Markdown syntax guide

Headings

The following HTML <h1>—<h6> elements represent six levels of section headings.

Example:

# This is an H1 - Do not use - Defined by title/description front matter
## This is an H2 - added to table of contents
### This is an H3 - added to table of contents
#### This is an H4
##### This is an H5 - label
###### This is an H6

Result:

This is an H2 - added to table of contents

This is an H3 - added to table of contents

This is an H4

This is an H5 - label

This is an H6

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are separated by empty lines. To create a new paragraph, press <return> twice.

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2

Character styles

Example:

*Italic characters*
_Italic characters_
**bold characters**
__bold characters__
~~strikethrough text~~

Result:

Italic characters
Italic characters
bold characters
bold characters
strikethrough text

Unordered list

Example:

-  Item 1
-  Item 2
-  Item 3
    -  Item 3a
    -  Item 3b
    -  Item 3c

Result:

• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3
  • Item 3a
  • Item 3b
  • Item 3c

Ordered list

Example:

1.  Step 1
1.  Step 2
1.  Step 3
    1.  Step 3.1
    1.  Step 3.2
    1.  Step 3.3

Result:

1. Step 1
2. Step 2
3. Step 3
   1. Step 3.1
   2. Step 3.2
   3. Step 3.3

Inline code characters

Use the backtick to refer to a `function()`.

There is a literal ``backtick (`)`` here.

Code blocks

Example:

Indent every line of the block by at least 4 spaces.
This is a normal paragraph:
    This is a code block.
    With multiple lines.

Alternatively, you can use 3 backtick quote marks before and after the block, like this:

Example:

    ```
    This is a code block using 3 backticks
    ```

Result:

This is a code block using 3 backticks

Example:

To add syntax highlighting to a code block, add the name of the language immediately
after the backticks: 

```javascript
var oldUnload = window.onbeforeunload;
window.onbeforeunload = function() {
    saveCoverage();
    if (oldUnload) {
        return oldUnload.apply(this, arguments);
    }
};
```

Result:

var oldUnload = window.onbeforeunload;
window.onbeforeunload = function() {
    saveCoverage();
    if (oldUnload) {
        return oldUnload.apply(this, arguments);
    }
};

Links to external websites

Example:

This is [an example](http://www.example.com/) inline link.

[This link](http://example.com/ "Title") has a title attribute.

Links are also auto-detected in text: http://example.com/

Result:

This is an example inline link.

This link has a title attribute.

Links are also auto-detected in text: http://example.com/

Images

Inline image syntax looks like this:

Example:

![Alt text](/path/to/image.jpg)
![Alt text](/path/to/image.png "Optional tool tip")
![Alt text](/url/to/image.jpg)

Tables

Example:

| Day     | Meal    | Price |
| --------|---------|-------|
| Monday  | pasta   | $6    |
| Tuesday | chicken | $8    |

Result:

Backslash escapes

Certain characters can be escaped with a preceding backslash to preserve the literal display of a character instead of its special Markdown meaning. This applies to the following characters:

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

More information

• Learn Markdown
• goldmark Spec
• CommonMark help
• CommonMark specification