Basic Syntax Notes

Overview

Headings

• Use (#) in front of word or phrase to create headings
  • Use up to (6) (#)’s for each level of heading
• Use any number of (==) for level 1 or (–) for level 2 headings
• Put blank lines before and after a heading for compatibility

Paragraphs

• Use a blank line to create paragraphs
  • Do not indent paragraphs with spaces or tabs
• Use two or more spaces (“trailing whitespace”) for line breaks in nearly every Markdown application.
  • Because this is hard to see, you can use the line break or new line HTML tag to identify the “trailing whitespace”

Emphasis

• To bold text, add two asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase.
• To italicize text, use one asterisk or underscore before and after
• To bold and italicize at the same time, add three asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase.

Blockquotes

• To create a blockquote, add a > in front of a paragraph

Example

Santa is always at the right place at the right time

• For multiple paragraphs, add a > on the blank lines between the paragraphs as well

Example

Santa is always at the right place at the right time

He never catches Mrs. Clause making her famous cookies from the Tollhouse carton

• Blockquotes can be nested. Add a » in front of desired nested paragraph

Example

Santa is always at the right place at the right time

He never catches Mrs. Clause making her famous cookies from the Tollhouse carton

Lists

• To create an ordered list, add line items with numbers followed by periods
  • Numbers don’t thave to be in numerical order, but the list should start with the number one.

Example

1. Make list
2. Check it twice
3. Who is nice
4. Who is naughty

• Use periods only, no paranthesis
• Create an unordered list by adding dashes(-), astrisks, or plus signs (+) in front of line items.
• Use a backslash when starting an unordered list item with a number followed by a period. This escapses the period.
• Use the same delimiter in the same list

Code Blocks & Images and Lists

• Code blocks, images, & lists are normally indented four spaces or one tabe.
  • When they’re in a list, indent them eight spaces or two tabs.

Code

• To denote a word or phrase as code, enclose it in backticks.
• If the word or phrase you want to denote as code includes one or more backticks, you can escape it by enclosing the owrd or phrase in drouble backticks.
• To create code blocks, indent every line of the block by at least four spaces

Horizontal Rules

• To create a horizontal rule, us three or more asterisks, dashes, or underscores on a line by themselves.

Example

Try to put a blank line before…

---

…and after a horizontal rule

Links & Formatting Links

• To create a link, enclose the link text in brackes (e.g., [Duck Duck Go]) and the follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses
• You can optionally add a title for a link.
• To quickly turn a URL or email address into a link, enclose it in angle brackets.
• To emphasize links, add asterisks before and after the brackets and parentheses.

Example

My favorite search engine is also Duck Duck Go.

123email@worstpassword.com

Reference-style Links

• Reference-style links are a special kind of link that make URLs easier to display and read in Markdown.
  • The first part of a reference-style link is formatted with two sets of brackets. The first set of brackets surrounds the text that should appear linked.
  • The second set of brackets displays a label used to point to the link you’re storing elsewherein your document.
• The second part of a reference-style link is formatted with the following attributes:
  • The label, in brackes, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ).
  • The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets.
  • The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses.

Example

In the coming of dawn of Christmas, Santa was rushing to grab the final present to deliver in his sack. As he reached into his sack he found a hole, and that struck fear in his heart.

Images

• To add an image, add an exclamation mark (!), followed by alt text in brackets, and the path or URL to the image asset in parentheses. You can optionally add a title after the URL in the parentheses.

Escaping Characters

• To display a literal character that would otherwise be used to format text in a Markdown document, add a backslash in front of the character

* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.

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