12. More Markdown Syntax

More Markdown Syntax

More Markdown

Now it's your turn. Dive into the Markdown documentation, and explore more ways to write beautiful READMEs.

A few important items you may want to write and should pay extra attention to include:

  • Ordered and unordered lists
  • Links and images
  • Large blocks of code

HTML Is Still a Thing

Something to keep in mind when using Markdown is that HTML is still valid in Markdown. If there's ever something fancy you can't accomplish with just Markdown, it's okay to fall back to HTML.

The catch here is that you may be overcomplicating your life. If you need to fall back to plain HTML, there's a good chance that you could communicate whatever it is you are trying to say in a simpler format.

Working with .md Files

Much like how your HTML files should be saved with a .html extension, your Markdown files should be saved with a .md extension.

Markdown itself can't be opened in the browser like an HTML document. If you want to preview your Markdown files, Dillinger is a great online resource for you to do so.

If you are using Sublime Text, there is a plugin you can download to let you preview Markdown files right on your computer. If you are using Atom text editor, Markdown preview is baked right into the program (in the 'Packages' menu).

INSTRUCTOR NOTE:

Here's a link to the basic Markdown documentation. You can also check out the differences in GitHub flavored Markdown here.

To preview Markdown in the browser, try Dillinger.