum.</li> <li>Booze.</li> </ul> </code></pre><p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as list markers:</p> <pre><code>1. Red 2. Green 3. Blue </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><ol> <li>Red</li> <li>Green</li> <li>Blue</li> </ol> </code></pre><p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <code><p></code> tags for the list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:</p> <pre><code>* A list item. With multiple paragraphs. * Another item in the list. </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><ul> <li><p>A list item.</p> <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li> <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li> </ul> </code></pre><h3 id="links">Links</h3> <p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> and <em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the text you want to turn into a link.</p> <p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text. For example:</p> <pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/). </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/"> example link</a>.</p> </code></pre><p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:</p> <pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title"). </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title"> example link</a>.</p> </code></pre><p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which you define elsewhere in your document:</p> <pre><code>I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from [Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3]. [1]: http://google.com/ "Google" [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search" </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/" title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/" title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/" title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p> </code></pre><p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p> <pre><code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and [The New York Times][NY Times]. [ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/ </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p> </code></pre><h3 id="images">Images</h3> <p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p> <p>Inline (titles are optional):</p> <pre><code>![alt text](/path/to/img.jpg "Title") </code></pre><p>Reference-style:</p> <pre><code>![alt text][id] [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title" </code></pre><p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p> <pre><code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" /> </code></pre><h3 id="code">Code</h3> <p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and angle brackets (<code><</code> or <code>></code>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p> <pre><code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags. I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;` instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`. </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>I strongly recommend against using any <code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p> <p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like <code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p> </code></pre><p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, <code>&</code>, <code><</code>, and <code>></code> characters will be escaped automatically.</p> <p>Markdown:</p> <pre><code>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes: <blockquote> <p>For example.</p> </blockquote> </code></pre><p>Output:</p> <pre><code><p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p> <pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt; &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt; </code></pre> </code></pre>