2.2. Paragraphs

2.2.1. Introduction

Paragraphs have the following format:

   line1
   ...
   lineN

Leading and trailing whitespace on lines is generally ignored. Paragraphs are separated by blank lines or:

comment lines - first non-whitespace character is "#"
macros - first non-whitespace character is "!".

For normal paragraphs, simply specify the text on one or more lines. For example:

   I like products which are simple to use and
   do what I expect. We should encourage engineers
   to design more products with these qualities.

2.2.2. Paragraph styles

A paragraph can be given a style using the following syntax:

   style":"line1
   ...
   lineN

Tagged paragraphs do not need to be separated by blank lines. style is a sequence of one or more of the following characters:

letters
digits
underscore character (_).

Whitespace is not permitted before the ":" but is generally ignored immediately after it. The style is optional and defaults to N (for Normal). The text is also optional.

2.2.3. Commonly used styles

Commonly used paragraph styles are given below.

Style	Description
N	normal paragraph (the default)
H1 .. H6	chapter heading at level 1-6
A1 .. A6	appendix heading at level 1-6
P1 .. P6	plain heading at level 1-6
Note	a single paragraph note
E	fixed-width (example) text

For example:

   Note: Life is too short to drink bad wine.

The result is:

Note: Life is too short to drink bad wine.

2.2.4. Special styles

For certain styles, the following syntax is also supported:

   special_style line1
   ...
   lineN

The special styles available are:

Style	Description
. .. ......	paragraph or plain list item at level 1-6
* .. ******	unordered list at level 1-6
- .. -----	unordered list at level 2-6
^ .. ^^^^^^	first entry in an ordered list at level 1-6
+ .. ++++++	next entry in an ordered list at level 1-6

For example:

* fruits:
  - peach
  - banana
* vegetables:
  - potato
  - carrots.

The result is:

fruits:
- peach
- banana
vegetables:
- potato
- carrots.