Markdown Basics

Markdown is a simple markup language for creating formatted text in a plain-text editor. Conventionally, readme files are written in markdown and saved with the .md extension. Github looks for a readme.md file and displays it under the bottom of the code tab of a repository.

Simple examples are given below for:

More advanced uses can be found at this cheat sheet. You can play around and see your output live on this online live editor or with VSCode.


Headings

Heading are indicated with # signs, which correspond to h1, h2, … , h6 in html.

Markdown

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
###### Heading 6

Result


Bold & Italic

Markdown

Single *Asterisks* or _underscore_ on each side of the word makes it italic,
Double **asterisks** or __underscores__ make it bold,
Triple ***asterisks*** or ___underscores___ make it italic and bold.

Result

Single Asterisks or underscore on each side of the word makes it italic,
Double asterisks or underscores make it bold,
Triple asterisks or underscores make it italic and bold.


Markdown

You can put the link [inline](https://www.google.com) or put the link in angle brackets like so <https://cacarer.com>.

Result

You can put the link inline or put the link in angle brackets like so https://cacarer.com.


Lists

Markdown

Bulleted Lists (unordered list in html) can be made using:
* asterisks
- minuses
+ or pluses
  + Just put a tab to make a sublist item.

Ordered lists can be made using numbers followed by a period:
1. Numbers, any numbers,
1. and they will be displayed ordered
2. as an <ol> element in html.

Result

Bulleted lists (unordered list in html) can be made using:

  • asterisks,
  • minuses,
  • or pluses.
    • Just put a tab to make a sublist item.

Ordered lists can be made using numbers followed by a period:

  1. Numbers, any numbers.
  2. and they will be displayed ordered
  3. as an <ol> element in html.

Images

Markdown

You can add a picture with Profile as the alt text using:
![Profile](https://cacarer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/profile.jpg)

Result

You can add a picture with Profile as the alt text using:


These are only the simples use cases for writing a basic Readme.md file. You can make links and images with titles, add links with references, mix and match ordered and unordered lists, add tables, highlight codes and much more. These advanced uses can be found at this cheat sheet written by Adam Pritchard on GitHub.