This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown. +The syntax page 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.
+It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the Dingus is a +web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text +and translate it to XHTML.
+Note: This document is itself written using Markdown; you +can see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL.
+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.
+Markdown offers two styles of headers: Setext and atx.
+Setext-style headers for <h1> and <h2> are created by
+"underlining" with equal signs (=) and hyphens (-), respectively.
+To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (#) at the
+beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting
+HTML header level.
Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '>' angle brackets.
Markdown:
+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
+Output:
+<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>
+Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.
+Markdown:
+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__.
+Output:
+<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>
+Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (*,
++, and -) as list markers. These three markers are
+interchangable; this:
* Candy.
+* Gum.
+* Booze.
+this:
++ Candy.
++ Gum.
++ Booze.
+and this:
+- Candy.
+- Gum.
+- Booze.
+all produce the same output:
+<ul>
+<li>Candy.</li>
+<li>Gum.</li>
+<li>Booze.</li>
+</ul>
+Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as +list markers:
+1. Red
+2. Green
+3. Blue
+Output:
+<ol>
+<li>Red</li>
+<li>Green</li>
+<li>Blue</li>
+</ol>
+If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <p> tags for the
+list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting
+the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:
* A list item.
+
+ With multiple paragraphs.
+
+* Another item in the list.
+Output:
+<ul>
+<li><p>A list item.</p>
+<p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li>
+<li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li>
+</ul>
+
+Markdown supports two styles for creating links: inline and +reference. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the +text you want to turn into a link.
+Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text. +For example:
+This is an [example link](http://example.com/).
+Output:
+<p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/">
+example link</a>.</p>
+Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:
+This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title").
+Output:
+<p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title">
+example link</a>.</p>
+Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which +you define elsewhere in your document:
+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"
+Output:
+<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>
+The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters, +numbers and spaces, but are not case sensitive:
+I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
+[The New York Times][NY Times].
+
+[ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/
+Output:
+<p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
+<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p>
+Image syntax is very much like link syntax.
+Inline (titles are optional):
+
+Reference-style:
+![alt text][id]
+
+[id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title"
+Both of the above examples produce the same output:
+<img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" />
+In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in
+backtick quotes. Any ampersands (&) and angle brackets (< or
+>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes
+it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:
I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags.
+
+I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `—`
+instead of decimal-encoded entites like `—`.
+Output:
+<p>I strongly recommend against using any
+<code><blink></code> tags.</p>
+
+<p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
+<code>&mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded
+entites like <code>&#8212;</code>.</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, &, <,
+and > characters will be escaped automatically.
Markdown:
+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>
+Output:
+<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><blockquote>
+ <p>For example.</p>
+</blockquote>
+</code></pre>
+