Writing in Markdown

Markdown lets you write a structured document with plain text: no toolbar, just a few signs. It has become the default language for READMEs, notes and many writing tools.

The essentials

• # Title, ## Subtitle for hierarchy
• **bold** and *italic* for emphasis
• - item for a bullet list, 1. item for a numbered list
• [text](url) for a link, `code` for inline code

💡 Anecdote - With no single spec, implementations diverged; CommonMark (2014), driven in part by a Stack Overflow co-founder, tried to get everyone to agree.

Why it's handy

The file stays readable even without rendering, versions cleanly (a Markdown diff is readable), and converts to HTML everywhere. You write the content, the tool handles the form.

Preview as you go

The best way to learn is to see the rendering live. Our Markdown preview shows the result next to your text, instantly and locally, without sending anything

🤓 Did you know? Markdown was created in 2004 by John Gruber with help from Aaron Swartz - the future Reddit co-founder and open-web activist - who contributed to the first implementation.