Learn Authoring Pack installs statistics

Learn Authoring Pack

The Learn Authoring Pack provides a series of extensions to help learn.microsoft.com authors work better and more efficiently. You can read more about all of the Learn Authoring Pack features here in the overview guide. The Learn Authoring Pack provides the following extensions to help author content for learn.microsoft.com:

• Learn Markdown, which provides Markdown authoring assistance, including support for inserting custom Markdown syntax specific to learn.microsoft.com. The rest of this readme provides details on the Learn Markdown extension.
• Learn Images, which compresses and resizes images.
• Learn YAML, which validates Learn .yml files against the appropriate YAML schemas.
• Learn Preview, which uses the learn.microsoft.com CSS for more accurate Markdown preview, including custom Markdown.
• Learn Article Templates, which allows users to apply Markdown skeleton content to new files.
• Learn Scaffolding, which automatically generates Learn modules based on standard patterns and automates renaming, inserting, deleting, and reordering units.
• markdownlint, a popular linter by David Anson.
• Learn Training AI Assistant, which harnesses the power of Azure Open AI to help generate module introduction, knowledge check questions and summaries based on the unit/module content.

How to use the Learn Markdown extension

To access the Learn Markdown Authoring menu, type <kbd>ALT + M</kbd>. You can click or use up/down arrows to select the function you want, or type to start filtering, then hit <kbd>ENTER</kbd> when the function you want is highlighted in the menu.

You can also access the Learn commands from the VS Code command palette by hitting <kbd>F1</kbd> and typing to filter. All the Learn commands begin with "Learn".

Prerequisites and assumptions

To accurately insert relative links, images, and other embedded content with Learn Markdown, you must have your VS Code workspace scoped to the root of your cloned OPS repo. Some syntax supported by the extension, such as alerts and snippets, are custom Markdown for Docs, and will not render correctly unless published via Learn.

For more information about the Learn Markdown commands, see the Learn Markdown readme.

How to use Learn Images extension

To access the Learn Images menu, right click on a folder or individual image file. Select Compress all images in folder or Compress image from the context menu.

For more information about the Learn Images extension, see the Learn Images readme.

How to use Learn YAML extension

• The code intellisense is more intelligent now; the extension can provide the intellisense according to the schema structure, not just text mapping. To invoke intellisense, hit <kbd>CTRL + Space</kbd> to view the list of schema options.
• The extension can generate an input template for object (including required properties and optional properties with default value).
• You can type a - and hit <kbd>CTRL + Space</kbd> to trigger the intellisense for generating a new array item.

Intellisense is automatically triggered by <kbd>CTRL + Space</kbd> to get what you can type.

For more information about the Learn YAML commands, see the Learn YAML readme.

How to use Learn Preview extension

You can open Learn Preview by opening a markdown document and clicking on the preview button. One opens the preview in your current window, and the other opens the markdown preview to the side. Alternatively you can hit <kbd>Alt + M</kbd> and select Preview or you can hit <kbd>F1</kbd> and select Docs: Preview to open up the markdown preview panel.

For more information about the Learn Preview commands, see the Learn Preview readme.

Learn Markdown keyboard shortcuts and toolbar

How to assign keyboard shortcuts

Default keyboard shortcuts are available for some commands, as noted in the table above. You can override them, or add shortcuts for other commands, using the VS Code keyboard shortcut mappings.…