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Bryan C Guner
Bryan C Guner

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Ultimate Markdown Cheatsheet

Ultimate Markdown Cheat Sheet

Table of contents

Standard features

The following markdown features are defined by the [CommonMark][] standard, and are generally supported by all markdown parsers and editors.

Headings

Headings from h1 through h6 are constructed with a # for each level:

# h1 Heading
## h2 Heading
### h3 Heading
#### h4 Heading
##### h5 Heading
###### h6 Heading
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Renders to this HTML:

<h1>h1 Heading</h1>
<h2>h2 Heading</h2>
<h3>h3 Heading</h3>
<h4>h4 Heading</h4>
<h5>h5 Heading</h5>
<h6>h6 Heading</h6>
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Which looks like this in the browser:

h1 Heading

h2 Heading

h3 Heading

h4 Heading

h5 Heading
h6 Heading

A note about "Setext" Headings

Note that this document only describes ATX headings, as it is the preferred syntax for writing headings. However, the CommonMark specification also describes Setext headings, a heading format that is denoted by a line of dashes or equal signes following the heading. It's recommended by the author of this guide that you use only ATX headings, as they are easier to write and read in text editors, and are less likeley to conflict with other syntaxes and demarcations from language extensions.

Paragraphs

Body copy written as normal plain-text will be wrapped with <p></p> tags in the rendered HTML.

So this:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, graecis denique ei vel, at duo primis mandamus. Et legere ocurreret pri, animal tacimates complectitur ad cum. Cu eum inermis inimicus efficiendi. Labore officiis his ex, soluta officiis concludaturque ei qui, vide sensibus vim ad.
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Renders to this HTML:

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, graecis denique ei vel, at duo primis mandamus. Et legere ocurreret pri, animal tacimates complectitur ad cum. Cu eum inermis inimicus efficiendi. Labore officiis his ex, soluta officiis concludaturque ei qui, vide sensibus vim ad.</p>
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Breaks

You can use multiple consecutive newline characters (\n) to create extra spacing between sections in a markdown document. However, if you need to ensure that extra newlines are not collapsed, you can use as many HTML <br> elements as you want.

Horizontal Rule

The HTML <hr> element is for creating a "thematic break" between paragraph-level elements. In markdown, you can use of the following for this purpose:

  • ___: three consecutive underscores
  • ---: three consecutive dashes
  • ***: three consecutive asterisks

Renders to:

Emphasis

Bold

For emphasizing a snippet of text with a heavier font-weight.

The following snippet of text is rendered as bold text.

**rendered as bold text**
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renders to:

rendered as bold text

and this HTML

<strong>rendered as bold text</strong>
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Italics

For emphasizing a snippet of text with italics.

The following snippet of text is rendered as italicized text.

_rendered as italicized text_
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renders to:

rendered as italicized text

and this HTML:

<em>rendered as italicized text</em>
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Blockquotes

Used for defining a section of quoting text from another source, within your document.

To create a blockquote, use > before any text you want to quote.

> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante
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Renders to:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante.

And the generated HTML from a markdown parser might look something like this:

<blockquote>
  <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante.</p>
</blockquote>
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Blockquotes can also be nested:

> Donec massa lacus, ultricies a ullamcorper in, fermentum sed augue.
Nunc augue augue, aliquam non hendrerit ac, commodo vel nisi.
>> Sed adipiscing elit vitae augue consectetur a gravida nunc vehicula. Donec auctor
odio non est accumsan facilisis. Aliquam id turpis in dolor tincidunt mollis ac eu diam.
>>> Donec massa lacus, ultricies a ullamcorper in, fermentum sed augue.
Nunc augue augue, aliquam non hendrerit ac, commodo vel nisi.
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Renders to:

Donec massa lacus, ultricies a ullamcorper in, fermentum sed augue.
Nunc augue augue, aliquam non hendrerit ac, commodo vel nisi.

Sed adipiscing elit vitae augue consectetur a gravida nunc vehicula. Donec auctor
odio non est accumsan facilisis. Aliquam id turpis in dolor tincidunt mollis ac eu diam.

Donec massa lacus, ultricies a ullamcorper in, fermentum sed augue.
Nunc augue augue, aliquam non hendrerit ac, commodo vel nisi.


Lists

Unordered Lists

A list of items in which the order of the items does not explicitly matter.

You may use any of the following symbols to denote bullets for each list item:

* valid bullet
- valid bullet
+ valid bullet
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For example

+ Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
+ Consectetur adipiscing elit
+ Integer molestie lorem at massa
+ Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
+ Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  - Phasellus iaculis neque
  - Purus sodales ultricies
  - Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
  - Ac tristique libero volutpat at
+ Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
+ Aenean sit amet erat nunc
+ Eget porttitor lorem
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Renders to:

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • Integer molestie lorem at massa
  • Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  • Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    • Phasellus iaculis neque
    • Purus sodales ultricies
    • Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
    • Ac tristique libero volutpat at
  • Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  • Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  • Eget porttitor lorem

And this HTML

<ul>
  <li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</li>
  <li>Consectetur adipiscing elit</li>
  <li>Integer molestie lorem at massa</li>
  <li>Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet</li>
  <li>Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    <ul>
      <li>Phasellus iaculis neque</li>
      <li>Purus sodales ultricies</li>
      <li>Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem</li>
      <li>Ac tristique libero volutpat at</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel</li>
  <li>Aenean sit amet erat nunc</li>
  <li>Eget porttitor lorem</li>
</ul>
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Ordered Lists

A list of items in which the order of items does explicitly matter.

1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
8. Eget porttitor lorem
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Renders to:

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem

And this HTML:

<ol>
  <li>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</li>
  <li>Consectetur adipiscing elit</li>
  <li>Integer molestie lorem at massa</li>
  <li>Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet</li>
  <li>Nulla volutpat aliquam velit</li>
  <li>Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel</li>
  <li>Aenean sit amet erat nunc</li>
  <li>Eget porttitor lorem</li>
</ol>
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Time-saving Tip!

Sometimes lists change, and when they do it's a pain to re-order all of the numbers. Markdown solves this problem by allowing you to simply use 1. before each item in the list.

For example:

1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
1. Consectetur adipiscing elit
1. Integer molestie lorem at massa
1. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
1. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
1. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
1. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
1. Eget porttitor lorem
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Automatically re-numbers the items and renders to:

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem

Code

Inline code

Wrap inline snippets of code with a single backtick: `.

For example, to show <div></div> inline with other text, just wrap it in backticks.

html
For example, to show

inline with other text, just wrap it in backticks.

"Fenced" code block

Three consecutive backticks, referred to as "code fences", are used to denote multiple lines of code: `.

For example, this:

```html
Example text here...
```

Renders to something like this in HTML:

`html

  
Example text here...

`

And appears like this when viewed in a browser:

`
Example text here...
`

Indented code

You may also indent several lines of code by at least four spaces, but this is not recommended as it is harder to read, harder to maintain, and doesn't support syntax highlighting.

Example:

`
// Some comments
line 1 of code
line 2 of code
line 3 of code
`

// Some comments
line 1 of code
line 2 of code
line 3 of code
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Syntax highlighting

Various markdown parsers, such as remarkable, support syntax highlighting with fenced code blocks. To activate the correct styling for the language inside the code block, simply add the file extension of the language you want to use directly after the first code "fence": `js, and syntax highlighting will automatically be applied in the rendered HTML (if supported by the parser). For example, to apply syntax highlighting to JavaScript code:

```js
grunt.initConfig({
  assemble: {
    options: {
      assets: 'docs/assets',
      data: 'src/data/*.{json,yml}',
      helpers: 'src/custom-helpers.js',
      partials: ['src/partials/**/*.{hbs,md}']
    },
    pages: {
      options: {
        layout: 'default.hbs'
      },
      files: {
        './': ['src/templates/pages/index.hbs']
      }
    }
  }
});
```

Which renders to:

js
grunt.initConfig({
assemble: {
options: {
assets: 'docs/assets',
data: 'src/data/*.{json,yml}',
helpers: 'src/custom-helpers.js',
partials: ['src/partials/**/*.{hbs,md}']
},
pages: {
options: {
layout: 'default.hbs'
},
files: {
'./': ['src/templates/pages/index.hbs']
}
}
}
});

And this complicated HTML is an example of what might be generated by the markdown parser, when syntax highlighting is applied by a library like highlight.js:

`xml

grunt.initConfig({
  assemble: {
    options: {
      assets: 'docs/assets',
      data: 'src/data/*.{json,yml}',
      helpers: 'src/custom-helpers.js',
      partials: ['src/partials/**/*.{hbs,md}']
    },
    pages: {
      options: {
        layout: 'default.hbs'
      },
      files: {
        './': ['src/templates/pages/index.hbs']
      }
    }
  }
});
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`

Links

Autolinks

Autolinks are absolute URIs and email addresses inside < and >. They are parsed as links, where the URI or email address itself is used as the link's label.


<http://foo.bar.baz>

Renders to:

http://foo.bar.baz

URIs or email addresses that are not wrapped in angle brackets are not recognized as valid autolinks by markdown parsers.

Inline links


[Assemble](http://assemble.io)

Renders to (hover over the link, there is no tooltip):

Assemble

HTML:

html
<a href="http://assemble.io">Assemble</a>

Link titles


[Assemble](https://github.com/assemble/ "Visit Assemble!")

Renders to (hover over the link, there should be a tooltip):

Assemble

HTML:

html
<a href="https://github.com/assemble/" title="Visit Assemble!">Assemble</a>

Named Anchors

Named anchors enable you to jump to the specified anchor point on the same page.

For example, the following "chapter" links:

`

Table of Contents

...will jump to these sections:

`

Chapter 1

Content for chapter one.

Chapter 2

Content for chapter one.

Chapter 3

Content for chapter one.
`

Anchor placement

Note that placement of achors is arbitrary, you can put them anywhere you want, not just in headings. This makes adding cross-references easy when writing markdown.

Images

Images have a similar syntax to links but include a preceding exclamation point.


![Minion](http://octodex.github.com/images/minion.png)

Minion

or


![Alt text](http://octodex.github.com/images/stormtroopocat.jpg "The Stormtroopocat")

Alt text

Like links, Images also have a footnote style syntax


![Alt text][id]

Alt text

With a reference later in the document defining the URL location:

`

`

Raw HTML

Any text between < and > that looks like an HTML tag will be parsed as a raw HTML tag and rendered to HTML without escaping.

(Note that markdown parsers do not attempt to validate your HTML).

Example:


**Visit <a href="https://github.com">Jon Schlinkert's GitHub Profile</a>.**

Renders to:

Visit Jon Schlinkert's GitHub Profile.

Escaping with backslashes

Any ASCII punctuation character may be escaped using a single backslash.

Example:


\*this is not italic*

Renders to:

*this is not italic*

Non-standard features

The following markdown features are not defined by the [CommonMark][] specification, but they are commonly supported by markdown parsers and editors, as well as sites like GitHub and GitLab.

Strikethrough

In GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) you can do strickthroughs.


~~Strike through this text.~~

Which renders to:

Strike through this text.

Todo List

`

  • [ ] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • [ ] Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • [ ] Integer molestie lorem at massa `

Renders to:

  • [ ] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • [ ] Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • [ ] Integer molestie lorem at massa

Links in todo lists

`

Renders to:

Tables

Tables are created by adding pipes as dividers between each cell, and by adding a line of dashes (also separated by bars) beneath the header (this line of dashes is required).

  • pipes do not need to be vertically aligned.
  • pipes on the left and right sides of the table are sometimes optional
  • three or more dashes must be used for each cell in the separator row (between the table header and body)
  • the left and right pipes are optional with some markdown parsers

Example:


| Option | Description |
| --- | --- |
| data | path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates. |
| engine | engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default. |
| ext | extension to be used for dest files. |

Renders to:

Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

And this HTML:

`html

Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

`

Aligning cells

Center text in a column

To center the text in a column, add a colon to the middle of the dashes in the row beneath the header.


| Option | Description |
| -:- | -:- |
| data | path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates. |
| engine | engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default. |
| ext | extension to be used for dest files. |

| Option | Description |
| -:- | -:- |
| data | path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates. |
| engine | engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default. |
| ext | extension to be used for dest files. |

Right-align the text in a column

To right-align the text in a column, add a colon to the middle of the dashes in the row beneath the header.


| Option | Description |
| --: | --:|
| data | path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates. |
| engine | engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default. |
| ext | extension to be used for dest files. |

Renders to:

Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

Footnotes

Markdown footnotes are not officially suppored by the [CommonMark][] specification. However, the feature is supported by [remarkable][] and other markdown parsers, and it's very useful when available.

Markdown footnotes are denoted by an opening square bracket, followed by a caret, followed by a number and a closing square bracket: [^1].


This is some text[^1] with a footnote reference link.

The accompanying text for the footnote can be added elsewhere in the document using the following syntax:


When rendered to HTML, footnotes are "stacked" by the markdown parser at the bottom of the file, in the order in which the footnotes were defined.

Inline footnotes

Some markdown parsers like [Remarkable][remarkable] also support inline footnotes. Inline footnotes are written using the following syntax: [^2 "This is an inline footnote"].

Additional Information

What is markdown?

Markdown is "a plain text format for writing structured documents, based on formatting conventions from email and usenet" -- [CommonMark][]

Sites like GitHub and Stackoverflow have popularized the use markdown as a plain-text alternative to traditional text editors, for writing things like documentation and comments.

Other Resources

  • We've been trained to make paper - A great blog post about why markdown frees us from the shackles of proprietary formats imposed by bloated word processors, such as Microsoft Word.
  • CommonMark - "A strongly defined, highly compatible specification of Markdown"

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