Markdown Basics

Interactive Markdown tutorial: headings, bold and italic, paragraphs and lists. Edit the live example and see the formatted result instantly, in your browser.

Markdown turns plain text into formatted documents using a handful of symbols. This first lesson covers the four things you’ll use in almost every document: headings, emphasis, paragraphs and lists. Edit the example below and watch the preview update as you type.

Headings

Start a line with # for a top-level heading. Add more # for smaller subheadings — up to six levels:

# Title
## Section
### Subsection

Bold and italic

Wrap text in **two asterisks** for bold, and *one asterisk* for italic. Use `backticks` for inline code — handy for function names and file paths.

Paragraphs and lists

A blank line starts a new paragraph. For a bulleted list, begin each line with -; for a numbered list, use 1., 2., and so on. Try changing the example:

You write # My first document This is a paragraph with **bold**, *italic* and `inline code`. ## Shopping list - Apples - Bread - Coffee ## Steps 1. Boil water 2. Add coffee 3. Wait 4 minutes

You get

A few things to notice: the # and ## become different heading sizes, the - lines become bullets, and the 1. 2. 3. lines become a numbered list. Everything else is just normal text.

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Next: Links & images → — how to point to pages and embed pictures.