Markdown - markdown!

Markdown is a way of writing text in a very simple text editor (like notepad) in such a way that when pasted into a web page it is well formatted. You can use markdown with the simplest of editors for posting into your blog making it ideal for recording notes on field trips for example. You can take notes on your PDA or mobile then transfer them to your blog by simply cutting and pasting it with no need to reformat in a cumbersome wordprocessor.

The main markdown site uses it for the bulk of the test on the site. Compare the main web-page just given to the actual markdown itself. Apart form its very simple structure another reason for using markdown is that the markdown text is itself is very readable (which HTML isn't!) and can be used to print out as is.

To quote the main site:

Markdown's syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web.

Markdown is not a replacement for HTML, or even close to it. Its syntax is very small, corresponding only to a very small subset of HTML tags. The idea is not to create a syntax that makes it easier to insert HTML tags. In my opinion, HTML tags are already easy to insert. The idea for Markdown is to make it easy to read, write, and edit prose. HTML is a publishing format; Markdown is a writing format. Thus, Markdown's formatting syntax only addresses issues that can be conveyed in plain text.

Here are basic details and more advanced details of how to write with markdown. To start with here are a few pointers:

Headings are done by putting a line of either = or - under the words in your title.

    Main Heading
    ============

    Sub-heading
    -----------

which comes out as -

Main Heading

Sub-heading

Bold - put two *s on each side of the word(s) you want in bold.

    **this is in bold!**

This is in bold!

Italics - put a single asterisk

    The word *italics* is in italics.

The word italics is in italics.

An unnumbered list - put an * at the beginning of each line

* item 1
* item 2
* item 3

• item1
• item2
• item3

An ordered list is done by putting a number in front of each line (in fact ANY number will do - try it)

1. item 1
2. item 2
3. item 3

1. item 1
2. item 2
3. item 3

Finally in the brief intro making links - simply surround the text you want to make into a link with square brackets the URL in round-brackets (parentheses). For example

[The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk)

Which comes out as The Learning Landscape for Schools. If you want a title to pop up as well then put it after the URL like this:

[The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk "My blogging site")

Just stop your mouse over this link - The Learning Landscape for Schools. Simple.

To you markdown in this site to to your account settings, look for the Enable visual editor link at the bottom of the page and change this to "No". Now you will not get the WYGIWYG editor but a simple text box where you can enter markdown text.

JohnH, 24-Sep-2008 21:36 (GMT)