Help:Formatting
Welcome to Help:Formatting. This is the part where you learn that wikitext was designed in the early 2000s by someone who thought angle brackets and too many apostrophes were intuitive. Spoiler: they were not.
Text styles
- Italic: ''italics'' → italics
- Bold: '''bold''' → bold
- Bold italics: '''''bold italics''''' → bold italics
- Strikethrough: <s>crossed out</s> →
crossed out
Headings
- Level 2 heading: == Heading ==
- Level 3 heading: === Subheading ===
- Level 4 heading: ==== Tiny heading ====
More equals signs = smaller heading. At some point it becomes unreadable, but nobody will stop you.
Lists
- Bulleted lists use asterisks:
* Item 1 * Item 2 ** Sub-item
- Numbered lists use hashes:
# First # Second ## Second point one
Links
- Internal: [[Page name]] → Page name
- With label: [[Page name|custom text]] → custom text
- External: [http://example.com Example site] → Example site
Files
- Insert a file: [[File:Example.png|thumb|caption]]
- You will never get the sizing right on the first try.
Tables
Tables in wikitext are a cruel joke: {| class="wikitable" ! Header 1 !! Header 2 |- | Cell A1 || Cell A2 |- | Cell B1 || Cell B2 |}
Result:
| Header 1 | Header 2 |
|---|---|
| Cell A1 | Cell A2 |
| Cell B1 | Cell B2 |
Common pitfalls
- Forgetting which side the brackets go on.
- Mixing up italics with bold.
- Copy-pasting raw HTML because you gave up.
- Thinking VisualEditor will save you (it won’t).
See also
References
[1] Wikitext, designed by someone who hated you personally. [2] Other wikis, which look better than this one because they hired CSS mercenaries.