1<h1>Markdown: Basics</h1> 2<ul id="ProjectSubmenu"> 3 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li> 4 <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li> 5 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li> 6 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li> 7 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li> 8</ul> 9 10<h2>Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2> 11<p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown. 12The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> provides complete, detailed documentation for 13every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by 14looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page 15are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the 16HTML output produced by Markdown.</p> 17<p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a 18web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text 19and translate it to XHTML.</p> 20<p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using Markdown; you 21can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p> 22<h2>Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2> 23<p>A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated 24by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a 25blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered 26blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.</p> 27<p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and <em>atx</em>. 28Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and <code><h2></code> are created by 29"underlining" with equal signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively. 30To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (<code>#</code>) at the 31beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting 32HTML header level.</p> 33<p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' angle brackets.</p> 34<p>Markdown:</p> 35<pre><code>A First Level Header 36==================== 37 38A Second Level Header 39--------------------- 40 41Now is the time for all good men to come to 42the aid of their country. This is just a 43regular paragraph. 44 45The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy 46dog's back. 47 48### Header 3 49 50> This is a blockquote. 51> 52> This is the second paragraph in the blockquote. 53> 54> ## This is an H2 in a blockquote 55</code></pre> 56<p>Output:</p> 57<pre><code><h1>A First Level Header</h1> 58 59<h2>A Second Level Header</h2> 60 61<p>Now is the time for all good men to come to 62the aid of their country. This is just a 63regular paragraph.</p> 64 65<p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy 66dog's back.</p> 67 68<h3>Header 3</h3> 69 70<blockquote> 71 <p>This is a blockquote.</p> 72 73 <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p> 74 75 <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2> 76</blockquote> 77</code></pre> 78<h3>Phrase Emphasis</h3> 79<p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.</p> 80<p>Markdown:</p> 81<pre><code>Some of these words *are emphasized*. 82Some of these words _are emphasized also_. 83 84Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**. 85Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__. 86</code></pre> 87<p>Output:</p> 88<pre><code><p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>. 89Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p> 90 91<p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>. 92Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p> 93</code></pre> 94<h2>Lists</h2> 95<p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (<code>*</code>, 96<code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list markers. These three markers are 97interchangable; this:</p> 98<pre><code>* Candy. 99* Gum. 100* Booze. 101</code></pre> 102<p>this:</p> 103<pre><code>+ Candy. 104+ Gum. 105+ Booze. 106</code></pre> 107<p>and this:</p> 108<pre><code>- Candy. 109- Gum. 110- Booze. 111</code></pre> 112<p>all produce the same output:</p> 113<pre><code><ul> 114<li>Candy.</li> 115<li>Gum.</li> 116<li>Booze.</li> 117</ul> 118</code></pre> 119<p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as 120list markers:</p> 121<pre><code>1. Red 1222. Green 1233. Blue 124</code></pre> 125<p>Output:</p> 126<pre><code><ol> 127<li>Red</li> 128<li>Green</li> 129<li>Blue</li> 130</ol> 131</code></pre> 132<p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <code><p></code> tags for the 133list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting 134the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:</p> 135<pre><code>* A list item. 136 137 With multiple paragraphs. 138 139* Another item in the list. 140</code></pre> 141<p>Output:</p> 142<pre><code><ul> 143<li><p>A list item.</p> 144<p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li> 145<li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li> 146</ul> 147</code></pre> 148<h3>Links</h3> 149<p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> and 150<em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the 151text you want to turn into a link.</p> 152<p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text. 153For example:</p> 154<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/). 155</code></pre> 156<p>Output:</p> 157<pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/"> 158example link</a>.</p> 159</code></pre> 160<p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:</p> 161<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title"). 162</code></pre> 163<p>Output:</p> 164<pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title"> 165example link</a>.</p> 166</code></pre> 167<p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which 168you define elsewhere in your document:</p> 169<pre><code>I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from 170[Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3]. 171 172[1]: http://google.com/ "Google" 173[2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" 174[3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search" 175</code></pre> 176<p>Output:</p> 177<pre><code><p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/" 178title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/" 179title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/" 180title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p> 181</code></pre> 182<p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, 183numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p> 184<pre><code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and 185[The New York Times][NY Times]. 186 187[ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/ 188</code></pre> 189<p>Output:</p> 190<pre><code><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and 191<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p> 192</code></pre> 193<h3>Images</h3> 194<p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p> 195<p>Inline (titles are optional):</p> 196<pre><code> 197</code></pre> 198<p>Reference-style:</p> 199<pre><code>![alt text][id] 200 201[id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title" 202</code></pre> 203<p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p> 204<pre><code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" /> 205</code></pre> 206<h3>Code</h3> 207<p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in 208backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and angle brackets (<code><</code> or 209<code>></code>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes 210it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p> 211<pre><code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags. 212 213I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;` 214instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`. 215</code></pre> 216<p>Output:</p> 217<pre><code><p>I strongly recommend against using any 218<code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p> 219 220<p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like 221<code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded 222entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p> 223</code></pre> 224<p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of 225the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, <code>&</code>, <code><</code>, 226and <code>></code> characters will be escaped automatically.</p> 227<p>Markdown:</p> 228<pre><code>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, 229you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes: 230 231 <blockquote> 232 <p>For example.</p> 233 </blockquote> 234</code></pre> 235<p>Output:</p> 236<pre><code><p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, 237you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p> 238 239<pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt; 240 &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt; 241&lt;/blockquote&gt; 242</code></pre> 243</code></pre>
