Basic Guide to Writing in Markdown

a.school uses Markdown editing as a simple way to add formatting to text. By adding characters to your written content, it allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format.

Below we’ll demonstrate examples of some basic Markdown syntax that you can use to format your content.

Headings

Markdown Output
# Heading 1 H_01.png
## Heading 2 H_02.png
### Heading 3 H_03.png
#### Heading 4 H_04.png

Paragraphs

Markdown Output
Markdown is really easy to use.

From now on, I’m going to use it to format all of my documents.		 382204196-paragraph.png

Bold

To bold text, add two asterisks before and after a word or phrase.

Markdown Output
**Bold text** really makes my sentences pop. Bold 2.png

Italic

To italicize text, add one asterisk or underscore before and after a word or phrase.

Markdown Output
Sometimes you just *really* need to italicize words in your sentence. 382204182-italic.png

Bold and Italic

If you want to bold and italicize text, add three asterisks before and after a word or phrase.

Markdown Output
This text is ***very important***. 382204163-bold-italic-1.png

Strikethrough

To strikethrough text, add two tildes before and after a word or phrase.

Markdown Output
When it comes to animals, I like ~~cats~~ dogs more. 382204201-striket.png

Tables

You can create tables using markdown too. Let’s take a look at the following example:

Markdown Output
| Countries | Continent |
| ----------- | ----------- |
| The United States | North America |
| China | Asia |
| South Africa | Africa |
| France | Europe | 		382204205-tables.png

Blockquote

To create a blockquote, add a > in front of a paragraph.

Markdown Output
> America was founded in 1776. 382204161-blockquote.png

Lists

You can use markdown to organize information into ordered and unordered lists.

Ordered lists

Markdown Output
1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item
4. Fourth item
 382204193-ordered_list.png

Unordered lists

Markdown Output
- First item
- Second item
- Third item
- Fourth item
 382204209-unordered_list.png

Code

Place backticks before and after a word or phrase to denote it as code.

Markdown Output
At the command prompt, type `nano`. 382204175-code.png

Code Block

To create a code block, use three backticks before and after the text or code you want to block.

Markdown Output
```
Here’s some code
```		 382204170-code-block.png

To create a link, enclose the link text in brackets (e.g. a.school) and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses (e.g., (https://a.school)).

Markdown Output
My favorite school management platform is [a.school](a.school/). 382204185-links.png

Images

To add an image, add an exclamation mark (!), followed by alt text (the text that appears when you hover over an image) in brackets, and the URL to the image asset in parentheses.

Markdown Output
![William Shakespeare](pixabay.com/photos/shakespeare-poet-writer-author-67698/) Image.png

Horizontal Rule

To create a horizontal rule across the entire page to indicate a page break, insert three asterisks on a blank line.

Markdown Output
This is where the section ends.

***

This is where the next section begins.		 382204178-horizontal_rule.png