Welcome, intrepid adventurer, to this fun, creative, and entertaining guide on all things Markdown! Think of this as your ultimate markdown cheat sheet, a Markdown tutorial that'll have you creating slick markdown files, mastering markdown syntax, and converting your notes to HTML faster than you can say "markdown to html"!
Markdown viewers and online editors let you view markdown in its formatted state. Most simply convert your markdown into an HTML structure and style it with CSS. There are many online markdown editors you can use to test it out today!
Markdown is a lightweight plain-text format that transforms into rich HTML. It's beloved by developers, writers, and anyone who's ever used a Markdown editor (online or offline) to write documentation, blogs, or even academic papers in R Markdown.
Markdown is a simple markup language that allows you to create formatted text using plain text syntax. It's a way to write content that's easy to read and write, and can be easily converted into HTML, PDF, or other formats.
Markdown was created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz in 2004 as a lightweight alternative to HTML. It's designed to be easy to learn and use—even for those without extensive technical knowledge.
Some common features of Markdown include:
Using Markdown makes it easy to create and share content across different platforms and tools. Its simplicity and flexibility have made it a popular choice among writers, developers, and content creators.
Ready? Let's dive in and explore the world of Markdown!
Headers create structure—your digital signposts:
# H1 — The biggest Header
## H2 — Section Title
### H3 — Subsection
#### H4 — Smaller Still
##### H5 - Tiny Header
###### H6 — The Tiniest HeaderThe above markdown could potentially be rendered into HTML as:
<h1>H1 — The Biggest Header</h1>
<h2>H2 — Section Title</h2>
<h3>H3 — Subsection</h3>
<h4>H4 — Smaller Still</h4>
<h5>H5 — Tiny Header</h5>
<h6>H6 — The Tiniest Header</h6>
Use headers to craft a neat Markdown outline to generate PDFs or SEO-friendly HTML.
Plain text paragraphs are just separated by a blank line:
This is one paragraph.
This is another paragraph.For a line break (without starting a new paragraph), end a line with two spaces:
First line␣␣
Second lineNOTE: Not all editors support this reliably, but it works well in GitHub-flavored Markdown (GFM).
Emphasis is your friend in making words pop.
NOTE: Some markdown editors also support basic HTML elements like <s>...</s> or <b>...</b>. Markdown doesn't natively support an underline tag, but you can always mix in <u>underline</u> to accomplish this. However, not all markdown engines support strikethrough; it's GitHub-flavored and common—but not universal.
Congratulations, you now possess the keys to the Markdown kingdom! From headers to lists, images to tables, you've seen how easy it is to craft rich, readable content. Use this, and other markdown cheat sheets, whenever you need a refresher or want to show off your editing markdown prowess in a markdown online editor or even in your local Markdown Viewer.
And hey, if you're ready to level up and convert your markdown into polished HTML, check out my very own markdown-to-HTML parser:
My online markdown editor uses ts-markdown-parser under the hood!
Happy writing, formatting, and converting—from markdown to html, Markdown to PDF, or wherever your creativity takes you! 🎉