Use code markdown for "highlight" words or no?

Question

I used markdown (Ctrl+K) in some words. I keep using markdown or is better use Ctrl+I and Ctrl+B?

( Estou usando marcação de código (Ctrl+K) em algumas palavras. Devo continuar usando marcação de código ou devo usar Ctrl+I e Ctrl+B? )

Eg.:

`Portuguese word`

Or

*Portuguese word*

Or

**Portuguese word**

Answer 1

Proposal. In the title, no formatting is available, so let's use quote marks; and in the body of a post,

*[Any language] word* or *[Any language] expression*

which puts the text in italics.

Comment. It's not great, since a reader might miss this formatting in the middle of a sentence. I had to rearrange my whole question to avoid having a in the middle of a sentence, for example. On the plus-side, it is not obtrusive.

Answer 2

One use of code formatting I've seen here that I find attractive and useful is for referring to orthography. For example, using nh (instead of using nh or nh or [nh] or "nh") to refer to the digraph, or - (instead of "-") to refer to a hyphen.

I feel strongly that it shouldn't be used to emphasize words or ideas, as there are already more appropriate ways to do that (italics, bold, section headings).