diff --git a/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl b/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
index 76745ccc0e8b4..f37b3ebc7c0ed 100644
--- a/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
+++ b/base/docs/helpdb/Base.jl
@@ -9944,7 +9944,7 @@ isvalid(::AbstractString,i)
     esc(e::ANY)
 
 Only valid in the context of an `Expr` returned from a macro. Prevents the macro hygiene
-pass from turning embedded variables into gensym variables. See the [marcro](:ref:`man-macros`)
+pass from turning embedded variables into gensym variables. See the [macro](:ref:`man-macros`)
 section of the Metaprogramming chapter of the manual for more details and examples.
 """
 esc
diff --git a/base/docs/helpdb/Collections.jl b/base/docs/helpdb/Collections.jl
index 76c18be0b5fa8..3bce28b88d063 100644
--- a/base/docs/helpdb/Collections.jl
+++ b/base/docs/helpdb/Collections.jl
@@ -3,13 +3,12 @@
 # Base.Collections
 
 """
-```rst
-..  PriorityQueue(K, V, [ord])
+    PriorityQueue(K, V, [ord])
 
-Construct a new :obj:`PriorityQueue`, with keys of type ``K`` and values/priorites of
-type ``V``. If an order is not given, the priority queue is min-ordered using
+Construct a new [``PriorityQueue``](:obj:`PriorityQueue`), with keys of type
+``K`` and values/priorites of type ``V``.
+If an order is not given, the priority queue is min-ordered using
 the default comparison for ``V``.
-```
 """
 Collections.PriorityQueue
 
@@ -35,11 +34,9 @@ Return the lowest priority key from a priority queue without removing that key f
 Collections.peek
 
 """
-```rst
-..  heapify!(v, [ord])
+    heapify!(v, [ord])
 
-In-place :func:`heapify`.
-```
+In-place [``heapify``](:func:`heapify`).
 """
 Collections.heapify!
 
diff --git a/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl b/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
index 117df81632d31..4525bf575e878 100644
--- a/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
+++ b/base/sparse/sparsematrix.jl
@@ -446,17 +446,14 @@ function sprand_IJ(r::AbstractRNG, m::Integer, n::Integer, density::AbstractFloa
 end
 
 """
-```rst
-..  sprand([rng],m,[n],p::AbstractFloat,[rfn])
+    sprand([rng],m,[n],p::AbstractFloat,[rfn])
 
 Create a random length ``m`` sparse vector or ``m`` by ``n`` sparse matrix, in
 which the probability of any element being nonzero is independently given by
 ``p`` (and hence the mean density of nonzeros is also exactly ``p``). Nonzero
 values are sampled from the distribution specified by ``rfn``. The uniform
 distribution is used in case ``rfn`` is not specified. The optional ``rng``
-argument specifies a random number generator, see :ref:`Random Numbers
-<random-numbers>`.
-```
+argument specifies a random number generator, see [Random Numbers](:ref:`random-numbers`).
 """
 function sprand{T}(r::AbstractRNG, m::Integer, n::Integer, density::AbstractFloat,
                 rfn::Function, ::Type{T}=eltype(rfn(r,1)))