Beginners' guide to Markdown

What is Markdown?

Nope. Markdown is not a programming language. It's rather a markup language i.e. a language that allows you to format your text. What's special about markdown is that it allows you to format your text by just using (some more) text. For example, you must have wrapped your text in * or _ to make it bold or italic while sending a text message on WhatsApp. That's similar to markdown syntax (not exactly markdown though) formatting your text i.e. making it bold or italic using plain text (* or _). It was created in 2004 by a tech blogger named John Gruber.

Why learn markdown?

Because it's easy and you can use it almost anywhere. All you have to do is remember a few syntax. It's like "neat handwriting" for the digital world, except you don't need fancy pens and markers and highlighters for writing a well-organised note. It's like doing a basic maths calculation to know much you are going to pay for two packs of chips and a bottle of coke at the rate of Rs 10 and Rs 30 respectively (Answer is Rs 50 😎). Once you get hang of it, it's as intuitive and as universal, I would argue. You can use markdown syntax in Discord, Slack, Google Docs, Github, R Studio, and the list goes on. In fact, you can make yourself a website in markdown using static site generators like Hugo and Jekyll.

Basic Markdown Syntax

Headings

To make a heading, put some # in front of your text

# Heading 1 (i.e. the largest heading)
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
##### Heading 6 (i.e. the smallest heading)

Lists

Unordered list

Put * or - followed by space and some text to convert the some text into an unordered list i.e. add a bullet point before it.

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

Ordered list

Put 1. or 2. etc. followed by space and some text to convert it into an ordered list i.e. add list number before it.

Item 1
Item 2
Item 3

Blockquote

Put > followed by space and some text to convert it into an blockquote.

This is blockquote.

Inline text formatting

Wrap your text in * or _ to convert it into italic text.
Wrap your text in ** or __ to convert it into bold text.
Wrap your text in *** or ___ to convert it into bold & italic text.
Wrap you text in ` to convert it into an inline code.
Wrap your text in ~~ to convert it into ~~strikethrough~~ text.

Links

To create a link, put the link text inside [] followed by its url inside ()
e.g. [Tiny Data Tales](https://www.tinydatatales.com) → Tiny Data Tales

Image

To insert an image, put the image alt text inside ![] followed by path or url of the image inside ()
e.g. ![TDT logo](https://www.tinydatatales.com/img/logo.svg) →

Horizontal rule

To create a horizontal rule or divider, put three or more *** or --- or ___

Side note

Just for the record, here's WhatsApp's formatting syntax. (While it's not exactly markdown, it is inspired by markdown. Just another example of tech-giant flouting the rules in their favour)

Italic : _text_
Bold : *text*
Strikethrough : ~text~
Monospace : ```text```
Quote: > text
Inline code : `text`
Bulleted list :
* text
* text
Numbered list :
1. text
2. text