# Format comparison

Although the original Markdown DITA format and the MDITA format for LwDITA share some common syntax, there are several differences to consider when choosing which format to use.

- In 2015, the original DITA-OT Markdown plug-in introduced a series of conventions to convert Markdown content to DITA, and vice-versa. This Markdown flavor was called “Markdown DITA”. The `markdown` format adds several complementary constructs to represent DITA content in Markdown, beyond those proposed for the MDITA format in the Lightweight DITA specification drafts.

- In 2017, the Markdown plug-in was superseded by the LwDITA plug-in, which was bundled with DITA-OT 3.0, and added new formats for Lightweight DITA. The `mdita` format implements the subset of Markdown features proposed in the latest specification drafts, but differs in some ways from the original Markdown DITA format.

The following table provides an overview of differences between the `markdown` and `mdita` formats.

Features | Markdown DITA | MDITA (LwDITA)
--- | --- | ---
DITA map `@format` attribute | `markdown` or `md` | `mdita`
LwDITA | – | ✔
First ¶ | Body ¶ | Short description
Subheadings | Nested topics | Sections
Topic IDs | Special attributes or title | Generated from title
Output class | Special attributes block | –
Profiling atts | Special attributes block | –
Topic types | Special attributes block | –
Schemas | YAML frontmatter | –
Tables | OASIS exchange table model 1 1 | DITA `<simpletable>`
Cell alignment | ✔ | –
Sections | Defined via attributes | –
Examples | Defined via attributes | –
Notes | MkDocs Material admonitions | –
Markdown maps | Map schema | `.mditamap` extension
Maps: topic sequences | OL in Markdown map | –
Maps: key definitions | Link reference definition | –
Maps: reltables | MultiMarkdown tables with links | –
Key references in topics | ✔ Shortcut reference links | ✔ Shortcut reference links
List spacing | loose or tight (no blank lines) | loose only (¶ per item)

1 https://www.oasis-open.org/specs/tm9901.html