How to: Write and format markdown

1. Open any markdown or text source — it's editable immediately. There's no separate Edit step to find first.
2. Type the usual markdown symbols and they render as you go: # through ###### for headings, **bold**, _italic_, `code`, ~~strikethrough~~, - item for a bulleted list, [text](url) for a link, ![alt text](path) for an image.
3. Move your cursor off what you just typed and the symbols disappear into the real thing — a heading grows to size, **bold** becomes bold, - item gets an actual bullet, ![alt](path) becomes the picture. Move your cursor back onto it and the raw markdown reappears so you can edit it. Nothing is hidden forever; it's only hidden where you aren't.
4. Use shortcuts instead of typing the symbols. Select some text — or just put your cursor anywhere in a word, with nothing selected — and press:
   • Cmd/Ctrl+B — bold
   • Cmd/Ctrl+I — italic
   • Cmd/Ctrl+E — code
   • Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+X — strikethrough
   • Cmd/Ctrl+K — link (wraps the word as the link text and selects url so you can type the destination right away)
   • Cmd/Ctrl+1 through Cmd/Ctrl+6 — set the current line's heading level; the same number again removes it
5. Tab indents rather than leaving the editor — useful for nested lists, but it means keyboard focus is trapped until you press Escape, which is the way out.
6. For an image, the ! in front of [alt](path) is what makes it a picture instead of a link. A picture from a file on your machine shows inline; one from a web address doesn't — the editor never fetches anything from the internet.
7. A bare https://… address, with no brackets at all, is recognised and styled as a link on its own — you don't need [text](url) unless you want different link text than the URL itself.
8. Click a link to follow it: a link to another file in the project, such as [Skills](05-skills.md), opens that file here, and a web address opens in your browser. To edit a link instead, move the cursor into it with the arrow keys — its raw markdown reappears.
9. Cancel and Save stay in the header the whole time. Save writes your changes back without leaving the editor; Cancel discards them and asks first if you have unsaved changes.

See How to: Edit a document in place for the save/cancel flow itself, and Artifacts & documents for how documents open in the app.