Looking to up your Notion game? Markdown is the way to go! This simple text formatting syntax lets you quickly style your notes, lists, headings, and more. But don't worry, it's super easy to learn - especially with this beginner-friendly cheat sheet. Let's dive in!
Markdown is a lightweight markup language. That's just fancy words for a simple way to add formatting like bold, italics, headings, and lists to plain text. Instead of clicking tons of buttons or memorizing complex code, you just use special characters like #, *, and -.
Think of it like secret codes that turn boring text into beautifully styled content. Pretty neat, right?
Notion already has a nice editing toolbar. So why bother learning markdown? A few great reasons:
Plus, once you get the hang of it, markdown just feels more natural for formatting text. Let's learn how it works in Notion!
Headings structure your notes into sections, just like chapter titles in a book. In markdown, you make headings by putting # symbols before the text.
# This is a Level 1 Heading ## This is a Level 2 Heading ### This is a Level 3 Heading
This makes:
You can use up to 6 levels of headings by adding more #s. Easy peasy!
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
# Level 1 Heading | # Level 1 Heading |
## Level 2 Heading | ## Level 2 Heading |
### Level 3 Heading | ### Level 3 Heading |
#### Level 4 Heading | #### Level 4 Heading |
##### Level 5 Heading | ##### Level 5 Heading |
###### Level 6 Heading | ###### Level 6 Heading |
Quick Tip: Use headings to organize your notes into an outline. Level 1 for main sections, level 2 for sub-sections, and so on. It'll keep things nice and tidy!
Time to kick things up a notch with bold and italics. These let you emphasize important terms or add subtle styling.
For bold text, you surround the words with double asterisks:
**This text is bold**
Renders as: This text is bold
For italics, use single asterisks or underscores:
*This is italicized* _This is also italicized_
Renders as: This is italicized and This is also italicized
And if you really want to make things pop, combine them:
**This is _really_ important!**
Renders as: This is really important!
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
**Bold text goes here** | Bold text goes here |
*Italicized text goes here* | Italicized text goes here |
_Underscores work for italics too_ | Underscores work for italics too |
**This is _really_ important!** | This is really important! |
Pretty slick, huh? Use bold for titles or key points, and italics for emphasis or examples.
Sometimes you need to quote someone or pull out an important idea. That's what blockquotes are for! Simply put a > symbol before the quoted text:
> This is a blockquote. It pulls out text in a stylish way.
Renders as:
This is a blockquote. It pulls out text in a stylish way.
You can even nest blockquotes or add other styling like bold or italics:
> Here's a quote with **bold** and *italics*. > > It's quoted with another quote inside!
Renders as:
Here's a quote with bold and italics.
It's quoted with another quote inside!
Blockquotes are great for highlighting key points, referencing outside sources, or adding visual interest. Use them to make ideas pop!
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
> This is a blockquote | > This is a blockquote |
> **Bold text** in a quote | > Bold text in a quote |
> *Italics* look nice too | > Italics look nice too |
> Quotes can be nested \n> > Like this | > Quotes can be nested \n> > Like this |
Pro Tip: Add a blank line before and after the blockquote to separate it from surrounding text. It looks cleaner that way.
Whether sharing a web page, file, or Notion link, markdown lets you do it cleanly. Just wrap the link text in square brackets, followed by the URL in parentheses:
[Click here to view my website](https://www.example.com)
Renders as: Click here to view my website
For a Notion link, just paste the link inside the parentheses:
[View the Team Wiki](https://www.notion.so/templates/team-wiki)
Renders as: View the Team Wiki
And you can even give links a title by enclosing it in quotes after the URL:
[Google](https://google.com "The Google homepage")
Renders as: Google
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
[Text for the link](https://www.example.com) | Text for the link |
[Notion Link Text](https://www.notion.so/example/Page-Name-abc123) | Notion Link Text |
[With Link Title](https://google.com "Link tooltip title") | With Link Title |
Links in markdown keep things looking clean - no messy URLs cluttering up your notes!
Note: Some links may require extra configuration in Notion to work properly depending on permissions.
Lists are a note-taking essential, and markdown makes creating them a snap. For an unordered list, just put a * or - in front of each item:
* Item 1 * Item 2 - Sub-item + Sub-sub-item * Item 3
Renders as:
For ordered (numbered) lists, use the number followed by a period:
1. First item 2. Second item 3. Third item 1. Indented item 2. Another one
Renders as:
You can even mix ordered and unordered lists together by indenting with spaces:
1. Get milk 2. Get eggs - From the farm - Organic if possible 3. Make breakfast
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
* Item 1 \n* Item 2 | * Item 1 * Item 2 |
1. First \n2. Second \n3. Third | 1. First 2. Second 3. Third |
1. One \n 2. Two \n - Sublist \n 3. Three | 1. One 2. Two - Sublist 3. Three |
Lists are perfect for checklists, instructions, pros and cons, or any group of items. The indentation lets you nest sublists for extra organization too.
Shortcut: In Notion, type "-" followed by space to quickly start an unordered list!
Developers love markdown for its clean, readable code formatting. If you work with code or just need to display some code examples, this is for you.
To create an inline code snippet, wrap it in backtick quotes:
The `console.log()` function prints output.
Renders as: The console.log() function prints output.
For bigger code snippets, indent every line with at least 4 spaces or surround it with triple backticks:
```javascript function greet() { console.log("Hello World!"); } greet(); ```
Renders as:
javascript
function greet() { console.log("Hello World!"); } greet();
You can even specify the programming language after the opening triple-backticks to get syntax highlighting:
```python import random print("Hello World!") print(random.randint(1, 100)) ```
Renders as:
python
import random print("Hello World!") print(random.randint(1, 100))
Code blocks preserve indentation and formatting, making them essential for tutorials, documentation, or just jotting down code notes.
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
`console.log()` | console.log() |
Code indented 4 spaces | Code indented 4 spaces |
javascript\ncode\nhere\n | javascriptcodehere |
python \nimport random\n\nprint(random.randint(1,100)\n | pythonimport randomprint(random.randint(1,100)) |
Beautiful syntax highlighting, no mess - that's what makes code blocks in Markdown so great! Just remember that Notion may require special configuration for some languages.
Sometimes you need a way to visually separate sections or topics in your notes. That's where horizontal rules come in handy.
To create a horizontal line, make a new line and type three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores:
---
***
___
Any of those will render as:
Very simple and clean! Horizontal rules add nice visual breaks to divide different topics or ideas in your notes.
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
--- | --- |
*** | --- |
___ | --- |
Quick Tip: In Notion, you can also create a horizontal rule by typing "---" at the start of a new line and pressing Enter.
Text is great, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. In markdown, you can insert images with a simple syntax:
This inserts the image located at that URL and uses the "alt text" to describe the image for accessibility purposes.
The alt text will also display if the image fails to load properly. You can also add quotes to give the image a title:
This renders as:
Images make your notes more engaging and can better illustrate complex ideas or products. Use alt text to provide context!
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
 | Show Image |
 | Show Image |
Note: Images must be publicly accessible online for markdown to display them. For local files, you'll need to upload and link the images first.
See Notion's help guide how to change notion background color for more details.
For presenting data in a grid, you can't beat a good old-fashioned table. And markdown has a nice, clean syntax for creating them:
| Col1 Header | Col2 Header | Col3 Header | |-------------|-------------|-------------| | Row 1 Col 1 | Row 1 Col 2 | Row 1 Col 3 | | Row 2 Col 1 | Row 2 Col 2 | Row 2 Col 3 |
Which renders as:
| Col1 Header | Col2 Header | Col3 Header |
|---|---|---|
| Row 1 Col 1 | Row 1 Col 2 | Row 1 Col 3 |
| Row 2 Col 1 | Row 2 Col 2 | Row 2 Col 3 |
Start by defining the column headers separated by pipe | characters. Then insert a row of |---| cells under the headers to create the horizontal lines.
After that, just add rows for your data, separating the cells in each row with | pipes. Pipes on the left and right edges are optional, but help keep things lined up.
You can even use inline formatting like **bold** or _italics_ within the table cells.
| Syntax | Rendered Table |
|---|---|
| <code>| Fruit | Color | \n|------|-------|\n| Apple | Red |\n| Lemon | Yellow |</code> | <table><tr><th>Fruit</th><th>Color</th></tr><tr><td>Apple</td><td><b>Red</b></td></tr><tr><td>Lemon</td><td><i>Yellow</i></td></tr></table> |
Tables keep your data organized and easy to scan in plain text. It's a great way to present specs, features, or any other info that fits in rows & columns.
For to-do lists, checklists are a perfect way to keep track of tasks in Notion. Just make an unordered list, but preface the items with [ ] brackets:
- [ ] Wake up - [x] Eat breakfast - [ ] Go to work - [x] Prep meeting notes - [ ] Lead standup
Renders as:
The [ ] shows an empty checkbox, while [x] is a checked item. Simple but powerful!
You can nest checklists within one another using indentation like with regular lists. Checklists are great for:
Checking off items as you complete them gives a satisfying feeling of progress and accomplishment.
| Markdown | Renders As |
|---|---|
- [ ] An unchecked task | - [ ] An unchecked task |
- [x] Completed task | - [x] Completed task |
- [ ] \n - [x] Nested checklist | - [ ] - [x] Nested checklist |
Tip: To move items in a checklist, you can cut/copy the entire line (including the - [x] or - [ ]) and paste it where you want!
Sometimes you need to add a little side note or reference without distracting from the main text. That's where footnotes come in1!
To create a footnote in markdown, first insert the footnote reference marker wherever you want it to appear in your text. This is just a caret ^ followed by an identifier (number, word, or other symbol).
Here is some text with a footnote reference marker.[^1] And another footnote for good measure.[^footnote]
Then, at the bottom of your text, add the footnote definitions by redeclaring the marker, this time followed by a colon and the footnote text:
[^1]: This is the text that gets displayed as a footnote. [^footnote]: You can use any word or symbol as the footnote marker.
The resulting text will look like this:
Here is some text with a footnote reference marker.1
And another footnote for good measure.2
Footnotes will automatically be numbered sequentially in the order they appear. They're great for adding citations, references, or parenthetical explanations without cluttering the main content.
Notion doesn't have built-in footnote styling, but you can fake the effect using blockquotes or indentation. Not as smooth as dedicated footnote syntax but it gets the job done!
Now that you've got the markdown essentials down, let's talk about customizing the look and feel of your Notion workspace with some color changes.
While Notion doesn't allow custom themes or global color changes, you can adjust the colors for individual pages, blocks, and UI elements. This lets you add some personal flair or make things easier on the eyes.
To update the background color of an entire page:
You can also change the color tint of any image you set as a page cover. Just right-click the cover image and select "Change color".
For more targeted color changes, try tinting specific blocks like headings, text, or to-do lists. Just select the block(s) you want to colorize, then click the fill color icon in the formatting toolbar.
You can also select an entire page at once and colorize it. This is a nice way to help certain pages or topics visually stand out from the rest.
As an example, here's some <span style="color:green">green text</span>, a <span style="background-color:yellow;padding:5px">yellow highlighted section</span>, and an entire <div style="background-color:lightblue;padding:10px;border-radius:5px">baby blue container div</div>.
Play around and see what color combinations work best for your vision and content needs. A little color can make a big difference!
When it comes to jazzing up buttons in Notion, there are a few different options:
On clickable elements like buttons, the colors you've set will typically shift darker on hover or click to create a nice visual effect.
See how to change the background color on Notion in their official help guide for more details and examples.
Beyond colors, you have a few other ways to customize styles in Notion:
Just remember that most style changes in Notion are page-level only. There's no way to set global visual themes or fully custom CSS (yet).
But between all the color tinting, icons, covers, and text formatting - there's already quite a bit you can do to put your own spin on Notion's look and feel!
You've made it to the end - congrats! You now have all the essential markdown knowledge to start rocking in Notion.
To wrap things up, here are a few bonus tips for leveling up your markdown game even further:
The more you use markdown, the more you'll appreciate its keyboard-driven nature. Notion has a bunch of great hotkeys and autocompleters to speed things up:
--- then Enter inserts a horizontal rule- then space starts an unordered list1. then space starts an ordered list> then space starts a blockquote[] wrapped selected text with link markers** or _ wrapped selection bolds/italics# inserting pound symbols creates headings/ shows a command palette with tons of formatting optionsSpeaking of keyboard shortcuts, here's a handy cheatsheet of how to color notion
The more you embrace the hotkeys, the faster your Notion workflow will become. It really supercharges the experience.
Markdown shines when you start combining all the elements together. Headings, bullets, links, code blocks, and formatted text can create some seriously pro-level documentation:
# My Project Plan ## Overview This project aims to **revolutionize** the note-taking game! Here are the key _requirements_: - [ ] Conduct market research - [ ] Define product requirements - [ ] Interview target users - [x] Study competition - [ ] Design & architect solution The app will be built using [React](https://reactjs.org) and integrate with popular cloud services like: - [Notion](https://www.notion.so) - [Dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com) - [Google Drive](https://drive.google.com)
See how everything flows together in one cohesive, human-readable document? That's the true power of markdown.
One last piece of advice: get comfortable working in a pure plaintext writing environment. Notion's WYSIWYG rich-text editing is great, but there's an elegance to distraction-free markdown.
Plus, because it's just text, markdown files are:
Many pro writers & developers swear by a simple markdown editor like iA Writer or Obsidian for their daily work. Then they can copy/paste that markdown anywhere.
The bottom line: don't be afraid to go full plaintext in Notion from time to time! It declutters your mind and lets you focus solely on the content itself.
There you have it - a comprehensive guide to using markdown formatting in Notion! We covered:
Notion's integration with markdown syntax opens up so many possibilities for cleaner, richer note-taking and writing. Hopefully this guide has equipped you with the know-how to take full advantage!
The best way to solidify these skills is to just start using markdown day-to-day. It may feel clumsy at first, but soon formatting text will become like second nature. The payoff in consistency and efficiency makes it so worth it.
So what are you waiting for? Open up a fresh Notion page, crack those knuckles, and start typing out some sweet, sweet markdown! With this cheatsheet, you've got all the essentials to turn your notes and docs into formatting wizardry.
Happy coding, errr, writing! Markdown makes it all the same in the end. And seriously - hit me up with your favorite markdown tips or Notion hacks. I'm a formatting nerd at heart and always eager to learn more ninja tricks!