Markdown Preview Guide: Write and Preview Markdown Like a Pro
Learn Markdown syntax from basics to advanced — headings, lists, tables, code blocks, and more. How to use a Markdown previewer for real-time editing.
What Is Markdown?
Markdown is a lightweight markup language that uses plain text formatting to create structured documents. It was designed to be easy to read and write in its raw form while converting to valid HTML. Markdown is widely used for README files, documentation, forum posts, note-taking, and static site generators.
Markdown Syntax Basics
Headings use # (## for H2, ### for H3), bold uses **text**, italic uses *text*, links use [text](url), images use , unordered lists use -, ordered lists use 1., inline code uses backticks, and code blocks use triple backticks. Tables use pipes and dashes, and blockquotes use >.
Advanced Markdown Features
Extended Markdown supports tables, task lists (- [ ]), footnotes, definition lists, strikethrough (~~text~~), emoji (:smile:), and math expressions ($\LaTeX$). GitHub Flavored Markdown adds syntax highlighting for code blocks with language identifiers like ```javascript.
Markdown Use Cases in Development
Markdown is the standard for GitHub README files, project documentation (MkDocs, Docusaurus), technical blog posts, API documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI use Markdown for descriptions), note-taking apps (Obsidian, Notion), and static site generators (Astro, Hugo, Jekyll).
Using the WebUtil Markdown Preview
Our free Markdown Preview lets you write Markdown and see the rendered HTML output in real-time. Perfect for testing Markdown syntax before publishing. All rendering happens client-side using your browser — no data is uploaded to any server.
Use our free online tool to get started instantly.