Markdown format supported in answer text

Custom question answering stores answer text as markdown. There are many flavors of markdown. In order to make sure the answer text is returned and displayed correctly, use this reference.

Use the CommonMark tutorial to validate your markdown. The tutorial has a Try it feature for quick copy/paste validation.

When to use rich-text editing versus markdown

Rich-text editing of answers allows you, as the author, to use a formatting toolbar to quickly select and format text.

Markdown is a better tool when you need to autogenerate content to create projects to be imported as part of a CI/CD pipeline or for batch testing.

Supported markdown format

Following is the list of markdown formats that you can use in your answer text.

Purpose	Format	Example markdown
A new line between 2 sentences.	\n\n	How can I create a bot with \n\n custom question answering?
Headers from h1 to h6, the number of # denotes which header. 1 # is the h1.	\n# text \n## text \n### text \n####text \n#####text	## Creating a bot \n ...text.... \n### Important news\n ...text... \n### Related Information\n ....text... \n# my h1 \n## my h2\n### my h3 \n#### my h4 \n##### my h5
Italics	*text*	How do I create a bot with *custom question answering*?
Strong (bold)	**text**	How do I create a bot with **custom question answering***?
URL for link	[text](https://www.my.com)	How do I create a bot with [custom question answering](https://language.cognitive.azure.com/)?
*URL for public image		How can I create a bot with 
Strikethrough	~~text~~	some ~~questions~~ questions need to be asked
Bold and italics	***text***	How can I create a ***custom question answering**** bot?
Bold URL for link	[**text**](https://www.my.com)	How do I create a bot with [**custom question answering**](https://language.cognitive.azure.com/)?
Italics URL for link	[*text*](https://www.my.com)	How do I create a bot with [*custom question answering*](https://language.cognitive.azure.com/)?
Escape markdown symbols	\*text\*	How do I create a bot with \*custom question answering*\*?
Ordered list	\n 1. item1 \n 1. item2	This is an ordered list: \n 1. List item 1 \n 1. List item 2 The preceding example uses automatic numbering built into markdown. This is an ordered list: \n 1. List item 1 \n 2. List item 2 The preceding example uses explicit numbering.
Unordered list	\n * item1 \n * item2 or \n - item1 \n - item2	This is an unordered list: \n * List item 1 \n * List item 2
Nested lists	\n * Parent1 \n\t * Child1 \n\t * Child2 \n * Parent2 \n * Parent1 \n\t 1. Child1 \n\t * Child2 \n 1. Parent2 You can nest ordered and unordered lists together. The tab, \t, indicates the indentation level of the child element.	This is an unordered list: \n * List item 1 \n\t * Child1 \n\t * Child2 \n * List item 2 This is an ordered nested list: \n 1. Parent1 \n\t 1. Child1 \n\t 1. Child2 \n 1. Parent2

• Custom question answering doesn't process the image in any way. It is the client application's role to render the image.

If you want to add content using update/replace project APIs and the content/file contains html tags, you can preserve the HTML in your file by ensuring that opening and closing of the tags are converted in the encoded format.

Preserve HTML	Representation in the API request	Representation in KB
Yes	&lt;br&gt;	<br>
Yes	&lt;h3&gt;header&lt;/h3&gt;	<h3>header</h3>

Additionally, CR LF(\r\n) are converted to \n in the KB. LF(\n) is kept as is. If you want to escape any escape sequence like a \t or \n you can use backslash, for example: '\\r\\n' and '\\t'

Next steps

• Import a project