--- /dev/null
+# Help on formatting text
+
+Text on this wiki is, by default, written in a form very close to how you
+might write text for an email message. This style of text formatting is
+called [[MarkDown]], and it works like this:
+
+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:
+
+# # h1
+## ## h2
+### ### h3
+#### #### h4
+##### ##### h5
+###### ###### h6
+
+To create a horizontal rule, just write three or more dashes or stars 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 or 4 spaces:
+
+ 10 PRINT "Hello, world!"
+ 20 GOTO 10
+
+To link to another page on the wiki, place the page's name inside double
+square brackets, so you would use `\[[WikiLink]]` to link to [[WikiLink]].
+
+To link to any other web page, or to an email address, you can just put the url in angle brackets: <<http://ikiwiki.kitenet.net>>, or you can use the form
+\[link text\]\(url\)
+
+----
+
+Advanced users can use [[PreProcessorDirective]]s to do additional cool
+stuff.
+
+Also, if the smiley plugin is enabled in your wiki, you can insert
+[[smileys]] and some other useful symbols.