Learn markdown in one easy step
Markdown is meant to be easy to read and easy to learn. It is. But people have a knack of over-complicating it. Ignore them
Markdown, as you’ll see below, is an easy mark-up language to learn. It can save you an immense amount of time, by enabling you to keep your fingers on the keyboard, rather than the mouse (or the trackpad). All you need now is a good markdown editor – many are free to use – or any text editor/word processor that allows you to save/export in plain text.
- Memorise the following syntax.
- There is no step 2. That’s it, you’re done.
| Feature | Syntax |
|---|---|
| Headings (1) | # H1## H2### H3 |
| Bold (2) | **bold text** |
| Italics (2) | *italicised text* |
| Blockquote | > blockquote |
| Ordered list | 1. First item2. Second item3. Third item |
| Unordered list (3) | * First item* Second item* Third item |
| Code | `code` |
| Horizontal rule (4) | *** |
| Link | [title](https://www.example.com) |
| Image |  |
| Footnotes | |
| 1 | There are a number of ways to mark headings. Most common is shown |
| 2 | Or use __ (underscore(s)), in place of the asterisk(s), whichever comes naturally |
| 3 | Or start your list items with - (hyphens) or + (plus signs), again, whichever comes naturally |
| 4 | Or use three --- (hyphens) |
You are now a markdown maestro. Download syntax to memorise later.
Want to know more?
There are many different flavours of markdown – flavours being the term used to describe various interpretations/extensions of the basic syntax. So, as a result, there is now an extended syntax, but all flavours have the same basic starting point. And now you know it.
If you want to find out more about the origins of markdown, visit its creator’s site, Daring Fireball, where you will come across this edited quote:
Readability is emphasized above all else… To this end, Markdown’s syntax is comprised entirely of punctuation characters, which punctuation characters have been carefully chosen so as to look like what they mean. E.g., asterisks around a word actually look like emphasis. Markdown lists look like, well, lists. Even blockquotes look like quoted passages of text, assuming you’ve ever used email.