Markdown Syntax

Let's face it: Writing content for the Web is tiresome. WYSIWYG editors help alleviate this task, but they generally result in horrible code, or worse yet, ugly web pages.

Markdown is a better way to write HTML, without all the complexities and ugliness that usually accompanies it.

Some of the key benefits are:

  1. Markdown is simple to learn, with minimal extra characters, so it's also quicker to write content.
  2. Less chance of errors when writing in markdown.
  3. Produces valid XHTML output.
  4. Keeps the content and the visual display separate, so you cannot mess up the look of your site.
  5. Write in any text editor or Markdown application you like.
  6. Markdown is a joy to use!

John Gruber, the author of Markdown, puts it like this:

The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is the format of plain text email. -- John Gruber

Grav ships with built-in support for Markdown and Markdown Extra. You must enable Markdown Extra in your system.yaml configuration file.

Without further delay, let us go over the main elements of Markdown and what the resulting HTML looks like:

Bookmark this page for easy future reference!

Headings

Headings from h1 through h6 are constructed with a # for each level:

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

h1 Heading

h2 Heading

h3 Heading

h4 Heading

h5 Heading
h6 Heading

[/prism]

Renders to:

h1 Heading

h2 Heading

h3 Heading

h4 Heading

h5 Heading
h6 Heading

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

h1 Heading

h2 Heading

h3 Heading

h4 Heading

h5 Heading
h6 Heading

[/prism]

Comments

Comments should be HTML compatible

[prism classes="language-html"]

[/prism]

Comment below should NOT be seen:

Horizontal Rules

The HTML <hr> element is for creating a "thematic break" between paragraph-level elements. In markdown, you can create a <hr> with any of the following:

  • ___: three consecutive underscores
  • ---: three consecutive dashes
  • ***: three consecutive asterisks

renders to:

Body Copy

Body copy written as normal, plain text will be wrapped with <p></p> tags in the rendered HTML.

So this body copy:

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, graecis denique ei vel, at duo primis mandamus. Et legere ocurreret pri, animal tacimates complectitur ad cum. Cu eum inermis inimicus efficiendi. Labore officiis his ex, soluta officiis concludaturque ei qui, vide sensibus vim ad. [/prism]

renders to this HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, graecis denique ei vel, at duo primis mandamus. Et legere ocurreret pri, animal tacimates complectitur ad cum. Cu eum inermis inimicus efficiendi. Labore officiis his ex, soluta officiis concludaturque ei qui, vide sensibus vim ad.

[/prism]

A line break can be done with 2 spaces followed by 1 return.

Inline HTML

If you need a certain HTML tag (with a class) you can simply use HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"] Paragraph in Markdown.

This is HTML

Paragraph in Markdown. [/prism]

Emphasis

Bold

For emphasizing a snippet of text with a heavier font-weight.

The following snippet of text is rendered as bold text.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] rendered as bold text [/prism]

renders to:

rendered as bold text

and this HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"] rendered as bold text [/prism]

Italics

For emphasizing a snippet of text with italics.

The following snippet of text is rendered as italicized text.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] rendered as italicized text [/prism]

renders to:

rendered as italicized text

and this HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"] rendered as italicized text [/prism]

Strikethrough

In GFM (GitHub flavored Markdown) you can do strikethroughs.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Strike through this text. [/prism]

Which renders to:

Strike through this text.

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"] Strike through this text. [/prism]

Blockquotes

For quoting blocks of content from another source within your document.

Add > before any text you want to quote.

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

Fusion Drive combines a hard drive with a flash storage (solid-state drive) and presents it as a single logical volume with the space of both drives combined. [/prism]

Renders to:

Fusion Drive combines a hard drive with a flash storage (solid-state drive) and presents it as a single logical volume with the space of both drives combined.

and this HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

Fusion Drive combines a hard drive with a flash storage (solid-state drive) and presents it as a single logical volume with the space of both drives combined.

[/prism]

Blockquotes can also be nested:

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

Donec massa lacus, ultricies a ullamcorper in, fermentum sed augue. Nunc augue augue, aliquam non hendrerit ac, commodo vel nisi.

Sed adipiscing elit vitae augue consectetur a gravida nunc vehicula. Donec auctor odio non est accumsan facilisis. Aliquam id turpis in dolor tincidunt mollis ac eu diam. [/prism]

Renders to:

Donec massa lacus, ultricies a ullamcorper in, fermentum sed augue. Nunc augue augue, aliquam non hendrerit ac, commodo vel nisi.

Sed adipiscing elit vitae augue consectetur a gravida nunc vehicula. Donec auctor odio non est accumsan facilisis. Aliquam id turpis in dolor tincidunt mollis ac eu diam.

Notices

The old mechanism for notices overriding the block quote syntax (>>>) has been deprecated. Notices are now handled via a dedicated plugin called Markdown Notices

Lists

Unordered

A list of items in which the order of the items does not explicitly matter.

You may use any of the following symbols to denote bullets for each list item:

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

  • valid bullet
  • valid bullet
  • valid bullet [/prism]

For example

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • Integer molestie lorem at massa
  • Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  • Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    • Phasellus iaculis neque
    • Purus sodales ultricies
    • Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
    • Ac tristique libero volutpat at
  • Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  • Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  • Eget porttitor lorem [/prism]

Renders to:

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • Integer molestie lorem at massa
  • Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  • Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    • Phasellus iaculis neque
    • Purus sodales ultricies
    • Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
    • Ac tristique libero volutpat at
  • Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  • Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  • Eget porttitor lorem

And this HTML

[prism classes="language-html"]

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • Integer molestie lorem at massa
  • Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  • Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    • Phasellus iaculis neque
    • Purus sodales ultricies
    • Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
    • Ac tristique libero volutpat at
  • Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  • Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  • Eget porttitor lorem

[/prism]

Ordered

A list of items in which the order of items does explicitly matter.

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem [/prism]

Renders to:

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem

And this HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem

[/prism]

TIP: If you just use 1. for each number, Markdown will automatically number each item. For example:

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem [/prism]

Renders to:

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem

Code

Inline code

Wrap inline snippets of code with `.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] In this example, <section></section> should be wrapped as code. [/prism]

Renders to:

In this example, <section></section> should be wrapped with code.

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

In this example, <section></section> should be wrapped with code.

[/prism]

Indented code

Or indent several lines of code by at least four spaces, as in:

  // Some comments
  line 1 of code
  line 2 of code
  line 3 of code

Renders to:

[prism classes="language-txt"] // Some comments line 1 of code line 2 of code line 3 of code [/prism]

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

  
    // Some comments
    line 1 of code
    line 2 of code
    line 3 of code

[/prism]

Block code "fences"

Use "fences" ``` to block in multiple lines of code with a language attribute

```
Sample text here...
```

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

  Sample text here...

[/prism]

Syntax highlighting

GFM, or "GitHub Flavored Markdown" also supports syntax highlighting. To activate it, simply add the file extension of the language you want to use directly after the first code "fence", ```js, and syntax highlighting will automatically be applied in the rendered HTML. For example, to apply syntax highlighting to JavaScript code:

```js
grunt.initConfig({
  assemble: {
    options: {
      assets: 'docs/assets',
      data: 'src/data/*.{json,yml}',
      helpers: 'src/custom-helpers.js',
      partials: ['src/partials/**/*.{hbs,md}']
    },
    pages: {
      options: {
        layout: 'default.hbs'
      },
      files: {
        './': ['src/templates/pages/index.hbs']
      }
    }
  }
};
```

Renders to:

[prism classes="language-js"] grunt.initConfig({ assemble: { options: { assets: 'docs/assets', data: 'src/data/*.{json,yml}', helpers: 'src/custom-helpers.js', partials: ['src/partials/*/.{hbs,md}'] }, pages: { options: { layout: 'default.hbs' }, files: { './': ['src/templates/pages/index.hbs'] } } } }; [/prism]

For syntax highlighting to work, the Highlight plugin needs to be installed and enabled. It in turn utilizes a jquery plugin, so jquery needs to be loaded in your theme too.

Tables

Tables are created by adding pipes as dividers between each cell, and by adding a line of dashes (also separated by bars) beneath the header. Note that the pipes do not need to be vertically aligned.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

[/prism]

Renders to:

[div class="table"] Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

[/div]

And this HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"]

Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

[/prism]

Right aligned text

Adding a colon on the right side of the dashes below any heading will right align text for that column.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

[/prism]

[div class="table"] Option Description
data path to data files to supply the data that will be passed into templates.
engine engine to be used for processing templates. Handlebars is the default.
ext extension to be used for dest files.

[/div]

Links

Basic link

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Assemble [/prism]

Renders to (hover over the link, there is no tooltip):

Assemble

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"] Assemble [/prism]

Add a title

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Upstage [/prism]

Renders to (hover over the link, there should be a tooltip):

Upstage

HTML:

[prism classes="language-html"] Upstage [/prism]

Named Anchors

Named anchors enable you to jump to the specified anchor point on the same page. For example, each of these chapters:

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

Table of Contents

will jump to these sections:

[prism classes="language-markdown"]

Chapter 1

Content for chapter one.

Chapter 2

Content for chapter one.

Chapter 3

Content for chapter one. [/prism]

NOTE that specific placement of the anchor tag seems to be arbitrary. They are placed inline here since it seems to be unobtrusive, and it works.

Images

Images have a similar syntax to links but include a preceding exclamation point.

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Minion [/prism] Minion

or:

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Alt text [/prism] Alt text

Like links, images also have a footnote style syntax:

[prism classes="language-markdown"] Alt text [/prism] Alt text

With a reference later in the document defining the URL location:

[id]: https://octodex.github.com/images/dojocat.jpg  "The Dojocat"