What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor. John Gruber and Aaron Swartz created Markdown in 2004 as a markup language. Markdown is widely used in blogging, instant messaging, online forums, collaborative software, documentation pages, and readme files.

Some of the popular Markdown Editors

1. Notion
   • Notion is not just a Markdown editor, its a complete workspace. You can create posts, pages, todo lists, create tasks for a Kanban.
   • Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux.
   • Who can use? : Individuals and businesses of any size that need a versatile project management tool.

2. Typora
   • A truly minimalistic Markdown Editor.
   • Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux.
   • Who can use? : Anyone who wants a minimal markdown editor to read and write markdowns.

3. Bear
   • Bear is a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose.
   • Supported Platforms: Mac, iOS.
   • Who can use? : Anyone looking for a beautiful and flexible note taking app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Markdown Cheatsheet

This section contains the syntax for Markdown.

5. Itatics
   Add a single asterisk( * ) or underscore( _ ) before and after a word or phrase to format it in italics.

6. Bold and Italics
   Add three asterisks( * ) or underscores( _ ) before and after a word or phrase to emphasis it with bold and italics at the same time.

7. Blockquotes
   Add > in front of a paragraph to create a Blockquote.
   > This text is inside a Blockquote is rendered as:

8. Nested Blockquotes
   Blockquotes can be nested. Add a > in front of the paragraph you want to nest which is already present inside a Blockquote.
   > This text is inside a Blockquote
   > > This text is inside a nested Blockquote
   is rendered as :

9. Lists
   Markdown gives you the ability to organize content in Ordered or unordered lists.
   • Ordered Lists
     Add line items with numbers followed by periods to create an ordered list.
   • Unordered Lists
     Add line items with dashes ( – ), asterisks ( * ), plus ( + ) to create an unordered list.

Markdown lists support nesting. Give it a shot!

10. Code Blocks
    Markdown lets you create Code blocks with using three backticks or three tildes (~~~).

11. Horizontal Rules
    Add three of more asterisks (***), dashes (—), or underscores (_) on a line by themselves to create a horizontal rule.

12. Links
    To create a link, enclose the link text in brackets and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses.
    You’re learning at [Rookest](https://rookest.com) is rendered as:
    You’re learning at Rookest

13. Tooltips on links
    You can optionally add a title for a link. This will appear as a tooltip when the user hovers over the link. To add a title, enclose it in parentheses after the URL. You’re learning at [Rookest](https://rookest.com “Lets learn together”).

14. Email addresses and URLs
    To quickly turn a URL or email address into a link, enclose it in angle brackets. <ankit@rookest.com> is rendered as:
    ankit@rookest.com

15. Images
    To add an image, add an exclamation mark ( ! ), followed by alt text in brackets, and the path or URL to the image asset in parentheses. You can optionally add a title after the URL in the parentheses.
    

16. HTML
    Many Markdown applications allow you to use HTML tags in Markdown-formatted text. This is helpful if you prefer certain HTML tags to Markdown syntax. My name is Ankit is rendered as: My name is Ankit

For security reasons, not all Markdown applications support HTML in Markdown documents.

17. Escaping Characters
    To display a literal character that would otherwise be used to format text in a Markdown document, add a backslash (\) in front of the character.
    \* Note: This would otherwise be rendered as an unordered list item. is rendered as :
    * Note: This would otherwise be rendered as an unordered list item.

CONCLUSION

Markdown is a skill that is easy to befriend and comes in handy for a lot of scenarios such as making notes, documentation, blogging, etc. It has a lot of pros such as:

• Looks clean.
• Easier to format.
• Scaleable
• Manageable.
• Export options.