The Hypothesis editor supports formatting your annotations using Markdown — this help article serves as a “cheat sheet” for using Markdown syntax in the annotation editor.
Also see our articles on adding links and images, embedding videos, and formatting annotations using LaTeX.
Want to print this sheet out? Here’s a printable PDF.
| Style | Syntax | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headings | # H1
## H2 ### H3 |
# Largest heading ## Smaller heading ### Even smaller |
Largest headingSmaller headingEven smaller |
| Bold | **text** or __text__ |
**This text is bold** |
This text is bold |
| Italic | *text* or _text_ |
*This text is italicized* |
This text is italicized |
| Strikethrough | ~~text~~ |
~~This text has been struck through~~ |
|
| Blockquote | > quoted text |
Here’s a quote: > quoted text |
Here’s a quote:
|
| Ordered list | 1. First item 2. Second item 3. Third item |
Favorite colors: 1. Blue 2. Purple 3. Green |
Favorite colors:
|
| Unordered list | – First item
– Second item – Third item |
Grocery list: - Coffee - Tea - Milk |
Grocery list:
|
| Inline code | `code` |
Run `make dev` to start the server |
Run make dev to start the server |
| Horizontal rule |
--- |
Starting a new section --- (notice the empty line between the text and horizontal rule) |
Starting a new section
|
Previewing your annotation
You can click “Preview” in the annotation editor toolbar to see what your formatted annotation will look like:
…and you can click “Write” to continue editing your annotation:
Troubleshooting annotation formatting
- If you are copying annotation text from another source (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc), paste the text without formatting. You can do this with Option+Shift+Command+V for Macs or Ctrl+Shift+V for PCs.
- Ensure there is an empty line between paragraph text and horizontal rules.
- Experiment with hitting Enter or Return once vs. twice if you encounter line break issues.
- Consult the GitHub Flavored Markdown spec or create a ticket to get help from the Hypothesis team.