Must-Know Markdown Skills

Dinesh Thangavel
3 min read

Markdown is a lightweight markup language that you can use to add formatting elements to plaintext text documents. In this post, we'll cover some essential Markdown skills that every writer should know.

You can create headers using the # symbol. The number of # symbols indicates the header level:

Header 1

Header 2

Header 3

2. Emphasis

You can add emphasis to your text using asterisks or underscores:

This text will be italic This will also be italic

This text will be bold This will also be bold

You can combine them

3. Lists

Unordered Lists

You can create unordered lists using asterisks, plus signs, or hyphens:

  • Item 1
  • Item 2
    • Subitem 2.1
    • Subitem 2.2

Ordered Lists

For ordered lists, simply use numbers:

  1. First item
  2. Second item
  3. Third item
    1. Subitem 3.1
    2. Subitem 3.2

4. Links

You can create links using square brackets for the link text and parentheses for the URL:

Visit OpenAI

You can also add title text to links:

Visit Google

5. Images

To add an image, use an exclamation mark, followed by alt text in brackets, and the path or URL to the image in parentheses:

Alt text for the image

To center an image, we need to use HTML:

6. Code

For inline code, use backticks:

Use the print() function in Python.

For code blocks, use triple backticks:

def greet(name):
    print(f"Hello, {name}!")

greet("World")

7. Blockquotes

To create a blockquote, use the > symbol:

This is a blockquote. It can span multiple lines.

It can also have multiple paragraphs.

8. Horizontal Rules

You can create horizontal rules using three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores:

9. Tables

You can create tables using pipes and hyphens:

| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 | |----------|----------|----------| | Row 1, Col 1 | Row 1, Col 2 | Row 1, Col 3 | | Row 2, Col 1 | Row 2, Col 2 | Row 2, Col 3 |

10. Task Lists

You can create task lists using brackets with a space or an 'x':

  • [x] Write the press release
  • [ ] Update the website
  • [ ] Contact the media

12. Strikethrough

You can strike through text using two tildes:

~~This text is no longer valid~~

Conclusion

These are some of the most commonly used Markdown features. By mastering these, you'll be able to create well-formatted documents quickly and easily. Remember, the exact rendering of Markdown can vary depending on the platform or processor you're using, so always preview your work!

Happy Markdown writing!