Help:Editing

You can format your text using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, single quotes or equation marks which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two single quotes like ''this''

Text formatting markup

Description	You type	You get
applies anywhere
Italic text	''italic''	italic
Bold text	'''bold'''	bold
Bold and italic	'''''bold & italic'''''	bold & italic
Escape wiki markup	<nowiki>no ''markup''</nowiki>	no ''markup''
only at the beginning of the line
Indent text	:Indent text	Indent text
Headings of different levels	==level 1== ===level 2=== ====level 3==== =====level 4=====	Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Horizontal rule	----
Bullet list	* one * two * three ** three and one-third ** three and two-thirds	one two three three and one-third three and two-thirds
Numbered list	# one # two<br>spanning several lines<br>without breaking the numbering # three ## three point one ## three point two	one two spanning several lines without breaking the numbering three three point one three point two
Mixture of bulleted and numbered lists	# one # two #* two point one #* two point two	one two two point one two point two
Definition list	;Definition :item 1 :item 2	Definition item 1 item 2
Preformatted text	preformatted text is done with   a space at the   beginning of the line	preformatted text is done with a space at the beginning of the line

Tables

{|	start table
|+	table caption, optional; only one per table and between table start and first row
|-	table row, optional on first row -- wiki engine assumes the first row
!	table header cell, optional. Consecutive table headers may be added on same line separated by double marks (!!) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (!).
|	table data cell, required! Consecutive table data cells may be added on same line separated by double marks (||) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (|).
|}	end table

• The above marks must start on a new line except the double || and !! for optionally adding consecutive cells to a line.
• XHTML attributes. Each mark, except table end, optionally accepts one or more XHTML attributes. Attributes must be on the same line as the mark. Separate attributes from each other with a single space.
  • Cells and caption (| or ||, ! or !!, and |+) hold content. So separate any attributes from content with a single pipe (|). Cell content may follow on same line or on following lines.
  • Table and row marks ({| and |-) do not directly hold content. Do not add pipe (|) after their optional attributes. If you erroneously add a pipe after attributes for the table mark or row mark the parser will delete it and your final attribute if it was touching the erroneous pipe!
• Content may (a) follow its cell mark on the same line after any optional XHTML attributes or (b) on lines below the cell mark. Content that uses wiki markup that itself needs to start on a new line, such as lists, headers, or nested tables, must of course be on its own new line.

• More: MediaWiki:Help:Tables

Paragraphs

MediaWiki ignores normal line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can also start a new line with the HTML tags <br> or <br/>.

HTML

Some tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example <code>, <div>, <span> and <font>.

Links

Description	You type	You get
Internal link	[[Main Page]]	Main Page
Category link	[[:Category:Help]]	Category:Help
Piped link	[[Main Page|different text]]	different text
Anchor link	[[#External links|Anchor link]]	Anchor link
External link	http://mediawiki.org	http://mediawiki.org
Internal link to image file	[[media:example.jpg]]	media:example.jpg
External link, different title	[http://mediawiki.org MediaWiki]	MediaWiki
Piped link, different title	[[Main Page|<span title="different title">different text</span>]]	different text
External link, unnamed	[http://mediawiki.org]	[1]
External link, same host unnamed	[http://{{SERVERNAME}}/pagename]	[2]
Interwiki link	[[Wikipedia:MediaWiki]]	Wikipedia:MediaWiki
mailto	mailto:info@example.org	mailto:info@example.org
mailto unnamed	[mailto:info@example.org]	[3]
mailto named	[mailto:info@example.org info]	info
mailto named with subject line	[mailto:info@example.org?Subject=URL%20Encoded%20Subject info]	info
redirect	#REDIRECT [[Main Page]]	→ Main Page

Source Code

Editing source code

Other formatting

Beyond the text formatting markup shown above, here are some other formatting references:

• Images
• Tables

External Links

• Formatting help from Mediawiki (source of this page)
• More Formatting from Wikipedia
• MetaWiki:Help:Editing
• MetaWiki:Help:Template