Tools - Markdown

Markdown is a writing language that you can use to add formatting elements to plain text. It is widely used on the internet (e.g. github or reddit) for formatting documents and can be used to create websites. In fact this website is written in markdown (Figure 1) and stored as simple textfiles that are rendered into html.

Unlike a text editor (like Microsoft Word or Google Docs), in which you click buttons on a graphical user interface to produce a layout on the screen, markdown uses typed commands to achieve the same thing. For example, bold text is written by placing it between two asterisks (e.g. **this text is bold**) and headings are indicated with a hash (e.g. # Heading One).

Have a look at the image below and try to identify which elements produce what.

Figure 1: Markdown sourcecode for this website

Markdown resources

Getting used to markdown can take a bit of time, but there are many resources

• This Markdown Cheat Sheet provides an overview of all the Markdown elements
• Dillinger.io is one of several online markdown editors that work in your browser and that will immediately show you the formatting of your text.