# Discourse Doc Categories **URL:** \ **Category:** Plugin\ **Tags:** official, doc-categories\ **Created:** [August 26, 2024, 11:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376 "2024-08-26T23:00:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 46
**Author:** ![pacharanero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pacharanero/32/500583_2.png) [@pacharanero](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pacharanero)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 10:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376/46 "2024-09-07T10:37:33Z")
I think the confusion and difficulty might be that the Index Topic has to be in a certain format, and this is not _completely_ clearly stated in the documentation ([top post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376#p-1584993-index-topics-3)) I had installed this plugin myself, carefully following the instructions, but it wasn’t working in exactly the same way @dennisjbr was experiencing. It might help to have an example of the Markdown required rather than linking to the Meta example, because the only key rule is that **there MUST be a Markdown bulleted/numbered list**. The docs say ‘a list’ but the word ‘list’ has an ordinary English usage which includes non-Markdown lists! This will work as an Index Topic: ```markdown * https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376 * Some Arbitrary Text: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376 ``` This will not work: ```markdown https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376 Some Arbitrary Text: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376 ``` Beyond this you can use Markdown headings to create sections and use multiple lists, but nothing will appear in the sidebar _ **unless there’s a Markdown list** _. I appreciate this is a bit obvious and may not have tripped up anyone else, but it did catch me out (stupidly or not) and I’m not new to Discourse, TCs and Plugins. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376)._