Wiki markup
The contents of this page were copied from Wikipedia Help:Wiki markup. Any embedded internal links are for the Wikipedia site. These will be corrected eventually.
Wiki markup is the syntax and keywords used by the MediaWiki software to format a page.
Layout
Sections
Section headings
The = through ====== markup are headings for the sections with which they are associated.
- A single = is styled as the article title and should not be used within an article.
- Headings are styled through CSS and add an
[edit]link. - Four or more headings cause a table of contents to be generated automatically.
- Do not use any markup after the final heading markup – this will either break the heading, or will cause the heading to not be included in an edit summary.
|== Section ==
|=== Subsection ===
|==== Sub-subsection ==== |
And so on.
Wiki headings translate to HTML, styled as follows by default:
Horizontal rule
The horizontal rule represents a paragraph-level thematic break. Do not use in article content.
|----
|
Table of contents
When a page has at least four headings, a table of contents (TOC) will automatically appear after the lead and before the first heading. The TOC can be controlled by magic words or templates:
__FORCETOC__forces the TOC to appear at the normal location regardless of the number of headings.__TOC__forces the TOC to appear at the point where the magic word is inserted instead of the normal location.__NOTOC__disables the TOC entirely.- TOC limit can be used to control the depth of subsections included in the TOC. This is useful where the TOC is long and unwieldy.
- Category:Wikipedia table of contents templates contains a number of specialized TOC templates.
Line breaks
Line breaks or newlines are used to add whitespace between lines, such as separating paragraphs.
- A line break that is visible in the content is inserted by pressing Key press twice.
- Pressing return once will place a line break in the markup, but it will not show in the rendered content, except when using list markup.
- Markup such as bold or italics will be terminated at a line break.
A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph, or ends a list or an indented part.
A single newline has no effect on the layout.
But an empty line starts a new paragraph, or ends a list or an indented part.
Indent text
Indentation is most commonly used on talk pages.
|Indentation as used on talk pages:
:Each colon at the start of a line
::causes the line to be indented by three more character positions.
:::(The indentation persists
so long as no carriage return or line break is used.)
:::Repeat the indentation at any line break.
::::Use an extra colon for each response.
:::::And so forth ...
::::::And so on ...
|Indentation as used on talk pages:
- Each colon at the start of a line
- causes the line to be indented by three more character positions.
- (The indentation persists
- causes the line to be indented by three more character positions.
so long as no carriage return or line break is used.)
- Repeat the indentation at any line break.
- Use an extra colon for each response.
- And so forth ...
- And so on ...
- And so forth ...
- Use an extra colon for each response.
- Repeat the indentation at any line break.
Blockquote
When there is a need for separating a block of text. This is useful for (as the name says) inserting blocks of quoted (and cited) text.
|<blockquote> The '''blockquote''' tag will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does. </blockquote>
|
The blockquote tag will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does.
Center text
|<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">Centered text</div>
|2=
Also see Wikipedia Help:Table#Centering tables.
Align text to right
|<div style="text-align: right; direction: ltr; margin-left: 1em;">Text on the right</div>
|2=
Lists
Do not leave blank lines between items in a list unless there is a reason to do so, since this causes the MediaWiki software to interpret each item as beginning a new list.
Unordered lists
|* Item1 * Item2 * Item3 * Item4 ** Sub-item 1 *** Sub-item **** Sub-item ** Sub-item 2 * Item5 |Crlf2
- Item1
- Item2
- Item3
- Item4
- Sub-item 1
- Sub-item
- Sub-item
- Sub-item
- Sub-item 2
- Sub-item 1
- Item5
Format
Text formatting
| Description | What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
|
Italics, bold, Smallcaps. |
To ''italicize text'', just put
2 apostrophes on each side.
3 apostrophes will '''bold the text'''
5 apostrophes for '''''bold italics'''''
'''''Italic and bold
formatting''''' only works properly
within a single line.
For text as {{Smallcaps|small caps}},
that uses a [[Help:Template|template]].
|
To italicize text, just put 2 apostrophes on each side. 3 apostrophes will bold the text 5 apostrophes for bold italics Italic and bold formatting only works properly within a single line. |
|
Small chunks of source code within a line of normal text. Code is displayed in a monospace font. |
function <code>int m2()</code> is nice |
function |
|
Syntax highlighting for source code. Computer code has colored text and more stringent formatting.
For example, to define a function: |
<syntaxhighlight lang="cpp">
#include <iostream>
int m2 (int ax, char *p_ax) {
std::cout <<"Hello World!";
return 0;
}</syntaxhighlight>
|
#include <iostream>
int m2 (int ax, char *p_ax) {
std::cout <<"Hello World!";
return 0;
} |
|
Small text. |
Use <small>small text</small> if needed. A span tag can set text font-size as being <span style="font-size: 87%">87% of prior size</span>, to match an image caption. |
Use small text if needed. A span tag can set text font-size as being 87% of prior size, to match an image caption. |
|
Big text. |
Better not use <big>big text</big>, unless <small> it's <big>within</big> small</small> text. |
Better not use big text, unless it's within small text. |
|
You can include a non-breaking space (sometimes called non-printing character) where you require two words to always appear together on the same line, such as Mr. Smith or 400 km/h, using |
Mr. Smith or 400 km/h. |
Mr. Smith or 400 km/h. |
|
Extra spacing within text can best be achieved using the pad template. |
Mary {{pad|4em}} had a little lamb.
|
Mary Pad had a little lamb. |
|
Typewriter font. (Also works beyond the end of a paragraph.) |
<tt>arrow →</tt> <tt>''italics'', '''bold'''</tt> <tt>[[link]] New paragraph </tt>started here. |
arrow → italics, bold New paragraph started here. |
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Go to Wikipedia at main|Help:WikiHiero syntax
WikiHiero is a software extension that renders Egyptian hieroglyphs as PNG images using Xtag tags.
Example: Markup
Chess symbols
Go to Wikipedia at main|Chess symbols in Unicode
Diacritical marks
- See Help:Special characters.
| What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Œ Ù Ú Û Ü Ÿ ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô õ ö ø œ ù ú û ü ÿ |
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Œ Ù Ú Û Ü Ÿ ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô õ ö ø œ ù ú û ü ÿ |
Punctuation, special characters
| What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|
¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” ' " |
¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” ' " |
Other punctuation, escaping special characters
The markup tags are also available. (For writing "[", "{", "&", "}", "]", for example.)
Commercial symbols
| What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
Subscripts and superscripts
- See Help:Scripts
- The Wikipedia:Manual of Style (mathematics)#Superscripts and subscripts|Manual of Style prefers the x<sub>1</sub> format.
- The latter methods of sub/superscripting cannot be used in the most general context, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. For the 1, 2, 3 superscripts, it is nevertheless preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.
| Description | What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
|
Subscripts |
x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ |
x1 x2 x3 or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ |
|
Superscripts |
x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ |
x1 x2 x3 or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ |
|
Combined |
ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E+4 m²]] |
ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m |
Greek characters
| What you type | What it looks like |
|---|---|
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω |
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω |