How to Use Markdown | WIRED

Whether they post To RedditPresent discordor GirubThere is only one way to add formatting: Markdown. If you would like to add a link, fat text or even text into paragraphs, you must know the basics of this text -based formatting system.

Does that sound scary? Trust me, it’s not like that. Markdown contains only a few rules for formatting text as desired, and you only have to learn the rules for formatting that you actually use.

Let us go through the simple rules, talk about why Markdown is useful, and look at some resources with which you can continue with the Markdown.

The basics of the Markdown

Markdown is a way to apply a rich formatting to plain text by adding certain characters. On platforms such as Discord or Reddit, where messages are short and relatively simple, you really only have to learn a few basics:

• To italic Text, one asterisk before and after, *like this *
• To clearly Text, enter two asterisks in front of and then, ** like this **
• To include a link, give up the text of the link in square brackets, followed by the URL in brackets. [Like this](https://justinpot.com/)
• To add an image, start with an exclamation mark, with the square bracket containing a description of the image and the brackets with a link to an image file
• To start a new paragraph, press twice so that there is a clear line between the current and the next line of text.

The five tips above are more than enough for things like Reddit and discord. Even if you enter such a code like this, if your contribution is published, you will only see the Rich-Text formatting with links and pictures.

However, if you use Markdown to write entire documents, you need some document -specific tools. Here are the keys:

• To create a header (like the large text “The Fundamentals of the Marka”) displayed in this article, start a text line with a pound sign, followed by a room, # like this.
• Use smaller header, use more pound signs, ## like this for H2 or ### like this for H3 and so on. The more pound signs you add, the smaller your header text.
• To create a ball list, simply start a text line with an asterisk, followed by a room like this. You can add as many balls to your list to your list as you want.
• To use a list element, set a tab in front of the asterisk. To continue using, simply add more tabs.
• To create a numbered list, start a line of text with a number and a period, 1. SO.
• To submit a numbered list element, add a tab in front of the number. To continue using, simply add more tabs.
• To add a block offer to your document, simply start a text link with a “larger” sign like this.

This covers most of what you need to know to write a document in Markdown. If you are confused what this formatting will look like, it helps to play and see the results. A great website to do this is MarkdownlivePreview.com. The left field shows the Markdown, while the right side shows how it will look. Try a little different things there and you will feel much more comfortable.

Why use Markdown at all?

All of this could ask you: Why do websites force people to learn a slightly esoteric way of formating text? And the answer is that this system, even if it is a bit confusing at first, is very simple and clear as soon as you get used to it.

Most people get used to writing tools such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs on a computer. There are both text processing programs, ie they are created so that they represent a printed page on their screen. You will also be “what you get” -or WysiwyG editors -that the formatting is displayed directly on the screen. If you have a text fat, see it on the screen as brave. If you add a link, you will see that the linked text is underlined and blue becomes like on a website. There is no way to recognize by looking at the text yourself, in which fat print and ends or the goal of the left.

This may seem intuitive, and to be fair, there is a simplicity. However, this simplicity is made possible by code that the user does not see, and the fact that the code is kept behind the scenes can be confused in a way. Anyone who has tried to add a few words at the end of a left or directly after a link knows that this ambiguity can be frustrating – they will either accidentally intend to do the link or the opposite and add the non -linked text. This does not happen when writing in Markdown, as you can clearly see where all formatting begins and ends.

Markdown files are also future-proof. Since the entire scheme for formatting, linking and document structure is written in plain language, a format that has not changed for decades and has not belonged to no company, you can be reasonably certain that anyone who finds a Markdown file in 50 years can make sense. The same does not apply via Microsoft Office files.