markdownview

Markdown Guides

The complete syntax reference, plus plain-English answers to the problems people actually run into — why Markdown shows up as asterisks, why a file will not render, and what a .md file is in the first place.

Markdown is easy to write and surprisingly easy to get stuck on. It has no single specification — CommonMark defines the core, GitHub-Flavored Markdown adds tables and task lists, and individual editors layer on their own extensions — so a document that renders perfectly in one place can come out raw, half formatted, or missing a table somewhere else.

Most of what trips people up is not syntax they got wrong. It is a mismatch between where the Markdown was written and where it ended up: an AI assistant emits it, a chat window renders it, and then it gets pasted into an application that has no Markdown parser at all. These guides start from the symptom you are looking at and work back to the cause.

Everything here is written against what the tools actually do, with live examples you can copy, and each guide links to the converter that solves the problem it describes.

Reference

Look up how an element is written, with a live example beside it.

An orderly arrangement of glowing blocks of varying heights, like a reference chart of Markdown elements.Markdown Syntax GuideEvery Markdown element — headings, tables, code, footnotes, comments and math — each with a live example.

Fixes & explainers

Why something is not working, and what to do about it.

A stream of glowing symbols flowing toward a clean white page, where they resolve into solid blocks of formatting.Why ChatGPT's Markdown Turns Into Asterisks in WordWhy pasted AI output turns into asterisks in Word, and four ways to get real formatting instead.A smooth glowing line running left to right until it breaks apart into a cloud of scattered fragments.Markdown Not Rendering? Work Through It in This OrderMarkdown showing as raw text or half-formatted? Seven causes, in the order you should check them.Two identical glowing slabs side by side: the left one flat and plain, the right one unfolded into layered structured planes.What Is a .md File? (And How to Open One)What a .md file actually is, why AI tools keep handing you one, and how to open it on any device.