Online Markdown Editor

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax aimed at making writing for the internet easier. The philosophy behind Markdown is that plain text documents should be readable without tags mussing everything up, but there should still be ways to add text modifiers like lists, bold, italics, etc. It is an alternative to WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors, which use rich text that later gets converted to proper HTML.

It’s possible you’ve encountered Markdown without realizing it. Facebook chat, Skype, and Reddit all let you use different flavors of Markdown to format your messages.

Here’s a quick example: to make words bold using Markdown, you simply enclose them in * (asterisks). So, *bold word* would look like bold word when everything is said and done.

All told, Markdown is a great way to write for the web using plain text.

Markdown Guide

This is a quick reference for Markdown syntax. A more complete guide can be found on GitHub.

Basic Formatting

• Bold: **Bold**
• Emphasized: *Emphasized*
• Strikethrough: ~~Strikethrough~~
• Horizontal rules: --- (three hyphens),*** (three asterisks), or ___ (three underscores).

Headings

All heading levels (e.g. H1, H2, etc), are marked by # at the beginning of a line. For example, an H1 is # Heading 1 and an H2 is ## Heading 2. This continues to ###### Heading 6.

Links

Links can be created using several methods:

• Links can be [inline](https://www.53lu.com)
• Inline links can [have a title](https://www.53lu.com "Awesome Markdown Converter")
• Also, there can be reference links that allow the URL to be placed later in the document:
  • Here is a [reference link][markdown editor] that links to this site.
  • References are case-insensitive (for example [this link][markdown editor] works).
  • References can also [use numbers][1].
  • Or leave it empty and use the [link text itself].
• Also, you can use relative links [like this](../blob/master/LICENSE.txt).
• URLs and URLs in angle brackets will automatically get turned into links: https://www.53lu.com or <https://www.53lu.com>.

URLs for reference links are somewhere later in the document like this:

[markdown editor]: https://www.53lu.com
[1]: https://www.53lu.com
[link text itself]: https://www.53lu.com

Images

Images can also be inline or use a reference style, similar to links. Simply prepend an exclamation point to turn the link into an image. For example:

Images with the full URL: ![alt text](https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/v/13.1.0/72x72/1f354.png)

Or, a reference-style image: ![alt text][bears].

[bears]: https://twemoji.maxcdn.com/v/13.1.0/72x72/1f354.png

Lists (Ordered Lists and Unordered Lists)

Lists are made by using indentation and a beginning-of-line marker to indicate a list item. For example, unordered lists are made like this:

* One item
* Another item
  * A sub-item
    * A deeper item
  * Back in sub-item land
* And back at the main level

Unordered lists can use an asterisk (*), plus (+), or minus (-) to indicate each list item.

Ordered lists use a number at the beginning of the line. The numbers do not need to be incremented - this will happen for you automatically by the HTML. That makes it easier to re-order your ordered lists (in markdown) as needed.

Also, ordered and unordered lists can be nested within each other. For example:

* One item
* Another item
  1. A nested ordered list
  1. This is the second item
    * And now an unordered list as its child
    * Another item in this list
  1. One more in the ordered list
* And back at the main level

Code and Syntax Highlighting

Inline code uses `backticks` around it. Code blocks are either fenced by three backticks (```) or indented four spaces. For example:

```
var foo = 'bar';

function baz(s) {
   return foo + ':' + s;
}
```

Blockquotes

Use > to offset text as a blockquote. For example:

> This is some part of a blockquote.
> Some more stuff.

Will produce:

This is some part of a blockquote. Some more stuff.