Markdown Guide
Markdown is a lightweight, easy-to-read plain text markup language. It allows you to format text using simple keyboard symbols instead of complex HTML tags. At its core, Notate brings markdown notation into a fast and easy to use markdown editor.
Markdown is plain text with a few notations that are used to markup the document. Try editing this.
- A list item
- A finished task
- Link a thought to Another note
You can highlight a phrase, or drop in some code.
Everything here is a plain file on your disk.
Rendered exactly as Notate renders it. Select a word, or type
/
on a new line, to use the same toolbars the editor has.
Formatting in Notate
Headings
One to six hash marks set the heading level. Leave a space after the hashes.
# Heading one
## Heading two
### Heading three#### Heading four
##### Heading five
###### Heading sixSix is the deepest level markdown defines.
Emphasis and inline styles
The marks you will reach for most often, and can nest.
**bold** and *italic* and ***both***bold and italic and both
~~struck through~~struck through
==highlighted==highlighted
The widely used spelling for a highlight, so it survives a move to most other markdown editors.
`inline code`inline code
Paragraphs and line breaks
A blank line starts a new paragraph. Inside a paragraph, a line break has to be asked for, which catches almost everyone out once.
One paragraph.
A second paragraph.One paragraph.
A second paragraph.
A blank line between them. This is the normal way to separate text.
This line
and this line
become one paragraph.This line and this line become one paragraph.
Pressing Enter once is not a line break. Markdown joins the lines, which is what lets you wrap long paragraphs in your editor without changing the output.
First line.
Second line, same paragraph.First line.
Second line, same paragraph.
Two spaces at the end of a line force a break. They work everywhere, but they are invisible in your source, so a stray edit can silently remove them.
First line.\
Second line, same paragraph.First line.
Second line, same paragraph.
A trailing backslash does the same thing and stays visible. Easier to maintain, slightly less widely supported.
Escaping characters
A backslash before a markdown character prints the character instead of letting it format anything.
\*not italic\* and \*\*not bold\*\**not italic* and **not bold**
\# Not a heading# Not a heading
Without the backslash this would become a heading.
\[\[Not a wiki-link\]\][[Not a wiki-link]]
Useful when you want to write about the syntax rather than use it.
Inside code, `*nothing*` needs escaping.Inside code, *nothing* needs escaping.
Backticks already turn formatting off, so a code span is usually simpler than a run of backslashes.
Lists and tasks
Bullets, numbers, and checkboxes. Indent by two spaces to nest.
- Coffee
- Tea
- Green
- Black- Coffee
- Tea
- Green
- Black
1. First
2. Second
3. Third- First
- Second
- Third
5. Starts at five
6. Then six- Starts at five
- Then six
The first number sets the start; the rest are renumbered for you, so a list stays correct after you reorder it.
- [x] Done already
- [ ] Still to do- Done already
- Still to do
Checkboxes are GitHub-flavored markdown. They render as real checkboxes and stay plain text on disk.
Links and images
Wiki-links and backlinks[Notate](https://notate.md)[Notate](https://notate.md "The Notate site")Text in quotes after the URL becomes the link's hover title.
A bare URL becomes a link: https://notate.mdA bare URL becomes a link: https://notate.md
An explicit autolink: <https://notate.md>An explicit autolink: https://notate.md
Angle brackets link a URL without giving it separate text. Handy when the URL contains characters that would otherwise break the link.
A [reference link][site] keeps long URLs out of your sentence.
[site]: https://notate.mdA reference link keeps long URLs out of your sentence.
The label is defined once, anywhere in the note, and can be reused by several links. The definition itself does not render.
[[Another note]]Another note
A wiki-link points at another note by title. Notate tracks these both ways, so each note shows what links back to it.
Images reference a file path, so they stay with your notes rather than living in a database.
Code
Backticks for a phrase, three backticks for a block. Naming the language turns on syntax highlighting.
Use `npm install` to begin.Use npm install to begin.
```js
const notes = files.map(read);
```const notes = files.map(read);
Dozens of languages are highlighted, and an unlabelled block is detected automatically.
Quotes and dividers
> A quotation.
> It can run to several lines.A quotation. It can run to several lines.
> Someone said this.
>
> > And quoted this in turn.Someone said this.
And quoted this in turn.
Add a second angle bracket to nest. The blank quoted line keeps the two apart.
> A quote can hold other things:
>
> - a list
> - and another itemA quote can hold other things:
- a list
- and another item
Anything can go inside a quote as long as every line carries the angle bracket.
Above the line.
---
Below the line.Above the line.
Below the line.
Tables
Editing tables in NotatePipes separate the columns; the dashes under the header set alignment. Notate tidies the spacing for you as you type.
| Feature | Free | Paid |
| --- | :---: | ---: |
| Local files | yes | yes |
| Sync | no | yes || Feature | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Local files | yes | yes |
| Sync | no | yes |
Colons in the divider row control alignment: left, centered, then right.
| Cell | Content |
| --- | --- |
| Styled | **bold** and `code` || Cell | Content |
|---|---|
| Styled | bold and code |
Inline formatting works inside a cell. Block content, like a list or a second paragraph, does not.
Footnotes
A claim worth a citation.[^1]
[^1]: The citation itself, collected at the foot of the note.A claim worth a citation.[^1]
[^1]: The citation itself, collected at the foot of the note.
Frontmatter
Frontmatter in NotateA YAML block fenced by three dashes at the very top of a note holds its metadata. Notate reads and writes it, and keeps any keys it does not recognise exactly as you left them.
---
title: Ridge traverse
tags:
- hiking
- gear
---
The note itself starts here.Nothing. Frontmatter is metadata, not content, so Notate strips it before rendering the note.
It must be the first thing in the file, with no blank line above it.
---
title: Ridge traverse
date: 2026-08-18
description: Two days on the ridge.
aliases:
- Ridge walk
---Nothing, as above.
Notate reads title, date, updated, tags, description, and aliases, and writes back only three of them: title, tags, and description. Every other key, along with your comments and key order, is left byte-for-byte as you wrote it, so metadata from another editor survives a round trip.
Diagrams
Diagrams in Notate
A fenced mermaid
block becomes a diagram: flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and charts, drawn
from text you can still edit in any editor.
How a trail reaches the map
A fenced mermaid
block, rendered in the preview.
What Notate does not render
Markdown has no single standard, so every editor draws its own line. These constructs are common elsewhere and stay as plain text in Notate. Nothing is lost, because the file is still just text, but it will not render.
Inline math like $E = mc^2$ and display math:
$$
\frac{a}{b}
$$Inline math like $E = mc^2$ and display math:
$$ \frac{a}{b} $$
There is no math or LaTeX rendering. The dollar signs and everything between them stay literal.
> [!NOTE]
> A callout block.[!NOTE] A callout block.
Callouts and admonitions render as an ordinary quote, with the [!NOTE] marker visible as text.
[[Another note|a different label]]Another note|a different label
Wiki-links have no alias syntax. The whole string is treated as the note title, so the pipe stops the link resolving. Use a normal [label](link) if you need different link text.
<kbd>Cmd</kbd> and <div class="box">a div</div><kbd>Cmd</kbd> and <div class="box">a div</div>
Raw HTML is not rendered. Markdown that leans on HTML tags for layout will show the tags as text, so anything you want styled has to be written in markdown itself.
==**bold inside a highlight**==A highlight containing literal asterisks. The nesting works in this page's renderer but not in the app, so we are describing the app rather than showing you our own output.
Highlights do not combine with other inline marks. Put the highlight inside the bold instead of the other way around.
Common questions
Why doesn't pressing Enter start a new line in markdown?
Markdown treats a single newline as a space, which is what lets you wrap a long paragraph across several lines in your editor without changing how it reads. To force a break inside a paragraph, end the line with two spaces or with a backslash. To start a new paragraph, leave a blank line.
Where does Notate store the tags on a note?
In the note's frontmatter, the YAML block fenced by three dashes at the very top of the file. Notate also reads inline tags written in the body, such as #hiking, so a folder of notes written in another editor arrives with its tags already in place. Both are plain text in the file, so nothing is hidden in a database.
Will notes written in Notate still work in another markdown editor?
Yes. Almost everything Notate uses is CommonMark or GitHub-flavored markdown, which every markdown editor understands. The three additions are frontmatter, tags, and wiki-links written with double square brackets, and all three are ordinary text on disk, so another editor shows them as written rather than losing them.
Markdown that stays yours.
Notate keeps every note as an ordinary .md file in a folder you choose, so everything on this page is readable with or without Notate. Start free on desktop.