Markdown is a simple syntax for formatting text.
Some programs supports parts of it, or a different syntax similar to it. This page describes the features and syntax supported in software from Wolfram Manufacturing Technologies.
Inline formatting
Bold
Surround text with two asterisks on each side, **like this** → like this.
Italic
Surround text with one asterisk on each side, *like this* → like this.
Bold + Italic
Surround text with three asterisks on each side, ***like this*** → like this.
Strikethrough
Surround text with two tildes on each side, ~~like this~~ → like this.
Code
Surround text with backticks (same key as ~`like this` → like this.
Links
URLs are converted to links automatically.
To format text as a link, use the [link text](link URL) format.
Block formatting
Horizontal lines
Draw a horizontal line by placing three asterisks (***) or underscores (___) together on a line. You can also use three dashes (---) on a line surrounded by blank lines above and below it. If you forget the blank lines, the line above the dashes will turn into a heading!
Here's some text.
***
Here's some text under a horizontal line.
___
This text is technically under two horizontal lines.
---
And here's more text under yet a third line.
Bulleted lists
Prefix each line with a dash (-), asterisk (*), or plus (+) to create a bulleted list:
- Coruscant
- Mandalore
- Crait
Numbered lists
Prefix each line with a number followed by a period to create a numbered list. One trick is to use the same number for each item so re-ordering lines doesn't require manually re-numbering them, as the numbers will be changed to increment automatically when displayed:
1. One
1. Two
1. Three
The list will start numbering from the first item's number:
8. Eight
8. Nine
8. Ten
Headings
There are six nested heading levels, in decreasing size:
# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
###### Heading 6
Code blocks
Surround blocks of code with three backticks (```) on their own lines, like this:
This is normal text.
```
This is fixed-width text.
Maybe code, or ASCII art.
Hopefully it's art.
```
This is more normal text.
Images
To display an image, use the labeled link syntax with an exclamation point before it, like this: . Text in the square brackets will be displayed if the image fails to load, and read aloud for users with screen readers.
You can place text in quotes after the URL inside the parentheses to have it appear when hovering over the image: .
To make the image a clickable link, put the image code in the label part of a normal link: [](full size URL).
Tables
Surround each row of the table and divide columns with pipes (|) and use a row of dashes (-) to separate the header row:
| Column A | Column B | Column C |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Row 1 | Row 1 | Row 1 |
| Row 2 | Row 2 | Row 2 |
The table doesn't have to align nicely. This will show up the same as above:
| Column A | Column B | Column C |
|---|---|---|
| Row 1 | Row 1 | Row 1 |
| Row 2 | Row 2 | Row 2 |
You can change the alignment of text inside each column by placing colons in the header separator row.
- Columns are left-aligned by default, like column A below.
- Put one at the start and one at the end to center-align a column, like column B below.
- Just put one at the end to right-align a column, like Column C below.
| Column A | Column B | Column C |
|----------|:--------:|---------:|
| Row 1 | Row 1 | Row 1 |
| Row 2 | Row 2 | Row 2 |
There are online tools (not created, sponsored, or endorsed in any way by Wolfram Manufacturing) for generating markdown tables, such as Tables Generator.
Using Markdown characters without formatting
Sometimes you need to write text that looks like Markdown, but shouldn't be converted to formatting. For example, starting a line with an asterisk (*) to make a footnote reference shouldn't be converted to a bulleted list with a single item.
To do this, prefix the symbol with a backslash (\), like this: \* Will not be a list item.
Prefixing a character with a backslash to prevent it from being parsed as formatting is called escaping the character.