Quick guide

A little Markdown goes a long way.

Your transcript is plain text, but a few simple symbols control how it looks once converted. You usually don't need to add any — AI replies already come with them — but here's what they mean.

Where to edit it

A transcript is just text, so any editor works, but a Markdown-aware tool shows the formatting as you go. LibreOffice Writer is a good free choice: it works offline and keeps your files on your own computer, which is handy for anything private. Save the file as aichat.md and the tool picks it up automatically.

The symbols you'll see

What you want	Type this
Bold	**bold**
Italic	*italic*
Heading	# Heading
Smaller heading	## Smaller heading
Bullet list	- item
Numbered list	1. item
Link	[text](https://example.com)
Inline code	`code`
Web image	

Code blocks

For a block of code, wrap it in three backticks on their own lines. You can name the language after the first set:

```html
<h1>Hello</h1>
```

The converter shows this as a tidy code box, and never lets the code affect the page itself.

Maths (optional)

If your conversation includes formulae, you can have them typeset neatly. Write the maths in LaTeX between dollar signs — $…$ for inline, $$…$$ for a centred line — and convert with the --math option:

$$F = G\frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2}$$

This is optional and only affects the web page (the Word version shows the formula as plain text). Without --math, the dollar signs stay as ordinary text.

The two special lines

The only thing this tool needs that ordinary Markdown doesn't is a line marking each speaker. Anything containing [USER] or [CHATBOT] starts a new turn:

# **[USER]**
your message here
# **[CHATBOT]**
the reply here

If you want help creating this marked transcript, the Conversation Collector Prompt can ask the chatbot to produce a draft for checking.

Want more?

For a fuller guide to Markdown — including why it works well with AI, and tools for converting between Markdown, Word and PDF — see the Markdown guide in the AI Personal Tutor Toolkit.