Markdown cheat sheet

Every symbol this converter understands, and what each one does to the page. Edit any example and watch it change — the panel beside it is the real thing, not a picture of HTML.

New to it? Start with what Markdown is.

Text

Headings

Six levels. One # is the document title — use it once.

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Bold and italic

Two asterisks for bold, one for italic.

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Strikethrough

Two tildes. Useful for showing what changed.

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Links

The words in brackets, the address in parentheses. Links stay clickable in the PDF.

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Lists

Bulleted list

A dash and a space. Indent two spaces to nest.

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Numbered list

The numbers renumber themselves, so you can insert a step without renumbering the rest.

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Task list

Real checkboxes in the PDF, not dashes.

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Blocks

Quote

A greater-than sign. Sets the line apart on the page.

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Code

One backtick inline, three on their own lines for a block. Long lines wrap rather than being cut off.

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Table

Colons in the divider row set alignment: ---: is right. Header rows repeat across a page break.

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Horizontal rule

Three dashes on their own line.

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Gotchas

Paragraphs need a blank line

A single newline does NOT start a new paragraph — this is the commonest surprise. Leave a blank line.

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Escaping a symbol

A backslash before the symbol prints it instead of using it.

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Where to go next

Turn a document into a PDF — paste it, check the preview, download. Or read why writing in Markdown is worth the ten minutes.