Discord servers can be pretty crowded, and it’s easy for your messages to not get attention. Hence, many Discord users use text formatting options to make their messages stand out from the crowd. If you wish to do the same, you can use markdown-like syntax for your communication. However, if you don’t know anything about it, the guide below will give you a complete walkthrough on how to grab attention using Discord Text Formatting styles.
How to make Discord Text Formatting styles
Discord supports different markdown-like syntax, and here’s how you can use them:
- Make key points bold
- Use italics
- Combine bold and italic
- Add underline
- Strikethrough for revision
- Spoiler tags to hide content
- Use Blockquotes
- Headers and lists to structure long posts
- Masked links for cleaner text
1] Make key points bold
To make any of your text bold, you can simply add two asterisks before and after your message:
**Important announcement**
2] Use italics
To make any of your text italic, you can use either single asterisks or underscores:
*note this*
_see this_
3] Combine bold and italic
To make your text both bold and italic, you can add three asterisks before and after your message:
***This really matters***
4] Add underline
To add an underline in your texts or headings, you can add double underscores before and after your message:
__Underlined heading__
5] Strikethrough for revision
You can use strikethrough for revision or to signal something has been removed. You can put strikethrough in your message by wrapping your text with double tildes:
~~Not relevant anymore~~
6] Spoiler tags to hide content
If you want to hide your content, use the spoiler tag using spoiler bars:
||secret info||
7] Use Blockquotes
You can add > to create a quote style that’s useful for replying or highlighting context:
> This is a blockquote
8] Headers and lists to structure long posts
You can use #, ##, or ### at the start of a line to create headers:
# Main Topic
## Subtopic
For lists:
- Item one
- Item two
9] Masked links for cleaner text
Instead of pasting raw URLs, you can hide them behind descriptive text:
[Click here](https://discord.com)
So those were a few common text formatting styles on Discord. You could learn more about these styles by exploring Markdown formatting and trying out different styles.
Can I escape formatting if I want symbols like * or _ to show normally?
Yes, if you want Discord to display formatting characters such as asterisks, underscores, or tildes as plain text instead of applying formatting, you can escape them by placing a backslash () before the character. For example, typing *not bold* will show not bold instead of making the text bold, and _not italic_ will show not italic.
Why isn’t my Discord formatting working sometimes?
If your formatting doesn’t appear as expected, it’s usually because of missing or mismatched symbols, extra spaces, or conflicting markdown. For example, putting a space between the asterisks and the word (like ** bold **) will prevent bold formatting from working properly. Formatting can also break if you mix multiple styles incorrectly or forget to close a tag, such as starting with ** but not ending with **.
