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| <body> |
| <h1>Markdown: Basics</h1> |
| <ul id="ProjectSubmenu"> |
| <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title= |
| "Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li> |
| <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li> |
| <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title= |
| "Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li> |
| <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title= |
| "Pricing and License Information">License</a></li> |
| <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title= |
| "Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| <h2>Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2> |
| <p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use |
| Markdown. The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title= |
| "Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> 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.</p> |
| <p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href= |
| "/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a |
| web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted |
| text and translate it to XHTML.</p> |
| <p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using |
| Markdown; you can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the |
| source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p> |
| <h2>Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2> |
| <p>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.</p> |
| <p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and |
| <em>atx</em>. Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and |
| <code><h2></code> are created by "underlining" with equal |
| signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively. |
| To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks |
| (<code>#</code>) at the beginning of the line -- the number of |
| hashes equals the resulting HTML header level.</p> |
| <p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' |
| angle brackets.</p> |
| <p>Markdown:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>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 |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><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> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <h3>Phrase Emphasis</h3> |
| <p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of |
| emphasis.</p> |
| <p>Markdown:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>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__. |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><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> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <h2>Lists</h2> |
| <p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens |
| (<code>*</code>, <code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list |
| markers. These three markers are interchangable; this:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>* Candy. |
| * Gum. |
| * Booze. |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>this:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>+ Candy. |
| + Gum. |
| + Booze. |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>and this:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>- Candy. |
| - Gum. |
| - Booze. |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>all produce the same output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><ul> |
| <li>Candy.</li> |
| <li>Gum.</li> |
| <li>Booze.</li> |
| </ul> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by |
| periods, as list markers:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>1. Red |
| 2. Green |
| 3. Blue |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><ol> |
| <li>Red</li> |
| <li>Green</li> |
| <li>Blue</li> |
| </ol> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get |
| <code><p></code> tags for the list item text. You can create |
| multi-paragraph list items by indenting the paragraphs by 4 spaces |
| or 1 tab:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>* A list item. |
| |
| With multiple paragraphs. |
| |
| * Another item in the list. |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><ul> |
| <li><p>A list item.</p> |
| <p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li> |
| <li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li> |
| </ul> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <h3>Links</h3> |
| <p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> |
| and <em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets |
| to delimit the text you want to turn into a link.</p> |
| <p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link |
| text. For example:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/). |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/"> |
| example link</a>.</p> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the |
| parentheses:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title"). |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title"> |
| example link</a>.</p> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, |
| which you define elsewhere in your document:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>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" |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><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> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, |
| numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and |
| [The New York Times][NY Times]. |
| |
| [ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/ |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and |
| <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <h3>Images</h3> |
| <p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p> |
| <p>Inline (titles are optional):</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Reference-style:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>![alt text][id] |
| |
| [id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title" |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" /> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <h3>Code</h3> |
| <p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping |
| text in backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and |
| angle brackets (<code><</code> or <code>></code>) will |
| automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes it easy |
| to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags. |
| |
| I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;` |
| instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`. |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><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> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <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, |
| <code>&</code>, <code><</code>, and <code>></code> |
| characters will be escaped automatically.</p> |
| <p>Markdown:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code>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> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| <p>Output:</p> |
| <pre> |
| <code><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> |
| </code> |
| </pre> |
| </body> |
| </html> |
