Markdown Guide🔗

Markdown is a simple way to format text that looks great on any device. It doesn't do anything fancy like change the font size, color, or type — just the essentials, using keyboard symbols you already know. Since it is plain text, it is an easy way to author notes and documents and when needed it can be converted to a rich text HTML document.

Joplin desktop and mobile applications can display both the Markdown text and the rendered rich text document.

Joplin follows the CommonMark specification, with additional features added via plugins.

Cheat Sheet🔗

This is a quick summary of the Markdown syntax.

Markdown Rendered Output
Heading 1
# Heading 1

Heading 1

Heading 2
## Heading 2

Heading 2

Heading 3
### Heading 3

Heading 3

Bold
This is some **bold text**
This is some bold text
Italic
This is some *italic text*
This is some italic text
Blockquotes
> Kent.
> Where's the king?

> Gent.
> Contending with the
> fretful elements
Kent.
Where's the king?

Gent.
Contending with
the fretful elements
List
* Milk
* Eggs
* Beers
* Desperados
* Heineken
* Ham
  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Beers
    • Desperados
    • Heineken
  • Ham
Ordered list
1. Introduction
2. Main topic
1. First sub-topic
2. Second sub-topic
3. Conclusion
  1. Introduction
  2. Main topic
    1. First sub-topic
    2. Second sub-topic
  3. Conclusion
Inline code
This is `someJavaScript()`
This is someJavaScript()
Code block
Here's some JavaScript code:

```
function hello() {
alert('hello');
}
```

Language is normally auto-detected,
but it can also be specified:

```sql
SELECT * FROM users;
DELETE FROM sessions;
```
Here's some JavaScript code:

function hello() {
    alert('hello');
}

Language is normally auto-detected, but it can also be specified:

SELECT * FROM users;
DELETE FROM sessions;
Unformatted text
Indent with a tab or 4 spaces
for unformatted text.

This text will not be formatted:

Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--
Indent with a tab or 4 spaces for unformatted text.

This text will not be formatted:

Robert'); DROP TABLE students;--
Link
This is detected as a link:

https://joplinapp.org

And this is a link anchoring text content:

[Joplin](https://joplinapp.org)

And this is a link, with a title,
anchoring text content:

[Joplin](https://joplinapp.org "Joplin project page")
This is detected as a link:

https://joplinapp.org

And this is a link anchoring text content:

Joplin

And this is a link, with a title,
anchoring text content:

Joplin (hint: hover over the link)
Images
![Joplin icon](https://git.io/JenGk)
Here's Joplin icon
Horizontal Rule
One rule:
***
Another rule:
---
One rule:

Another rule:

Tables See below

Tables🔗

Tables are created using pipes | and and hyphens -. This is a Markdown table:

| First Header  | Second Header |
| ------------- | ------------- |
| Content Cell  | Content Cell  |
| Content Cell  | Content Cell  |

Which is rendered as:

First Header Second Header
Content Cell Content Cell
Content Cell Content Cell

Note that there must be at least 3 dashes separating each header cell.

Colons can be used to align columns:

| Tables        | Are           | Cool  |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 3 is      | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is      | centered      |   $12 |

Which is rendered as:

Tables Are Cool
col 3 is right-aligned $1600
col 2 is centered $12

Joplin Extras🔗

Besides the standard Markdown syntax, Joplin supports several additional features.

Links to other notes🔗

You can create a link to a note by specifying its ID in the URL. For example:

[Link to my note](:/0b0d62d15e60409dac34f354b6e9e839)

Since getting the ID of a note is not straightforward, each app provides a way to create such link. In the desktop app, drag and drop a note into another note to create a link. Or right click on a note and select "Copy Markdown link". In the mobile app, open a note and, in the top right menu, select "Copy Markdown link". You can then paste this link anywhere in another note.

Math notation🔗

Math expressions can be added using the KaTeX notation. To add an inline equation, wrap the expression in $EXPRESSION$, eg. $\sqrt{3x-1}+(1+x)^2$. To create an expression block, wrap it as follow:

$$
EXPRESSION
$$

For example:

$$
f(x) = \int_{-\infty}^\infty
	\hat f(\xi)\,e^{2 \pi i \xi x}
	\,d\xi
$$

Here is an example with the Markdown and rendered result side by side:

Chemical equations🔗

Joplin supports chemical equations via the mhchem plugin for KaTeX. This plugin is automatically enabled if you enable math notation. See the mhchem documentation for the syntax.

Diagrams🔗

You can create diagrams in Joplin using the Mermaid syntax. To add such a graph, wrap the Mermaid script inside a "```mermaid" code block like this:

```mermaid
graph TD;
    A-->B;
    A-->C;
    B-->D;
    C-->D;
```

This is how it would look with the Markdown on the left, and rendered graph on the right:

Mermaid support in Joplin

Note that Mermaid graphs are always rendered on a white background regardless of the current theme. This is because they can contain various colours that may not be compatible with the current theme.

Checkboxes🔗

Checkboxes can be added like so:

- [ ] Milk
- [x] Rice
- [ ] Eggs

Which would turn into:

Checkbox support in Joplin

The checkboxes can then be ticked in the mobile and desktop applications.

HTML support🔗

It is generally recommended to enter the notes as Markdown as it makes the notes easier to edit. However for cases where certain features aren't supported (such as strikethrough or to highlight text), you can also use HTML code directly. For example this would be a valid note:

This is strikethrough text mixed with regular **Markdown**.

Markdown Plugins🔗

Joplin supports a number of plugins that can be toggled on/off to enable/disable markdown features on top of the standard Markdown features you would expect. These plugins are listed below. Unlike regular plugins, Markdown plugins must be enabled in the markdown section of the Configuration screen. Not all of the plugins are enabled by default, if the "enabled" field is 'no' below, then open the option screen to enable the plugin. Plugins can be disabled in the same manner.

The functionality added by these plugins is not part of the CommonMark spec so, while they will all work within Joplin, it is not guaranteed that they will work in other Markdown readers. Often this is not an issue but keep it in mind if you require compatibility with other Markdown applications.

Plugin Syntax Description Enabled Screenshot
Soft breaks See breaks markdown-it demo Joplin uses hard breaks by default, which means that a line break is rendered as
. Enable soft breaks for traditional markdown line-break behaviour.
no View
Typographer See typographer markdown-it demo Does typographic replacements, (c) -> © and so on no View
Linkify See linkify markdown-it demo Auto-detects URLs and convert them to clickable links yes
Katex $$math expr$$ or $math$ See above yes View
Fountain ```fountain
Your screenplay...
```
Adds support for the Fountain markup language, a plain text markup language for screenwriting no View
Mermaid ```mermaid
mermaid syntax...
```
See plugin page for full description yes View
Mark ==marked== Transforms into marked (highlighted) yes View
Footnote Simples inline footnote ^[I'm inline!] See plugin page for full description yes View
TOC Any of ${toc}, [[toc]], [toc], [[_toc_]] Adds a table of contents to the location of the toc page. Based on headings and sub-headings yes View
Sub X~1~ Transforms into X1 no View
Sup X^2^ Transforms into X2 no View
Deflist See pandoc page for syntax Adds the html
tag accessible through markdown
no View
Abbr *[HTML]: Hyper Text Markup Language
The HTML specification
Allows definition of abbreviations that can be hovered over later for a full expansion no View
Emoji :smile: Transforms into 😄. See this list for more emojis no View
Insert ++inserted++ Transforms into inserted (inserted) no View
Multitable See MultiMarkdown page Adds more power and customization to markdown tables no View