Some of you may have heard of Markdown before; however, if you haven’t, this blog post will break it down bit by bit to make it more understandable. You don’t have to be a tech-wiz to know how to use Markdown, or understand what it means!

Essentially, Markdown is a great way to write for the web using plain text to make the process a lot easier. The purpose of Markdown is that plain text documents should be readable without tags messing it up. However, still can add text modifiers, for example, bold font, italics or lists. 

I know this sounds like a lot and you may still be confused about what Markdown is. But, you may have used it without even realising it. For example, in a Facebook chat, on Skype or Reddit. These are all platforms that enable you to use different types of Markdown to customise your messages. 

So let’s delve into some examples you may have used. Firstly bold text, whether on Skype or Whatsapp you can create a bold word by simply typing an asterisk on either side of a *word* like that, so it turns into a word like this.

Alternatively, you can type a double asterisk on either side of a **word** or underscores on either side of a _word_ to italicise it. Markdown’s simplicity is a contributing factor to its success and likeability, which means that anyone can do it! If you are curious to learn for yourself, then the official syntax can be found here  ideal if you would like to add another skill to the list of things you have learnt over lockdown.

You may be thinking to yourself, what is the point of learning Markdown? Once you know the skill, it will be relevant for as long as plain text is the standard, which will be for a very long time. Meaning there will be no outdated version of Markdown and the software doesn’t need to be continuously updated to keep up with the format. 

Another advantage to Markdown is that it is used everywhere, from popular coding sites like GitHub to communication platforms such as Skype, Slack and Facebook Messenger. Wikipedia even has something called ‘‘Wikitext’’ which is their own modified version of Markdown. 

Markdown sounds pretty close to perfect. However, there are some disadvantages. Complicated elements such as tables are more comfortable to construct via HTML. Still, on the positive side, Markdown has full HTML support enabling you to code via HTML and then go back to Markdown within the same document! 

The advantages trump the disadvantages, in my opinion, so if you want to update your website or learn a new skill. Try Markdown, and it won’t go to waste.