Authoring with Markdown

Introduction

To focus on the content instead of formatting, authors may find it helpful to use Markdown as markup language and use a Markdown-HTML converter, instead of writing HTML directly:

If you want to create documents for reading with a browser or e-book while displaying more than just plain text, the most versatile format of course is HTML.
However, this is very tedious to write, as you constantly need to open and close HTML tags, like <h2>chapter</h2> or <i>italic</i>.

But there exist other markup languages as an intermediary between plain text and HTML, one of them being Markdown.
A text written in Markdown can very easily be converted into HTML, EPUB, PDF and other document formats, with online or offline tools for various operating systems. In addition, it is well readable even in its original form.

Markdown Syntax Basics

Here are the most important elements; please consult the Markdown syntax which you may find on the web via your favourite search engine!

• To render text in italic or bold, surround it with one or two underscores or asterisks: _italic_ is rendered as italic while **bold** will become bold.


• For a title, chapter, section, or subsection heading, prepend it with one, two, three, or four to six octothorpes or "hash marks" on a separate line, like this: ## Chapter One.
  They correspond to the HTML header tags h1 to h7.


• For a horizontal ruler, enter three dashes (minus signs) on a separate line.


• For a bulleted list, prepend each entry with an asterisk, a dash (minus) or plus sign at the beginning of its own line, and one or more spaces or tabs.
  Numbered lists work the same way, but with a number and a dot instead of the asterisk


• To quote text, prepend each line with a > (greater) sign.


• To render code or special characters, enclose the text with backticks (`).

Markdown Conversion Tips

When you have written your Markdown formatted text, you can convert it into HTML with various tools you may find on the web:

• Retext , a Markdown editor freely available for Linux or Windows


• Markdownpad , a Markdown editor available for Windows


• Dingus , an free online tool working in any browser


• Markdown.pl , the original conversion script (written in Perl) provided by the creator of Markdown


• Notal , a free app for Android, to write notes and to render texts formatted as Markdown

There exist a lot more applications (also for mobile operating systems like Mac OSX, iOS, and Android), some of them providing conversion into additional formats. Any decent search engine will easily find you dozens of interesting starting points on the web!

In addition, most blogging platforms permit direct or (with additional plugins) indirect use of Markdown, making it a widely known and available text markup format. There are also extensions which permit the use of tables and mathematical formulas.

Example

To give you an idea about Markdown, for a short example text are shown: the Markdown source (i.e, what you enter), the resulting HTML source (after conversion of the Markdown source), and the displayed HTML (i.e how the HTML source would render in a browser).
Note how easy it is to enter Markdown formatting and how well it is readable, compared to HTML formatting!

Markdown source

## Chapter Two: Getting Off

_a purely experimental chapter on something_

> Whenever you fail, a kitten dies. -- _Fred R. Ick_

James looked at his bucket list:

- buy bucket
- search creek
- fill bucket

"I really __should__ get me a bucket before I die", he thought.

_Thanks for any feedback!_

HTML conversion result (source)

<h2>Chapter Two: Getting Off</h2>

<p><em>a purely experimental chapter on something</em></p>

<blockquote>
<p>Whenever you fail, a kitten dies. -- <em>Fred R. Ick</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>James looked at his bucket list:</p>

<ul>
<li>buy bucket</li>
<li>search creek</li>
<li>fill bucket</li>
</ul>

<p>"I really <strong>should</strong> get me a bucket before I die", he thought.</p>

<p><em>Thanks for any feedback!</em></p>

HTML conversion result (rendered)

Chapter Two: Getting Off

a purely experimental chapter on something

Whenever you fail, a kitten dies. -- Fred R. Ick

James looked at his bucket list:

• buy bucket


• search creek


• fill bucket

"I really should get me a bucket before I die", he thought.

Thanks for any feedback!

Conclusion

Markdown is a convenient way to enter text with markup for rendering as HTML (or PDF or other formats, depending on the used converter programs). If you are often writing texts for publication, you should give it a try: it is much more readable than HTML, and more portable and open than formats like Microsoft Word, and converters are easily available on any platform.