Markdown is a plain-text file format designed to be human readable and yet provide powerful styling information.
Flavors
It is important to remember that Markdown is a non-standard file format. As such, every markdown editor and renderer interprets Markdown slightly differently, and certain features may not be available everywhere. For this reason, the community talks about different flavors of Markdown. Here are some of the popular ones:
- Vanilla Markdown
- CommonMark
- GitHub Flavored Markdown
- LaTeX
Features
Here are many of the popular features available in various forms of Markdown. Again, it is important to remember that some of these features may be more widely available than others.
Sources
Paragraphs
To create paragraphs, use a blank line to separate one or more lines of text.
This is a paragraph.
This is another paragraph.
Multiple blank spaces
Headings
To create a heading, add up to six # symbols before your heading text. The number of # symbols determines the size of the heading.
# This is a heading 1
## This is a heading 2
### This is a heading 3
#### This is a heading 4
##### This is a heading 5
###### This is a heading 6Bold, italics, highlights
Text formatting can also be applied using Editing shortcuts.
| Style | Syntax | Example | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bold | ** ** or __ __ | **Bold text** | Bold text |
| Italic | * * or _ _ | *Italic text* | Italic text |
| Strikethrough | ~~ ~~ | ~~Striked out text~~ | |
| Highlight | == == | ==Highlighted text== | Highlighted text |
| Bold and nested italic | ** ** and _ _ | **Bold text and _nested italic_ text** | Bold text and nested italic text |
| Bold and italic | *** *** or ___ ___ | ***Bold and italic text*** | Bold and italic text |
Formatting can be forced to display in plain text by adding a backslash \ in front of it.
This line will not be bold
\*\*This line will not be bold\*\*This line will be italic and show the asterisks
\**This line will be italic and show the asterisks*\*Internal links
Obsidian supports two formats for internal links between notes:
- Wikilink:
[[Three laws of motion]] - Markdown:
[Three laws of motion](Three%20laws%20of%20motion.md)
External links
If you want to link to an external URL, you can create an inline link by surrounding the link text in brackets ([ ]), and then the URL in parentheses (( )).
[Obsidian Help](https://help.obsidian.md)You can also create external links to files in other vaults, by linking to an Obsidian URI.
[Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=Note.md)Escape blank spaces in links
If your URL contains blank spaces, you must escape them by replacing them with %20.
[My Note](obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My%20Note.md)You can also escape the URL by wrapping it with angled brackets (< >).
[My Note](<obsidian://open?vault=MainVault&file=My Note.md>)External images
You can add images with external URLs, by adding a ! symbol before an external link.
You can change the image dimensions, by adding |640x480 to the link destination, where 640 is the width and 480 is the height.
If you only specify the width, the image scales according to its original aspect ratio. For example:
Tip
If you want to add an image from inside your vault, you can also embed an image in a note.
Quotes
You can quote text by adding a > symbols before the text.
> Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.
\- Doug Engelbart, 1961Human beings face ever more complex and urgent problems, and their effectiveness in dealing with these problems is a matter that is critical to the stability and continued progress of society.
- Doug Engelbart, 1961
Tip
You can turn your quote into a callout by adding [!info] as the first line in a quote.
Lists
You can create an unordered list by adding a -, *, or + before the text.
- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item
To create an ordered list, start each line with a number followed by a . symbol.
1. First list item
2. Second list item
3. Third list item- First list item
- Second list item
- Third list item
Task lists
To create a task list, start each list item with a hyphen and space followed by [ ].
- [x] This is a completed task.
- [ ] This is an incomplete task.- This is a completed task.
- This is an incomplete task.
You can toggle a task in Reading view by selecting the checkbox.
Tip
You can use any character inside the brackets to mark it as complete.
- [x] Milk
- [?] Eggs
- [-] Eggs- Milk
- Eggs
- Eggs
Nesting lists
All list types can be nested in Obsidian.
To create a nested list, indent one or more list items:
1. First list item
1. Ordered nested list item
2. Second list item
- Unordered nested list item- First list item
- Ordered nested list item
- Second list item
- Unordered nested list item
Similarly, you can create a nested task list by indenting one or more list items:
- [ ] Task item 1
- [ ] Subtask 1
- [ ] Task item 2
- [ ] Subtask 1- Task item 1
- Subtask 1
- Task item 2
- Subtask 1
Use Tab or Shift+Tab to indent or unindent one or more selected list items for easy organization.
Horizontal rule
You can use three or more stars ***, hyphens ---, or underscore ___ on its own line to add a horizontal bar. You can also separate symbols using spaces.
***
****
* * *
---
----
- - -
___
____
_ _ _Code
You can format code both inline within a sentence, or in its own block.
Inline code
You can format code within a sentence using single backticks.
Text inside `backticks` on a line will be formatted like code.Text inside backticks on a line will be formatted like code.
If you want to put backticks in an inline code block, surround it with double backticks like so: inline code with a backtick ` inside.
Code blocks
To format a block of code, surround the code with triple backticks.
```
cd ~/Desktop
```
cd ~/DesktopYou can also create a code block by indenting the text using Tab or 4 blank spaces.
cd ~/DesktopYou can add syntax highlighting to a code block, by adding a language code after the first set of backticks.
```js
function fancyAlert(arg) {
if(arg) {
$.facebox({div:'#foo'})
}
}
```function fancyAlert(arg) {
if(arg) {
$.facebox({div:'#foo'})
}
}Obsidian uses Prism for syntax highlighting. For more information, refer to Supported languages.
Note
Source mode and Live Preview do not support PrismJS, and may render syntax highlighting differently.
Footnotes
You can add footnotes[1] to your notes using the following syntax:
This is a simple footnote[^1].
[^1]: This is the referenced text.
[^2]: Add 2 spaces at the start of each new line.
This lets you write footnotes that span multiple lines.
[^note]: Named footnotes still appear as numbers, but can make it easier to identify and link references.You can also inline footnotes in a sentence. Note that the caret goes outside the brackets.
You can also use inline footnotes. ^[This is an inline footnote.]Note
Inline footnotes only work in reading view, not in Live Preview.
Comments
You can add comments by wrapping text with `inline This is a block comment.
Block comments can span multiple lines.
Text%% | [Comments](https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Basic+formatting+syntax#Comments) | |Text | [Strikethroughs](https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Basic+formatting+syntax#Styling%20text) | | ``` | [Code blocks](https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Basic+formatting+syntax#Code%20blocks) | |- [ ] | [Incomplete task](https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Basic+formatting+syntax#Task%20lists) | |- [x] | [Completed task](https://help.obsidian.md/Editing+and+formatting/Basic+formatting+syntax#Task%20lists) | |> [!note]` | Callouts |
| (see link) | Tables |