The Ask FitEyes site uses a markdown editor. Markdown is very popular and simple to use.
This tutorial has multiple sections. I highly recommend that you read the Pasting Markdown section. It's a real time-saver. However, if you are in a hurry at the moment, there's one thing you will probably need to know to get started.
The First Thing You Need to Know
Our post editor features formatting buttons that will let you do most of the formatting you desire without understanding anything about markdown.
However, you may run into one situation where you need to know something about markdown: line breaks. To solve a common problem, simply add two spaces at the end of each line.
If you paste multi-line content and the line breaks disappear, you can, however, resolve it in more than one way:
- add two spaces at the end of each line. This adds a line break as stated above. This is probably what you want.
- add a blank line between each line. This creates a paragraph.
- begin each line with a dash ("-"). This creates a list.
- add 3 tilde characters ("~") on a line before the first line of your content and another three on their own line after the last line of your content. This turns the entire block into monospaced text with a shaded background. This is probably not what you want.
Something You Need to Know When Creating Tags
- Use a dash ("-") to separate words in multi-word tags. Example: intraocular-pressure
- Spaces are eliminated from tags -- that's why you need to use a dash.
- I also recommend keeping tags simple. Use lowercase letters only and don't include any punctuation (other than the dash).
- Important: always try to re-use an existing tag before creating a new one.
Pasting Markdown
This a very useful tip. When you want to paste formatted text (such as a news item on a webpage) into a post on Ask FitEyes, copy the original as markdown. You can do this very easily with a browser plugin.
If you copy the original as markdown, most formatting will be in place and you won't have to manually adjust the formatting. Below are some browser extensions that copy as markdown.
For Firefox you use this add-on. I use it and recommend it.
Copy Selection as Markdown – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/copy-selection-as-markdown/
I have heard good reviews about these extensions for other browsers:
- Google Chrome: Chrome Web Store - Copy as Markdown
- Firefox: Copy as Markdown :: Add-ons for Firefox
- Microsoft Edge: Copy as Markdown - Microsoft Edge Addons
If you choose not to use a browser plugin, you can also copy-paste in the old fashioned way too (as plain text). For that option, see the Plain text section below. Or you can use a free online converter. Find links in the next answer below.
Understanding Markdown
What Is Markdown, and Why Is It Better for My To-Do Lists and Notes?
https://lifehacker.com/what-is-markdown-and-why-is-it-better-for-my-to-do-lis-5943320
Plain text
If you don't want to use a browser extension or cannot copy the original as markdown, you can post content as plain text. You will then need to do some formatting.
If you paste a chunk of plain text, you will find that line breaks are usually missing. To get markdown to create a line break after each line, you add two spaces at the end of each line.
Example 1:
This is one
very long line in markdown
When I paste the above, it will display like this:
This is one very long line in markdown
Example 2:
This is one long line[space][space]
broken into two lines in markdown by adding two spaces.
When I paste the above, it will display like this:
This is one long line
broken into two lines in markdown by adding two spaces.
The notation [space] in example 2 is just a regular space written in a way to make the non-printing character obvious.