10 Useful Resources for Learning Markdown Syntax

Markdown is a terrific text-formatting syntax designed specifically for writers of Web content. Markdown lets you focus on your writing task by making the process of text-formatting unobtrusive. Using visual interfaces or HTML disrupts your writing flow, forcing you to pause whenever you need to format and structure your text.

Markdown is easy to learn! To help you get you started writing in Markdown, check out these ten excellent tutorials and reference guides.

Markdown Tutorial

This interactive Markdown tutorial is short and sweet. It’s written in a fun, non-intimidating manner.

Those who are completely new to Markdown should start here.

Learning Markdown: Write For The Web, Faster

This is a comprehensive Markdown guide. This resource even goes over how to export your Markdown files to common formats such as PDF, and suggests some good Markdown editors.

Markdown tutorial on YouTube

If you find that learning by watching videos is easier, then this 12-minute video is perfect for you. This video tutorial will go over what Markdown is, some of the benefits of using Markdown, and, of course, how to use Markdown.

Mastering Markdown

One reason many coders are starting to learn Markdown is because it’s used heavily on GitHub.

This three-minute tutorial will give you a rapid overview of Markdown/GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM).

Daring Fireball: Markdown

There’s probably no better source of information that can beat the documentation written by Markdown’s creator, John Gruber (Daring Fireball).

Markdown Syntax Reference

This compact resource by Squarespace has all the Markdown-formatting syntax conveniently listed down in one page.

Markdown Cheatsheet (Ahren Code)

If you’re looking for a cheatsheet that you can print out offline and stick on your wall, check out this PDF cheatsheet. It comes in two versions: Standard (which is the dark-themed version featured above) and Light (which is light-themed).

Markdown Cheatsheet: Toolbar Style

This unique reference guide mimics the interface of rich-text editors. This might be a useful resource for visual and tactile learners.

This is Markdown

This one-page reference guide lists down common Markdown-formatting syntax such as **bold**, `inlineCode()` and so forth.

This resource is interactive.

Markdown Cheat Sheet (Mashery)

This is another useful Web resource that has all the Markdown code all in one web page.

Markdown Editors

Looking for a visual interface for writing in Markdown? Check out my list of Markdown editors.

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Jacob Gube is the founder of Six Revisions. He’s a front-end developer. Connect with him on Twitter.