I’ve been using markdown quite a lot both for the book I wrote and for other projects. It’s a great format and the best part (IMHO) is that you can learn most of it in 10min. Here is a list of the main ‘building blocks’ you will want to use:
Headers
# H1
## H2
### H3
#### H4
##### H5
###### H6
Links
To create links just follow this pattern:
[google.com](https://www.google.com)
Images
For images, you can just add ! before the ‘link’ element we’ve just saw above.

Emphasis
Emphasis, aka italics, with *asterisks* or _underscores_.
Strong emphasis, aka bold, with **asterisks** or __underscores__.
Combined emphasis with **asterisks and _underscores_**.
Strikethrough uses two tildes. ~~Scratch this.~~
Lists
Just use numbers or *
1. First ordered list item
2. Another item
* Unordered sub-list.
1. Actual numbers don't matter, just that it's a number
1. Ordered sub-list
4. And another item.
Some text that should be aligned with the above item.
* Unordered list can use asterisks
- Or minuses
+ Or pluses
Code and Syntax Highlighting
```javascript
var s = "JavaScript syntax highlighting";
alert(s);
```
```python
s = "Python syntax highlighting"
print s
```
```
No language indicated, so no syntax highlighting.
But let's throw in a <b>tag</b>.
```
Tables
Colons can be used to align columns.
| Tables | Are | Cool |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 3 is | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is | centered | $12 |
| zebra stripes | are neat | $1 |
Horizontal Rule
Three or more:
--- Hyphens
*** Asterisks
___ Underscores
Youtube videos
You can add an image with a link to the video like this:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID_HERE " target="_blank">
<img src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/YOUTUBE_VIDEO_ID_HERE/0.jpg" alt="IMAGE ALT TEXT HERE"
width="480" height="360"
border="1" />
</a>
See it all in action on GitHub in this little web game README.md
Be strong and write something nice.