# Markdown: Basics

## Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax

This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown. The [syntax page](/projects/markdown/syntax "Markdown Syntax") provides complete, detailed documentation for every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the HTML output produced by Markdown.

It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the [Dingus](/projects/markdown/dingus "Markdown Dingus") is a web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text and translate it to XHTML.

**Note:** This document is itself written using Markdown; you can [see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL](/projects/markdown/basics.text).

## Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes

A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.

Markdown offers two styles of headers: *Setext* and *atx*. Setext-style headers for `<h1>` and `<h2>` are created by "underlining" with equal signs (`=`) and hyphens (`-`, respectively. To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (`#`) at the beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting HTML header level.

Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '`>`' angle brackets.

Markdown:

    A First Level Header
    ====================
    
    A Second Level Header
    ---------------------
    
    Now is the time for all good men to come to
    the aid of their country. This is just a
    regular paragraph.
    
    The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
    dog's back.
    
    ### Header 3
    
    > This is a blockquote.
    > 
    > This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.
    >
    > ## This is an H2 in a blockquote

Output:

    <h1>A First Level Header</h1>
    
    <h2>A Second Level Header</h2>
    
    <p>Now is the time for all good men to come to
    the aid of their country. This is just a
    regular paragraph.</p>
    
    <p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
    dog's back.</p>
    
    <h3>Header 3</h3>
    
    <blockquote>
        <p>This is a blockquote.</p>
    
        <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p>
    
        <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2>
    </blockquote>

### Phrase Emphasis

Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.

Markdown:

    Some of these words *are emphasized*.
    Some of these words _are emphasized also_.
    
    Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**.
    Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__.

Output:

    <p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>.
    Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p>
    
    <p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>.
    Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p>

## Lists

Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (`*`, `+`, and `-`) as list markers. These three markers are interchangable; this:

    *   Candy.
    *   Gum.
    *   Booze.

this:

    +   Candy.
    +   Gum.
    +   Booze.

and this:

    -   Candy.
    -   Gum.
    -   Booze.

all produce the same output:

    <ul>
    <li>Candy.</li>
    <li>Gum.</li>
    <li>Booze.</li>
    </ul>

Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as list markers:

    1.  Red
    2.  Green
    3.  Blue

Output:

    <ol>
    <li>Red</li>
    <li>Green</li>
    <li>Blue</li>
    </ol>

If you put blank lines between items, you'll get `<p>` tags for the list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:

    *   A list item.
    
        With multiple paragraphs.
    
    *   Another item in the list.

Output:

    <ul>
    <li><p>A list item.</p>
    <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li>
    <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li>
    </ul>

### Links

Markdown supports two styles for creating links: *inline* and *reference*. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the text you want to turn into a link.

Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text. For example:

    This is an [example link](http://example.com/).

Output:

    <p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/">
    example link</a>.</p>

Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:

    This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title").

Output:

    <p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title">
    example link</a>.</p>

Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which you define elsewhere in your document:

    I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from
    [Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3].
    
    [1]: http://google.com/        "Google"
    [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/  "Yahoo Search"
    [3]: http://search.msn.com/    "MSN Search"

Output:

    <p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/"
    title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/"
    title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/"
    title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p>

The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, numbers and spaces, but are *not* case sensitive:

    I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
    [The New York Times][NY Times].
    
    [ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/

Output:

    <p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
    <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p>

### Images

Image syntax is very much like link syntax.

Inline (titles are optional):

    ![alt text](/path/to/img.jpg "Title")

Reference-style:

    ![alt text][id]
    
    [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title"

Both of the above examples produce the same output:

    <img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" />

### Code

In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in backtick quotes. Any ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` or `>`) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:

    I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags.
    
    I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;`
    instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`.

Output:

    <p>I strongly recommend against using any
    <code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p>
    
    <p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
    <code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded
    entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p>

To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, `&`, `<`, and `>` characters will be escaped automatically.

Markdown:

    If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
    you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:
    
        <blockquote>
            <p>For example.</p>
        </blockquote>

Output:

    <p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
    you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p>
    
    <pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt;
        &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt;
    &lt;/blockquote&gt;
    </code></pre>