Help › Markdown basics

Markdown basics

Markdown is plain text with a few symbols for formatting. This page covers what you need for a book. For a printable one-page version, use the Markdown cheat sheet.

Paragraphs and emphasis

Leave a blank line between paragraphs.

This is a paragraph with **bold**, *italic* and ~~struck-through~~ text.

This is the next paragraph.

Headings

# Chapter title
## Section title
### Subsection title

Lists

- A bullet
- Another bullet
  - A nested bullet

1. First
2. Second

- [ ] An open task
- [x] A finished task

Leave a blank line before and after a list.

Quotes and rules

> A quotation, set apart from the text.

---

A line of three dashes on its own, with blank lines around it, draws a horizontal rule. In the Novel template it becomes a scene break.

Links

[Link text](https://example.com)
[A heading in this file](#setup)

Code

Use backticks for inline code, and three backticks for a block:

```bash
echo "hello"
```

Tables

| Column A | Column B |
|----------|----------|
| One      | Two      |

Footnotes

A claim that needs a source.[^1]

[^1]: The source goes here.

Line breaks

End a line with two spaces to force a line break inside a paragraph.

Next

Read the manuscript standards for the rules the validator checks.

Something unclear? Tell us and we will improve this guide.