--- /dev/null
+<h1>Markdown: Basics</h1>
+<ul id="ProjectSubmenu">
+ <li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li>
+ <li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li>
+ <li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li>
+ <li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li>
+ <li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li>
+</ul>
+<h2>Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2>
+<p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown.
+The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> provides complete, detailed documentation for
+every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by
+looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page
+are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the
+HTML output produced by Markdown.</p>
+<p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a
+web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text
+and translate it to XHTML.</p>
+<p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using Markdown; you
+can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p>
+<h2>Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2>
+<p>A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
+by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
+blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered
+blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.</p>
+<p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and <em>atx</em>.
+Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and <code><h2></code> are created by
+"underlining" with equal signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively.
+To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (<code>#</code>) at the
+beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting
+HTML header level.</p>
+<p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' angle brackets.</p>
+<p>Markdown:</p>
+<pre><code>A First Level Header
+====================
+
+A Second Level Header
+---------------------
+
+Now is the time for all good men to come to
+the aid of their country. This is just a
+regular paragraph.
+
+The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
+dog's back.
+
+### Header 3
+
+> This is a blockquote.
+>
+> This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.
+>
+> ## This is an H2 in a blockquote
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><h1>A First Level Header</h1>
+
+<h2>A Second Level Header</h2>
+
+<p>Now is the time for all good men to come to
+the aid of their country. This is just a
+regular paragraph.</p>
+
+<p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
+dog's back.</p>
+
+<h3>Header 3</h3>
+
+<blockquote>
+ <p>This is a blockquote.</p>
+
+ <p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p>
+
+ <h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2>
+</blockquote>
+</code></pre>
+<h3>Phrase Emphasis</h3>
+<p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.</p>
+<p>Markdown:</p>
+<pre><code>Some of these words *are emphasized*.
+Some of these words _are emphasized also_.
+
+Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**.
+Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__.
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>.
+Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p>
+
+<p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>.
+Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p>
+</code></pre>
+<h2>Lists</h2>
+<p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (<code>*</code>,
+<code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list markers. These three markers are
+interchangable; this:</p>
+<pre><code>* Candy.
+* Gum.
+* Booze.
+</code></pre>
+<p>this:</p>
+<pre><code>+ Candy.
++ Gum.
++ Booze.
+</code></pre>
+<p>and this:</p>
+<pre><code>- Candy.
+- Gum.
+- Booze.
+</code></pre>
+<p>all produce the same output:</p>
+<pre><code><ul>
+<li>Candy.</li>
+<li>Gum.</li>
+<li>Booze.</li>
+</ul>
+</code></pre>
+<p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as
+list markers:</p>
+<pre><code>1. Red
+2. Green
+3. Blue
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><ol>
+<li>Red</li>
+<li>Green</li>
+<li>Blue</li>
+</ol>
+</code></pre>
+<p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <code><p></code> tags for the
+list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting
+the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:</p>
+<pre><code>* A list item.
+
+ With multiple paragraphs.
+
+* Another item in the list.
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><ul>
+<li><p>A list item.</p>
+<p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li>
+<li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li>
+</ul>
+
+</code></pre>
+<h3>Links</h3>
+<p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> and
+<em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the
+text you want to turn into a link.</p>
+<p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text.
+For example:</p>
+<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/).
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/">
+example link</a>.</p>
+</code></pre>
+<p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:</p>
+<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title").
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title">
+example link</a>.</p>
+</code></pre>
+<p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which
+you define elsewhere in your document:</p>
+<pre><code>I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from
+[Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3].
+
+[1]: http://google.com/ "Google"
+[2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search"
+[3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/"
+title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/"
+title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/"
+title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p>
+</code></pre>
+<p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters,
+numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p>
+<pre><code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
+[The New York Times][NY Times].
+
+[ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
+<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p>
+</code></pre>
+<h3>Images</h3>
+<p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p>
+<p>Inline (titles are optional):</p>
+<pre><code>![alt text](/path/to/img.jpg "Title")
+</code></pre>
+<p>Reference-style:</p>
+<pre><code>![alt text][id]
+
+[id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title"
+</code></pre>
+<p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p>
+<pre><code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" />
+</code></pre>
+<h3>Code</h3>
+<p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in
+backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and angle brackets (<code><</code> or
+<code>></code>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes
+it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p>
+<pre><code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags.
+
+I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;`
+instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`.
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>I strongly recommend against using any
+<code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p>
+
+<p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
+<code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded
+entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p>
+</code></pre>
+<p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of
+the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, <code>&</code>, <code><</code>,
+and <code>></code> characters will be escaped automatically.</p>
+<p>Markdown:</p>
+<pre><code>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
+you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:
+
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>For example.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+</code></pre>
+<p>Output:</p>
+<pre><code><p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
+you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p>
+
+<pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+ &lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+</code></pre>
+</code></pre>