diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a8fcaeb7..56df5a43 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ This is based on [data-markdown](https://gist.github.com/1343518) from [Paul Iri
 You can write your content as a separate file and have reveal.js load it at runtime. Note the separator arguments which determine how slides are delimited in the external file. The ```data-charset``` attribute is optional and specifies which charset to use when loading the external file.
 
 ```html
-<section data-markdown="example.md" data-separator="^\n\n\n" data-vertical="^\n\n" data-charset="iso-8859-15"></section>
+<section data-markdown="example.md" data-separator="^\n\n\n" data-vertical="^\n\n" data-notes="^Note:" data-charset="iso-8859-15"></section>
 ```
 
 ### Configuration
@@ -478,7 +478,7 @@ If you want to add a theme of your own see the instructions here: [/css/theme/RE
 
 reveal.js comes with a speaker notes plugin which can be used to present per-slide notes in a separate browser window. The notes window also gives you a preview of the next upcoming slide so it may be helpful even if you haven't written any notes. Press the 's' key on your keyboard to open the notes window.
 
-By default notes are written using standard HTML, see below, but you can add a ```data-markdown``` attribute to the ```<aside>``` to write them using Markdown.
+By default notes are written using standard HTML, see below, but you can add a ```data-markdown``` attribute to the ```<aside>``` to write them using Markdown, or separate your external markdown content file with the separator specified within your original declaration where notes begin.
 
 ```html
 <section>
@@ -490,6 +490,17 @@ By default notes are written using standard HTML, see below, but you can add a `
 </section>
 ```
 
+```html
+<section data-markdown="example.md" data-separator="^\n\n\n" data-vertical="^\n\n" data-notes="^[[["></section>
+
+# Title
+## Sub-title
+
+Here is some content...
+[[[
+These are my notes for this slide.
+```
+
 ## Server Side Speaker Notes
 
 In some cases it can be desirable to run notes on a separate device from the one you're presenting on. The Node.js-based notes plugin lets you do this using the same note definitions as its client side counterpart. Include the required scripts by adding the following dependencies:
diff --git a/plugin/markdown/example.html b/plugin/markdown/example.html
index ceed53fb..0b07aa59 100644
--- a/plugin/markdown/example.html
+++ b/plugin/markdown/example.html
@@ -87,7 +87,8 @@
 				dependencies: [
 					{ src: '../../lib/js/classList.js', condition: function() { return !document.body.classList; } },
 					{ src: 'marked.js', condition: function() { return !!document.querySelector( '[data-markdown]' ); } },
-					{ src: 'markdown.js', condition: function() { return !!document.querySelector( '[data-markdown]' ); } }
+                    { src: 'markdown.js', condition: function() { return !!document.querySelector( '[data-markdown]' ); } },
+					{ src: '../notes/notes.js' }
 				]
 			});
 
diff --git a/plugin/markdown/example.md b/plugin/markdown/example.md
index e988dd9c..6f6f577a 100644
--- a/plugin/markdown/example.md
+++ b/plugin/markdown/example.md
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 
 Content 1.1
 
+Note: This will only appear in the speaker notes window.
+
 
 ## External 1.2
 
diff --git a/plugin/markdown/markdown.js b/plugin/markdown/markdown.js
index a5abc30d..bc771e7f 100755
--- a/plugin/markdown/markdown.js
+++ b/plugin/markdown/markdown.js
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@
     };
 
     var twrap = function(el) {
-      return marked(el);
+        var content = el.content || el;
+        content += el.asideContent ? ('<aside class="notes" data-markdown>' + el.asideContent + '</aside>') : '';
+        return '<script type="text/template">' + content + '</script>';
     };
 
     var getForwardedAttributes = function(section) {
@@ -48,7 +50,7 @@
                 value = attributes[i].value;
 
             // disregard attributes that are used for markdown loading/parsing
-            if( /data\-(markdown|separator|vertical)/gi.test( name ) ) continue;
+            if( /data\-(markdown|separator|vertical|notes)/gi.test( name ) ) continue;
 
             if( value ) {
                 result.push( name + '=' + value );
@@ -61,45 +63,61 @@
         return result.join( ' ' );
     };
 
-    var slidifyMarkdown = function(markdown, separator, vertical, attributes) {
+    var slidifyMarkdown = function(markdown, separator, vertical, notes, attributes) {
 
         separator = separator || '^\n---\n$';
+        notes = notes || 'note:';
 
-        var reSeparator = new RegExp(separator + (vertical ? '|' + vertical : ''), 'mg'),
-            reHorSeparator = new RegExp(separator),
+        var separatorRegex = new RegExp( separator + ( vertical ? '|' + vertical : '' ), 'mg' ),
+            horizontalSeparatorRegex = new RegExp( separator ),
+            notesSeparatorRegex = new RegExp( notes, 'mgi' ),
             matches,
+            noteMatch,
             lastIndex = 0,
             isHorizontal,
             wasHorizontal = true,
             content,
+            asideContent,
+            slide,
             sectionStack = [],
             markdownSections = '';
 
         // iterate until all blocks between separators are stacked up
-        while( matches = reSeparator.exec(markdown) ) {
+        while( matches = separatorRegex.exec( markdown ) ) {
+            asideContent = null;
 
             // determine direction (horizontal by default)
-            isHorizontal = reHorSeparator.test(matches[0]);
+            isHorizontal = horizontalSeparatorRegex.test( matches[0] );
 
             if( !isHorizontal && wasHorizontal ) {
                 // create vertical stack
-                sectionStack.push([]);
+                sectionStack.push( [] );
             }
 
             // pluck slide content from markdown input
-            content = markdown.substring(lastIndex, matches.index);
+            content = markdown.substring( lastIndex, matches.index );
+            noteMatch = content.split( notesSeparatorRegex );
+
+            if( noteMatch.length === 2 ) {
+                content = noteMatch[0];
+                asideContent = noteMatch[1].trim();
+            }
+
+            slide = {
+                content: content,
+                asideContent: asideContent || ""
+            };
 
             if( isHorizontal && wasHorizontal ) {
                 // add to horizontal stack
-                sectionStack.push(content);
+                sectionStack.push(slide);
             } else {
                 // add to vertical stack
-                sectionStack[sectionStack.length-1].push(content);
+                sectionStack[sectionStack.length-1].push(slide);
             }
 
-            lastIndex = reSeparator.lastIndex;
+            lastIndex = separatorRegex.lastIndex;
             wasHorizontal = isHorizontal;
-
         }
 
         // add the remaining slide
@@ -107,15 +125,13 @@
 
         // flatten the hierarchical stack, and insert <section data-markdown> tags
         for( var k = 0, klen = sectionStack.length; k < klen; k++ ) {
-            // horizontal
-            if( typeof sectionStack[k] === 'string' ) {
-                markdownSections += '<section '+ attributes +'>' +  twrap( sectionStack[k] )  + '</section>';
-            }
             // vertical
-            else {
+            if( sectionStack[k].propertyIsEnumerable(length) && typeof sectionStack[k].splice === 'function' ) {
                 markdownSections += '<section '+ attributes +'>' +
-                                        '<section>' +  sectionStack[k].map(twrap).join('</section><section>') + '</section>' +
+                                        '<section data-markdown>' +  sectionStack[k].map(twrap).join('</section><section data-markdown>') + '</section>' +
                                     '</section>';
+            } else {
+                markdownSections += '<section '+ attributes +' data-markdown>' + twrap( sectionStack[k] ) + '</section>';
             }
         }
 
@@ -145,7 +161,7 @@
                 xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
                     if( xhr.readyState === 4 ) {
                         if (xhr.status >= 200 && xhr.status < 300) {
-                            section.outerHTML = slidifyMarkdown( xhr.responseText, section.getAttribute('data-separator'), section.getAttribute('data-vertical'), getForwardedAttributes(section) );
+                            section.outerHTML = slidifyMarkdown( xhr.responseText, section.getAttribute('data-separator'), section.getAttribute('data-vertical'), section.getAttribute('data-notes'), getForwardedAttributes(section) );
                         } else {
                             section.outerHTML = '<section data-state="alert">ERROR: The attempt to fetch ' + url + ' failed with the HTTP status ' + xhr.status +
                                 '. Check your browser\'s JavaScript console for more details.' +
@@ -164,7 +180,7 @@
             } else if( section.getAttribute('data-separator') ) {
 
                 var markdown = stripLeadingWhitespace(section);
-                section.outerHTML = slidifyMarkdown( markdown, section.getAttribute('data-separator'), section.getAttribute('data-vertical'), getForwardedAttributes(section) );
+                section.outerHTML = slidifyMarkdown( markdown, section.getAttribute('data-separator'), section.getAttribute('data-vertical'), section.getAttribute('data-notes'), getForwardedAttributes(section) );
 
             }
         }