Organizing text

A long message needs levels. Discord gives you three heading sizes, one size of subtext, and two list styles. Each one starts at the beginning of a line, and each one stops at the end of its line or block.

Headings

One hash makes the largest heading, two make a smaller one, and three make the smallest. Put the hash at the very start of the line and a space before the text. The size difference is fixed; you cannot choose a font size.

# Release notes
## Fixed
### Parser

Discord stops at three levels. A fourth hash is not a heading, so the line stays as text. The space after the hashes is part of the syntax; #Heading does not become a heading. Everything after the space becomes the heading, so start a new line for body text.

Subtext

Put -# and a space at the start of a line to set it as subtext. Discord renders the line smaller and muted, which suits a footnote, a disclaimer, or a quiet second line under a heading.

Subtext has one size. Repeating the marker does not shrink it further; the extra characters appear as text. It follows the same start-of-line rule as a heading, and it stays ordinary text that can be selected and copied.

-# Updated 12 October

Lists

A bulleted list starts each line with - or * and a space. The two markers are interchangeable.

- **Write** the change
- *Test* the change
- ~~Ship~~ the draft

A numbered list starts each line with a number, a period, and a space. The number is part of the marker, so 1. is the safe choice on every line.

1. Open the channel
2. Paste the command
3. Check the output

A list item can be a single word or a full sentence. You can put bold, italic, or strikethrough inside an item; the marker stays at the start of the line.

Nesting

Indent a child line by two spaces before its marker. Each indent moves the item one level deeper, and the same rule works for bullets and numbers.

- Parent
  - Child
    - Grandchild

Keep the indent small. Two spaces are enough for Discord. A nested list can sit under any item, not only the first one, and you return to the left margin when the child list ends.

Watch out

A hash only works at the start of a line. Release #1 stays plain text because the hash sits mid-sentence, and #Release stays plain text because the space is missing. The same start-of-line rule applies to -#, -, and 1.. If a heading appears as literal hashes, check the first character of the line before anything else.