Skip to main content

Understanding Markdown flavours: extended syntax for enhanced documentation

code
An in-depth exploration of various Markdown flavours and their extended syntax capabilities for technical documentation and content creation.

While standard Markdown serves as an excellent foundation for content creation, its basic syntax sometimes falls short of meeting complex documentation needs. This is where Markdown flavours come in, offering extended capabilities that address real-world documentation challenges. This guide explores the most widely-used Markdown flavours and their practical applications in technical documentation.

Understanding Markdown flavours

Markdown flavours are extensions of the original Markdown specification that add new syntax features while maintaining backward compatibility. Several prominent flavours have emerged to address specific use cases:

GitHub Flavoured Markdown (GFM)
The default flavour used on GitHub, featuring tables, task lists, and automatic URL linking.
Markdown Extra
A flavour that adds definition lists, footnotes, and tables with advanced formatting options.
MultiMarkdown
An extended flavour supporting metadata, cross-references, and mathematical notation.

Enhanced syntax features

Definition lists

Definition lists provide a semantic way to present term-definition pairs, making them invaluable for glossaries, API documentation, and technical specifications.

Tip

Definition lists are particularly effective when documenting technical terminology or creating FAQ sections. 
REST
: Representational State Transfer, an architectural style for distributed systems.

API
: Application Programming Interface, a set of rules for software communication.

The HTML output maintains semantic structure:

<dl>
  <dt>REST</dt>
  <dd>Representational State Transfer, an architectural style for distributed systems.</dd>
  <dt>API</dt>
  <dd>Application Programming Interface, a set of rules for software communication.</dd>
</dl>

Tables

Tables in extended Markdown support various formatting options and alignment controls, making them ideal for presenting structured data.

Note

While table formatting in Markdown source doesn't affect the HTML output, maintaining consistent spacing improves readability during editing.

Basic table syntax:

| Feature    | GFM | Extra | MultiMarkdown |
|:-----------|:---:|:-----:|-------------:|
| Tables     | ✓   | ✓     | ✓            |
| Task Lists | ✓   | ✗     | ✗            |
| Footnotes  | ✗   | ✓     | ✓            |

Advanced formatting options include:

  • Left, centre, and right alignment using colons
  • Header row separation with dashes
  • Cell spanning (in some implementations)
  • Inline formatting within cells

Task lists

GFM introduces task lists, which are particularly useful for project management and documentation of implementation status:

- [x] Basic authentication
- [ ] OAuth integration
- [ ] Rate limiting implementation

Automatic linking

GFM automatically converts URLs and references into clickable links:

Visit https://github.com
Issue #123 needs review

Best practices for extended syntax

  1. Maintain consistency
    • Choose a single Markdown flavour for your project
    • Document the chosen flavour in your contributing guidelines
    • Use consistent formatting patterns throughout
  2. Consider compatibility
    • Verify renderer support for chosen features
    • Provide fallback formatting when necessary
    • Test output across different platforms
  3. Optimise for readability
    • Use consistent spacing in tables
    • Align definition terms and descriptions
    • Include blank lines between different elements

Important

When working with multiple authors, establish clear guidelines for Markdown flavour usage and formatting conventions to maintain consistency across documentation.

Tools and implementation

Markdown editors

Several editors provide enhanced support for extended Markdown syntax:

  • Visual Studio Code with Markdown extensions
  • Typora with real-time preview
  • StackEdit with collaborative features

Automated formatting

Tools for maintaining consistent Markdown formatting:

# Using Prettier for Markdown formatting
prettier --write "**/*.md"

# Using markdownlint for style checking
markdownlint "**/*.md"

Common use cases

Technical documentation

Extended Markdown syntax excels in technical documentation:

  • API reference documentation using definition lists
  • Implementation status tracking with task lists
  • Feature comparison tables
  • Code documentation with fenced code blocks

Content management

Content creators benefit from enhanced formatting options:

  • Product documentation with structured layouts
  • Knowledge base articles with semantic markup
  • Tutorial series with cross-references
  • FAQs using definition lists

Further reading and resources

Tip

For automated Markdown processing, consider tools like Pandoc, which supports multiple Markdown flavours and can convert between different formats.

Tip

When working with Flask applications, you can integrate Markdown parsing using extensions like Flask-Markdown or Markdown with the Pygments syntax highlighter for code blocks.