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| 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 Informat
ion">License</a></li> | |
| 8 <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Din
gus</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. | |
| 14 The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a>
provides complete, detailed documentation for | |
| 15 every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by | |
| 16 looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page | |
| 17 are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the | |
| 18 HTML 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 | |
| 21 web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text | |
| 22 and translate it to XHTML.</p> | |
| 23 | |
| 24 <p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using Markdown; you | |
| 25 can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the source for it by adding '.t
ext' 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 | |
| 30 by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a | |
| 31 blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered | |
| 32 blank.) 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>. | |
| 35 Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and <code><h2></code> are
created by | |
| 36 "underlining" with equal signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), re
spectively. | |
| 37 To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (<code>#</code>) at the | |
| 38 beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting | |
| 39 HTML header level.</p> | |
| 40 | |
| 41 <p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' angle bracket
s.</p> | |
| 42 | |
| 43 <p>Markdown:</p> | |
| 44 | |
| 45 <pre><code>A First Level Header | |
| 46 ==================== | |
| 47 | |
| 48 A Second Level Header | |
| 49 --------------------- | |
| 50 | |
| 51 Now is the time for all good men to come to | |
| 52 the aid of their country. This is just a | |
| 53 regular paragraph. | |
| 54 | |
| 55 The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy | |
| 56 dog's back. | |
| 57 | |
| 58 ### Header 3 | |
| 59 | |
| 60 > This is a blockquote. | |
| 61 > | |
| 62 > This is the second paragraph in the blockquote. | |
| 63 > | |
| 64 > ## This is an H2 in a blockquote | |
| 65 </code></pre> | |
| 66 | |
| 67 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 68 | |
| 69 <pre><code><h1>A First Level Header</h1> | |
| 70 | |
| 71 <h2>A Second Level Header</h2> | |
| 72 | |
| 73 <p>Now is the time for all good men to come to | |
| 74 the aid of their country. This is just a | |
| 75 regular paragraph.</p> | |
| 76 | |
| 77 <p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy | |
| 78 dog's back.</p> | |
| 79 | |
| 80 <h3>Header 3</h3> | |
| 81 | |
| 82 <blockquote> | |
| 83 <p>This is a blockquote.</p> | |
| 84 | |
| 85 <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p> | |
| 86 | |
| 87 <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2> | |
| 88 </blockquote> | |
| 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*. | |
| 98 Some of these words _are emphasized also_. | |
| 99 | |
| 100 Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**. | |
| 101 Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__. | |
| 102 </code></pre> | |
| 103 | |
| 104 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 105 | |
| 106 <pre><code><p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>. | |
| 107 Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p> | |
| 108 | |
| 109 <p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>. | |
| 110 Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.<
/p> | |
| 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 | |
| 117 interchangable; 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><ul> | |
| 141 <li>Candy.</li> | |
| 142 <li>Gum.</li> | |
| 143 <li>Booze.</li> | |
| 144 </ul> | |
| 145 </code></pre> | |
| 146 | |
| 147 <p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as | |
| 148 list markers:</p> | |
| 149 | |
| 150 <pre><code>1. Red | |
| 151 2. Green | |
| 152 3. Blue | |
| 153 </code></pre> | |
| 154 | |
| 155 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 156 | |
| 157 <pre><code><ol> | |
| 158 <li>Red</li> | |
| 159 <li>Green</li> | |
| 160 <li>Blue</li> | |
| 161 </ol> | |
| 162 </code></pre> | |
| 163 | |
| 164 <p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <code><p></code> tags
for the | |
| 165 list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting | |
| 166 the 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><ul> | |
| 178 <li><p>A list item.</p> | |
| 179 <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li> | |
| 180 <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li> | |
| 181 </ul> | |
| 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 | |
| 188 text you want to turn into a link.</p> | |
| 189 | |
| 190 <p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text. | |
| 191 For 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><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/"> | |
| 199 example link</a>.</p> | |
| 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/ "With a Title"). | |
| 205 </code></pre> | |
| 206 | |
| 207 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 208 | |
| 209 <pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Ti
tle"> | |
| 210 example link</a>.</p> | |
| 211 </code></pre> | |
| 212 | |
| 213 <p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which | |
| 214 you 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/ "Google" | |
| 220 [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" | |
| 221 [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search" | |
| 222 </code></pre> | |
| 223 | |
| 224 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 225 | |
| 226 <pre><code><p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.c
om/" | |
| 227 title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com
/" | |
| 228 title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/" | |
| 229 title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p> | |
| 230 </code></pre> | |
| 231 | |
| 232 <p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, | |
| 233 numbers 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><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and | |
| 244 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p> | |
| 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> | |
| 254 </code></pre> | |
| 255 | |
| 256 <p>Reference-style:</p> | |
| 257 | |
| 258 <pre><code>![alt text][id] | |
| 259 | |
| 260 [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title" | |
| 261 </code></pre> | |
| 262 | |
| 263 <p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p> | |
| 264 | |
| 265 <pre><code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" /> | |
| 266 </code></pre> | |
| 267 | |
| 268 <h3>Code</h3> | |
| 269 | |
| 270 <p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in | |
| 271 backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and angle brackets (<code>&
lt;</code> or | |
| 272 <code>></code>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This mak
es | |
| 273 it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p> | |
| 274 | |
| 275 <pre><code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags. | |
| 276 | |
| 277 I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;` | |
| 278 instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`. | |
| 279 </code></pre> | |
| 280 | |
| 281 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 282 | |
| 283 <pre><code><p>I strongly recommend against using any | |
| 284 <code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p> | |
| 285 | |
| 286 <p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like | |
| 287 <code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded | |
| 288 entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p> | |
| 289 </code></pre> | |
| 290 | |
| 291 <p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of | |
| 292 the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, <code>&</code>, <
code><</code>, | |
| 293 and <code>></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, | |
| 298 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes: | |
| 299 | |
| 300 <blockquote> | |
| 301 <p>For example.</p> | |
| 302 </blockquote> | |
| 303 </code></pre> | |
| 304 | |
| 305 <p>Output:</p> | |
| 306 | |
| 307 <pre><code><p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict, | |
| 308 you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p> | |
| 309 | |
| 310 <pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt; | |
| 311 &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt; | |
| 312 &lt;/blockquote&gt; | |
| 313 </code></pre> | |
| 314 </code></pre> | |
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