Reddit Formatting Help – Beginner’s Guide to Formatting Previous item How to Post a Picture on... Next item 120 Best Reddit Usernames...

In this quick guide on Reddit formatting, I’ll help you understand the formatting tags and the syntax you can use in your comments to increase readability and engagement. 

Table of Contents

1. Basic Reddit Formatting

2. Links

3. Lists

4. New Lines & Paragraphs

5. Tables

6. Headlines

1. Reddit Formatting – The Basics

1.1 Italics

To make a text italic, enclose it in asterix “*” or underscores “_”.

For example:

We all want *our links* to stay on the _first page_.

becomes

We all want our links to stay on the first page.

1.2 Bold

Same as italic, but with double asterix “**” and double underscore “__” like this:

We all want **our links** to stay on the __first page__.

becomes

We all want our links to stay on the first page.

1.3 Quoting

You can quote your text on Reddit by simply using the “<“ symbol. You can also nest quoted text, like this:

We all want our links to stay on the first page.
>The problem is that it's hard. 
>>So how to make it work ?
>>>Read RedditSecrets.com

becomes

We all want our links to stay on the first page.

The problem is that it’s hard.

So how to make it work ?

Read RedditSecrets.com !

1.4 Superscript text

You can suprescript your text using the carot symbol “^”. Note that you can also stack superscripts:

Redditor 1^Redditor 2^Redditor 3

becomes

Redditor 1Redditor 2Redditor 3

1.5 Strikethrough text

Strikethrough your text using a double tilde “~~”:

Part of this text will be ~~deleted~~.

becomes

Part of this text will be deleted.

1.6 Inline Code (Monospaced Text)

Sometimes you want to add a code snippet on the same line in your comment. You can format you Reddit comment like that with inline code using the following symbol ” ‘ “

We have an inline code here: 'Console.WriteLine();'

becomes

We have an inline code here: Console.WriteLine();

It’s a little bit hard to see the difference here, but it works fine on Reddit.

1.6 Block Code (Monospaced Text)

If you want to add a monospaced block of code, start the line with 4 spaces (illustrated with ░) like this:

░░░░Console.WriteLine();
░░░░░░░░foreach (string line in lines)
░░░░░░░░░░░░Console.WriteLine(line);

1.7 Escaping Special Characters

All right, but what happens if we actually want to print “*some important word*” in our comment ? Here’s where escaping comes into place:

We have an important \*keyword\* here.

which will ignore the special characters and leave only the asterix:

We have an important *keyword* here.

2. How to post a link on Reddit

2.1 Simple Links

If you wonder how to post links in comments in reddit, it is done with the following syntax:

[Link To Reddit](https://reddit.com)

which becomes

Link To Reddit

2.2 Link Hover Text

If you want to add an HTML title tag to your link, i.e. displaying text on hover, do it like this:

[Hover Me](https://reddit.com "This link points to Reddit")

becomes

Hover Me

2.3 Linking to a Sub-Reddit

If you want to link to a sub-reddit, instead of adding the whole URL you can just use:

/r/pics

which will render

/r/pics

Reddit will automatically detect the sub-reddit and add the link for you.

2.4 Escaping Brackets in URLs

If your URL contains brackets, you’ll have to escape them:

[Reddit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit_(site))

this will render

Reddit)

Notice the extra character at the end ? So to fix it, escape it:

[Reddit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit_(site\))

results in the correct form

Reddit

2.5 Links can’t begin with WWW

An important note is that your link should have the URI scheme included. For example, this will not work:

[Reddit](www.reddit.com)

but this will

[Reddit](https://www.reddit.com)

Supported schemes are:

  • http://
  • https://
  • ftp://
  • mailto:
  • steam://
  • irc://
  • news://
  • mumble://
  • ssh://

2.5 Using Spoiler Tags

And finally, there is a relatively new feature that allows you to add spoiler text to your comments and posts. Here’s how it works

[Spoiler](/s "write spoiler-text inside quotes")

This spoiler formatting is similar to a link, but when you hover on “Spoiler” the actual text next to it will be revealed. For a demonstration, check Reddit’s Spoiler Tag announcement.

3. Adding Lists

3.1 Unordered Lists

In order to create an unordered list, you can use either “*”, “+” or “-“

* Item 1
+ Item 2
- Item 3

becomes

  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3

3.2 Ordered Lists

For ordered lists, simply use a number with a period at the end.

2. Item 1
1. Item 2
3. Item 3

becomes

  1. Item 2
  2. Item 1
  3. Item 3

4.Paragraphs and Line Breaks

4.1 New Lines

In order to  format a line break on Reddit, you can’t just hit enter. For example, this will not work

First Line↵
Second Line

You need to add 4 spaces:

First Line░░░░↵
Second Line

which will actually render a new line.

4.2 Paragraphs

Creating a paragraph is actually simplier. Just hit enter twice:

First Line↵
↵
Second Line

5. Creating Tables

Now, if you are a web developer you will probably vomit after reading this, but here’s how you format tables with Reddit:

Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3
:--|:--:|--:
row 1| row 1 | row 1
row 2 | row 2 | row 2
row 3 | row 3| row 3
row 4| row 4| row 4
row 5| row 5| row 5
row 6| row 6| row 6

Two important things here:

  1. The first row is the columns row and is always bolded
  2. The second row is with the strange :–|:–:|–: symbols represents the text alignment for the column above

So

  • :–: is center-aligned
  • :– is left-aligned
  • –: is right-aligned
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
row 1 row 1 row 1
row 2 row 2 row 2
row 3 row 3 row 3
row 4 row 4 row 4
row 5 row 5 row 5
row 6 row 6 row 6

6. Headlines & Horizontal Lines

6.1 Headlines

As you can see Reddit’s Formatting syntax can actually be quite powerful. You can also add headlines inside your comments by simply adding hash tags before your text. For example

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3

6.2 Horizontal Lines

To format a horizontal line, simply put 3 asterix symbols next to each other like this

***

which will create a horizontal line


7. Reddit Formatting Help Tool

At the end of this guide, I think there’s a tool that deserves a mention and that’s the ReddiFormat Chrom extension by Chris Goulding. So feel free to give it a shot and share your impressions !

Reddit Formatting Help – Beginner’s Guide To Formatting

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