An Introduction to Markdown in Standard Technical English
Table of Contents
Markdown - Introduction
In this simple introduction, you will learn the basics of Markdown language. You will need about two hours to learn the basics.
Line Break
What is Line Break?
A “line break” creates paragraphs in your text.
How to Create Line Break
Use the following methods to create paragraphs with line breaks:
- Press the ENTER key twice at the end of the paragraph
- Press the SPACE BAR twice. Then, press the ENTER key
Bold
What is Bold?
“Bold” creates a text, which is highglighted with thick letters.
How to Create Text in Bold
Use the asterisk “**” or underline “__” symbols around the text which you want to highlight in bold:
**formatted text**__formatted text__
Italic
What is Italic?
“Italic” creates a text, which is highlighted with slanted letters.
How to Create Text in Italic
Use the asterisk “*” or underline “_” symbols around the text which you want to highlight in italic:
*formatted text*_formatted text_
Header
What is a Header?
A “header” is a title of a section. There are six types of headers. Each type of the header is in a different size.
How to Create a Header
Use the hash symbol “#” to create a header. To create a header in smaller size, use the symbol more times:
# Title size 1## Title size 2### Title size 3#### Title size 4##### Title size 5###### Title size 6
Press the ENTER key twice at the end of the header to finish the title.
Link
What is a Link?
A “link” is a function to send you to other objects. The objects can be:
- A website on the Internet
- A file in a GitHub repository
- An image in a GitHub repository
- An image on the Internet
- A header in the current text
How to Create a Link
A link needs two elements to work:
- The text of the link
- The address of the object you want to link to
The text of the link is placed in square brackets. Square brackets are “[” and “]”.
The address of the object you want to link to is placed in rounded brackets. Rounded brackets are “(“ and “)”.
Use the following combinations of texts and addresses to create links:
- a website on the Internet:
[Text](Internet address) - a file in a GitHub repository:
[Text](address to the file in a GitHub repository) - an image in a GitHub repository:
[Text](address to the image file in a GitHub repository)- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- an image on the Internet:
[Text](address to the image file on the Internet)- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- a header in the current text:
[Text](address to the header in the current text)
You can find examples of the code for links below:
- a website on the Internet:
[Translatorion](https://translatorion.com/language/en/translatorion/) - a file in a GitHub repository:
[A Markdown Text](/Praca-2022-11-20.md) - an image in a GitHub repository:
[Shark](/Images/IMG_20200401_210429.jpg)- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- an image on the Internet:
[Cieszyn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Cieszyn_Rynek2.jpg/1280px-Cieszyn_Rynek2.jpg)- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- :bulb:Note: if you want to display your image, use an exclamation mark “!” in front of the square brackets. It looks like this:
- a header in the current text:
[How to Create a Link](#how-to-create-a-link)
Quotation
What Is a Quotation?
A “quotation” is a direct reference to some other piece of text. For example, a quotation can be words of a famous person, a section of a text, a part of programming code, or a section of programming code.
How to Create a Quotation
Use the following symbols to create a quotation:
- Use the more-than symbol “>” to create a quotation of a section of a text:
> Text - Use a backtick symbol “`” to create a quotation of a part of programming code:
\`\*italic*\` - Use a backtick symbol “`” three times to create a quotation of a section of programming code:
\``` \# A Sample Header \```
List
What is a List?
A “list” is an arrangement of items one under another.
There are two types of lists:
Bullet List
What is a Bullet List?
A “bullet list” is an arrangement of items one under another. The order of items in a bullet list is not important. The order of items does not create a sequence.
How to Create a Bullet List
Use the minus symbol “-“ to create a bullet list. To add another item to the bullet list, press the ENTER key. Then, use the minus symbol “-“ again like in the example below:
- Item
- Item
- Item
:bulb:Note: many Markdown editors add the minus symbol “-“ automatically when you press the ENTER key.
:bulb:Note: press the TAB key in front of the minus symbol “-“ to create an indent in the bullet list.
Numbered List
What Is Numbered List?
A “numbered list” is an arrangement of items one under another. The order of items is important. The order of items creates a sequence.
How to Create a Numbered List
Use digits from the set of {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0} to create numbers on the numbered list. Place a full stop “.” after the number. To add another item to the numbered list, press the
1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3
:bulb:Note: many Markdown editors add the subsequent number automatically when you press the ENTER key.
:bulb:Note: press the TAB key in front of the number to create indent in the numbered list.
Tables
What Is a Table?
A “table” is an arrangement of data in rows and columns. One block on the intersection of a row and a column is called a “cell”.
How to Create a Table
To create a table, you use two symbols. The first symbol is vertical bar “|”. The second symbol is the minus symbol “-“.
To create a table:
- Use the vertical bar symbol to open a cell
- Type the content of the cell
- Use the vertical bar symbol to close the cell
- :bulb:Note: this cell will create the first column in the first row
- Repeat steps 2-3 to create as many cells as needed
- Press the ENTER key
- Use the vertical bar symbol to open a cell
- Type three minus symbols
- Use the vertical bar symbol to close the cell
- Repeat steps 7-8 as many times as there are cells in the first row
- Press the ENTER key to create another row
- Repeat steps 1-5 to create as many rows as needed
- Press the ENTER key twice to close the table
A code for a sample table looks as follows:
| Text | Text | Text | Text |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Text | Text | Text | Text |
| Text | Text | Text | Text |
Conclusion
You have covered Markdown basics.
To create texts in Markdown, you can use, for example, Visual Studio Code software.