How this FAQ is organised
- Fifteen questions, each answered in full on a page of its own.
- The groups below are sorted by what you are doing, not from A to Z.
- This page carries no answer text, so nothing here repeats what you land on.
- Every answer page has a worked example and a section on what goes wrong.
Grouped by what you are trying to do
The five groups below are sorted by task rather than alphabet. The answer you need depends on where you are standing. Someone who has never opened a .md file wants something very different from someone forcing a pipe character into a table cell without breaking the columns.
What every answer page contains
The fifteen pages are built to one shape, so you always know where to look:
- a direct answer in the first two sentences, before any background;
- a fact block holding the details worth remembering;
- a worked example you can copy straight into the editor;
- a compatibility table wherever platforms disagree;
- a closing section on what usually goes wrong, and how to spot it.
If you would rather read in order
Hunting single answers is not the only route in. The complete Markdown guide walks through every element from headings to inline HTML, and the cheat sheet is the one page worth keeping bookmarked for daily use.
Which resource answers which kind of question
Four shapes of documentation, one job each
This site holds four different shapes of Markdown documentation. Picking the wrong one is the main reason people bounce off a reference and conclude that Markdown is confusing. They are not rival versions of the same text:
| You want to | Go to | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Solve one specific problem right now | A question below | Each page answers one question with a worked example and the failure cases |
| Look up a symbol you have forgotten | Cheat sheet | Every element in two scannable tables, no prose to wade through |
| Learn the language properly, in order | Syntax guide | Thirteen sections from headings to inline HTML, each with subsections |
| Understand what Markdown even is | What is Markdown? | History, philosophy and where the format is used, with no syntax to memorise |
| Just write something | The editor | Live preview tells you whether your syntax worked, which is faster than reading |
Most confusion is about the renderer, not the syntax
One pattern is worth knowing before you start. Most Markdown trouble has nothing to do with the syntax at all. It comes from which renderer you are writing for.
Tables, task lists and footnotes are extensions rather than original Markdown. A snippet that renders perfectly on GitHub can therefore arrive as literal pipe characters in someone else's comment box. Several answers below flag exactly where that happens, and the GitHub Flavored Markdown guide covers the dialect most tools have settled on.
If your question is not in the list
A question usually misses this page because it sits in the long tail of one element. There the syntax guide's per-element sections go deeper than any FAQ answer can. The tables guide is a page of its own for the same reason: tables alone generate more questions than the rest of the language combined.
Tip: Read an answer with the editor open in a second tab. Pasting the example and then breaking it on purpose teaches the rule faster than reading the page twice.
Markdown basics
Start here if the format itself is new to you. These three cover what Markdown actually is, what the files look like on disk, and how to open one somebody has sent you.
Writing Markdown
The three constructs that generate the most questions: tables, images and non-Latin text. Each one hides a rule that is not obvious until it bites you.
Converting and exporting
Getting your Markdown back out as something you can publish or send. Both answers weigh the browser-based route against the command-line tools.
Using this editor
How the editor on this site behaves: what it costs, where your text lives, which Markdown dialect it renders, and what happens when your connection drops.
Is MD Editor free? Is there a catch?
Read the full answer →
Where is my text stored? Can you read it?
Read the full answer →
Does the editor work offline?
Read the full answer →
Which Markdown flavor does the editor support?
Read the full answer →
Does MD Editor work on phones and tablets?
Read the full answer →
Learning Markdown
Whether it is worth your time at all, and the shortest route from nothing to fluent. Both answers are opinionated rather than diplomatic.
Keep learning
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