Learning Markdown - Third Edition

Whether you realize it or not, you write for the web. You might be a journalist, a content strategist, a technical writer, a copywriter, a blogger, or even a software developer. Your thoughts and ideas, in written form, probably find their way on to the web in one form or another.

Most of what you find on the web is formatted with something called HTML (short for HyperText Markup Language). HTML tells a web browser how to display a web page and all the various bits and pieces on that page — things like headings, lists, images, and text. It does that using tags. Tags tell the web browser what, for example, is a paragraph or a heading or a list on a page.

You don't need to know HTML to publish on the web. A fast and efficient way of formatting documents for the web is Markdown. What’s Markdown? It’s a lightweight language that uses keyboard symbols to add formatting to web pages and documents.

Learning Markdown teaches you how to quickly format content for the web. You’ll learn what I believe is the most efficient way to use Markdown. And unlike the various cheatsheets available online, this book explains the how and the why of using Markdown.

Learning Markdown takes you from the beginning — how to set up a page, how to format text, work with images and links and lists, and more. Each chapter ends with an exercise that gets you to use and build on what you’ve learned.

Before you buy, read a sample chapter to see if this book is right for you.