What is Markdown? It is a lightweight markup language (ironic) that is used to add formatting elements to plain text documents. It was created by John Gruber in 2004 and is dead easy. It can be seen for example as the README.md on Github, or even writing this article in Hashnode.
Start using Markdown by using snippets of code to style documents, such as using a hash (#) to denote a heading or two asterisks (**) to create bold text. Lets run through some of the most common formatting elements that can be used right now!
Headings
Just add the number of hashes (#) to show the heading level.
# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
Text Formatting
Simply use two asterisks (**) for bold and one (*) for italicized text. Using the greater than symbol (>) for a block quote and two greater than symbols (>>) can be used to nest a block quote.
**bold text**- bold text*italicized text*- italicized text> blockquoteblockquote
Lists
Ordered List
Ordered lists are simple, just number the list with a full stop (.) after the number.
1.2.3.
Unordered List
Unordered list are just as simple. Use a dash (-), a plus symbol (+) or asterisks (*).
-+*
Code Snippet
A code snippet is used by wrapping the code with back ticks (`).
`code`
Code Block
A code block is just a simple as a code snippet, just wrap the code with three back ticks (```)
```
Code goes here
```
Link
Add the name of the link in square brackets [name] then add the link in bracket (link).
title - [title](https://www.example.com)
Images
has the same syntax as a link but uses an exclamation mark (!).
That's it. Just enough snippets to make Markdown dangerous. Check out this documentation for more information.