Display formatted text using the Text widget | Geckoboard Help Center

Display formatted text using the Text widget

Text widgets support Markdown, a simple markup language for formatting text.

December 15, 2025

Text widgets are useful for adding labels, descriptions, and other information to your dashboard. In addition to displaying a plain text message, you can use Markdown to add additional formatting, as well as Emojis.

You can add up to four messages. When more than one message is added, the visualization on your dashboard cycles through the messages.

Modifying content with Markdown is only supported for the Text widget within the Text data source shown above; it is not available for any other data source. Styling of widget content is automatically scaled and handled for all other data sources.

Use Markdown to add formatting to your Text

The Text widget supports Markdown to easily format your text as links, headings, or lists.
Element Markdown Syntax Rendered Output
Link [title](<https://www.example.com>) (also see Switch between dashboards using links)
Heading # Heading level 1
Bold **bold text**
Italic *italicized text*
Strikethrough ~~strikethrough text~~
Highlight I need to highlight these ==very important words==.
Code Use `code` in your widget.
Ordered List 1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item
Unordered List - First item
- Second item
- Third item
Task List - [x] Write the press release<br>- [ ] Update the website<br>- [ ] Contact the media
Horizontal Rule ---

Escaping special characters

Some characters have special meanings in the Markdown syntax. If you want these characters verbatim, you have to escape them. The way to escape a special character is to add a backslash (\) before it, e.g., I do not want \*italic text\* here.

Markdown support

Markdown is only supported on current generation dashboard layouts that look like this:

Markdown is not available on legacy layout dashboards:

Add Emojis to your Text

You can copy an emoji from a source like Emojipedia and paste it into your widget or add it directly from your keyboard.