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5.10. Formatted Text Syntax (Markdown)

Updated: May 24 2026, 08:13 AM

HelpSpot uses the text formatting language Markdown to support building HTML documents from text.

Markdown also accepts HTML, so you can intermingle HTML tags with the Markdown syntax.

Phrase Emphasis

*italic*   **bold**
_italic_   __bold__

Links

Inline:

An [example](http://url.com/ "Title")

Reference-style labels (titles are optional):

An [example][id]. Then, anywhere
else in the doc, define the link:

[id]: http://example.com/  "Title"

Images

Inline (titles are optional):

![alt text](/path/img.jpg "Title")

Reference-style:

![alt text][id]

[id]: /url/to/img.jpg "Title"

Headers

Setext-style:

Header 1
========
Header 2
--------

atx-style (closing #'s are optional):

# Header 1 #
## Header 2 ##
###### Header 6

Lists

Ordered, without paragraphs:

1.  Foo
2.  Bar

Unordered, with paragraphs:

*   A list item.
    With multiple paragraphs.
*   Bar

You can nest them:

*   Bus
  * Yellow
*   Cars
  1.  Dodge
  2.  Honda
    * Civic
  3. Trucks
*   Cunning

Manual Line Breaks

End a line with two or more spaces:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.

Tables

A simple table

First Header  | Second Header
------------- | -------------
Content Cell  | Content Cell
Content Cell  | Content Cell

A table with the right columned aligned (note the : at the end of the header line)

| Item      | Value |
| --------- | -----:|
| Computer  | $1600 |
| Phone     |   $12 |
| Pipe      |    $1 |

Formatting can be used within the table

First Header  | Second Header
------------- | -------------
Content Cell  | **Content Cell**
*Content Cell*  | Content Cell

Blockquotes

> Email-style angle brackets
> are used for blockquotes.
> > And, they can be nested.
> #### Headers in blockquotes
> 
> * You can quote a list.
> * Etc.

Code Spans

`<code>` spans are delimited
by backticks.
You can include literal backticks
like `` `this` ``.

Preformatted Code Blocks

Indent every line of a code block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab.

This is a normal paragraph.
  This is a preformatted
  code block.

Horizontal Rules

Three or more dashes or asterisks:

---

* * *

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