Markdown Basic Syntax
This guide covers the most commonly used Markdown syntax elements. Learning these basics will enable you to create well-formatted documents quickly and easily.
Headings
Headings are created using the hash (#) symbol. The number of hash symbols indicates the heading level:
Which renders as:
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Heading 4
Heading 5
Heading 6
Alternatively, for Heading 1 and Heading 2, you can use underlining with equals signs or dashes:
Paragraphs and Line Breaks
To create paragraphs, use blank lines to separate lines of text:
For line breaks (without creating a new paragraph), end a line with two or more spaces and then press Enter:
Emphasis (Bold and Italic)
You can make text bold or italic for emphasis:
Italic
This text is italic
This text is also italic
Bold
This text is bold
This text is also bold
Combined Bold and Italic
***This text is bold and italic***
___This text is also bold and italic___
**_This text is also bold and italic_**
This text is bold and italic
This text is also bold and italic
This text is also bold and italic
Lists
Markdown supports both ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists.
Unordered Lists
Unordered lists can use asterisks (*), plus signs (+), or hyphens (-) as list markers:
* Item 1
* Item 2
* Subitem 2.1
* Subitem 2.2
* Item 3
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
+ Item 1
+ Item 2
+ Item 3
Which renders as:
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Subitem 2.1
- Subitem 2.2
- Item 3
Ordered Lists
For ordered lists, use numbers followed by periods:
Which renders as:
- First item
- Second item
- Third item
- Subitem 3.1
- Subitem 3.2
- Fourth item
Note: The actual numbers you use don't matter, as Markdown will always render the list in sequential order. For example, the following:
Will still render as a properly numbered list.
Links
Markdown provides two ways to create links:
Inline Links
Which renders as: Visit DataIdea
Reference Links
You can also define links using reference-style syntax:
Which renders as:
Images
Images in Markdown work similarly to links but with an exclamation mark (!) at the beginning:
Basic Image Syntax
Image with Title
Image Size (Using HTML)
Markdown doesn't directly support image sizing, but you can use HTML:
Blockquotes
To create a blockquote, use the greater-than symbol (>) before your text:
Which renders as:
This is a blockquote. It can span multiple lines.
It can also contain multiple paragraphs.
Nested Blockquotes
Which renders as:
This is a blockquote
This is a nested blockquote
Horizontal Rules
To create a horizontal rule, use three or more asterisks, dashes, or underscores:
Each of these will render as a horizontal line:
Escaping Characters
If you want to show characters that are normally used for Markdown formatting, you can escape them with a backslash (\):
Which renders as:
* This is not italic *
# This is not a heading
[This is not a link](http://example.com)
Inline Code
To denote a word or phrase as code, enclose it in backticks (`):
Which renders as:
Use the print() function in Python.
Conclusion
These basic elements of Markdown syntax will help you create well-formatted documents. In the next section, we'll explore more advanced Markdown features like tables, code blocks, and task lists.