Markdown Formatting

The narrative portions of a Quarto document are written in Markdown, a lightweight formatting language designed to be readable as plain text while producing polished formatted output. This section covers the Markdown syntax you will use most frequently.

Text Formatting

Surround text with asterisks or underscores to add emphasis:

Syntax	Result
`italic text` or `_italic text_`	italic text
`bold text` or `__bold text__`	bold text
`*bold italic*`	*bold italic*
`code`	`code` (monospace, for variable names, function names, file paths)
`~~strikethrough~~`	~~strikethrough~~
`superscript^2^`	superscript²
`subscript~2~`	subscript₂

Headings

Headings are created with # symbols. The number of # symbols determines the heading level:

# Level 1 Heading (document title or major section)
## Level 2 Heading (section)
### Level 3 Heading (subsection)
#### Level 4 Heading (sub-subsection)

In a Quarto document, # is typically reserved for the document title (set in the YAML header), so most content uses ## for sections and ### for subsections.

Lists

Unordered lists use -, *, or + as bullet markers. Indent with two or four spaces to create nested lists:

- First item
- Second item
  - Nested item
  - Another nested item
- Third item

Ordered lists use numbers followed by a period. The actual numbers do not matter — Markdown renumbers them automatically:

1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step

Task lists use - [ ] for unchecked and - [x] for checked items:

- [x] Load the data
- [x] Clean missing values
- [ ] Build the model

Links and Images

Hyperlinks use square brackets for the display text and parentheses for the URL:

[Quarto documentation](https://quarto.org)

Images use the same syntax with an exclamation mark prefix. The text in square brackets becomes the caption:

![RStudio Layout](img/CH03-rstudio_layout.png)

To control image size, add attributes in curly braces:

![Caption](image.png){width=50%}

Tables

Tables use pipes (|) and hyphens (-) to define columns and rows. Colons in the separator row control alignment:

| Variable | Type    | Description          |
|----------|---------|----------------------|
| ID       | Integer | Employee identifier  |
| Age      | Integer | Age in years         |
| BMI      | Numeric | Body mass index      |

This produces:

Variable	Type	Description
ID	Integer	Employee identifier
Age	Integer	Age in years
BMI	Numeric	Body mass index

Alignment options: :--- (left), :---: (center), ---: (right).

Block Quotes

Block quotes are created with > at the start of a line. They are useful for highlighting key findings or quoting sources:

> "A dashboard is a visual display of the most important information needed to
> achieve one or more objectives, consolidated and arranged on a single screen."
> — Stephen Few

Horizontal Rules

A horizontal rule (divider line) is created with three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores on a line by themselves:

---

Math

Quarto supports LaTeX math notation. Use single dollar signs for inline math and double dollar signs for display math:

The mean is calculated as $\bar{x} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n x_i$.

$$
\hat{y} = \beta_0 + \beta_1 x_1 + \beta_2 x_2 + \epsilon
$$

The inline version renders within a sentence: \(\bar{x} = \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^n x_i\). The display version renders centered on its own line.