Markdown Cheat Sheet

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This Markdown cheat sheet provides a quick overview of all the Markdown syntax elements. It can’t cover every edge case, so if you need more information about any of these elements, refer to the reference guides for basic syntax and extended syntax.

Basic Syntax

These are the elements outlined in John Gruber’s original design document. All Markdown applications support these elements.

Heading

H1

H2

H3

Bold

bold text

Italic

italicized text

Blockquote

blockquote

Ordered List

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item

Unordered List

• First item
• Second item
• Third item

Code

code

Line Break

Use \\ at the end of a line — NCM's line break, inherited from JSPWiki.

line one<br>
line two

Two trailing spaces also work, the standard Markdown way. \\ is preferred because it is visible in the source and survives editors that strip trailing whitespace.

\\\ (three) forces a break and clears floated images, for text that should start below a picture rather than beside it.

Writing <br> directly is refused when you save. It is embedded HTML, and NCM has its own line break — keeping page source in one language means it renders the same everywhere and cannot carry anything unexpected.

Horizontal Rule

Link

Markdown Guide

Image

Extended Syntax

These elements extend the basic syntax by adding additional features. Not all Markdown applications support these elements.

Table

Fenced Code Block

{
  "firstName": "John",
  "lastName": "Smith",
  "age": 25
}

Footnote

Here's a sentence with a footnote. ^[1]

^[1]: This is the footnote.

Heading ID

My Great Heading {#custom-id}

Definition List

term
: definition

Strikethrough

The world is flat.

Task List

• x Write the press release
• Update the website
• Contact the media

Emoji

That is so funny! 😂

(See also Copying and Pasting Emoji)

Highlight

I need to highlight these ==very important words==.

Subscript

H₂O

Superscript

X²