Writing text

Text

Quarto builds on Pandoc Markdown, which supports inline formatting for emphasis, code, strikethrough, and superscript/subscript.

Do: Run this in your own Quarto document and see how it looks.

*italics*
**bold**

See: In visual mode, or when rendering the document, you should see this:

italics bold

Predict: now suppose you wrap a word in three asterisks instead of one or two, like ***word***. Do you expect this to render as italics, bold, or both combined?

Explain:

***bold italics***

bold italics

As predicted, combining the two markers combines both effects.

A few other inline formatting options are useful to know:

Strikethrough: ~~text~~ → ~~text~~.
Inline (verbatim) code: enclose text in backticks, e.g. `my_var <- 10` → my_var <- 10.
Superscript / subscript: superscript^2^ → superscript², subscript~2~ → subscript₂.

Lists

Quarto supports unordered and ordered lists, including nested lists.

Unordered lists start lines with *, +, or -:
```
* Item A
* Item B
  + Sub-item B1
* Item C
```
- Item A
- Item B
  - Sub-item B1
- Item C
Ordered lists use numbers followed by a dot:
```
1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step
```
1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step
Task lists use [ ] or [x]:
```
- [ ] Task 1
- [x] Task 2 (done)
```
- Task 1
- Task 2 (done)

Common Mistake

Quarto requires a blank line before a list for it to render correctly. Without it, the list items may appear as ordinary text rather than a formatted list. If a list isn’t rendering the way you expect, check for a missing blank line above it first.

Links and Equations

Inline link: [Quarto](https://quarto.org) → Quarto
Autolink URL: <https://quarto.org> → https://quarto.org

Quarto supports LaTeX-style math using $ and $$ delimiters:

Inline math: This is inline: $E = mc^2$. → This is inline: $E = mc^2$.
Display math, on its own centered line:
```
$$
E = mc^2
$$
```
\[ E = mc^2 \]

External Resources

Markdown basics

Practice Exercise

Question
Solution

Write the Markdown syntax for a sentence that is both bold and italicized, ending with a variable name written as verbatim code, x, followed by a superscript 2.

***This sentence is bold and italicized***, using `x`^2^.

This sentence is bold and italicized, using x².