Quorly

Guide

Markdown for authors

Markdown is a way of writing formatting in plain text. You type ## before a line to make a heading, **these** two asterisks to make a word bold, and the file stays readable in any editor forever. This is the subset an author actually needs — not the whole specification.

Write and export Markdown How export works →

2 min read

The syntax worth learning

You wantYou typeWhat it means
Chapter heading# Chapter OneA top-level heading. One per chapter.
Section## The ferryA heading inside the chapter.
Emphasis*whisper*, **shout**Italic and bold.
A scene break--- on its own lineA horizontal rule. Many editors convert it to a blank scene break.
A quotation> the lineA block quote, for epigraphs and letters.
A list- item or 1. itemBulleted or numbered.
A link[text](https://…)A hyperlink; the text is what the reader sees.
Inline code`word`Monospace, for a password or a filename in prose.

Scroll the table sideways to read every column

What authors get out of it

  • A file that outlives the app. A .md file opens in twenty years with a text editor; a .docx needs software that still exists.
  • Structure that travels. Headings become a table of contents in an EPUB, a menu in a static site, an outline in Obsidian.
  • Diffs that mean something. If you keep drafts in Git, Markdown shows the sentence that changed, not a binary blob.
  • No formatting to fiddle with. There is no font picker and no ruler, which is the point.

What it cannot do

  • Page layout. No margins, headers, page numbers or precise spacing. That is a job for a typesetter or a PDF export with a designed style.
  • Tracked changes and comments. Those belong to a word processor, and to the editing stage.
  • Footnotes, in many renderers. Some support them, some do not. Quorly's own preview does not, and the editor has no footnote syntax; if your work needs notes, write it where they are first-class.
  • Images without files. An image reference points at a file. If you send the Markdown, send the folder with it.

You do not have to type it

If the asterisks get in the way of the sentence, write in rich text and export Markdown at the end — that is what Quorly's editor is for. Bold is a button, headings are a dropdown, and the export writes the syntax. Authors who like Markdown can paste it in and preview it with the preview tool; authors who do not can ignore it entirely until the file leaves.

A short exercise

Take one finished chapter and save it as a .md file by hand: title heading, one section heading, italic for the interior thought, a --- for the scene break. Open it in a text editor and then in the preview. That is the whole format, and it takes ten minutes to learn.

Ready when you are

Start writing — free

Open the editor and try it on your own draft.

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