Writing & StyleStyle guide

Finding and Preserving Microsoft Learn XRef UIDs

Finding and Preserving Microsoft Learn XRef UIDs records a distinct Microsoft Learn XRef authoring decision and consolidates tightly coupled syntax choices so the public guide stays useful without fragmenting one task into thin pages.

Quick answer

Find an API page UID from its source metadata such as `ms.assetid`, and preserve the UID’s exact case because Microsoft Learn XRef UIDs are case-sensitive.

Key details

Core Issuefinding and preserving microsoft learn xref uids
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Important caveats

Scope Boundary

This page covers finding and preserving the UID itself; it does not replace the separate percent-encoding rule for special characters or the syntax rules for method overload targets.

Further guidance

Content

Microsoft Learn says XRef UIDs are case-sensitive and directs contributors to inspect source metadata such as `ms.assetid` when they need to identify a page UID.

Purpose

Keep Microsoft Learn API-reference links maintainable and predictable while following the current contributor-platform XRef conventions.

Sources and evidence

Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.

  1. Use links in documentation — Contributor guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · Current Microsoft Learn contributor guidance for documentation links, including file-relative and site-relative paths, split-article YML targets, bookmarks, XRef API links, reference-style links, explicit-anchor boundaries, and secure link requirements.

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