How to Bold Text in Markdown: A Complete Guide

Markdown is a simple and easy-to-use markup language that allows you to format text without needing to use cumbersome HTML tags. One of the most common formatting options in Markdown is making text bold.

In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about bolding text in Markdown, including:

• What is bold text and why is it useful?
• The two main methods for bolding text
  • Asterisks
  • Underscores
• Bolding single words, phrases, lines, paragraphs and entire blocks of text
• Best practices and tips for bolding Markdown text
• Common issues and troubleshooting

What is Bold Text?

Bolding text makes it thicker and darker than surrounding text. This allows you to emphasize important keywords, titles, headings, and any text you want to stand out. Bold text catches the reader‘s eye and indicates that the bolded content is important.

For example, this text is bolded to highlight it against the normal text around it.

Bolding is helpful for:

• Calling attention to key points or terms
• Denoting headings and section titles
• Highlighting warning messages
• Emphasizing important names, dates or data

Without bold formatting, long blocks of text can be difficult to scan and key pieces of information can get lost. Proper use of bold text improves readability and makes comprehension easier.

Method 1: Asterisks for Bold Text

The most common and preferred method for bolding text in Markdown is by surrounding words with two asterisks ** on each side:

**This text is bold** 

Renders as:

This text is bold

You can bold single words, sentences, paragraphs and multiple blocks of text using this asterisk method. Some examples:

Bold Single Word

Here is a **bolded** word in the sentence.

Renders as:

Here is a bolded word in the sentence.

Bold Line or Phrase

The entire **phrase can be bolded** with asterisks.

Renders as:

The entire phrase can be bolded with asterisks.

Bold Paragraph

**This is a paragraph that has been bolded using asterisks before and after the paragraph.**

Renders as:

This is a paragraph that has been bolded using asterisks before and after the paragraph.

Note that the bold tags ** are not shown in the rendered output. Only the text itself is displayed in bold formatting.

Method 2: Underscores for Bold Text

Similarly, you can also bold Markdown text by surrounding it with two underscore characters _ instead of asterisks.

The underscores must be used in pairs before and after the text you want to bold:

__Bold text__

Renders as:

Bold text

Underscores function identically to asterisks for bolding text. You can use either one based on your personal preference. Some examples:

Bold Sentence Fragment

Here is some __bolded text__ in this sentence. 

Renders as:

Here is some bolded text in this sentence.

Multiple Bold Phrases

 Both of these __phrases are bolded__ using double underscores.

Renders as:

Both of these phrases are bolded using double underscores.

The underscores do not show up in the rendered Markdown. The text itself becomes bold.

While asterisks are more commonly used, underscore and asterisk bolding can be mixed and matched within the same document with no issues if needed.

Bolding Tips and Best Practices

Follow these guidelines when applying bold formatting:

• Use bold judiciously – avoid overusing it or it loses effectiveness. Only bold key important content.
• Keep bolded text brief within surrounding non-bolded text. Giant blocks of bold text become difficult to read.
• Always use double asterisks or underscores. Single ones will not work.
• Make sure to close all opened bold tags. Missing ending tags can cause formatting issues.
• Bold can be nested within other deeper levels of nested formatting like italics and hyperlinks using proper Markdown syntax rules.

Formatting Bold Text Consistently

When introducing important terminology or references that need to remain consistently bolded every time they appear in your document, define a Markdown formatting alias upfront for them using this pattern:

**Important Term**
The [**Important Term**] is defined here and is very important. Every mention of the [**Important Term**] from now on will be bold.

Renders as:

Important Term
The [Important Term] is defined here and is very important. Every mention of the [Important Term] from now on will be bold.

This saves having to manually bold it identically each time and typing those asterisks repeatedly.

Common Bold Text Issues

Here are some common problems that can occur:

Missing Paired Tags

Mismatched numbers of opening and closing asterisks is a common mistake. Always double check all bold tags are properly closed:

**Starting bold text 
Ending bold text** ❌ WRONG

**Starting bold text**  
**Ending bold text** ✅ CORRECT

Renders as:

**Starting bold text ❌ WRONG

Ending bold text**

Starting bold text
Ending bold text ✅ CORRECT

Nested Styles Order

When combining nested formatting like bold plus italics, make sure the styles are opened and closed properly in the correct order:

***Bold then Italics*** ❌ WRONG
***Bolded _Italics_*** ✅ CORRECT 

Renders as:

Bold then Italics ❌ WRONG
Bolded Italics ✅ CORRECT

HTML Tag Interference

If bold text suddenly stops working or text prints HTML tags instead, another plugin/tool might be injecting troublemaking HTML into your Markdown document. Try removing the existing bold tags and rewriting fresh Markdown formatting.

For additional troubleshooting help, search for guides on debugging HTML-interfered Markdown.

Conclusion

Being able to bold Markdown text quickly improves the readability of many types of technical documents and articles. The methods are simple but effective:

• Use double asterisks **text** or underscores __text__ around the desired words
• Bold sparingly only to highlight critical text and avoid overuse
• Always check for proper opening and closing of style tags
• Follow best practices for consistent, clean bolding

Now that you know all the ins and outs of bolding in Markdown, you‘ll be able write and format text faster and easier than ever before!