Markdown basics: headings, lists and links in your notes

13 November 2026 · JotLink team

Markdown is a way to format plain text with a few simple symbols. You type **important** and it shows up as important. It's used on GitHub, Reddit, Discord and many note apps, and once you know the basics you'll use it everywhere. JotLink notes are plain text, and the Markdown view turns them into a formatted page.

Headings

Start a line with # signs. One # is the biggest heading, ### is smaller.

# Trip to Lisbon
## Day 1
### Morning

Bold, italic and strikethrough

**bold**   *italic*   ~~crossed out~~

Lists

Use - for bullet points and numbers for steps. - [ ] and - [x] make a checklist.

- bread
- milk

1. Preheat the oven
2. Mix everything

- [x] Book flights
- [ ] Book hotel

Links

Put the text in square brackets and the address in round brackets:

[JotLink](https://jotlink.pages.dev)

Quotes and code

Start a line with > for a quote. Wrap code in backticks: one backtick for a word, three for a whole block.

> Remember to bring the tickets.

Run `npm install` first.

```
console.log("hello");
```

Tables

| Day | Plan      |
|-----|-----------|
| Mon | Museum    |
| Tue | Beach     |

Paragraphs

Leave an empty line between paragraphs. A single line break inside a paragraph is joined into one line in the formatted view.

Using Markdown in JotLink

1. Write your note with the symbols above in a new note.
2. Switch the view menu in the toolbar from Edit to Markdown to see the formatted page.
3. Click Share while the Markdown view is open. The copied link ends in ?v=md, so the person you send it to sees the formatted version straight away.

Switch back to Edit to keep writing. There's also a Links view that shows the plain text with clickable links, which is handy for a list of bookmarks.