Diaspora/Website

Formatting text

On diaspora* it’s possible to format your text in status messages, comments and conversations using a simplified mark-up system called Markdown. This page gives an introduction to the codes used to create this formatting.

The first thing to note is that you must use two line breaks between paragraphs (except items in a list), otherwise the paragraps will run together. If you really want just one line break between two paragraphs, add two spaces at the end of the first paragraph.

This is where the <span class="click">Preview</span> button comes in really handy. Try some formatting, preview it, work out what isn’t right, fix it, and preview again, until you’re happy!

In the examples below, you can copy the text in the grey areas and paste it into the publisher in diaspora* and use the <span class="click">Preview</span> button to try out some formatting.

Headings

You can add first-, second- and third-level headings to your message by placing a hash symbol (#) at the start of a line, as follows:

An extremely large header

Half as big as the one above

Twice the size of normal text

Make sure to leave a space between the hashes and your text, to avoid creating a #tag instead of a heading. The heading ends once you hit enter to proceed to the next line.

Lists

To create an bulleted list, place either *, + or - in front of each line you want as part of the list.

It’s also possible to make numbered lists by placing “1.”, “2.”, etc. in front of the list items. To create a numbered list, the numbers must have periods/full stops after them.

Again, make sure to leave a space between the “bullet” character and the text on each line, and to leave a line space between the list and any preceding/following text, otherwise it will not work.

This is how to create a bulleted list:

item one;

item two;

item three.