Help:Formatting

You can format your text by using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, apostrophes or equal signs 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 pairs of apostrophes like.

Text formatting markup
{| class="wikitable" ! Description ! width=40% | You type ! width=40% | You get ! colspan="3" style="background: #ABE" | Character (inline) formatting – applies anywhere italic italic bold bold bold & italic bold & italic strike text &lt;nowiki&gt;no markup&lt;/nowiki&gt; no markup API&lt;nowiki/>extension API extension ! colspan="3" style="background: #ABE" | Section formatting – only at the beginning of the line
 * Italic text
 * Italic text
 * Bold text
 * Bold text
 * Bold and italic
 * Bold and italic
 * Strike text
 * Strike text
 * strike text
 * Escape wiki markup
 * Escape wiki markup
 * Escape wiki markup once
 * Escape wiki markup once
 * Headings of different levels
 * Headings of different levels

Level 6

 * An article with 4 or more headings automatically creates a table of contents.

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Text before
 * Horizontal rule
 * Horizontal rule

Text after Text before

Text after don't break levels. Any other start ends the list. don't break levels. Any other start ends the list. don't break levels.
 * Bullet list
 * Bullet list
 * Start each line
 * with an asterisk (*).
 * More asterisks give deeper
 * and deeper levels.
 * Line breaks
 * But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * Start each line
 * with an asterisk (*).
 * More asterisks give deeper
 * and deeper levels.
 * Line breaks
 * Line breaks
 * But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * Numbered list
 * Numbered list
 * 1) Start each line
 * 2) with a number sign (#).
 * 3) More number signs give deeper
 * 4) and deeper
 * 5) levels.
 * 6) Line breaks
 * 1) But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * 2) Blank lines

Any other start also ends the list. don't break levels.
 * 1) end the list and start another.
 * 1) Start each line
 * 2) with a number sign (#).
 * 3) More number signs give deeper
 * 4) and deeper
 * 5) levels.
 * 6) Line breaks
 * 1) Line breaks
 * 1) But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * 2) Blank lines

Any other start also ends the list.
 * 1) end the list and start another.
 * Definition list
 * item 1
 * definition 1
 * item 1
 * definition 1


 * item 2
 * definition 2-1
 * definition 2-2


 * item 1
 * definition 1
 * definition 1


 * item 2
 * definition 2-1
 * definition 2-2


 * Indent text
 * Single indent
 * Double indent
 * Multiple indent
 * Double indent
 * Multiple indent


 * Single indent
 * Double indent
 * Multiple indent
 * Multiple indent

of &lt;nowiki> &lt;/nowiki>
 * Mixture of different types of list
 * Mixture of different types of list
 * 1) one
 * 2) two
 * 3) * two point one
 * 4) * two point two
 * 5) three
 * 6) ; three item one
 * three def one
 * 1) four
 * four def one
 * this looks like a continuation
 * and is often used
 * instead
 * 1) five
 * 2) five sub 1
 * 3) five sub 1 sub 1
 * 4) five sub 2

The usage of  and   for breaking a line within an item may also harm accessibility. of
 * 1) one
 * 2) two
 * 3) * two point one
 * 4) * two point two
 * 5) three
 * 6) ; three item one
 * three def one
 * 1) four
 * four def one
 * this looks like a continuation
 * and is often used
 * instead
 * instead

Start each line with a space. Text is preformatted and markups can be done.
 * 1) five
 * 2) five sub 1
 * 3) five sub 1 sub 1
 * 4) five sub 2
 * Preformatted text
 * Preformatted text

This way of preformatting only applies to section formatting. Character formatting markups are still effective. Start each line with a space. Text is preformatted and markups can be done. (before the ).
 * Preformatted text blocks
 * Start with a space in the first column,
 * Start with a space in the first column,

Then your block format will be   maintained. This is good for copying in code blocks:

def function: """documentation string"""

if True: print True else: print False Start with a space in the first column, (before the ).

Then your block format will be   maintained.

This is good for copying in code blocks:

def function: """documentation string"""

if True: print True else: print False
 * }

Paragraphs
MediaWiki ignores single line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can force a line break within a paragraph with the HTML tag.

HTML tags
Some HTML tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example,  ,   and. These apply anywhere you insert them.

continued:

Inserting symbols
Symbols and other special characters not available on your keyboard can be inserted through a special sequence of characters. Those sequences are called HTML entities. For example, the following sequence (entity) &amp;rarr; when inserted will be shown as right arrow HTML symbol &rarr; and &amp;mdash; when inserted will be shown as an em dash HTML symbol &mdash;.

See the list of all HTML entities on the Wikipedia article List of HTML entities. Additionally, MediaWiki supports two non-standard entity reference sequences:  and   which are both considered equivalent to   which is a right-to-left mark. (Used when combining right to left languages with left to right languages in the same page.)

HTML tags and symbol entities displayed themselves (with and without interpreting them)

 * &amp;amp;euro; &rarr; &amp;euro;


 * &lt;span style="color: red; text-decoration: line-through;">Typo to be corrected&lt;/span> &rarr;  Typo to be corrected 


 * &amp;lt;span style="color: red; text-decoration: line-through;">Typo to be corrected&amp;lt;/span> &rarr; &lt;span style="color: red; text-decoration: line-through;">Typo to be corrected&lt;/span>

Nowiki for HTML
< nowiki /> can prohibit (HTML) tags: But not &amp; symbol escapes: To print &amp; symbol escapes as text, use "&amp;amp;" to replace the "&" character (eg. type "&amp;amp;nbsp;", which results in "&amp;nbsp;").
 * < pre> &rarr;
 * &< nowiki />amp; &rarr; &amp;

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


 * Links
 * Lists
 * Images
 * Tables

You can find more references at Help:Contents.