How to Markdown code on this forum?

[moon6969]

I’m struggling to format code sections when posting to this forum.

The help says:

To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab.

The next 2 lines start with 8 and 12 spaces respectively:
if not “mnFixedFindFilename” in globals()
globals()[“mnFixedFindFilename”] = notepad.getCurrentFilename())
but the preview window steals my spaces and formats as normal…

How do I get the fancy black code blocks!?

[MaDill]

add an empty line after “…respectively:”

The next 2 lines start with 8 and 12 spaces respectively:

    if not “mnFixedFindFilename” in globals()
        globals()[“mnFixedFindFilename”] = notepad.getCurrentFilename())

but the preview window steals my spaces and formats as normal…

[moon6969]

Doh! Undone by my obsessive dislike of automatic line/paragraph spacing!!

Thanks MaDill

[Scott Sumner]

I have a cheatsheet I’ve assembled for markdown specific to this forum; it isn’t all-encompassing but maybe it is of some use:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\----------------- –> -----------------
(I like to use this one as a separator; like drawing a horizontal line; note the leading \ is important; maybe there is a better way…)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**bold** --> bold

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*italics* --> italics

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***bold_italics*** --> bold_italics

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

`red_with_grey_background` --> red_with_grey_background
(best for presenting regular expressions since everything between back-ticks (grave accents) is treated verbatim)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

~~strikeout~~ --> strikeout

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# heading1 big ->

heading1 big

(space between # and “h” in this example is important; # must start the line)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

## heading2 ->

heading2

(space between # and “h” in this example is important; # must start the line)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

### heading3 ->

heading3

(space between # and “h” in this example is important; # must start the line)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### heading4 ->

heading4

(space between # and “h” in this example is important; # must start the line)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bullet-point lists:
* bullet1
* bullet2
* bullet3
–>

• bullet1
• bullet2
• bullet3

(note: space after * is important!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

numbered lists:
1) one
2) two
3) three
–>

1. one
2. two
3. three

(note: space after ) is important!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a code block is indented with 4 spaces and must be preceded by a blank line:

I really have 4 spaces before me

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

quote another poster:

>YOU said this

And now I’m replying to it
(note: blank line between > line and the reply is important)
–>

YOU said this

And now I’m replying to it

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

links:

Very simple direct link to https://www.google.com
->
Very simple direct link to https://www.google.com

This is a simple [here](https://www.google.com) link
–>
This is a simple here link

This is a simple [here](https://www.google.com “go Google!”) link with custom hover pop-up text
->
This is a simple here link with custom hover pop-up text

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

images (not links to images) embedded in the post:

->

2024 moderator update: see our more-recent FAQ: Formatting Forum Posts: embedding images from imgur no longer works reliably; but unlike in 2017, you can just paste your image directly in the Forum post without using an external host, anyway.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[glennfromiowa]

@Scott_Sumner Thank you for posting this! This is the best guide to markdown I’ve ever seen - much better than the forum-provided guide. It should be posted somewhere accessible! Too bad we don’t have an active wiki anymore.

[guy038]

Hello @scott-sumner,

I totally agree with @glennfromiowa. Explanations, about links, that I didn’t dare to practice yet, are very clear ! Many thanks, Scott, for this neat summary ;-))

Cheers,

guy038

[Scott Sumner]

Ahem. Well, I’m somewhat embarrassed that the posting of mine that has generated the most interest over the past couple of years is about…markdown syntax. :-D

Here’s an addition to the above “cheatsheet”, because I recently messed up trying to embed a “video” in a posting even thought I’ve done it before (so I re-figured out the right way to do it):

-------------------

VIDEOS (not links-to-videos) EMBEDDED IN THE POST:

Note: These are actually animated-GIF files, not true video files

• Create screen-capture’d video file (e.g., .MP4 with SnagIt…my preference…YMMV) showing what you want the readers of your post to see
• Use online video to animated-GIF converter (e.g., https://ezgif.com/video-to-gif) to convert video (e.g. .MP4) to .GIF
• Save resulting .GIF file locally (temporarily)
• Upload .GIF file to image-hosting site (e.g., http://imgur.com/)
• Get “markdown” link to uploaded .GIF from image-hosting site to clipboard; example: [Imgur](http://i.imgur.com/UPYeN9e.gifv)
• Add ! out front, optionally delete Imgur between the [ and the ], and change gifv to gif; example: ![](http://i.imgur.com/UPYeN9e.gif)
• Paste that text into a new Notepad++ Community site posting, and you should have a live-action “video” in the preview pane of your posting, and, of course, when it truly gets posted!

-------------------

The embedded “video” from the above example (courtesy of this thread–where I originally screwed up the embedding and got a link instead):

[MAPJe71]

Alternative for capturing GIF: ScreenToGif

[PeterJones]

I just saw that another trick that @Scott-Sumner taught us in some other post isn’t in his summary above.

For quoting a file, there are two methods. The first, as others (including Scott) showed above, is to indent all the lines of the file by 4 spaces – and having a blank line before and after. This will create the black box, which can actually do syntax highlighting:

\-----
normal text followed by blank line

    # this block indented four spaces
    x = os.getenv('TEMP')

\-----

will be formatted as
-----
normal text followed by blank line

# this block indented four spaces
x = os.getenv('TEMP')

-----

But you’ll notice that my example code doesn’t have the black box or code formatting. I got that through what I call the “```z trick”: prefix your file by a blank line, followed by ```z by itself on a line, followed by ``` by itself and another blank, like

\----- visual separation for my example
normal text before blank line

```z
text that doesn't have to be indented
```

more normal text, after blank line
\----- visual separation for my example

To nest them (like I did here), you can use balanced groups of more ```` ticks, followed by a different letter, like:

\----

````x

```z
blah
```

````

\----

Hope this helps clarify.

[PeterJones]

Looks like the ```z notation doesn’t need blank lines surrounding:

\----
````x
```z
blah
```
````
\----

renders as

----

```z
blah
```

----

[V S Rawat]

@Scott-Sumner

Great help.

I was always putting something wrong that was destroying the presented version.

now I am wiser with your list.

Maybe this site should give a link of your post in the message compose window.

Thanks a gig.

[PeterJones]

For Future Readers

The hints in this discussion are mostly still good (other than suggesting imgur, as the moderator note clarifies); however, a few years after this discussion, we added a FAQ: Formatting Forum Posts which should be used as the canonical/official guide for using Markdown on this Forum; the benefit of the FAQ is that it can and will be kept up-to-date, which is harder to do for these older discussions.