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I edited the title to more accurately match the final disposition of this question. Still leaving it around for any others who might be as clueless as I was. It's a big world. There is a non-zero probability that this could happen.

It turns out I was even more clueless than I originally thought I was when I asked this question. Turns out the link I was looking for does appear but only after one uses a Question's text box.

But this explains why I only saw the formatting help link when I edited and not when I merely opened the question page. When I edited there was already text in that field. But when I just opened the new question page no text is present. Hence no formatting help link on the right.

Oh, well. At least I learned about the ? help button which I honestly had never noticed before.

Don't I feel foolish.

Recently I have started to ask a question (on Stack Overflow) and wanted to format text a certain way but could not remember how.

So I looked around for the link to "formatting help" which I know I have seen somewhere before on these sites, but I cannot find it.

So I then thrash around trying to search for this help information, but I am still not clever enough to find it.

Finally I remember I saw this link when I editted a post to an existing question, not started a new one. So I find an old question, pretend to edit it, and finally I can see and follow the link to the editing-help.

So is this just me? Am I the only one who looks for the editing help when Asking a Question but cannot find it?

Perhaps there actually is a link to the editing help available on the "Ask Question" page and I'm just failing to notice it?

If not, I suggest that it would be a "good thing" to also make this help information more readily available to someone who is asking a question.

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It's marked with one of them there ? icons. Do you have a better suggestion to make it easier to find? –  Cody Gray Mar 29 '12 at 17:38
Well, the way which worked for me was to follow a link named "formatting help" which appears on the right-hand-side of the page when one clickes on "Edit" for an existing question or answer. I don't know if this is better, but it was more "obvious" to me. The main problem I have with the ? icon is that I just completely overlooked it. I guess I would like to see the link to "Formatting Help" added to the "Ask Question" page in addition to the ? icon. –  irrational John Mar 31 '12 at 18:09
You are not alone. This should be more intuitive. –  Peter Mortensen Aug 19 '13 at 12:00

2 Answers 2

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Stack Overflow Programmers Code Review

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OK, just me then. But obviously I never noticed it. IMO it doesn't really jump up and lick your face. Oh, well. Thanks for helping me to see the "obvious". –  irrational John Mar 29 '12 at 18:33
@irrational John, no it is not just you. This is non-obvious and ought to be more intuitive. –  Peter Mortensen Aug 19 '13 at 11:58

There is a link:

markdown help link - the ?

When you click the ? you get an edit bar and another link:

toolbar and links!

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