This guide covers all the markdown formatting options available in your notes. Understanding these options will help you create well-formatted, readable notes.

#Text Formatting

You can format text in various ways to emphasize important points or create visual hierarchy in your content. Markdown provides several mechanisms for text formatting.

Bold text is created by wrapping text in double asterisks or double underscores. This draws attention to key terms or important concepts. Use bold sparingly for maximum impact.

Italic text uses single asterisks or single underscores and is useful for emphasizing words or phrases without being as prominent as bold text. It's particularly effective for defining terms or indicating titles of works.

~~Strikethrough~~ uses double tildes and can be useful when showing corrections or indicating text that should be ignored. While less common than bold or italic, it has its place in certain types of content.

#Headings

Headings create structure in your notes and help readers navigate content. Markdown supports six levels of headings, each with decreasing prominence.

Heading 1

This is typically used for the main title of a note. Each note should have exactly one H1 heading, usually specified in the frontmatter as the title.

#Heading 2

Major sections within your notes use H2 headings. These appear in the table of contents and provide the primary structure for your content.

#Heading 3

Sub-sections use H3 headings for finer-grained organization. While they don't appear in the table of contents at the top of the page, they help break up longer content into logical chunks.

Heading 4

Less commonly used, H4 headings can further divide content within H3 sections. Use these when you have particularly detailed content that needs subdivision.

Heading 5 and 6

These are rarely needed in typical notes. They provide even finer subdivision but can make documents feel overly complex. Consider whether your content truly needs this many levels of hierarchy.

#Lists

Lists help organize information into digestible chunks. Markdown supports both ordered and unordered lists.

#Unordered Lists

Use hyphens, plus signs, or asterisks to create unordered lists. All three methods produce identical results, so choose whichever you prefer.

• First item
• Second item
• Third item

You can also nest lists by indenting items with spaces or tabs. This creates hierarchical lists that show relationships between items.

• Parent item
  • Child item
  • Another child
• Another parent

#Ordered Lists

Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods. The actual numbers you use don't matter; Markdown automatically numbers them sequentially.

1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step

Like unordered lists, ordered lists can be nested to show more complex relationships or multi-level processes.

#Code Blocks

Code blocks are essential for technical content. They're created with triple backticks and can include syntax highlighting for many programming languages.

function greet(name) {
  console.log(`Hello, ${name}!`);
}

greet('World');

The language identifier after the opening backticks enables syntax highlighting. Without a language identifier, the code block displays as plain text.

Inline code uses single backticks and is useful for short code references within sentences. For example, use console.log() to print to the console.

#Links and Images

Links connect your notes together and reference external resources. Create links using square brackets for the link text followed by parentheses for the URL.

Visit the documentation for more information.

Images use a similar syntax but include an exclamation mark at the beginning. The alt text describes the image for accessibility and appears if the image fails to load.

#Tables

Tables display structured data in a readable format. They're created using pipes and hyphens to define the structure.

| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | |----------|----------|----------| | Row 1 | Data | Data | | Row 2 | Data | Data | | Row 3 | Data | Data |

You can align content within tables using colons. Left-align with |:---|, center with |:---:|:, and right-align with |---:| in the header row.

#Blockquotes

Blockquotes highlight quoted text or call out important information. They use the greater-than symbol at the start of each line.

This is a blockquote. It's useful for emphasizing quoted material or distinguishing certain types of content from your main text.

Multiple lines create a single blockquote that extends across paragraphs.

#Horizontal Rules

Use horizontal rules to visually separate sections of content. They're created with three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores on their own line.

---

This creates a clear visual break between related but distinct topics in your notes.

#Best Practices

When writing markdown for your notes, keep these best practices in mind to create consistently formatted, easy-to-read content.

Use headings to create a clear hierarchy that mirrors the structure of your table of contents. Each major section should start with an H2, with H3 and beyond used for subsections. This helps readers understand the organization of your content at a glance.

Break up long paragraphs with white space and lists. Dense blocks of text are harder to scan and comprehend. Shorter paragraphs with clear spacing feel more inviting to read.

Use code blocks for any technical content, command-line instructions, or examples involving programming. This ensures proper formatting and makes the content easier to copy and use.