Formatted Text Syntax (Markdown)

Home → Admin Manual → Customizing HelpSpot → Formatted Text Syntax (Markdown)

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:

---

* * *

- - - -