Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight markup language that can be used to write plain text-format which can be converted to valid HTML. Using markdown you don’t need to write content within HTML tags, you can directly write text with markdown syntax and it’ll automatically get converted. You can also use HTML within markdown!

Markdown files have an extension .md or .markdown.

It is also different from your normal text editors like Word in which you click buttons to do the job. In Markdown you don’t see the output as you’re typing, you only see it in a browser and if you’ve some changes, you have to go back and edit.

Today, markdown can be found in many places. GitHub uses it for writing documentation, Reddit uses it for comments, you can try it out while writing messages in WhatsApp, you can write emails in it, much of the content you read online is written in Markdown. This post is written in Markdown too. It has an advantage that the person who is writing does not need to see everytime how it looks on a webpage. You can write with markdown syntax and the HTML pages will automatically be generated from it.

It looks very clean and it is easy to write too. Markdown is a fast and easy way to take notes, create content for a website, and produce print-ready documents, some even make presentations from it too. It is quickly becoming the writing standard for academics, scientists, writers, and many more.

Here’s the difference between some HTML and same goal achieved by Markdown -

HTML:

<h1>Markdown is <em>awesome</em>. Start using it now.</h1>

<p><a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">Markdown</a> is so cool,

it will make your life <em>easier</em><strong>A lot easier.</strong></p>

Markdown:

># Why *you* should use Markdown to write your next blog post

[Markdown][1] is so cool, it will make your life *easier*. **A lot easier.**

Notice how Markdown is a lot readable. But, after the content is posted online, they both look the same.

Though it is a lot different and far from the comfort of other WYSIWYG tools, it offers unparalleled writing speed, fluency, and fewer errors.

Cheatsheet

Though Markdown has different “flavours” depending upon what you’re using it for, this is a more generalized list meant to be used as a quick reference.

Given below are usage and examples of Markdown syntax categorized for easy reference.

1. Headings
2. Emphasis
3. Lists
4. Links
5. Heading ID
6. Images
7. Highlighting
8. Tables
9. Blockquotes
10. Inline HTML
11. Horizontal Rule
12. Tasklists
13. Footnotes
14. Definitions
15. Escaping
16. Line Breaks
17. YouTube Videos

1. Headings

# H1
## H2
### H3
#### H4
##### H5
###### H6

Alternalively, you can use undeline styles as follows:

Another-H1
==========

Another-H2
----------

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

H6

Alternative-H1

Alternative-H2

2. Emphasis

Many kinds of emphasis are available Emphasis in Markdown. Same as <em> tag in HTML.

Emphasis, aka Italics: *asterisks* or _underscores_.

Strong emphasis, aka Bold: **double asterisks** or __double underscores__.

You can also combine them: **asterisks and _underscore too_**.

Strikethrough uses two tildes: ~~wrong or sarcasm~~

Emphasis, aka Italics: asterisks or underscores.

Strong emphasis, aka Bold: double asterisks or double underscores.

You can also combine them: asterisks and underscore too.

Strikethrough uses two tildes: sarcasm

3. Lists

Proper indentation is required to display lists properly.

1. Item
2. Another item
and so on...

* Unordered list Item
  * Sub-list item

109. Numbers don't matter, just that it should be a number

1. Item
  1. Sub-list item 1

+ Plus can be used
- Minus can be used too

1. Item
2. Another item and so on…

• Unordered list Item
  • Sub-list item

1. Numbers don’t matter, just that it should be a number

2. Item

   1. Sub-list item 1

• Plus can be used
• Minus can be used too

4. Links

Direct, reference and relative links can be created.

[Inline-style link](https://www.google.com)

[Inline-style link with tooltip](https://www.google.com "Google's Homepage")

[Reference-style link][Case-insensitive reference text]

[You can use numbers for reference-style link definitions][1]

Expand those references later:



[Relative link to local](../docs/new/my)

[link text itself]

Inline-style link

Inline-style link with tooltip

Reference-style link

You can use numbers for reference-style link definitions

Relative link to local

link text itself

5. Heading ID

You can place heading id as

### My Heading {#custom-id}

You can then link directly to it using link as [Goto Heading](#custom-id).

6. Images

Absolute:
![Alt-text for image](https://abhishekarya1.github.io/img/triangle.jpg)

Relative:
![Alt text for image](/img/triangle.jpg)

Reference-styled:
![Alt-text for image][image]

Absolute:

Relative:

Reference-styled:

7. Highlighting

Code and syntax highlighting can be performed with Markdown. It differs from render to renderer.

We can inline-highlight text or block-highlight code.

back-ticks are used for inline-highlighting: `Important`

triple back-ticks are used for block-highlighting: code enclosed within '''

You can specify the language for proper highlighting:

```python
s = "Python syntax highlighting"
print s
```.

back-ticks are used for inline-highlighting: Important Stuff

triple back-ticks are used for block-highlighting: code enclosed within ```

You can specify the language for proper highlighting:

s = "Python syntax highlighting"
print s

8. Tables

Tables aren’t part of the original Markdown specifications, but they are there many times.

| Tables        | Are           | Cool  |
| ------------- | ------------- | ----- |
| row 1         | top           |    4  |
| row 2         | middle        |    2  |
| row 3         | bottom        |    3  |

You don't need to make the raw Markdown line up prettily.

Much | Less | Pretty
--- | --- | ---
Still | renders | fine
1 | 2 | 3

To change the alignment of the elements in a column, add a colon (:) to the left side, right side,
 or both sides of the appropriate set of hyphens on the second line.
 For example, inputting this:

Column L | Column C | Column R
:--------|:--------:|---------:
A1 | B1 | C1
A2 | B2 | C2

There must be at least 3 dashes separating each header cell. The outer pipes (|) are optional, and you don’t need to make the raw Markdown line up prettily.

To change the alignment of the elements in a column, add a colon (:) to the left side, right side, or both sides of the appropriate set of hyphens on the second line. For example, inputting this:

9. Blockquotes

> Here is a nice quote.
> This line is part of the same code.

Here is a nice quote. This line is part of the same code.

A quote can also nicely align and wrap around when it is a really long one.

10. Inline HTML

You are free to use HTML in your Markdown, and most of the times it’ll work pretty good.

11. Horizontal Rule

Three or more -

---

Hyphens

***

Asterisks

___

Underscores

Three or more -

Hyphens

Asterisks

Underscores

12. Tasklists

Simple tasklists can be generated.

- [x] Write the post
- [ ] Update the repo
- [ ] Push and publish

• Write the post
• Update the repo
• Push and publish

13. Footnotes

Here's a sentence with a footnote. [^1]

Here’s a sentence with a footnote. ¹

A footnote will be created at the very bottom of this page, which you can visit clicking the note attached to the sentence.

14. Definitions

Some Markdown processors allow you to create definition lists of terms and their corresponding definitions as follows.

First Term
: This is the definition of the first term.

Second Term
: This is one definition of the second term.
: This is another definition of the second term.

First Term

This is the definition of the first term.

Second Term

This is one definition of the second term.

This is another definition of the second term.

15. Escaping

You can escape certain characters in Markdown.

\     backslash
\.    dot  
\!    exclamation mark  
\#    hash
\*    asterisk
\+    plus
\-    minus
\_    underscore
\`    backtick
\(\)  parentheses
\[\]  brackets
\{\}  curly brackets  

16. Line Breaks

One Newline won’t break the line in Markdown, you have to hit newline twice or use two spaces after a line for line break.

Here's a line for us to start with.

This line is separated from the one above by two newlines, so it will be a *separate paragraph*.

This line is also a separate paragraph, but...
This line is only separated by a single newline, so it's a separate line in the *same paragraph*.

Here’s a line for us to start with.

This line is separated from the one above by two newlines, so it will be a separate paragraph.

This line is also a separate paragraph, but… This line is only separated by a single newline, so it’s a separate line in the same paragraph.

17. YouTube Videos

Videos can be added directly by just pasting their embed code inside Markdown.

Links and References

• You can try out Markdown directly in your browser here - Dillinger.io.

• Some good practice here.

• A good reference for Markdown - link.

• For the detailed info, you can refer to the official documentation here.

• Markdown - Wikipedia.