243 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
243 lines
9.1 KiB
HTML
<h1>Markdown: Basics</h1>
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<ul id="ProjectSubmenu">
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<li><a href="/projects/markdown/" title="Markdown Project Page">Main</a></li>
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<li><a class="selected" title="Markdown Basics">Basics</a></li>
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<li><a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax Documentation">Syntax</a></li>
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<li><a href="/projects/markdown/license" title="Pricing and License Information">License</a></li>
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<li><a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Online Markdown Web Form">Dingus</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Getting the Gist of Markdown's Formatting Syntax</h2>
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<p>This page offers a brief overview of what it's like to use Markdown.
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The <a href="/projects/markdown/syntax" title="Markdown Syntax">syntax page</a> provides complete, detailed documentation for
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every feature, but Markdown should be very easy to pick up simply by
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looking at a few examples of it in action. The examples on this page
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are written in a before/after style, showing example syntax and the
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HTML output produced by Markdown.</p>
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<p>It's also helpful to simply try Markdown out; the <a href="/projects/markdown/dingus" title="Markdown Dingus">Dingus</a> is a
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web application that allows you type your own Markdown-formatted text
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and translate it to XHTML.</p>
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<p><strong>Note:</strong> This document is itself written using Markdown; you
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can <a href="/projects/markdown/basics.text">see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL</a>.</p>
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<h2>Paragraphs, Headers, Blockquotes</h2>
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<p>A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
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by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
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blank line -- a line containing nothing spaces or tabs is considered
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blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be intended with spaces or tabs.</p>
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<p>Markdown offers two styles of headers: <em>Setext</em> and <em>atx</em>.
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Setext-style headers for <code><h1></code> and <code><h2></code> are created by
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"underlining" with equal signs (<code>=</code>) and hyphens (<code>-</code>), respectively.
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To create an atx-style header, you put 1-6 hash marks (<code>#</code>) at the
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beginning of the line -- the number of hashes equals the resulting
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HTML header level.</p>
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<p>Blockquotes are indicated using email-style '<code>></code>' angle brackets.</p>
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<p>Markdown:</p>
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<pre><code>A First Level Header
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====================
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A Second Level Header
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---------------------
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Now is the time for all good men to come to
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the aid of their country. This is just a
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regular paragraph.
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The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
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dog's back.
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### Header 3
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> This is a blockquote.
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>
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> This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.
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>
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> ## This is an H2 in a blockquote
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><h1>A First Level Header</h1>
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<h2>A Second Level Header</h2>
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<p>Now is the time for all good men to come to
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the aid of their country. This is just a
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regular paragraph.</p>
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<p>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
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dog's back.</p>
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<h3>Header 3</h3>
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<blockquote>
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<p>This is a blockquote.</p>
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<p>This is the second paragraph in the blockquote.</p>
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<h2>This is an H2 in a blockquote</h2>
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</blockquote>
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</code></pre>
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<h3>Phrase Emphasis</h3>
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<p>Markdown uses asterisks and underscores to indicate spans of emphasis.</p>
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<p>Markdown:</p>
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<pre><code>Some of these words *are emphasized*.
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Some of these words _are emphasized also_.
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Use two asterisks for **strong emphasis**.
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Or, if you prefer, __use two underscores instead__.
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>Some of these words <em>are emphasized</em>.
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Some of these words <em>are emphasized also</em>.</p>
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<p>Use two asterisks for <strong>strong emphasis</strong>.
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Or, if you prefer, <strong>use two underscores instead</strong>.</p>
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</code></pre>
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<h2>Lists</h2>
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<p>Unordered (bulleted) lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens (<code>*</code>,
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<code>+</code>, and <code>-</code>) as list markers. These three markers are
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interchangable; this:</p>
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<pre><code>* Candy.
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* Gum.
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* Booze.
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</code></pre>
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<p>this:</p>
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<pre><code>+ Candy.
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+ Gum.
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+ Booze.
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</code></pre>
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<p>and this:</p>
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<pre><code>- Candy.
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- Gum.
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- Booze.
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</code></pre>
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<p>all produce the same output:</p>
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<pre><code><ul>
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<li>Candy.</li>
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<li>Gum.</li>
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<li>Booze.</li>
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</ul>
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</code></pre>
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<p>Ordered (numbered) lists use regular numbers, followed by periods, as
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list markers:</p>
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<pre><code>1. Red
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2. Green
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3. Blue
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><ol>
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<li>Red</li>
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<li>Green</li>
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<li>Blue</li>
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</ol>
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</code></pre>
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<p>If you put blank lines between items, you'll get <code><p></code> tags for the
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list item text. You can create multi-paragraph list items by indenting
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the paragraphs by 4 spaces or 1 tab:</p>
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<pre><code>* A list item.
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With multiple paragraphs.
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* Another item in the list.
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><ul>
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<li><p>A list item.</p>
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<p>With multiple paragraphs.</p></li>
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<li><p>Another item in the list.</p></li>
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</ul>
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</code></pre>
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<h3>Links</h3>
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<p>Markdown supports two styles for creating links: <em>inline</em> and
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<em>reference</em>. With both styles, you use square brackets to delimit the
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text you want to turn into a link.</p>
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<p>Inline-style links use parentheses immediately after the link text.
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For example:</p>
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<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/).
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/">
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example link</a>.</p>
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</code></pre>
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<p>Optionally, you may include a title attribute in the parentheses:</p>
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<pre><code>This is an [example link](http://example.com/ "With a Title").
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>This is an <a href="http://example.com/" title="With a Title">
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example link</a>.</p>
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</code></pre>
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<p>Reference-style links allow you to refer to your links by names, which
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you define elsewhere in your document:</p>
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<pre><code>I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][1] than from
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[Yahoo][2] or [MSN][3].
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[1]: http://google.com/ "Google"
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[2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search"
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[3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/"
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title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/"
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title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/"
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title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p>
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</code></pre>
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<p>The title attribute is optional. Link names may contain letters,
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numbers and spaces, but are <em>not</em> case sensitive:</p>
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<pre><code>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
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[The New York Times][NY Times].
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[ny times]: http://www.nytimes.com/
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>I start my morning with a cup of coffee and
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/">The New York Times</a>.</p>
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</code></pre>
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<h3>Images</h3>
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<p>Image syntax is very much like link syntax.</p>
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<p>Inline (titles are optional):</p>
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<pre><code>
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</code></pre>
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<p>Reference-style:</p>
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<pre><code>![alt text][id]
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[id]: /path/to/img.jpg "Title"
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</code></pre>
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<p>Both of the above examples produce the same output:</p>
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<pre><code><img src="/path/to/img.jpg" alt="alt text" title="Title" />
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</code></pre>
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<h3>Code</h3>
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<p>In a regular paragraph, you can create code span by wrapping text in
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backtick quotes. Any ampersands (<code>&</code>) and angle brackets (<code><</code> or
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<code>></code>) will automatically be translated into HTML entities. This makes
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it easy to use Markdown to write about HTML example code:</p>
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<pre><code>I strongly recommend against using any `<blink>` tags.
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I wish SmartyPants used named entities like `&mdash;`
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instead of decimal-encoded entites like `&#8212;`.
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>I strongly recommend against using any
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<code>&lt;blink&gt;</code> tags.</p>
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<p>I wish SmartyPants used named entities like
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<code>&amp;mdash;</code> instead of decimal-encoded
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entites like <code>&amp;#8212;</code>.</p>
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</code></pre>
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<p>To specify an entire block of pre-formatted code, indent every line of
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the block by 4 spaces or 1 tab. Just like with code spans, <code>&</code>, <code><</code>,
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and <code>></code> characters will be escaped automatically.</p>
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<p>Markdown:</p>
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<pre><code>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
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you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:
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<blockquote>
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<p>For example.</p>
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</blockquote>
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</code></pre>
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<p>Output:</p>
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<pre><code><p>If you want your page to validate under XHTML 1.0 Strict,
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you've got to put paragraph tags in your blockquotes:</p>
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<pre><code>&lt;blockquote&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;For example.&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;/blockquote&gt;
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</code></pre>
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</code></pre> |