Using Markdown gives the ability apply rich-text elements into plain-text format for use online.

Learning Markdown for Steemit

There are many guides on how to learn Markdown and how to use it effectively both on Steemit and outside it. It has mainstay use from academic writing to documentation purposes for programming. This isn't going to be an in depth guide of how to use markdown but to outline why its important to learn and what I've personally learnt during my short time here on Steemit (I personally used Daring Fireball's website but Gmuxx's article is a good example of whats on offer from Steemit).

I find it useful write down what I've learnt to motivate me to learn more. It's also an easy way for me to find what I need to learn in the future.

It's Importance

As stated above, Markdown allows you to add rich-text elements into a plain-text format. It gives you the ability to structure your blogs much the same way you would when using an application like LibreOffice's Writer or Microsoft Office Word, but in a more universal format that can be applied to many parts of the web and on Steemit in particular. It's really easy to learn and can be used outside of Steemit as well. It also will teach you the basic structure of how HTML is formatted on your browser if you're interested in that.

Important Basics for Steemit

Markdown can be used to format headers, make lists, insert links and images and quote text. A basic how-to as below:

• Headers - Simply by using hashtags(#) you can make your blog much easier to read by applying headers to separate sections and topics.
• Lists - Lists are fairly straight forward. Both ordered lists (numbered) and unordered lists (bullet-points) as supported by markdown.
• Inserting Links and Images - Links are inserted by applying square brackets ( [ ] ) around a piece of text you want to be a link followed by parenthesis ( ( ) ) to for the actual link. Images are inserted in exactly the same way as links but are prefixed with an exclamation mark ( ! ).
• Quotes - You can quote text from somewhere else through the use of chevrons ( > ) on a new line.

You can also edit the way your text appears such as balding and italicizing as below:

• Bold - To bold your text, add two asterisk before and after the specific text.
• Italics - The same as above, except you add one asterisk instead of two.

Software

I think all of the above are the bare basics that everyone should learn when creating blogs on Steemit. While you can write markdown with any text editor, it's important to find a way to preview your blog before posting. If you draft your posts in Steemit or any of the other front-ends like Busy.org, you'll get a preview below.

I tend to write everything in an external editor as it removes the temptation to procrastinate in a browser and since I use Linux for all my computing outside of primarily gaming, I use Neovim as a text editor, and Github's Markdown preview tool, Grip, for previewing what I write. Writing in an external text editor also makes it easier to archive my posts. Neovim is a little complicated to use, but it works for me.

A good online alternative to my set-up is to use a service like Draftin. It allows you to write your blogs out using markdown and preview how it will look. It also auto-saves everything, which is important. Its very customable and minimalistic in appearance. If I wasn't using the set-up above, I would be using DraftIn.

What I'm Trying to Learn

My most immediate problem I'm trying to learn how to fix is linking within the same blog post. You should be able to create a link to a specific header in your post for easy navigation in Markdown, however I can't seem to get it to work for Steemit. This is important to me as I tend to give a lengthy synopsis of the topic I am writing about, but it would be useful to be able to link down to the section that talks about my thoughts or opinions for people who have already seen the film or played the game.

If anybody knows how to achieve this within Steem, Please let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for Reading!

I know I said I would be writing something new and in-depth about something everyday in Gaming and Movies, but I'm ridiculously busy today with work I have to get done for University. I will be writing about Why I Love Divinity Original Sin 2 tomorrow.

If you're interested at all, let me know in the comments below and hit that Follow Button. If you want to read yesterday's article about My Thoughts about Sea of Thieves that I wrote yesterday, click HERE. Thanks again and have a lovely day!