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>
13 Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax
14 ------------------------------------------------
16 This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown.
17 The [syntax page] [s] provides complete, detailed documentation for
18 every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by
19 looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page
20 are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the
21 HTML output produced by Markdown.
23 It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the [Dingus] [d] is a
24 web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text
25 and translate it to XHTML.
27 **Note:** This document is itself written using Markdown; you
28 can [see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL] [src].
30 [s]: /projects/markdown/syntax "Markdown Syntax"
31 [d]: /projects/markdown/dingus "Markdown Dingus"
32 [src]: /projects/markdown/basics.text
35 ## Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes ##
37 A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
38 by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like
39 a blank line -- a line containing nothing but spaces or tabs is
40 considered blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be indented with
43 Markdown offers two styles of headers: *Setext* and *atx*.
44 Setext-style headers for `<h1>` and `<h2>` are created by
45 "underlining" with equal signs (`=`) and hyphens (`-`), respectively.
46 To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (`#`) at the
47 beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting
50 Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '`>`' angle brackets.
60 Now is the time for all good men to come to
61 the aid of their country. This is just a
64 The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
69 > This is a blockquote.
71 > This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.
73 > ## This is an H2 in a blockquote
78 <h1>A First Level Header</h1>
80 <h2>A Second Level Header</h2>
82 <p>Now is the time for all good men to come to
83 the aid of their country. This is just a
84 regular paragraph.</p>
86 <p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
92 <p>This is a blockquote.</p>
94 <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p>
96 <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2>
101 ### Phrase Emphasis ###
103 Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.
107 Some of these words *are emphasized*.
108 Some of these words _are emphasized also_.
110 Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**.
111 Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__.
115 <p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>.
116 Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p>
118 <p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>.
119 Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p>
125 Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (`*`,
126 `+`, and `-`) as list markers. These three markers are
127 interchangable; this:
145 all produce the same output:
153 Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as
168 If you put blank lines between items, you'll get `<p>` tags for the
169 list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting
170 the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:
174 With multiple paragraphs.
176 * Another item in the list.
181 <li><p>A list item.</p>
182 <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li>
183 <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li>
190 Markdown supports two styles for creating links: *inline* and
191 *reference*. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the
192 text you want to turn into a link.
194 Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text.
197 This is an [example link](http://example.com/).
201 <p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/">
202 example link</a>.</p>
204 Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:
206 This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title").
210 <p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title">
211 example link</a>.</p>
213 Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which
214 you define elsewhere in your document:
216 I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from
217 [Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3].
219 [1]: http://google.com/ "Google"
220 [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search"
221 [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"
225 <p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/"
226 title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/"
227 title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/"
228 title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p>
230 The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters,
231 numbers and spaces, but are *not* case sensitive:
233 I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
234 [The New York Times][NY Times].
236 [ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/
240 <p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
241 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p>
246 Image syntax is very much like link syntax.
248 Inline (titles are optional):
250 ![alt text](/path/to/img.jpg "Title")
256 [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title"
258 Both of the above examples produce the same output:
260 <img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" />
266 In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in
267 backtick quotes. Any ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` or
268 `>`) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes
269 it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:
271 I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags.
273 I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `—`
274 instead of decimal-encoded entites like `—`.
278 <p>I strongly recommend against using any
279 <code><blink></code> tags.</p>
281 <p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
282 <code>&mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded
283 entites like <code>&#8212;</code>.</p>
286 To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of
287 the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, `&`, `<`,
288 and `>` characters will be escaped automatically.
292 If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
293 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:
301 <p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
302 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p>
304 <pre><code><blockquote>
305 <p>For example.</p>