Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, which then converts to valid HTML for viewing on GitHub

Basic writing

Paragraphs

Paragraphs in Markdown are just one or more lines of consecutive text followed by one or more blank lines.

On July 2, an alien mothership entered Earth's orbit and deployed several dozen saucer-shaped "destroyer" spacecraft, each 15 miles (24 km) wide.

On July 3, the Black Knights, a squadron of Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets, participated in an assault on a destroyer near the city of Los Angeles.

Headings

You can create a heading by adding one or more # symbols before your heading text. The number of # you use will determine the size of the heading.

# The largest heading (an <h1> tag)
## The second largest heading (an <h2> tag)
…
###### The 6th largest heading (an <h6> tag)

Blockquotes

You can indicate blockquotes with a >.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln:

> Pardon my french

Styling text

You can make text bold or italic.

*This text will be italic*
**This text will be bold**

Both bold and italic can use either a * or an _ around the text for styling. This allows you to combine both bold and italic if needed.

**Everyone _must_ attend the meeting at 5 o'clock today.**

Lists

Unordered lists

You can make an unordered list by preceding list items with either a * or a -.

* Item
* Item
* Item

- Item
- Item
- Item

Ordered lists

You can make an ordered list by preceding list items with a number.

1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3

Links

You can create an inline link, by wrapping link text in brackets ( [ ] ), and then wrapping the link in parenthesis ( ( ) ).

For example, to create a hyperlink to www.github.com, with a link text that says, Visit GitHub!, you'd write this in Markdown: [Visit GitHub!](www.github.com).

See also