Markdown is a lightweight markup language that you can use to add formatting elements to plaintext text documents. Created by John Gruber in 2004, Markdown is now one of the world’s most popular markup languages.

To summarize, this is a four-part process:

1.Create a Markdown file using a text editor or a dedicated Markdown application. The file should have an .md or .markdown extension.

2.Open the Markdown file in a Markdown application.
3.Use the Markdown application to convert the Markdown file to an HTML document.
4.View the HTML file in a web browser or use the Markdown application to convert it to another file format, like PDF.

These are the elements outlined in John Gruber’s original design document. All Markdown applications support these elements.