Overview
Markdown is utilised by spokes.nz (and other sites based on the Discourse platform) to allow simple text responses as well as richly formatted web content within a single composer. Here is a ‘Cheat Sheet’ which gives you a quick look at all the important stuff:
Markdown 101
The most useful things are entering text, headings, the formatting bar, and numbers/bullets for lists.
Entering text
Type! All you have to do is type some text and it appears just like that. Dead simple.
Do be aware that it will automatically remove any redundant spaces / lines.
Headings
To utilise headings, simply drop a hash # in front of the text of the heading with a space after it. For example,
### Three hashes give you a 3rd level heading
#### Four hashes give you a 4th level heading
#### Five hashes give you a 5th level heading
like this:
Three hashes give you a 3rd level heading
Four hashes give you a 4th level heading
Five hashes give you a 5th level heading
As you can see, the more hashes, the deeper (smaller) the heading. In this page, Overview, Markdown 101, and More Information are single # headings. Entering text, Headings, and The formatting bar are double ## headings (2nd level).
When using Tables of Content
You can add a Table of Content (TOC) to your post via the gear icon on the composer bar (see below). This is automatic when an Original Post is a wiki (like this one).
This TOC is automatically generated from your headings, and is excellent for long and complex posts (like this one).
The formatting bar
I mean this:
If you highlight the relevant text and click the buttons, the correct Markdown will replace your simple text in the composer. Most are pretty obvious and explain themselves when you hover over them.
The quotation
This highlights the text as I’ve done for the formatting bar above, putting it in a little indented box that indicates it is more / different than the surrounding text. It does this by simply putting a > in front of every line that is included:
This is a quotation
The gear
The gear reveals a whole heap of extended functionality.
Numbered / Bulleted lists
These are super helpful:
-
They allow you to make a series of clear points
-
They automatically renumber themselves
- You can use Bullets too
- and you can indent them with some spaces
- You can use Bullets too
To make one, highlight a few lines and hit the relevant list button under the gear icon.
To do it directly in the composer, simply put a number with a dot (i.e. 1.) or an asterix * and a space at the start of a line like this:
1. They allow you to make a series of clear points
1. They automatically renumber themselves
* You can use Bullets too
* and you can indent them with some spaces
As you can see from the example above, adding two more spaces makes them indent. You can do that ad nauseam.
More Information
You might like to edit this wiki post and take a look at the Markdown used here.
Wikipedia gives an excellent overview:
For more detailed information you might find this interesting: