What are the key takeaways from this guide?

Basic Markdown covers headings, bold, italic, links, and images.. GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown) tables use pipes and dashes.. Supported by GFM, Obsidian, and most static site generators:. Interactive checkboxes render on GitHub and GitLab:. GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and Obsidian render Mermaid diagrams directly in Markdown..

Who is this guide for?

This guide is designed for beginner-level users and takes about 1 minutes to read.

How-To Beginner 1 min read 223 words

Advanced Markdown: Tables, Footnotes, Task Lists, and Extensions

Go beyond basic Markdown with advanced features supported by major platforms. Covers GFM tables, footnotes, task lists, math notation, Mermaid diagrams, and the differences between Markdown flavors.

Key Takeaways

Basic Markdown covers headings, bold, italic, links, and images.
GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown) tables use pipes and dashes.
Supported by GFM, Obsidian, and most static site generators:
Interactive checkboxes render on GitHub and GitLab:
GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and Obsidian render Mermaid diagrams directly in Markdown.

Beyond Basic Markdown

Basic Markdown covers headings, bold, italic, links, and images. But modern Markdown platforms support rich features that many users never discover. These extensions can replace dedicated diagramming tools, project trackers, and math editors for many common tasks.

Tables

GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown) tables use pipes and dashes. Column alignment is controlled by colons in the separator row: left (:---), center (:---:), right (---:). Cells cannot span multiple rows or columns — for complex tables, use HTML within Markdown.

Footnotes

Supported by GFM, Obsidian, and most static site generators:

This claim needs citation[^1].

[^1]: Source: Nature, 2024, Vol 615.

Task Lists

Interactive checkboxes render on GitHub and GitLab:

- [x] Completed item
- [ ] Pending item
- [ ] Another pending item

Mermaid Diagrams

GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and Obsidian render Mermaid diagrams directly in Markdown. Create flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts, and entity-relationship diagrams without external tools.

Math Notation

LaTeX math expressions render on GitHub, GitLab, and Jupyter. Inline math uses $E = mc^2$ , display math uses $$ delimiters. This enables technical documentation with proper mathematical notation.

Flavor Differences

CommonMark is the standardization effort, but GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, and Pandoc each extend it differently. Always check your target platform's documentation. Format and preview Markdown with the Peasy Markdown editor.