How about "<whitespace-or-punctation-or-beginning-of-the line>**bold**<whitespace-or-punctation-or-end-of-the-line>"? -- RadomirDopieralski

Yes, those are both fine. -- ChuckSmith

"  **bold** This might be problematic as it is a collision with bullet lists "
- So might it be useful to pick another character instead of *  ? [MarkGaved] - 30-Aug-06

Asterisk are a very deeply rooted tradition. Kind of. Usually single asterisks were used, though. I wonder if it's good to have "visual" formatting, like bold and italics, or better have "semantic" one, like ephasis and strong emphasis, like in html? -- RadomirDopieralski 2006-08-30