This last article covers some Markdown troubleshooting steps as well as some additional resources available to those wishing to learn and use Markdown. It’s by no means comprehensive.

When Markdown’s Magic Doesn’t Happen

My Headings Don’t work

A common error is to omit the space between the number sign and the header text. The result is the text preceded by the number of hash signs your heading was intended to be. Put a space between the last number sign and text, and your problem’s solved.

###My Emphasis Isn’t Correct ###

  • Did you place your emphasis characters, with no spaces between them and the text, at the beginning and end of the text to be emphasized? Forgetting to end the emphasis is a common mistake.
  • Did you place the correct number of emphasis characters( 1 for italic, 2for bold, 3 for bold italic)?
  • Did you use one emphasis character consistently throughout?

My Lists aren’t

  • Did you remember to put a blank line between the preceding text and the start of your list?
  • Did you remember to put a space between your list character and list item?

My Links Don’t Work

  • Is your link text first and is it enclosed in square brackets []?
  • Is your url enclosed in parentheses and does it contain the protocol, i.e., http:// or https://?

Additional Resources

You can learn all about Markdown from the inventor’s website at:
Daring Fireball

Writing Markdown–Editors/Plugins

Biblos 5, a word processor with Markdown Support
Microsoft Markdown Server on Github
VisCon
Pandoc Command Line Conversion Tool

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions or comments regarding this Magical Markdown tutorial.