Are you a newly steemed Steemian? Have you been battling with creating a post that looks like the professionals? Seriously, truth be told I understand exactly what you are passing through. This platform was the first time I came across markdown editing language. Looking at it now, its so much easier than HTML.

---

So here are a few tips on how to execute the common commands and make your work appear neat and beautiful

1. TYPE & PROOF-READ: nobody likes to read disjointed sentences with badly misspelt words that make no meaning. It really hurts the eyes to see noobs making this mistake. Pls edit your works thoroughly before posting. Check for grammar and spellings. Also some people say simple things in a very complex way.

Remember that English is the 2nd language for many of SteemIt's users. So accomodate them. Nobody should use a dictionary just to follow you.

2. EDITING: a good edition of any work is always the best version of it. Editing requires you to have an eye for your own mistakes. I don't think you can afford hiring a professional editor especially as a noob on this platform. However, you can take your articles to friends to help you if you must.

We all have that one friend that makes a job of pointing out every little error in grammar and syntax. Now is the time to put him/her to good use.

3. LITTLE THINGS THAT MATTER: making a word/sentence bold or italicized can add a new depth of meaning to your work. Also it looks good on the eyes.

A clumsily packed sentence with no punctuations can make your readers tune out of your message. I'm definitely sure you don't want that to happen.

4. IMAGES ARE GOLDEN: adding images helps to breakdown your work into manageable breaks that improved the reading experience. Also pretty images that are related to the subject matter, funny or catchy also improve the whole outlook of your work.

Remember that the 1st image is the most important one. Its called a thumbnail because it shows up in search boxes. It should be a hit!

---

What is Markdown?

Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax for writers. It allows you to quickly write structured content for the web, and have it seamlessly converted to clean, structured HTML.

Back in 2004, Apple pundit John Gruber came up with the idea after becoming frustrated by writing long, laborious HTML tags to properly format his content. He devised a simple writing system which would make web based documents both easier to write, and easier to read in their raw state. It also helps to preserve the flow of writing. So you don't have to stop, highlight and look for buttons to click before executing a simple command.

---

The Easy Markdown Guideline:

---

1. ITALICIZING: Put Asterix (*) in front and behind the word/sentence you want to italicize

*Puts your words in italics just like this*
Puts your words in italics just like this

---

2. BOLDING: Put 2(**) infront and behind the word/sentence you want to make bold

**Makes a sentence bold**
Makes a sentence bold

---

3. BOLD & ITALICS: Put 3(***) infont and behind a word/sentence you want to make bold and italicize

***Makes a sentence both bold and italic***
Makes a sentence both bold and italic

---

4. QUOTING: Put this mark > infront of a sentence you want to quote

>Quotes the sentence its placed in front of

Quotes the sentence its placed in front of

---

5. BULETS: Put hyphen (-) infront of the sentence you want to bullet. You have to give a space between the word and - unlike the ones above

- Bullets

• Bullets
  • Bulletssss

---

6. INSERT HYPERLINK: To hyperlink a document, you just need 2 different kinds of brackets. The block form [ ] and the semicircle form ( ).

• In the block form, enter the name you want the link to appear as. In the example below, we used 'hyperlink'.
• In the semicircle form, enter the actual destination link you want someone to go to when they click it.
  Eg:
  [Hyperlink](www.steemit.com/nairadaddy)

If you click on this link here, it will lead you to my blog: Hyperlink

---

7. IMAGES: To upload an image manually is hectic but the code looks like the one below.

![Image Name/Title](www.imagelink.com)

• In this case, my advice is that you use wwwpostimage.org or www.imgbb.com.
• To upload your images, just copy the link they generate and paste in the space where you want the image to be.

---

8. Checkboxes: use that block form bracket I showed you above . But most times, you don't need check boxes

[x]
[x] marked checkbox
[ ]
[ ] empty checkbox

---

9. HEADINGS: There are 6 levels of headings from Level 1-6

• The higher the level, the lower the size of the font
• That means that Level 1 heading is the biggest while level 6 is the smallest
• To make a heading, just put hash # depending on the number of level you want.
• 1# =level 1, 2## =level 2 etc
• Remember to give a space between the # and the word or sentence

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

---

---

How Can You Remember All The Markdown Syntax?

It seems a little daunting at first, but you might be surprised how naturally it comes to you after a couple of posts written in Markdown. Just keep writing. You will definitely get there in due time.

Thanks for reading and upvoting. If you enjoyed this post, FOLLOW HERE

Remain Awesome!

#Skadush!