Test Run

Many users ask us "what is Markdown?" It is a question that sometimes surprises us because it is something we have simply learned to take for granted around here. There is a reason that many wikis, and many web 2.0 products all support markdown... you see Markdown makes writing HTML almost brain dead.

The 'm' in HTML stands for "mark up." Mark up refers to the practices of encapsulating text in a set of "tags" that looks a lot like XML. These tags indicate to web browsers how the text should appear - allowing users to style their text like they would in a word processor. However, HTML is far more difficult than a word processor.

Markdown is the opposite of mark up. Markdown utilizes a very logical and intuitive formatting technique that makes as much sense when viewed simply as plain text as it does when it is converted to HTML. Markdown makes writing HTML easy, and we promise, there is not a lot of geeky, hard to remember rules or syntax to follow.

For example, let's say you want to create a bulleted list. In HTML, it would look like this:

<ul>
   <li>Foo</li>
   <li>Bar</li>
   <li>Baz</li>
</ul>

But in markdown the same list is written like this:

* Foo
* Bar
* Baz

And here's the kicker... they are both rendered by your web browser to look exactly the same. Just like this:

• Foo
• Bar
• Baz

Test Run allows users to use Markdown when writing their test cases so that their test cases are both easy and quick to write, but all also easy and quick to read. Both in Excel and online.

To learn more about Markdown, visit its homepage.