Markdown Guide for Beginners: Write Formatted Text in Minutes

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004. It lets you write formatted text using plain characters — asterisks for bold, hashes for headings, hyphens for lists — which then renders as HTML. It's used by GitHub, Reddit, Notion, Discord, and millions of documentation sites.

Why Learn Markdown?

• Fast to write — No clicking toolbar buttons, just type symbols
• Readable in raw form — Unlike HTML, raw Markdown is easy to read
• Universal — GitHub, Notion, Slack, Reddit all support Markdown
• Version-control friendly — Plain text diffs cleanly in Git

Headings

Use # symbols to create headings. The number of # symbols determines the level:

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4

Bold and Italic

**Bold text**
*Italic text*
***Bold and italic***
~~Strikethrough~~

Result: Bold text, Italic text, Bold and italic, Strikethrough

Lists

Unordered list

- First item
- Second item
  - Nested item
- Third item

Ordered list

1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step

Links and Images

[Link text](https://example.com)
![Image alt text](https://example.com/image.png)

Code

Inline code

Use the `console.log()` function to debug.

Code block

```javascript
function hello(name) {
  return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}
```

Blockquotes

> This is a blockquote.
> It can span multiple lines.

Tables

| Name  | Age | City    |
|-------|-----|---------|
| Alice | 28  | London  |
| Bob   | 34  | Sydney  |

Horizontal Rule

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Markdown Cheatsheet

Practice writing Markdown and see it render instantly with our free Markdown Preview tool — no signup needed.