1<h1>Markdown: Basics</h1>
  2
  3<ul id="ProjectSubmenu">
  4    <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li>
  5    <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li>
  6    <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li>
  7    <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li>
  8    <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li>
  9</ul>
 10
 11<h2>Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2>
 12
 13<p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown.
 14The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> provides complete, detailed documentation for
 15every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by
 16looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page
 17are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the
 18HTML output produced by Markdown.</p>
 19
 20<p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a
 21web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text
 22and translate it to XHTML.</p>
 23
 24<p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using Markdown; you
 25can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p>
 26
 27<h2>Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2>
 28
 29<p>A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
 30by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
 31blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered
 32blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.</p>
 33
 34<p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and <em>atx</em>.
 35Setext-style headers for <code>&lt;h1&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;h2&gt;</code> are created by
 36&quot;underlining&quot; with equal signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively.
 37To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (<code>#</code>) at the
 38beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting
 39HTML header level.</p>
 40
 41<p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>&gt;</code>' angle brackets.</p>
 42
 43<p>Markdown:</p>
 44
 45<pre><code>A First Level Header
 46====================
 47
 48A Second Level Header
 49---------------------
 50
 51Now is the time for all good men to come to
 52the aid of their country. This is just a
 53regular paragraph.
 54
 55The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
 56dog's back.
 57
 58### Header 3
 59
 60&gt; This is a blockquote.
 61&gt; 
 62&gt; This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.
 63&gt;
 64&gt; ## This is an H2 in a blockquote
 65</code></pre>
 66
 67<p>Output:</p>
 68
 69<pre><code>&lt;h1&gt;A First Level Header&lt;/h1&gt;
 70
 71&lt;h2&gt;A Second Level Header&lt;/h2&gt;
 72
 73&lt;p&gt;Now is the time for all good men to come to
 74the aid of their country. This is just a
 75regular paragraph.&lt;/p&gt;
 76
 77&lt;p&gt;The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
 78dog's back.&lt;/p&gt;
 79
 80&lt;h3&gt;Header 3&lt;/h3&gt;
 81
 82&lt;blockquote&gt;
 83    &lt;p&gt;This is a blockquote.&lt;/p&gt;
 84
 85    &lt;p&gt;This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.&lt;/p&gt;
 86
 87    &lt;h2&gt;This is an H2 in a blockquote&lt;/h2&gt;
 88&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 89</code></pre>
 90
 91<h3>Phrase Emphasis</h3>
 92
 93<p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.</p>
 94
 95<p>Markdown:</p>
 96
 97<pre><code>Some of these words *are emphasized*.
 98Some of these words _are emphasized also_.
 99
100Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**.
101Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__.
102</code></pre>
103
104<p>Output:</p>
105
106<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;Some of these words &lt;em&gt;are emphasized&lt;/em&gt;.
107Some of these words &lt;em&gt;are emphasized also&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
108
109&lt;p&gt;Use two asterisks for &lt;strong&gt;strong emphasis&lt;/strong&gt;.
110Or, if you prefer, &lt;strong&gt;use two underscores instead&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
111</code></pre>
112
113<h2>Lists</h2>
114
115<p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (<code>*</code>,
116<code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list markers. These three markers are
117interchangable; this:</p>
118
119<pre><code>*   Candy.
120*   Gum.
121*   Booze.
122</code></pre>
123
124<p>this:</p>
125
126<pre><code>+   Candy.
127+   Gum.
128+   Booze.
129</code></pre>
130
131<p>and this:</p>
132
133<pre><code>-   Candy.
134-   Gum.
135-   Booze.
136</code></pre>
137
138<p>all produce the same output:</p>
139
140<pre><code>&lt;ul&gt;
141&lt;li&gt;Candy.&lt;/li&gt;
142&lt;li&gt;Gum.&lt;/li&gt;
143&lt;li&gt;Booze.&lt;/li&gt;
144&lt;/ul&gt;
145</code></pre>
146
147<p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as
148list markers:</p>
149
150<pre><code>1.  Red
1512.  Green
1523.  Blue
153</code></pre>
154
155<p>Output:</p>
156
157<pre><code>&lt;ol&gt;
158&lt;li&gt;Red&lt;/li&gt;
159&lt;li&gt;Green&lt;/li&gt;
160&lt;li&gt;Blue&lt;/li&gt;
161&lt;/ol&gt;
162</code></pre>
163
164<p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <code>&lt;p&gt;</code> tags for the
165list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting
166the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:</p>
167
168<pre><code>*   A list item.
169
170    With multiple paragraphs.
171
172*   Another item in the list.
173</code></pre>
174
175<p>Output:</p>
176
177<pre><code>&lt;ul&gt;
178&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;A list item.&lt;/p&gt;
179&lt;p&gt;With multiple paragraphs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
180&lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Another item in the list.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
181&lt;/ul&gt;
182</code></pre>
183
184<h3>Links</h3>
185
186<p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> and
187<em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the
188text you want to turn into a link.</p>
189
190<p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text.
191For example:</p>
192
193<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/).
194</code></pre>
195
196<p>Output:</p>
197
198<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;This is an &lt;a href=&quot;http://example.com/&quot;&gt;
199example link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
200</code></pre>
201
202<p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:</p>
203
204<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ &quot;With a Title&quot;).
205</code></pre>
206
207<p>Output:</p>
208
209<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;This is an &lt;a href=&quot;http://example.com/&quot; title=&quot;With a Title&quot;&gt;
210example link&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
211</code></pre>
212
213<p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which
214you define elsewhere in your document:</p>
215
216<pre><code>I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from
217[Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3].
218
219[1]: http://google.com/        &quot;Google&quot;
220[2]: http://search.yahoo.com/  &quot;Yahoo Search&quot;
221[3]: http://search.msn.com/    &quot;MSN Search&quot;
222</code></pre>
223
224<p>Output:</p>
225
226<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;I get 10 times more traffic from &lt;a href=&quot;http://google.com/&quot;
227title=&quot;Google&quot;&gt;Google&lt;/a&gt; than from &lt;a href=&quot;http://search.yahoo.com/&quot;
228title=&quot;Yahoo Search&quot;&gt;Yahoo&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&quot;http://search.msn.com/&quot;
229title=&quot;MSN Search&quot;&gt;MSN&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
230</code></pre>
231
232<p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters,
233numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p>
234
235<pre><code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
236[The New York Times][NY Times].
237
238[ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/
239</code></pre>
240
241<p>Output:</p>
242
243<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
244&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/&quot;&gt;The New York Times&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
245</code></pre>
246
247<h3>Images</h3>
248
249<p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p>
250
251<p>Inline (titles are optional):</p>
252
253<pre><code>![alt text](/path/to/img.jpg &quot;Title&quot;)
254</code></pre>
255
256<p>Reference-style:</p>
257
258<pre><code>![alt text][id]
259
260[id]: /path/to/img.jpg &quot;Title&quot;
261</code></pre>
262
263<p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p>
264
265<pre><code>&lt;img src=&quot;/path/to/img.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;alt text&quot; title=&quot;Title&quot; /&gt;
266</code></pre>
267
268<h3>Code</h3>
269
270<p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in
271backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&amp;</code>) and angle brackets (<code>&lt;</code> or
272<code>&gt;</code>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes
273it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p>
274
275<pre><code>I strongly recommend against using any `&lt;blink&gt;` tags.
276
277I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&amp;mdash;`
278instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&amp;#8212;`.
279</code></pre>
280
281<p>Output:</p>
282
283<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;I strongly recommend against using any
284&lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;blink&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags.&lt;/p&gt;
285
286&lt;p&gt;I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
287&lt;code&gt;&amp;amp;mdash;&lt;/code&gt; instead of decimal-encoded
288entites like &lt;code&gt;&amp;amp;#8212;&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
289</code></pre>
290
291<p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of
292the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, <code>&amp;</code>, <code>&lt;</code>,
293and <code>&gt;</code> characters will be escaped automatically.</p>
294
295<p>Markdown:</p>
296
297<pre><code>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
298you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:
299
300    &lt;blockquote&gt;
301        &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt;
302    &lt;/blockquote&gt;
303</code></pre>
304
305<p>Output:</p>
306
307<pre><code>&lt;p&gt;If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
308you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:&lt;/p&gt;
309
310&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;blockquote&amp;gt;
311    &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;For example.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
312&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt;
313&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
314</code></pre>