Markdown Introduction & Tips

If you are not familiar with Markdown

What is Markdown?

According to wiki:

Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain-text-formatting syntax. Its design allows it to be converted to many output formats, but the original tool by the same name only supports HTML. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor.

How to open and create the Markdown files?

• You can work with Markdown files in Visual Studio Code.
• But you can use any text editor (such as Notepad++ on Windows or Sublime Text on MacOS/Linux) to open and create the *.md files.
• I use the markdown editor Typora (but it is no longer free). Typora gives you a seamless experience as both a reader and a writer, and it is available for Windows/MacOS/Linux users.

How to write?

To create a markdown-based documentation:

• You can learn basic Markdown syntax within 5 mins. See the resources:
  • Markdown cheatsheet from Markdown Guide (link)
  • Markdown cheatsheet from GitHub (link)
  • Extended syntax (link)
• A tutorial provided by GitHub (link)
• You are not required to learn any syntax if you are using Typora (but it is no longer free).

Tips (if you are familiar with Markdown)

• A very nice template for GitHub README: [link]
• Table of Content
  • [toc] in Typora
  • Online TOC generator: [ecotrust-canada], [luciopaiva]
  • Markdown Preview Enhanced can create TOC for your markdown file. You can press cmd-shift-p then choose Markdown Preview Enhanced: Create Toc to create TOC. Multiple TOCs can be created. To exclude a heading from the TOC, append {ignore=true} after your heading. [link]
• Cheatsheet:
  • Markdown cheatsheet from Markdown Guide (link)
  • Markdown cheatsheet from GitHub (link)
  • Extended syntax (link)
• svg resources
  • iconmonstr (link)
• HTML tutorial (Beginners - WebsitePlanet)