Markdown for Media

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What is Markdown?
What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language designed to format plain text in a way that is easy to read and write. Created in 2004 by John Gruber in collaboration with Aaron Swartz, Markdown offers a simpler alternative to HTML for formatting text. Its simplicity and ease of use have made it popular for a wide range of applications, from writing README files and technical documentation to authoring blog posts and content management systems.

Key Features

Here are some of the key features and common elements you might encounter in Markdown:

1. Headers: Defined using hash symbols (#). The number of hashes indicates the level of the header, from # for an <h1> to ###### for an <h6>.

markdown

# Header 1

## Header 2

### Header 3

2. Paragraphs: Simply separated by one or more blank lines.

markdown

This is a paragraph.

This is another paragraph.

3. Emphasis: Use asterisks (*) or underscores (_) for emphasis.

markdown

*italic* or _italic_

**bold** or __bold__

4. Lists: Use asterisks, plus, or hyphens for unordered lists; numbers for ordered lists.

markdown

- Item 1

- Item 2

- Sub-item 1

1. First

2. Second

5. Links: Inline links are defined with square brackets for the linked text and regular parentheses for the URL.

markdown

[Google](http://www.google.com)

6. Images: Similar to links but prefixed with an exclamation mark.

markdown

![Alt text](url)

7. Code: Inline code is wrapped in backticks (`). Code blocks are either indented with four spaces or fenced by three backticks.

markdown

Inline `code`

Code block

9. Blockquotes: Use the > symbol before the text.

markdown

> This is a quote.

9 Horizontal Rules: Use three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores.

markdown

---

Markdown Flavors

There are multiple "flavors" or variations of Markdown that add additional features like tables, footnotes, and task lists. Examples include GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM), CommonMark, and MultiMarkdown, among others.

Use Cases

README files

Technical documentation

Content writing & blogging

Forum and discussion board posts

Note-taking

Academic writing

Email formatting

Advantages

Easy to learn and write

Readable as plain text

Portable across different applications and platforms

Extensible and customizable with various flavors and extensions

Markdown files usually have the .md or .markdown extension and can be converted to various formats (HTML, PDF, Word, etc.) using specialized software like Pandoc or integrated development environments (IDEs) that support Markdown rendering.

Key Features

1. Headers: Defined using hash symbols (#). The number of hashes indicates the level of the header, from # for an <h1> to ###### for an <h6>.

2. Paragraphs: Simply separated by one or more blank lines.

3. Emphasis: Use asterisks (*) or underscores (_) for emphasis.

4. Lists: Use asterisks, plus, or hyphens for unordered lists; numbers for ordered lists.

5. Links: Inline links are defined with square brackets for the linked text and regular parentheses for the URL.

7. Code: Inline code is wrapped in backticks (`). Code blocks are either indented with four spaces or fenced by three backticks.

9. Blockquotes: Use the > symbol before the text.

9 Horizontal Rules: Use three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores.

Markdown Flavors

Use Cases

Advantages