Help:Wiki markup
Wiki markup |
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Wiki markup is the syntax and keywords used by the MediaWiki software to format a page. To learn how to see this markup and to save an edit, see: Help:Editing.
[edit] Layout
[edit] Sections
[edit] Section headings
Use headings to split articles into sections. Put a heading on a separate line. A level-two heading ("==
") is the highest level editors use in an article.
What you type | What it looks like |
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==Section headings== ''Headings'' organize your writing into sections. The wiki software can automatically generate a [[Help:Section|table of contents]] from them. Start with 2 'equals' ("==") characters. ===Subsection=== Using more 'equals' characters creates a subsection. ====A smaller subsection==== Don't skip levels, like from two ("==") to four ("====") 'equals' characters. ;A defined term: A semicolon at the start of a line is a way of making a definition where the word being defined appears in bold. The definition itself follows the colon and is not rendered bold by default. It is not a heading and does not appear in the table of contents. |
Section headings
Headings organize your writing into sections. The wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. Start with 2 'equals' ("==") characters. Subsection
Using more 'equals' characters creates a subsection. A smaller subsection
Don't skip levels, like from two ("==") to four ("====") 'equals' characters.
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'''Horizontal line''' Separating with a horizontal dividing line: :this is above it... ---- :...and this is below it. If you don't use a section header, you don't get a TOC entry. |
Horizontal line Separating with a horizontal dividing line:
If you don't use a section header, you don't get a TOC entry. |
[edit] Table of contents
When a page has at least four headings, a table of contents (TOC) will appear in front of the first header (after the lead). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first heading). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also Compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.
[edit] Line breaks
- You can make the wikitext more readable by putting in newlines, but see Wikipedia:Don't use line breaks for possible problems.
- To break lines use the
<br />
element. The HTML tag<br>
will be converted to the XHTML<br />
tag by HTML Tidy in most instances. The<br>
tag is not converted when used in editnotices or in the MediaWiki namespace — it will render invalid XHTML and will break tools such as Twinkle. - Please use these sparingly.
- Close markup between lines; do not start a link or italics or bold on one line and close it on the next.
- When used in a list, a newline does affect the layout (see Help:List).
What you type | What it looks like |
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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. |
You can break lines<br /> without starting a new paragraph. |
You can break lines |
[edit] Indent text
- Indentation is most commonly used on Talk pages, see here for conventions.
- To shift the stream back to the left, use outdent or outdent2.
- There are also short forms of outdent, od and od2
What you type | What it looks like |
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Left indent |
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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:
so long as no carriage return or line break is used.)
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Left outdent |
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:::::::::::...And so forth :::::::::::::Until it gets quite out of hand. {{Outdent|:::::::::::::}} Then one can use ''outdent'' to return to the left margin. {{od2}} is another short form of outdent, with a back-arrow. |
Then one can use outdent to return to the left margin. (←) is another short form of outdent, with a back-arrow. |
Blockquote
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[edit] Center text
What you type | What it looks like |
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<div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;">Centered text</div> |
Centered text
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Template {{center}} uses the same markup. To center a table, see Help:Table#Centering tables.
[edit] Lists
What you type | What it looks like |
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* ''Unordered [[Help:List|list]]s'' are easy to do: ** Start every line with a star. *** More stars indicate a deeper level. **: Previous item continues. ** A new line * in a list marks the end of the list. * Of course you can start again. |
marks the end of the list.
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# ''Numbered lists'' are: ## Very organized ## Easy to follow #: Previous item continues A new line marks the end of the list. # New numbering starts with 1. |
A new line marks the end of the list.
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;Definition lists: Terms and their definitions. ;Hamlet: Also useful for texts of plays. |
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[edit] Retaining newlines and spaces
The MediaWiki software suppresses single newlines and converts lines starting with a space to preformatted text in a dashed box. HTML suppresses multiple spaces. It is often desirable to retain these elements for poems, lyrics, mottoes, oaths and the like. The Poem extension adds HTML-like <poem>...</poem>
tags to maintain newlines and spaces. These tags may be used inside other tags such as <blockquote>...</blockquote>
. CSS styles may be applied to this tag, e.g.: <poem style="margin-left:2em;">
.
What you type | What it looks like |
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<poem> In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. </poem> |
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan |
<poem style="font-family:Georgia, serif; font-size:120%; background-color: #F5F6CE; margin-left:0.3em;"> In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. </poem> |
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan |
[edit] Format
[edit] Text formatting
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Italics, bold, small capital letters. |
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. For text as small caps, that uses a template. |
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 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. |
[edit] Special characters
[edit] Egyptian Hieroglyphs
WikiHiero is a software extension that renders Egyptian hieroglyphs as PNG images using <hiero>
tags.
Example:
Markup | Renders as |
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<hiero>P2</hiero> |
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[edit] Chess symbols
[edit] Diacritical marks
What you type | What it looks like |
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À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü 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 Ù Ú Û Ü 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 |
[edit] Punctuation
What you type | What it looks like |
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¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” ' " |
¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” ' " |
[edit] Other punctuation
The <pre>
and <nowiki>
markup tags are also available. (Permits use of "[", "{", "&", "}", "]" for example.)
[edit] Commercial symbols
What you type | What it looks like |
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™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ |
[edit] Subscripts and superscripts
- The 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 |
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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 |
[edit] Greek characters
What you type | What it looks like |
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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 |
[edit] Mathematical characters
- See also WikiProject Mathematics and TeX.
What you type | What it looks like |
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∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔ |
∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔ |
[edit] Mathematical formulae
- Formulae that include mathematical letters, like x, and operators like
×
should not use the plain letterx
. See math font formatting. For a comprehensive set of symbols, and comparison between<math>
tags and the {{math}} template see section TeX vs HTML.
- The
<math>
tag typesets using LaTeX markup, which may render as an image or as HTML, depending on environmental settings. The<math>
tag is best for the complex formula on its own line in an image format. If you use this tag to put a formula in the line with text, put it in the {{nowrap}} template.
- The {{math}} template uses HTML, and will size-match a serif font, and will also prevent line-wrap. All templates are sensitive to the
=
sign, so remember to replace=
with {{=}} in template input. Use wikimarkup''
and'''
inside the {{math}} template, as well other HTML entities. The {{math}} template is best for typeset formulas in line with the text.
Markup | Renders as |
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<math>2x \times 4y \div 6z + 8 - \frac {y}{z^2} = 0</math> {{crlf|}} {{math|2x × 4y ÷ 6z + 8 − {{Fraction |y|z<sup>2</sup>}} {{=}} 0}} <math>\sin 2\pi x + \ln e\,\!</math> <math>\sin 2\pi x + \ln e</math> {{math|sin 2π''x'' + ln ''e''}} |
![]() 2x × 4y ÷ 6z + 8 − y⁄z2 = 0
|
[edit] Spacing in simple math formulae
- Using
to prevent line break is not needed; the{{math}}
template will prevent line breaks anyway; you can use<br />
if you need an explicit line break inside a formula.
What you type | What it looks like |
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It follows that {{math |''x''<sup>2</sup> ≥ 0}} is true when {{math|<VAR>x</VAR>}} is a real number. |
It follows that x2 ≥ 0 is true when x is a real number. |
[edit] Complicated formulae
- See Help:Displaying a formula for how to use
<math>
. - A formula displayed on a line by itself should probably be indented by using the colon (:) character.
What you type | What it looks like |
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: <math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math> |
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[edit] Links and URLs
[edit] Free links
In Wikipedia and some other wikis, free links are used in wikitext markup to produce internal links between pages, as opposed to the concept of CamelCase for the same purpose, which was used in the early days of Wikipedia — see CamelCase and Wikipedia.
In Wikipedia's markup language, you create free links by putting double square brackets around text designating the title of the page you want to link to. Thus, [[Texas]]
will be rendered as Texas. Optionally, you can use a vertical bar (|) to customize the link title. For example, typing [[Texas|Lone Star State]]
will produce Lone Star State, a link that is displayed as "Lone Star State" but in fact links to Texas.
[edit] Link to another wiki article
- Internally, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended).
- Thus the link hereafter is to the Web address
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport
, which is the Wikipedia article with the name "Public transport". See also Canonicalization. - A red link is a page that doesn't exist yet; it can be created by clicking on the link.
- A link to its own page will appear only as bold text.
What you type | What it looks like |
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London has public transport. |
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Link to this own article: "Help:Wiki markup" will appear only as bold text. |
[edit] Renamed link
- Same target, different name.
- The target ("piped") text must be placed first, then the text to be displayed second.
What you type | What it looks like |
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New York also has public transportation. |
[edit] Automatically rename links
- Simply typing the pipe character (|) after a link will automatically rename the link in certain circumstances. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page.
- See Pipe trick for details.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Automatically hide stuff in parentheses |
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Automatically hide the comma and following text | [[Seattle, Washington|]] |
Seattle |
Automatically hide namespace |
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Or both |
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But this doesn't work for section links |
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[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]] |
[edit] Blend link
- Endings are blended into the link.
- Exception: a trailing apostrophe (') and any characters following the apostrophe are not blended.
- Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible.
- Blending can be suppressed by using the
<nowiki />
tag, which may be desirable in some instances.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Blending active. |
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San Francisco also has public transportation. Examples include buses, taxicabs, and trams. |
Blending suppressed. |
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A micro-second. |
[edit] Link to a section of a page
- The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case, and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections are not broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page.
- Include "| link title" to create a stylish (piped) link title.
- If sections have the same title, add a number to link to any but the first. #Example section 3 goes to the third section named "Example section". You can use the pipe and retype the section title to display the text without the # symbol.
What you type | What it looks like |
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Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics is a link to a section within another page. |
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#Links and URLs is a link to another section on the current page. Links and URLs is a link to the same section without showing the # symbol. |
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Italics is a piped link to a section within another page. |
[edit] Create page link
- To create a new page:
- Create a link to it on some other (related) page.
- Save that page.
- Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
- For more information, see starting an article and check out Wikipedia's naming conventions.
- Please do not create a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Links to pages that don’t exist yet look red. |
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The article about cardboard sandwiches doesn't exist yet. |
[edit] Redirects
- Redirect one article title to another by placing a directive like the one shown to the right on the first line of the article (such as at a page titled "USA").
- It is possible to redirect to a section. For example, a redirect to United States#History will redirect to the History section of the United States page, if it exists.
Description | What you type |
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Redirect to an article. |
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Redirect to a section. |
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[edit] Link to another namespace
What you type | What it looks like |
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See the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. |
[edit] Link to the same article in another language (interlanguage links)
- To link to a corresponding page in another language, use the form:
[[language code:Foreign title]]
. - It is recommended interlanguage links be placed at the very end of the article.
- Interlanguage links are not visible within the formatted article, but instead appear as language links on the sidebar (to the left) under the menu section "languages".
- For further help, please see Interlanguage links and the complete list of language wikis available.
NOTE: To create an inline link (a clickable link within the text) to any foreign language article, see Inline interlanguage links and consider the usage notes.
Description | What you type |
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Link from English article "Plankton" to the Spanish article "Plancton". "es" is the language code for "español" (the Spanish language). |
[[es:Plancton]] |
Other examples: German ( |
[[de:Plankton]] [[ru:Планктон]] [[simple:Plankton]] |
[edit] Interwiki link
- Link to any page on other Wikimedia wikis.
- Note that interwiki links use the internal link style.
- See MetaWikiPedia:Interwiki_map for the list of shortcuts; if the site you want to link to is not on the list, use an external link (see hereafter).
- See also Wikimedia sister projects.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Linking to a page on another wiki in English. All of these forms lead to the URL http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hello. |
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Simple link. Without prefix. Named link. |
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Linking to a page on another wiki in another language. All of these forms lead to the URL http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/bonjour. |
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Simple link. Without prefix. Named link. |
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[edit] Categories
- To put an article in a category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. As with interlanguage links, placing these links at the end of the edit box is recommended.
- To link to a category page without putting the article into the category, use a colon prefix (":Category") in the link.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Categorize an article. |
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Link to a category. |
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Without prefix. |
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[edit] External links
- Square brackets indicate an external link. Note the use of a space (not a pipe) to separate the URL from the link text in the "named" link. Square brackets may be used as normal when not linking to anything — [like this].
- A URL must begin with a supported URI scheme:
http://
andhttps://
will be supported by all browsers;irc://
,ircs://
,ftp://
,news://
,mailto:
andgopher://
will require a plugin or an external application. IPv6 addresses in URLs are currently not supported. - An URL containing certain characters will display and link incorrectly unless those characters are encoded. For example, a space must be replaced by
%20
. Encoding can be achieved by:
sp | " | , | ' | ; | < | > | ? | [ | ] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
%20 | %22 | %2c | %3a | %3b | %3c | %3e | %3f | %5b | %5d |
-
- Or use the {{urlencode:}} magic word. See Help:Magic words in the MediaWiki documentation for more details.
- See External links for style issues, and External link file type templates for indicating the file type of an external link with an icon.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Named link with an external link icon |
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Unnamed link (Only used within article body for footnotes) |
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Bare URL (Bad style) |
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Link without arrow (Not often used) |
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[edit] Miscellaneous
[edit] "As of" tag
- "As of" tags like "As of April 2009" and "as of April 2009" categorize info that will need updating.
For an explanation of the parameters see template documentation.
What you type | What it looks like |
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As of April 2009[update] |
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as of April 2009[update] |
[edit] Media link
- To include links to non image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link. For images, see next section.
- Some uploaded sounds are listed at Commons:Sound.
What you type | What it looks like |
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[edit] Links directly into edit mode
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
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Full URL. |
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//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Wiki_markup&action=edit |
"Edit" label. |
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[edit] Automatic links
[edit] Book sources
- Link to books using their ISBN. This is preferred to linking to a specific online bookstore, because it gives the reader a choice of vendors. However, if one bookstore or online service provides additional free information, such as table of contents or excerpts from the text, then a link to that source will aid the user and is recommended. ISBN links do not need any extra markup, provided you use one of the indicated formats.
- To create a link to Book Sources using alternative text (e.g. the book's title), use the internal link style with the appropriate namespace.
What you type | What it looks like |
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Link to a book using alternative text, such as its title. |
[edit] RFC number
What you type | What it looks like |
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Text mentioning an RFC number anywhere, e.g. RFC 4321. |
[edit] Pronunciation aids
It is often desirable to provide an aid to pronunciation for a word. The IPAc-en and Respell templates can be of assistance.
What you type | What it looks like | |
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Refer to Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation) for more information.
[edit] Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.
What you type | What it looks like | Notes | |
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A picture: [[File:wiki.png]] |
A picture: | ||
With alternative text: [[File:wiki.png|alt=Puzzle globe logo]] |
With alternative text: |
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With link: [[File:wiki.png|link=Wikipedia]] |
With link: |
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Floating to the right side of the page using the ''frame'' attribute and a caption: [[File:wiki.png|frame|alt=Puzzle globe|Wikipedia logo]] |
Floating to the right side of the page using the frame attribute and a caption:
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Floating to the right side of the page using the ''thumb'' attribute and a caption: [[File:wiki.png|thumb|alt=Puzzle globe|Wikipedia logo]] |
Floating to the right side of the page using the thumb attribute and a caption:
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Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption: [[File:wiki.png|right|Wikipedia encyclopedia]] |
Floating to the right side of the page without a caption: |
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A picture resized to 30 pixels... [[File:wiki.png|30 px|Wikipedia encyclopedia]] |
A picture resized to 30 pixels... |
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Linking directly to the description page of an image: [[:File:wiki.png]] |
Linking directly to the description page of an image: |
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Linking directly to an image without displaying it: [[Media:wiki.png|Image of jigsaw globe]] |
Linking directly to an image without displaying it: |
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Example: <div style="display:inline; width:220px; float:right;"> Place images here </div> |
Example: Place images here
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Using the |
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Example: {| align=right |- | Place images here |} |
Example:
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Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers). |
See the Wikipedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Wikipedia.
For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the picture tutorial.
[edit] Tables
There are two ways to build tables:
- In special wiki-markup (see Table).
- Using HTML elements:
<table>
,<tr>
,<td>
or<th>
.
See also When tables are appropriate.
[edit] References and citing sources
Making a reference citing a printed or online source can be accomplished by using the ref tag. Inside the reference tag details about the reference are added. You can add additional attributes to add detail about the source and reference, a pipe (|
) precedes each reference, each attribute goes inside the cite portion of the tag.
What it's for | What you type |
---|---|
For creating the reference | <ref name="name for reference">Use a closing tag</ref> |
When you cite a book | {{cite book}} |
To cite a web source | {{cite web}} |
Book ISBN | |isbn=0-4397-0818-4 (ISBN of the book) |
Web URL | |url=http://www.wikipedia.org |
Title | |title=title of source |
Author | |author=authors, use commas for multiple |
First name | |first=first name |
Last name | |last=last name |
Location | |location=location of occurrence |
Publisher | |publisher=who published the source |
Date | |date=2007-03-04 (date of source) |
Year | |year=year of source |
Accessed date | |accessdate=2008-12-07 |
A complete reference tag | <ref name="WikiMarkup">{{cite web |url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Wiki_markup |title=Help:Wiki markup |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation}}</ref> |
Referencing this again | <ref name="WikiMarkup"/> |
Citation needed | {{citation needed}} |
[edit] Templates and transcluding pages
Examples for templates: {{pad|...}}, {{math|...}}, {{as of|...}}, {{edit}}
Templates are segments of wiki markup that are meant to be copied automatically ("transcluded") into a page. You add them by putting the template's name in {{double braces}}. It is also possible to transclude other pages by using {{:colon and double braces}}.
There are three pairs of tags that can be used in wikitext to control how transclusion affects parts of a template or article. They determine whether or not wikitext renders, either in its own article, which we will call "here", or in another article where it is transcluded, which we will call "there".
- <noinclude>: the content will not be rendered there. These tags have no effect here.
- <includeonly>: the content will render only there, and will not render here (like invisible ink made visible by means of transclusion).
- <onlyinclude>: the content will render here and will render there, but it will only render there what is between these tags.
There can be several such section "elements". Also, they can be nested. All possible renderings are achievable. For example, to render there one or more sections of the page here use <onlyinclude> tags. To append text there, wrap the addition in <includeonly> tags above, within, or below the section. To omit portions of the section, nest <noinclude> tags within it.
If a page is transcluded without transclusion markup, it may cause an unintentional categorization. Any page transcluding it will contain the same category as the original page. Wrap the category markup with <noinclude> tags to prevent incorrect categorization.
Some templates take parameters, as well, which you separate with the pipe character.
What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|
{{Transclusion demo}} |
This text comes from the page named Template:Transclusion demo. It has been transcluded into this page. |
{{Help:Transclusion demo}} |
This transclusion demo is a little bit of text from the page Help:Transclusion demo to be included into any file. |
This template takes two parameters, and creates underlined text with a hover box for many modern browsers supporting CSS: {{H:title|This is the hover text| Hover your mouse over this text}} Go to this page to see the H:title template itself: {{tl|H:title}} |
This template takes two parameters, and creates underlined text with a hover box for many modern browsers supporting CSS: Hover your mouse over this text Go to this page to see the H:title template itself: {{H:title}} |
[edit] Talk and project pages
[edit] Signing comments
- The character tilde (~) is used when adding a comment to a Talk page.
- Your username provides a link to your user page.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|---|
You should sign your comments by appending four tildes to the comment, which adds your user name plus date/time. |
|
|
Adding three tildes will add just your user name. |
|
|
Adding five tildes gives the date/time alone. |
|
17:43, 30 December 2012 (UTC) |
[edit]
What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|
[[Special:WhatLinksHere/aaa]] |
|
[[Special:RecentChangesLinked/aaa]] |
[edit] Linking to old revisions of pages, diffs, and specific history pages
- External link function is used for these.
- Open an old revision or diff and copy the URL from the address bar, pasting it where you want it.
What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|
|
[edit] User edits
- Link to a user's Contributions page.
Description | What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|---|
Username (registered users). | [[Special:Contributions/UserName]] |
Special:Contributions/UserName |
IPv4 address (unregistered users). | [[Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0]] |
Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0 |
IPv6 address (unregistered users). | [[Special:Contributions/2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329]] |
Special:Contributions/2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329 |
[edit] Coloring text
What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|
|
I will change the color in the middle part of this sentence. |
[edit] Show deleted or inserted text
- When editing regular Wikipedia articles, just make your changes and do not mark them up in any special way.
- When editing your own previous remarks in talk pages, it is sometimes appropriate to mark up deleted or inserted material.
- For striking out material, the
<s></s>
markup is a less semantic element than<del></del>
.
What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|
|
You can |
|
Alternative markup: You can |
- Notes
- The
<s>...</s>
element is listed as deprecated in HTML 4 but is used in HTML 5, with the note that it "is not appropriate when indicating document edits; to mark a span of text as having been removed from a document, use the del element".
[edit] Limiting formatting / escaping wiki markup
A few different kinds of formatting will tell the wiki to display things as you typed them — what you see is what you get! —.
What you type | What it looks like |
---|---|
'''<nowiki> tag:''' <nowiki> The nowiki tag ignores [[wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets characters specified by &name;: → </nowiki> |
<nowiki> tag: The nowiki tag ignores [[wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets characters specified by &name;: → |
'''<pre> tag:''' <pre>The <pre> tag ignores [[wiki]] ''markup'' as does the <nowiki> tag. Additionally, <pre> displays in a mono-spaced font, and does not reformat text spaces. It still interprets special characters: → </pre> |
<pre> tag: The <pre> tag ignores [[wiki]] ''markup'' as does the <nowiki> tag. Additionally, <pre> displays in a mono-spaced font, and does not reformat text spaces. It still interprets special characters: → |
'''[Text without a URL]:''' Single square brackets holding [text without a HTTP URL] are preserved, but single square brackets containing a URL are treated as being an external [http://www.google.com Web link]. |
[Text without a URL]: Single square brackets holding [text without a HTTP URL] are preserved, but single square brackets containing a URL are treated as being an external Web link. |
'''Leading space:''' Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets [[wiki]] ''markup'' and special characters: → |
Leading space: Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets wiki markup and special characters: → |
[edit] Nowiki
<nowiki>...</nowiki>
and <nowiki />
tags stop parsing of wiki markup, except HTML character entity references (e.g. for special characters). Unlike <pre>
, "nowiki" doesn't change formatting.
An example of <nowiki>...</nowiki>
:
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
<nowiki>{{cite book}}</nowiki> |
{{cite book}} |
(However in this particular case probably you prefer {{tl|cite book}} to create a link as {{cite book}}, or {{tlf|cite book}} prints {{cite book}}.)
A singular <nowiki />
can be used to break wikimarkup.
- Markup such as
*
,#
,;
and:
only and always take effect at the beginning of a line. A<nowiki />
before the markup will cause the characters to not parse as markup. - An internal link immediately followed by characters are blended to form a single link. Where this is not desired, add a
<nowiki />
after the link. - HTML(-like) tags can be stopped parsing by inserting
<nowki />
after the opening angle bracket..
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
* Unordered list |
|
<nowiki />* Unordered list |
* Unordered list |
A [[micro-]]second. |
A micro-second. |
A [[micro-]]<nowiki />second. |
A micro-second. |
'<nowiki />'We don't want italics.'<nowiki />' |
''We don't want italics.'' |
[[<nowiki />example]] |
[[example]] |
[<nowiki />[[example]]] |
[example] |
no<<nowiki />br />linebreak. But for tag pairs, you need nowiki for the closing tag, too.<<nowiki />pre>The following /pre is gone!</pre> |
no<br />linebreak. But for tag pairs, you need nowiki for the closing tag, too. <pre>The following /pre is gone! |
If you want to write tags, {{tag}} template is handy. E.g. {{tag|nowiki}} prints <nowiki>...</nowiki>
.
HTML entities
<nowiki>
and <pre>
parse HTML entities. If you want to escape this, replace &
with &
.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
<nowiki>&</nowiki> |
& |
<nowiki><</nowiki> |
< |
<nowiki>&amp;</nowiki> |
& |
<nowiki>&lt;</nowiki> |
< |
Use in templates
When used in a template, <nowiki>
simply does not work as you may expect.
- Including
<nowiki>
immediately acts upon the enclosed markup. Attempting to escape or transclude the brackets causes<nowiki />
to not work at all. - Using
#tag:nowiki
works, but has major limitations:- Templates, parameters, parser functions, and parser magic such as signatures are parsed, not nowikied.
- Included
<ref>
tags will expose the strip markers.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
<nowiki>{{tl|cite book}}</nowiki> |
{{tl|cite book}} |
{{#tag:nowiki|{{tl|cite book}}}} |
{{[[Template:cite book|cite book]]}} |
{{#tag:nowiki|<ref>text</ref>}} {{reflist}} |
UNIQ51b37fd923427a14-nowiki-000000E5-QINU1UNIQ51b37fd923427a14-nowiki-000000E6-QINU
|
[edit] Pre
<pre>
is a parser tag that emulates the HTML <pre>
tag. It defines preformatted text that is displayed in a fixed-width font and is enclosed in a dashed box. HTML and wiki markups are escaped and spaces and line breaks are preserved, but HTML entities are parsed.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
<pre><!--Comment--> [[wiki]] markup &</pre> |
<!--Comment--> [[wiki]] markup & |
<pre>
formatted text does not wrap, thus text may extend past the browser window:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
To resolve this, <pre>
may use CSS styling to add wrapping or a horizontal scrollbar:
- Wrapping:
<pre style="white-space:-moz-pre-wrap; white-space:-pre-wrap; white-space:-o-pre-wrap; white-space:pre-wrap; word-wrap:break-word;">
- Scroll bar:
<pre style="overflow:auto; width:auto;">
Since this involves quite a bit of markup, the template {{pre2}} is useful.
[edit] Invisible text (comments)
![]() |
It has been suggested that this page or section be merged into Help:HTML in wikitext#Comments. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2012. |
It's uncommon – but on occasion acceptable for notes to other editors – to add a hidden comment within the text of an article. These comments are only visible when editing or viewing the source of a page. Most comments should go on the appropriate Talk page. The format is to surround the hidden text with "<!--
" and "-->
" and may cover several lines, e.g.:
<!-- An example of hidden comments This won't be visible except in "edit" mode. -->
Another way to include a comment in the wiki markup uses the {{Void}} template, which can be abbreviated as {{^}}. This template "expands" to the empty string, generating no html output; it is visible only to people editing the wiki source. Thus {{^|A lengthy comment here}} operates similarly to the comment <!-- A lengthy comment here -->. The main difference is that the template version can be nested, while attempting to nest HTML comments produces odd results.
[edit] Variables
Wikipedia namespaces | |||
---|---|---|---|
Basic namespaces | Talk namespaces | ||
0 | Main | Talk | 1 |
2 | User | User talk | 3 |
4 | Wikipedia | Wikipedia talk | 5 |
6 | File | File talk | 7 |
8 | MediaWiki | MediaWiki talk | 9 |
10 | Template | Template talk | 11 |
12 | Help | Help talk | 13 |
14 | Category | Category talk | 15 |
100 | Portal | Portal talk | 101 |
108 | Book | Book talk | 109 |
446 | Education Program | Education Program talk | 447 |
710 | TimedText | TimedText talk | 711 |
Virtual namespaces | |||
-1 | Special | ||
-2 | Media | ||
Code | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|
{{CURRENTWEEK}} | 52 | |
{{CURRENTDOW}} | 0 |
Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, etc., but Sunday = 0 |
{{CURRENTMONTH}} | 12 | |
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} | December | |
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} | December | |
{{CURRENTDAY}} | 30 | |
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}} | Sunday | |
{{CURRENTYEAR}} | 2012 | |
{{CURRENTTIME}} | 17:43 | |
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} | 4,131,888 | |
{{NUMBEROFPAGES}} | 29,065,626 | |
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}} | 18,132,805 | |
{{PAGENAME}} | Wiki markup | |
{{NAMESPACE}} | Help | |
{{REVISIONID}} | 530201562 | |
{{REVISIONUSER}} | Sietec | |
{{localurl:pagename}} | /wiki/Pagename | |
{{localurl:Wikipedia:Sandbox|action=edit}} | /w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=edit | |
{{fullurl:pagename}} | //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagename | |
{{fullurl:pagename|query_string}} | //en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pagename&query_string | |
{{SERVER}} | //en.wikipedia.org | |
{{ns:1}} | Talk |
{{ns:index}} e.g. {{ns:1}} → full name of namespace |
{{SITENAME}} | Wikipedia |
NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.
CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.
In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like {{grammar:case|word}}
to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, {{grammar:genitive|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}}
means the same as {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}
.
[edit] HTML
Many HTML tags can be used in wiki markup. You can check your HTML by using markup validation.