Markdown

Introduction to Markdown

Markdown is how you can make rich (or formatted) text in a plain text editor (like a notepad). It is a lightweight markup (read: editing) language with plain text formatting syntax. An example of a markup language is HTML.

You can use Markdown in different text editors and environments (such as GitHub, Jupyter Notebooks) to create rich text with plain text. It is used across different platforms and tools so you can export in multiple formats and switch devices easily without losing any formatting.

Let's start with some basic Markdown.

• Headings

To create a heading in Markdown you use a hash and a space before the words in the heading:

# Introduction to Markdown

This will look like:

Introduction to Markdown

when the heading is rendered (ie changed to rich text) by the text editor or the environment you are writing in.

Now let's add a subheading. This time you use two hashtags before the words in your subheading.

## A lesson in Markdown

You now have a second level heading that will look like this:

A lesson in Markdown

For a third level - you guessed it! - you use three hashtags:

### Use it to create rich text in a plain text editor

This will render as level three heading like this:

Use it to create rich text in a plain text editor

• Bold

Now let's try bold font. For this you can add two asterisks in front of and at the end of what you want to see in bold. If you type

This is **really** interesting.

It will end up looking like this:

This is really interesting.

• Italics

Now let's try italics. Type:

This is really _interesting_.

It will now look like:

This is really interesting.

Why bother?

It can feel a little strange, as you already know how to do formatting in programs like Word, but it is an excellent skill to have for editing in a range of environments without having to worry about the original formatting not working across different interfaces.

Online tools that use Markdown - good for practicing!

Here are a few useful online tools that you can use to try out your new Markdown skills, for free:

• HackMD
• StackEdit
• Dillinger

Further options

With Markdown you can also add hyperlinks, tables, lists, quotes and images to your text.

If you want to know more about markdown, look at these pages:

• Markdown guide - getting started
• Mastering Markdown