Did you know that you can style your posts with Markdown? I can tell that many people already know that... but I can also tell that many people do not know that :p

First - what is Markdown ? From Wikipedia:

Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor.

When you're making a post on steemit.com, there are quite a few things you can do to change the way your posts look.

Links

[link text here](http://steemit.com)

link text here

Pictures

![alt text](url here]

For example:

![Pic of Red Panda](http://www.critterbabies.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/a1.jpg)

becomes:

Pic of Red Panda

Headers

# H1
## H2
### H3
#### H4
###### H5

will look like:

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

Alternatively, you can use an underline or dash:

H1
==
H2
--

Styling

Styling text is also pretty easy in markdown:

bold = **bold**

italics = _italics_

both = **_both_**

Normally you can do strikethrough with ~~foobar~~ but Steemit doesn't support that.

Lists

 - One
   - A
 - Two
   - B
 - Three
   - C

One
- A
Two
- B
Three
- C

Tables

hello | world
----- | -----
pet | fish
color | blue
musician | miles davis
language | 日本語

hello	world
pet	fish
color	blue
musician	miles davis
language	日本語

Blockquotes

> “Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; 
mastering yourself is true power.”  -Lao Tzu

“Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.” -Lao Tzu

Markdown Basics