1Markdown: Basics
2================
3
4<ul id="ProjectSubmenu">
5 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li>
6 <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li>
7 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li>
8 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li>
9 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li>
10</ul>
11
12
13Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax
14------------------------------------------------
15
16This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown.
17The [syntax page] [s] provides complete, detailed documentation for
18every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by
19looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page
20are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the
21HTML output produced by Markdown.
22
23It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the [Dingus] [d] is a
24web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text
25and translate it to XHTML.
26
27**Note:** This document is itself written using Markdown; you
28can [see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL] [src].
29
30 [s]: /projects/markdown/syntax "Markdown Syntax"
31 [d]: /projects/markdown/dingus "Markdown Dingus"
32 [src]: /projects/markdown/basics.text
33
34
35## Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes ##
36
37A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
38by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
39blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered
40blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.
41
42Markdown offers two styles of headers: *Setext* and *atx*.
43Setext-style headers for `<h1>` and `<h2>` are created by
44"underlining" with equal signs (`=`) and hyphens (`-`), respectively.
45To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (`#`) at the
46beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting
47HTML header level.
48
49Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '`>`' angle brackets.
50
51Markdown:
52
53 A First Level Header
54 ====================
55
56 A Second Level Header
57 ---------------------
58
59 Now is the time for all good men to come to
60 the aid of their country. This is just a
61 regular paragraph.
62
63 The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
64 dog's back.
65
66 ### Header 3
67
68 > This is a blockquote.
69 >
70 > This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.
71 >
72 > ## This is an H2 in a blockquote
73
74
75Output:
76
77 <h1>A First Level Header</h1>
78
79 <h2>A Second Level Header</h2>
80
81 <p>Now is the time for all good men to come to
82 the aid of their country. This is just a
83 regular paragraph.</p>
84
85 <p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
86 dog's back.</p>
87
88 <h3>Header 3</h3>
89
90 <blockquote>
91 <p>This is a blockquote.</p>
92
93 <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p>
94
95 <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2>
96 </blockquote>
97
98
99
100### Phrase Emphasis ###
101
102Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.
103
104Markdown:
105
106 Some of these words *are emphasized*.
107 Some of these words _are emphasized also_.
108
109 Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**.
110 Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__.
111
112Output:
113
114 <p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>.
115 Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p>
116
117 <p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>.
118 Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p>
119
120
121
122## Lists ##
123
124Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (`*`,
125`+`, and `-`) as list markers. These three markers are
126interchangable; this:
127
128 * Candy.
129 * Gum.
130 * Booze.
131
132this:
133
134 + Candy.
135 + Gum.
136 + Booze.
137
138and this:
139
140 - Candy.
141 - Gum.
142 - Booze.
143
144all produce the same output:
145
146 <ul>
147 <li>Candy.</li>
148 <li>Gum.</li>
149 <li>Booze.</li>
150 </ul>
151
152Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as
153list markers:
154
155 1. Red
156 2. Green
157 3. Blue
158
159Output:
160
161 <ol>
162 <li>Red</li>
163 <li>Green</li>
164 <li>Blue</li>
165 </ol>
166
167If you put blank lines between items, you'll get `<p>` tags for the
168list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting
169the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:
170
171 * A list item.
172
173 With multiple paragraphs.
174
175 * Another item in the list.
176
177Output:
178
179 <ul>
180 <li><p>A list item.</p>
181 <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li>
182 <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li>
183 </ul>
184
185
186
187### Links ###
188
189Markdown supports two styles for creating links: *inline* and
190*reference*. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the
191text you want to turn into a link.
192
193Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text.
194For example:
195
196 This is an [example link](http://example.com/).
197
198Output:
199
200 <p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/">
201 example link</a>.</p>
202
203Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:
204
205 This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title").
206
207Output:
208
209 <p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title">
210 example link</a>.</p>
211
212Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which
213you define elsewhere in your document:
214
215 I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from
216 [Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3].
217
218 [1]: http://google.com/ "Google"
219 [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search"
220 [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"
221
222Output:
223
224 <p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/"
225 title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/"
226 title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/"
227 title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p>
228
229The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters,
230numbers and spaces, but are *not* case sensitive:
231
232 I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
233 [The New York Times][NY Times].
234
235 [ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/
236
237Output:
238
239 <p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
240 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p>
241
242It is also common to find other protocols such as ftp used for links:
243
244Input:
245
246 For example one may test download speeds [here](ftp://speedtest.tele2.net/)
247
248Output:
249
250 <p>For example one may test download speeds <a href="ftp://speedtest.tele2.net/">here</a>.</p>
251
252### Images ###
253
254Image syntax is very much like link syntax.
255
256Inline (titles are optional):
257
258 
259
260Reference-style:
261
262 ![alt text][id]
263
264 [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title"
265
266Both of the above examples produce the same output:
267
268 <img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" />
269
270
271
272### Code ###
273
274In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in
275backtick quotes. Any ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` or
276`>`) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes
277it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:
278
279 I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags.
280
281 I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `—`
282 instead of decimal-encoded entites like `—`.
283
284Output:
285
286 <p>I strongly recommend against using any
287 <code><blink></code> tags.</p>
288
289 <p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
290 <code>&mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded
291 entites like <code>&#8212;</code>.</p>
292
293
294To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of
295the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, `&`, `<`,
296and `>` characters will be escaped automatically.
297
298Markdown:
299
300 If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
301 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:
302
303 <blockquote>
304 <p>For example.</p>
305 </blockquote>
306
307Output:
308
309 <p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
310 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p>
311
312 <pre><code><blockquote>
313 <p>For example.</p>
314 </blockquote>
315 </code></pre>
View as plain text