Learning and Understanding Markdown

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language for generating html files. It uses textual symbols to indicate structure of a page. It is a simple and easy way to code. Markdown is written in plain text, so it is easy to read because it uses real words and characters. Markdown is not written like you would write a Word Doc, but it is similar. Instead of using buttons at the top of the Word Doc, you use symbols to tell the code on what effects to create. Here are some examples:

• #, ##, ### are used for headers -** ** or __ __ can be used to make words bold -* * or _ _can be used to words italic (note: *=asterik,_=underscore, -=hyphen or a single dash)

Markdown is a verily easy to learn. However, it does take a little bit of practice and memorization. Github is the perfect place to learn how to use markdown. You just need to start a new repository. Remember that when a file is written with markdown it will end in .md.

Github

Github is a good place to practice with markdown. It is a a good platform to host, store and share code. You can also review other developers code as well. You can store and create code using files called repositories. You can use github to convert your markdown code into webpages.

Why Use Markdown

• Markdown is a fun and simple way to write code and build websites
• Easier to learn than most other web-based languages
• Can work seamlessly with other coding languages
• Good for beginners

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