Markdown is a type of notation which enables anyone to create formatted text without any coding experience. As an example, each article on our knowledge base (including this one) leverages some form of the markdown available within the platform. Alchemy leverages markdown within all multi-line fields; and players can leverage these techniques to keep their information organized, readable, and stylized.

Markdown is a formatting style that enables the average person to incorporate elementary notation to present their text in stylized ways. Many may be familiar with the concept of bolding, italicizing, and striking through text. These can all be done within Alchemy using markdown. The various headers, bullet points, tables, links, and photos in this article are also inserted using Markdown.

In Alchemy, markdown can be leveraged in many places. In articles, character descriptions, items, handouts, and just about anywhere else in the platform that has a large editable text field.

Often, markdown can be leveraged to split ideas using headers or format complex ideas into understandable formats. For instance, while there is one large description field when creating a systemless character, markdown can be leveraged to split the description into different parts such as appearance, backstory, motivations, and flaws.

This section goes deeper into the markdown elements that can be leveraged throughout the platform. The following is a last of markdown elements and how to use them in Alchemy

Headers are used to separate an article into smaller sections.

Header 1: # TEXT

Header 2: ## TEXT

Header 3: ### TEXT

Header 4: #### TEXT

Text can be formatted in many common ways using markdown notation.

Bold Text: **TEXT**

Italic Text *TEXT*

Bold and Italic Text: ***TEXT***

Strikethrough Text: ~~TEXT~~

Markdown can be used to display images in Alchemy articles. Since images require a link to be used in markdown, users can always upload an image as an attachment in Alchemy in order to generate an Alchemy-hosted link.

Display An Image: 

Sized Images: 

Linked Images: [](WebpageLink)

Displaying an Image in Alchemy:

Resizing an Image (256x256 pixels) to 128x128. This is done through specifying the width in the markdown. The image will scale to that width while keeping the height proportional:

Linking an Image to the Alchemy homepage:

Text can be hyperlinked in order to open a new browser tab to a specific webpage.

Hyperlink: [Words](URL)

Alchemy Homepage

Lists can be generated in alchemy for providing step-by-step directions or organizing separate ideas.

Ordered List:

1. TEXT

2. TEXT

3. TEXT

Unordered List:

- TEXT

- TEXT

- TEXT

Instead of using hyphens `-`, an asterisk `*` or plus sign `+` can be used instead.

"- [ ]" Unchecked

"- [x]" Checked
​
Note that you must add the "-" before the "[ ]" or "[x]" for the Markdown to register
​

Inline audio can be added in Alchemy articles; showing a play button where a viewer can toggle to play a track uploaded as media in the article.

Inline Audio: 

The audio attachment's name can be edited after uploading. Simply click on where the name is for the attachment beneath the 'Media' section when editing an article and start typing. You may not see a flashing cursor but the name can still be edited.

Tables can be incorporated into Alchemy to break down complex information and format it into an informational format.

| H1 | H2 |

| --- | --- |

| Cell 1A | Cell 1B |

| Cell 2A | Cell 2B |

Footnotes can be inserted into articles to provide additional context to the information in an article.

When inserting a footnote in text: TextHere[^1]

Adding context for a footnote at the end of an article: [^1]: TextHere

Once a footnote marker is created, additional information can be added at the end of the article to provide additional context:

Callout boxes can separate related thoughts from the main content of an article. These can help provide additional context to a thought or separate contextual thoughts being explained.

Replace TitleHere with the title of the callout box and TextHere2 with the text inside of the box.

``` Title TitleHere

TextHere2

```

As a note, no additional markdown is able to be inserted into text within these boxes.

Block Quotes are text that contain an angle bracket (>) before the text that is written. Any text after this bracket is inserted will appear pushed in from the rest of the article with a line framing the side of the sentence or paragraph.

Single Quote: > TextHere

Double Quote: >> TextHere

Blocks can continually stack by adding additional brackets (>).

Line breaks can be inserted to break up many paragraphs of text through adding three hyphens to the start of any line in a text box. Additionally, when text is inserted in the line directly above these hyphens, the text will turn white and act as a header for the information below the newly inserted line.

Adding a line: --- or ***

Adding a header line (mimics header 2):

Hello World!

---

Horizontal Rule Example

Code Blocks can be inserted into articles through the use of a backtick (`) framing each side of a sentence.

Code Block: `TextHere`

Code Block Example

Emojis are able to be added into many sections of Alchemy that accept markdown. To add an emoji, simply copy it from an external website (to your device's clipboard) and paste the emoji into the field or article. You are able to retrieve emojis to paste from public websites such as Get Emoji or from the emoji picker in MacOS. 😊

Using markdown, text can be colored to stand out within larger information fields.

Replace TextHere with the text to be colored.

Red: ![TextHere=type:color:red]()

Orange: ![TextHere=type:color:orange]()

Yellow: ![TextHere=type:color:yellow]()

Green: ![TextHere=type:color:green]()

Blue: ![TextHere=type:color:blue]()

Purple: ![TextHere=type:color:purple]()

Replace Serif/Accent/Sans Font with desired text.
​
Default Serif Font: ![Serif Font=type:color]()

Universe Accent Font: ![Accent Font=type:color_accent]()

Sans Font: ![Sans Font=type:color_sans]()
​

Using markdown, universe objects can be embedded into articles as links; opening these objects in a modal rather than navigating to a separate webpage. This currently works with the following universe objects.

Articles: 

Premades: 

NPCs: 

Handouts: 

Items: 

Scenes: 

To create the markdown code, navigate to the object you want to create a button for in a universe. Within the appropriate universe tab, click on the object and then click the unlock slider to open the object for editing. Once editing, click into the overflow menu and select the 'Copy Embed Code' option.

For articles specifically, their overflow can be clicked when hovering the article's thumbnail in the 'Article' tab of a universe.

Selecting 'Copy Embed Code' will copy a string of markdown code to your device's clipboard ( looking something like this:  ). You can paste this code directly into a markdown field.

There are several aspects of the embed code above worth noting. ButtonName can be changed to display different text relating to the universe object, the object type (handout above) represents the type of universe object being embedded, and the long string within parentheses (642a4980fff2f5672f2123c6) represents the ID of that specific universe object.

Customized symbols are able to be added to markdown fields in line with typed text.

In-Line Symbol: 

An image used as an in-line symbol can be uploaded as a universe asset or article attachment. The asset's link can then be copied and pasted where LinkToInlineImage is in the example above. The image size of an inline image is currently capped at 40px by 40px. We also recommend using as close to a 40px by 40px transparent image as possible for the best results.

YouTube videos can be placed within Alchemy articles. These videos can also be specified to start and/or end at a particular point in the video.

Basic Embed YouTube Video Syntax: 

A YouTube video's ID can be grabbed straight from the URL of the video when viewing it in the browser. For instance, the ID of the video located at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpr2CtmAVEI is Cpr2CtmAVEI.

Additional parameters can be leveraged to start a video at a particular point, end the video at a particular point, or both. The values in the parameters below represent where in the video will be the start/end point (in seconds).

Breadcrumbs are a navigational aid to help keep track of someone's current location in a website. At the top of this article, breadcrumbs that link backwards to this article's category and further to the front page of the Alchemy knowledge base can be viewed.

Single Breadcrumb: [NAME=breadcrumb](ARTICLE_LINK)

NAME can be replaced with static text that the breadcrumb will display and ARTICLE_LINK can be replaced with the URL of the article this breadcrumb should link to. This can then be selected to open the linked article.

Current Breadcrumb: [NAME=current-page](ARTICLE_LINK)

This works the same as above, but will display white text instead of gold text; signaling this is the current article being viewed. Only one of these can be included in a chain of breadcrumbs and this should be the final one in that chain.

These can be put together in the following way: [NAME=breadcrumb](ARTICLE_LINK)[NAME=current-page](ARTICLE_LINK)

More than two breadcrumbs can be linked together to create a deeper navigation path: [NAME=breadcrumb](ARTICLE_LINK)[NAME=breadcrumb(ARTICLE_LINK)[NAME=current-page](ARTICLE_LINK)

The breadcrumb for this article is as follows: [Knowledge Base=breadcrumb](https://app.alchemyrpg.com/universe/6260df75b0b47dc841b01d56/article/63b4d68dfc6636a136b8c775)[Players=breadcrumb](https://app.alchemyrpg.com/universe/6260df75b0b47dc841b01d56/article/645344158d2be5fed0701745)[Markdown in Alchemy=current-page](https://app.alchemyrpg.com/universe/6260df75b0b47dc841b01d56/article/63b4de09fc6636a136b95474)

Several of the markdown elements explained above can be inserted into Alchemy quickly leveraging keyboard shortcuts. While not all elements have a shortcut, the table below goes over those that do: