.. _inline-markup-intro: Inline Markup ============= `Inline markup `_ allows characters, words, and phrases to have styles such as italics and bold, and functionality such as hyperlinks. reStructuredText uses special markup characters such as the asterisk ``*``, underscore ``_``, and backslash ``\`` to apply inline styles. The following restrictions apply to inline markup: * It cannot be nested. For example, you cannot italicise a bold phrase. * The markup content cannot start or end with whitespace. There are nine inline markup constructs. Five common constructs are given below. ====================== ====================== ====================================== Construct Display Description ====================== ====================== ====================================== \*emphasis\* *emphasis* Normally rendered as italics. ---------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------------------- \*\*strong\*\* **strong** Normally rendered as bold. ---------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------------------- \`\`literal\`\` ``literal`` Normally rendered as monospaced text ---------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------------------- reference\_ backslash_ A hyperlink reference ---------------------- ---------------------- -------------------------------------- \`phrase reference\`\_ `Escaping characters`_ A multi-word hyperlink reference ====================== ====================== ====================================== Escaping characters ------------------- To override the special meaning of reStructuredText markup characters and display the literal characters, prepend them with a backslash ``\``. Using a backslash in this way is called `escaping characters `_. Escape sequences for various markup characters are shown below. ================================= ======================= ========================================== Escape sequence Display Description ================================= ======================= ========================================== \\ \\ \\ Display a literal backslash by escaping ``\`` --------------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ reference\\_ reference\_ Display reference syntax by escaping ``_`` --------------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ \\\*emphasis\\\* \*emphasis\* Display emphasis syntax by escaping each ``*`` --------------------------------- ----------------------- ------------------------------------------ \\\*\\\*strong\\\*\\\* \*\*strong\*\* Display strong syntax by escaping each ``*`` ================================= ======================= ========================================== .. note:: As shown in the Display column, escape backslashes and spaces (not the literal characters) are excluded from the processed document. .. _backslash: