Text Formatting

Moleskine Journey now gives you the ability to format text using the Markdown syntax.

The follwing guide explains how to use the Markdown Syntax inside your Journals and Projects.

Let’s get started

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You can use Markdown Syntax only inside paragraphs in your Journal or Project. To create a new paragraph tap/click the “New Paragraph” button ¶ .

The instructions below explain how to format text using Markdown Syntax inline, near the words you want to format.

You can also format the text using the buttons above the keyboard on iPhone and iPad or by clicking the "Aa" button on macOS.

Currently Journey text editor supports the following formatting options:

Headings
Emphasis (Bold, Italic, Bold&Italic)
Blockquotes
Lists (Ordered, Unordered)
Horizontal lines / Line separators

Headings

To create a heading, add the hashtag character (#) in front of a word or phrase followed by a space. The number of # you use correspond to the heading level. For example, to create a heading level three (<h3>), use three hashtag characters (e.g., ### My Header).

Markdown	Rendered Output
`# Heading level 1`	Heading level 1
`## Heading level 2`	Heading level 2
`### Heading level 3`	Heading level 3
`#### Heading level 4`	Heading level 4
`##### Heading level 5`	Heading level 5
`###### Heading level 6`	Heading level 6

Heading Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle a missing space between the # and the heading text. For compatibility, always put a space between the hashtag characters and the heading name.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`# Here's a Heading`	`#Here's a Heading`

You should also put blank lines before and after a heading for compatibility.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`Try to put a blank line before... # Heading ...and after a heading.`	`Without blank lines, this might not look right. # Heading Don't do this!`

Emphasis

You can add emphasis by making text bold or italic.

Bold

To bold text, add two asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold the middle of a word for emphasis, add two asterisks without spaces around the letters.

Markdown	Rendered Output
`I just love bold text.`	I just love bold text.
`I just love __bold text__.`	I just love bold text.
`Loveisbold`	Loveisbold

Bold Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`Loveisbold`	`Love__is__bold`

Italic

To italicize text, add one asterisk or underscore before and after a word or phrase. To italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add one asterisk without spaces around the letters.

Markdown	Rendered Output
`Italicized text is the cat's meow.`	Italicized text is the cat’s meow.
`Italicized text is the _cat's meow_.`	Italicized text is the cat’s meow.
`Acatmeow`	Acatmeow

Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`Acatmeow`	`A_cat_meow`

Bold and Italic

To emphasize text with bold and italics at the same time, add three asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add three asterisks without spaces around the letters.

Markdown	Rendered Output
`This text is *really important*.`	This text is really important.
`This text is ___really important___.`	This text is really important.
`This text is __really important__.`	This text is really important.
`This text is _really important_.`	This text is really important.
`This is really*very*important text.`	This is reallyveryimportant text.

Bold and Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`This is really*very*important text.`	`This is really___very___important text.`

Blockquotes

To create a blockquote, add a > in front of a paragraph.

> Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle

Lists

You can organize items into ordered and unordered lists.

Ordered Lists

To create an ordered list, add line items with numbers followed by periods. The numbers don’t have to be in numerical order, but the list should start with the number one.

Markdown	Rendered Output
`1. First item 2. Second item 3. Third item 4. Fourth item`	1. First item 2. Second item 3. Third item 4. Fourth item

Ordered List Best Practices

CommonMark and a few other lightweight markup languages let you use a parenthesis ()) as a delimiter (e.g., 1) First item), but not all Markdown applications support this, so it isn’t a great option from a compatibility perspective. For compatibility, use periods only.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`1. First item 2. Second item`	`1) First item 2) Second item`

Unordered Lists

To create an unordered list, add dashes (-), asterisks (*), or plus signs (+) in front of line items. Indent one or more items to create a nested list.

Markdown	Rendered Output
`- First item - Second item - Third item - Fourth item`	• First item • Second item • Third item • Fourth item
`* First item * Second item * Third item * Fourth item`	• First item • Second item • Third item • Fourth item
`+ First item + Second item + Third item + Fourth item`	• First item • Second item • Third item • Fourth item

Unordered List Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle different delimiters in the same list. For compatibility, don’t mix and match delimiters in the same list — pick one and stick with it.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`- First item - Second item - Third item - Fourth item`	`+ First item * Second item - Third item + Fourth item`

Horizontal lines / Line separators

To create a horizontal line, use three or more dashes (---) on a line by themselves.

--- -------

The rendered output looks like this 👇

Horizontal lines Best Practices

For compatibility, put blank lines before and after the horizontal line.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`Try to put a blank line before... --- ...and after a horizontal rule.`	`Without blank lines, this would be a heading. --- Don't do this!`