[Mediawiki-l] opening sidebar links in a new window

[Dan Siegal-Gaskins]

> Using wiki markup should do the job. Look at this:
> https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=21278
> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Sidebar#Allow_wiki_markup_.28PHP.29


hmmm.  I think I'm still too much of a wiki newbie to understand what this 'markup in the sidebar' means.  

I can tell you that I've put $wgExternalLinkTarget = '_blank' in my LocalSettings.php, and I've tried using the following on my MediaWiki:Sidebar page: 

** http://mydomain.com/gallery/ | Photo gallery

and 

** [http://mydomain.com/gallery/ Photo gallery]

In the first case, the 'Photo Gallery' does not open in a new page, and in the second case it doesn't even show up as a link in the sidebar.   I think I'm confused.

Thanks all!
dan