1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> 2 <html> 3 <head> 4 <meta name="generator" content= 5 "HTML Tidy for Linux/x86 (vers 1 September 2005), see www.w3.org"> 6 <title></title> 7 </head> 8 <body> 9 <h1>Markdown: Basics</h1> 10 <ul id="ProjectSubmenu"> 11 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title= 12 "Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li> 13 <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li> 14 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title= 15 "Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li> 16 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title= 17 "Pricing and License Information">License</a></li> 18 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title= 19 "Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li> 20 </ul> 21 <h2>Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2> 22 <p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use 23 Markdown. The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title= 24 "Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> provides complete, detailed 25 documentation for every feature, but Markdown should be very easy 26 to pick up simply by looking at a few examples of it in action. The 27 examples on this page are written in a before/after style, showing 28 example syntax and the HTML output produced by Markdown.</p> 29 <p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href= 30 "/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a 31 web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted 32 text and translate it to XHTML.</p> 33 <p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using 34 Markdown; you can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the 35 source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p> 36 <h2>Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2> 37 <p>A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, 38 separated by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line 39 that looks like a blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or 40 tabs is considered blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended 41 with spaces or tabs.</p> 42 <p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and 43 <em>atx</em>. Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and 44 <code><h2></code> are created by "underlining" with equal 45 signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively. 46 To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks 47 (<code>#</code>) at the beginning of the line -- the number of 48 hashes equals the resulting HTML header level.</p> 49 <p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' 50 angle brackets.</p> 51 <p>Markdown:</p> 52 <pre> 53 <code>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 </code> 74 </pre> 75 <p>Output:</p> 76 <pre> 77 <code><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 </code> 98 </pre> 99 <h3>Phrase Emphasis</h3> 100 <p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of 101 emphasis.</p> 102 <p>Markdown:</p> 103 <pre> 104 <code>Some of these words *are emphasized*. 105 Some of these words _are emphasized also_. 106 107 Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**. 108 Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__. 109 </code> 110 </pre> 111 <p>Output:</p> 112 <pre> 113 <code><p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>. 114 Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p> 115 116 <p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>. 117 Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p> 118 </code> 119 </pre> 120 <h2>Lists</h2> 121 <p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens 122 (<code>*</code>, <code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list 123 markers. These three markers are interchangable; this:</p> 124 <pre> 125 <code>* Candy. 126 * Gum. 127 * Booze. 128 </code> 129 </pre> 130 <p>this:</p> 131 <pre> 132 <code>+ Candy. 133 + Gum. 134 + Booze. 135 </code> 136 </pre> 137 <p>and this:</p> 138 <pre> 139 <code>- Candy. 140 - Gum. 141 - Booze. 142 </code> 143 </pre> 144 <p>all produce the same output:</p> 145 <pre> 146 <code><ul> 147 <li>Candy.</li> 148 <li>Gum.</li> 149 <li>Booze.</li> 150 </ul> 151 </code> 152 </pre> 153 <p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by 154 periods, as list markers:</p> 155 <pre> 156 <code>1. Red 157 2. Green 158 3. Blue 159 </code> 160 </pre> 161 <p>Output:</p> 162 <pre> 163 <code><ol> 164 <li>Red</li> 165 <li>Green</li> 166 <li>Blue</li> 167 </ol> 168 </code> 169 </pre> 170 <p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get 171 <code><p></code> tags for the list item text. You can create 172 multi-paragraph list items by indenting the paragraphs by 4 spaces 173 or 1 tab:</p> 174 <pre> 175 <code>* A list item. 176 177 With multiple paragraphs. 178 179 * Another item in the list. 180 </code> 181 </pre> 182 <p>Output:</p> 183 <pre> 184 <code><ul> 185 <li><p>A list item.</p> 186 <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li> 187 <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li> 188 </ul> 189 </code> 190 </pre> 191 <h3>Links</h3> 192 <p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> 193 and <em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets 194 to delimit the text you want to turn into a link.</p> 195 <p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link 196 text. For example:</p> 197 <pre> 198 <code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/). 199 </code> 200 </pre> 201 <p>Output:</p> 202 <pre> 203 <code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/"> 204 example link</a>.</p> 205 </code> 206 </pre> 207 <p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the 208 parentheses:</p> 209 <pre> 210 <code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title"). 211 </code> 212 </pre> 213 <p>Output:</p> 214 <pre> 215 <code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title"> 216 example link</a>.</p> 217 </code> 218 </pre> 219 <p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, 220 which you define elsewhere in your document:</p> 221 <pre> 222 <code>I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from 223 [Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3]. 224 225 [1]: http://google.com/ "Google" 226 [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" 227 [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search" 228 </code> 229 </pre> 230 <p>Output:</p> 231 <pre> 232 <code><p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/" 233 title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/" 234 title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/" 235 title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p> 236 </code> 237 </pre> 238 <p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, 239 numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p> 240 <pre> 241 <code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and 242 [The New York Times][NY Times]. 243 244 [ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/ 245 </code> 246 </pre> 247 <p>Output:</p> 248 <pre> 249 <code><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and 250 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p> 251 </code> 252 </pre> 253 <h3>Images</h3> 254 <p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p> 255 <p>Inline (titles are optional):</p> 256 <pre> 257 <code> 258 </code> 259 </pre> 260 <p>Reference-style:</p> 261 <pre> 262 <code>![alt text][id] 263 264 [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title" 265 </code> 266 </pre> 267 <p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p> 268 <pre> 269 <code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" /> 270 </code> 271 </pre> 272 <h3>Code</h3> 273 <p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping 274 text in backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and 275 angle brackets (<code><</code> or <code>></code>) will 276 automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes it easy 277 to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p> 278 <pre> 279 <code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags. 280 281 I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;` 282 instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`. 283 </code> 284 </pre> 285 <p>Output:</p> 286 <pre> 287 <code><p>I strongly recommend against using any 288 <code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p> 289 290 <p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like 291 <code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded 292 entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p> 293 </code> 294 </pre> 295 <p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every 296 line of the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, 297 <code>&</code>, <code><</code>, and <code>></code> 298 characters will be escaped automatically.</p> 299 <p>Markdown:</p> 300 <pre> 301 <code>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, 302 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes: 303 304 <blockquote> 305 <p>For example.</p> 306 </blockquote> 307 </code> 308 </pre> 309 <p>Output:</p> 310 <pre> 311 <code><p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, 312 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p> 313 314 <pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt; 315 &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt; 316 &lt;/blockquote&gt; 317 </code></pre> 318 </code> 319 </pre> 320 </body> 321 </html> 322
