How to Preview Markdown (and Convert It to HTML)
Markdown lets you write formatted text in plain text — no HTML tags, no editor required. Previewing it shows exactly how it will render, and gives you clean HTML to paste elsewhere. Here's the syntax worth knowing.
The core syntax
- Headings —
#for H1,##for H2, up to######. - Emphasis —
*italic*or_italic_,**bold**. - Lists —
-or*for bullets;1.for numbered items. - Links —
[text](https://example.com). - Images —
. - Code — backticks for
inline code, or triple backticks for a fenced block. - Blockquotes — start a line with
>.
Why previewing matters
Markdown's rules have small gotchas — a list needs a blank line before it, a fenced code block needs matching backticks, and nested lists depend on indentation. A live preview shows these problems instantly instead of after you publish.
Markdown to HTML
Rendering Markdown produces standard HTML: ## becomes <h2>, **bold** becomes <strong>, and so on. That means you can write in comfortable Markdown and copy out clean HTML for a CMS, email, or web page that doesn't accept Markdown directly.
Where it's used
READMEs, GitHub issues and comments, static-site content, chat apps, and documentation tools all speak Markdown — learning it once pays off across all of them.
Try it
Write Markdown on one side and watch it render live on the other, then copy the HTML — everything runs in your browser, nothing uploaded.