add helponformatting page

1 files changed, 55 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/helponformatting.mdwn b/doc/helponformatting.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2238fcbfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/helponformatting.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+## Help on formatting text
+
+Text on this wiki is written in a form very close to how you might write
+text for an email message.
+
+Leave blank lines between paragraphs.
+
+You can \**emphasise*\* or \*\***strongly emphasise**\*\* text by placing it
+in single or double asterisks.
+
+To create a list, start each line with an asterisk:
+
+* \* this is my list
+* \* another item
+
+To make a numbered list, start each line with a number (any number will
+do) followed by a period:
+
+1. 1\. first line
+2. 2\. second line
+2. 2\. third line
+
+To create a header, start a line with one or more `#` characters followed
+by a space and the header text. The number of `#` characters controls the
+size of the header:
+
+## h2
+### h3
+#### h4
+
+To create a horizontal rule, just write three or more dashes on their own
+line:
+
+----
+
+To quote someone, prefix the quote with ">":
+
+> To be or not to be,
+> that is the question.
+
+To write a code block, indent each line with a tab:
+
+	10 PRINT "Hello, world!"
+	20 GOTO 10
+
+To link to another page on the wiki, place the page's name inside double
+square brackets to create a [[[[WikiLink]]]].
+
+To link to any other web page, you can just put the url in angle brackets:
+<<http://ikiwiki.kitenet.net>>, or you can use the form
+\[link text\]\(url\)
+
+----
+
+This style of text formatting is called [[MarkDown]].