# hello, This is Markdown Live Preview visit [markdownlivepreview.com](http://markdownlivepreview.com) ---- ## what is Markdown? see [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) > Markdown is a lightweight markup language, originally created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz allowing people "to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML)". ---- ## usage 1. Write markdown text in this textarea. 2. Click 'HTML Preview' button. ---- ## markdown quick reference # headers *emphasis* **strong** ~~strikethrough~~ * list >block quote code (4 spaces indent) [links](http://wikipedia.org) ---- ## changelog * 13-Jan-2015 re-design * 17-Feb-2013 re-design * 19-May-2011 launch ---- ## thanks * [markdown-js](https://github.com/evilstreak/markdown-js)