Wiki Team/Guide/Formatting
For a quick overview of wiki markup see the Wiki Team/Guide/Overview!
Text will show up just as you type it (provided you begin it in the first column). Multiple spaces are compressed, and line endings are ignored (except blank lines).
Use a blank line to start a new paragraph. Multiple blank lines add more vertical space.
Wiki markup code is supposed to be simple and easy to learn. You can also use most HTML markup, if you prefer it, except for links.
Fonts
Use these to change fonts:
| Description | You type | You get |
| Italic text | ''italic'' | italic |
| Bold text | '''bold''' | bold |
| Bold and italic | '''''bold & italic''''' | bold & italic |
| Fixed-width | <tt>fixed width font </tt> | fixed width font |
| underscore | <u>underscored text</u> | underscored text |
Sections
It is often useful to divide articles into sections and subsections. The following markup can be used. You must begin these on a new line.
| Heading | You type | You get | HTML tags |
| level 1 | ==Section heading== |
Section heading |
<h2>...</h2> |
| level 2 | ===Subsection heading=== | Subsection heading |
<h3>...</h3> |
| level 3 | ====Sub-sub section heading==== | Sub-sub section heading |
<h4>...</h4> |
| level 4 | =====Sub-sub-sub section heading===== | Sub-sub-sub section heading |
<h5>...</h5> |
An article with four or more headings will automatically create a table of contents. Using HTML heading tags also creates proper section headings and a table of contents entry.
Lists
Wiki markup makes lists fairly easy:
| List type | You type: | You get: |
| Bullet list |
* one |
|
| Numbered list |
# one |
|
| Mixture of bulleted and numbered lists |
# one |
|
| Definition list |
;Definition |
|
- See also Template:Definition table
- HTML lists are also allowed
- Blank lines should be avoided, they break list numbering and sub-list. Use <br> instead.
Linking
Linking is covered in a separate page: Wiki Team/Guide/Links
Code Examples
Text which does not begin in the first column will be shown indented, in a fixed width font. This is appropriate for showing computer code or command examples, such as this famous little program:
main(){
printf("Hello, World!\n");
}
Coding format may be embedded in a line of regular text with the <code>code text</code> wiki syntax.
Tables
Tables are covered in a separate page: Help:Tables
nowiki
Use <nowiki> to insert text that is not parsed by the wiki, e.g.,
- <nowiki>====Heading 4====</nowiki>
will result in ====Heading 4====, rather than the creation of an actual heading, Heading 4
Categories
An important navigational tool in the wiki is the use of categories. It is customary to include one or more category tags to the end of a page to indicate in what topical area the page belongs. For example, this page should be listed under the [[Category:General public]] and [[Category:HowTo]] categories. You can create a new category, if really necessary, simply by including a new category tag, e.g., [[Category:My new category]].
Templates
Another tool that helps make the wiki more readily navigable is the use of templates (Please select the Template namespace in the pull-down menu on the Special:Allpages page to view the current list of available templates). Templates provide a consistent look to pages as well as a shorthand for communicating things like {{Stub}} and {{Requesttranslation}}. Feel free to ask for help (here) regarding creating new templates you may need.
Translation
We have a mechanism for maintaining multilingual versions of pages in the wiki. Please see Translation Team/Wiki Translation for more information about translations. We also recommend the use of the Google machine translation for pages that have yet to be translated by a human expert. To use the Google translation, simply include the following at the top of your page:
<noinclude>{{GoogleTrans-en}}</noinclude>