Markdown Cheat Sheet

Written by Coursera • Updated on

Quickly enhance your markup skills with this comprehensive cheat sheet. Learn text formatting, lists, headings, links, tables, breaks, and text block formats in Markdown.

Markdown Cheat Sheet

Markup languages, such as Markdown, are widely popular for their simplicity and readability, making them a favorite choice for creating formatted text using a plain text editor. These languages are commonly used on various platforms like GitHub, Jekyll, and documentation sites to format content quickly and efficiently. This cheat sheet will provide users with a quick reference guide for common markup actions.

Markdown Cheat Sheet

Click here to download

Text Formatting

Action Description Example Snippet
Italics Formats text in italics *italic text* or _italic text_
Bold Formats text in bold **bold text** or __bold text__
Bold-italic Formats text in bold and italics ***bold italic text*** or ___bold italic text___
Code Formats text as inline code `code text`
Strike through Formats text with a strikethrough ~~strike through text~~
LaTeX equation Formats text as a LaTeX equation $$E = mc^2$$

Lists

Action Description Example Snippet
Unordered lists Creates a bullet-point list - item or * item or + item
Ordered lists Creates a numbered list 1. item
Checklist Creates a checklist - [ ] item or - [x] checked item
Nesting lists Creates nested lists with indentation - item
  - sub-item

Headings

Action Description Example Snippet
Levels of headings Creates headings of different levels # Heading
## Heading 2
### Heading 3

Links

Action Description Example Snippet
Hyperlinks Creates a hyperlink [link text](http://example.com)
Reference style hyperlinks Uses references for links [link text][1]

[1]: http://example.com
Alt text links Adds alt text to hyperlinks [![alt text](image.jpg)](http://example.com)
Footnotes Creates footnotes Here is a footnote.[^1]

[^1]: Footnote text

Tables

Action Description Example Snippet
Basic table Creates a simple table | Column 1 | Column 2 |
| -------- | -------- |
| Text | Text |
Alignment in columns Aligns text in columns using colons | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 |
|:-------:|:-------:|--------|
| Centered | Centered | Left |

Example: Creating a Table in Markdown with Column Alignments

Here is an example of creating a table with different alignments for each column:

  1. Left-Aligned Column: Use a colon : on the left of the hyphens.

  2. Center-Aligned Column: Use colons : on both sides of the hyphens.

  3. Right-Aligned Column: Use a colon : on the right of the hyphens.

| Left-Aligned | Center-Aligned | Right-Aligned |
| :----------- |:--------------:| -------------:|
| This         | is             | an            |
| aligned      | text           | example       |
| example      | table          | right         |

This will render as:

Left-Aligned Center-Aligned Right-Aligned
This is an
aligned text example
example table right

Breaks

Action Description Example Snippet
Horizontal rule Creates a horizontal rule --- or *** or ___
Line break Inserts a line break Line 1<br>Line 2
Blank lines Inserts blank lines Line 1\n\nLine 2

Text Block Formats

Action Description Example Snippet
Quotes Formats text as a block quote > This is a quote
Code block Formats text as a code block ```
code block
```
Highlight syntax Highlights syntax within a code block ```python
print("Hello, World!")
```

Markup languages provide a clean and easy way to format text, making them perfect for various applications like documentation, note-taking, and web content creation. This cheat sheet offers a quick reference to help you efficiently format your content with common markup actions.

Further Web Development Resources:

Updated on
Written by:

Coursera

Writer

Coursera is the global online learning platform that offers anyone, anywhere access to online course...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.