The Full Markdown Showcase

Heading Levels

This post uses h2, h3, and h4 headings. The table of contents on the right (desktop) or the collapsible one at the top (mobile) picks these up automatically.

This Is H3

This Is H4

Three levels is usually enough. Too many levels and the structure gets more confusing than helpful.

Text Formatting

The basic text styles:

• Bold — use **text**
• Italic — use *text*
• Strikethrough — use ~~text~~
• Inline code — wrap it in backticks
• Hyperlink — use [text](url)

You can mix these together, like bold with code inside or italic with a link.

Lists

Unordered List

• First item
• Second item
  • Nested item A
  • Nested item B
    • You can go even deeper
• Third item

Ordered List

1. Open your editor
2. Create a new Markdown file
3. Start writing
4. Save
5. Deploy

Task List

• Pick a theme
• Set up the basic structure
• Write the first post
• Deploy to production

Blockquotes

Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

Blockquotes in Spectra get a decorative left border and a subtle background color. Multi-line works just fine:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

— Arthur C. Clarke

Tables

Tables come up a lot in technical writing. Spectra’s tables automatically get borders and zebra-striped rows.

Left, right, and center alignment:

Horizontal Rule

Three dashes make a horizontal rule:

Handy for separating sections on different topics.

Nested Blockquotes and Lists

You can put lists inside blockquotes too:

Good technical writing usually has these traits:

• Gets to the point right away
• Includes real examples
• Keeps paragraphs short
• Wraps up with a summary

Footnotes

Markdown supports footnotes¹. Hover over or click to see the note.

Definition List

HTML

HyperText Markup Language — the skeleton of web pages.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets — handles how web pages look.

JavaScript

The programming language that makes web pages interactive.

That’s a wrap on the main Markdown elements Spectra supports. You don’t need to memorize the syntax — just write a few posts and it’ll become second nature.