Help On Formatting

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Table of contents:

The basics

Line spacing

Bold, italic, underscore and strikethrough

Superscript and subscript

The basics

Firstly, forget HTML - it's not allowed! So <b>bold</b> will not appear in a bold font, but as you see it right now. Here's a few things to remember:

Don't indent paragraphs.
Words wrap to the window width and fill as needed.
Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
Type 4 or more hyphens (-) to create a horizontal rule.
URL's and e-mail addresses are automatically hyperlinked.
Turn off Wiki functions by using the special <nowiki> tag - for instance, <nowiki>text goes here</nowiki>

The easiest way to learn this stuff is simply to experiment. We've created a special Sand Box page where you can go and play to your heart's content.

Line spacing

Words automatically wrap to the window width and fill as needed. For this reason a single newline has no effect.

A single newline
has no effect.

will appear as:

A single newline has no effect.

However, an empty line will start a new paragraph. You can also break lines without starting a new paragraph by using the special <br> tag.

Bold, italic, underscore and strikethrough

To mark text as bold enclose text by two asterisks (*) on both sides.

To mark text as italic enclose it by two slash (/) characters on both sides.

To mark text as underlined enclose it by two underscore (_) characters on both sides.

To mark text as ~~strikethrough~~ enclose it by two dash (-) characters on both sides.

**Some bold text**, //some italic text//, and **//some bold and italic text//**
__Some underlined text__ and --Some strikethrough text--

will appear as:

Some bold text, some italic text, and some bold and italic text Some underlined text and ~~Some strikethrough text~~

There is an alternative method for emphasising text (which was used in many 'old' Wikis and is supported on this site). You can use whichever you find easier to remember:

''2 quotes are italic'', '''3 quotes are bold''',
and '''''5 quotes are bold + italic'''''

will appear as:

2 quotes are italic, 3 quotes are bold, and 5 quotes are bold + italic

Superscript and subscript

To mark text in superscript enclose it by two ^ characters on both sides.

To mark text in subscript enclose it by two v characters on both sides.

2^^3^^ + 10^^2^^ = 108
Hvv2vvO-COvv2vv

will appear as:

2³ + 10² = 108 H₂O-CO₂

Headings

To create headings surround the text with equals signs (=). One will give heading level 1, two will give level 2, and so on. You also need to include a space before and after the text. Note that you don't necessarily need to start at level 1 (you might find that gives too large a heading font for your taste). On this page, for example, we start at level 3 (three equals signs) and work upwards.

= Heading Level 1 =
== Heading Level 2 ==
=== Heading Level 3 ===
==== Heading Level 4 ====

The nice thing about these headings is that you can include the special <TableOfContents/> tag to automatically generate a table of contents for a page (as we've done at the top of this page).

Monospaced font

It's sometimes useful to use a monospaced font to help align items on the page. To do this simply indent each line with one or more spaces.

 This line is indented one space, so appears monospaced.
   This line is indented three spaces - still monospaced.

appears as:

 This line is indented one space, so appears monospaced.
   This line is indented three spaces - still monospaced.

Linking

This bit's very important - how do you create new pages and then link to them? This is all handled automatically (and is one of the best parts of the Wiki concept if you ask me), by using a special format to identify a name that you want to link to a new page. This 'link pattern' is:

One or more uppercase letters, then one or more lowercase letters, then one uppercase letter, then any letters (either upper or lowercase).

In other words, simply SmashWordsTogetherLikeSo.

Note that a name conforming to this pattern is not hyperlinked if that name is the same as the current page title you are viewing.

Once you submit a page with a new linked name in it you'll notice that a question mark appears after the name (and the name is still in 'smashed together' form). This means the page hasn't been defined yet but if you click on the question mark it will be automatically generated (the question mark will disappear from the referencing page and turn into a proper link - with the text 'unsmashed').

If you want to write a smashed-together word but don't want it to be linked simply do one of the following:

Use a tilde (~) character in front of the name, e.g. ~BatchJobs
Use the <nowiki> tag, e.g. <nowiki>BatchJobs</nowiki>

To link to a single-word page use two square brackets, like this:

[[Help]]

Help

There are sometimes words that naturally and legitimately appear 'smashed together', for instance "Active X". It would be annoying if these always became links and you had to prepend them with "~". To avoid this there is a special page on this site called StopWords onto which you can add any such words that you do not want to be linked. Even then, you can still explictly link such pages using the "[..]" linking format.

Lists

All lists start with 2 spaces at the beginning of a line. Sublists are created by adding an additional 2 spaces for every level you want to add.

Bulleted lists

  * Bulleted Item
  * Another one
    * Sub-bulleted item
    * And another one
  * Last one

will appear as:

Bulleted Item
Another one

Sub-bulleted item
And another one

Last one

Numbered lists

  1. First item
  2. Second item
    1. First subitem of //second item//
    1. Second subitem of //second item//
      a. subitem a
      a. subitem b
    1. Third subitem of //second item//
      i. subitem 1
      i. subitem 2
  3. Third item
    1.#17 another item
    1. yet another one
  4. Fourth item
    a.#17 another item
    a. yet another one
  5. Fifth item
    i.#17 another item
    i. yet another one

will appear as:

First item
Second item

First subitem of second item
Second subitem of second item

subitem a
subitem b

Third subitem of second item

subitem 1
subitem 2

Third item

another item
yet another one

Fourth item

another item
yet another one

Fifth item

another item
yet another one

Indented text

  : Paragraph to be indented (quote-block)
    : Paragraph indented more
      : Paragraph indented to third level

will appear as:

: Paragraph to be indented (quote-block)

Sourcecode

If you want to display sourcecode use the <code> tag or enclose the source by three curly braces, e.g. {{{some code}}}.

Singleline example:

The command {{{foo := bar + 1;}}} will add 1 to bar and assign it to foo.

will appear as:

The command foo := bar + 1; will add 1 to bar and assign it to foo.

Multiline example:

{{{
begin
    foo := bar + 1;
end;
}}}

will appear as:

begin
    foo := bar + 1;
end;

Note that within sourcecode most Wiki features won't work, such as: automatic hyperlinking of URLs, Wiki Names, making text italic, etc. What still does work within sourcecode is the ability to highlight text by using three single quotes and the ability to use the <nowiki> tag.

Example:

<code>
begin
    '''foo := bar + 1;'''
    foo := foo << 1;
    return foo;
end;
</code>

will appear as:

begin
    foo := bar + 1;
    foo := foo << 1;
    return foo;
end;

Tables

|| **ID** || **Name** || **Description** ||
|| 123 || John Foo || Some foo user ||
|| 456 || Mary Richardson || Contact person from Foo Corp. ||

will appear as:

ID	Name	Description
123	John Foo	Some foo user
456	Mary Richardson	Contact person from Foo Corp.

You can also insert columns that span more than one column, like:

|||||||| '''''Contact persons''''' ||
|| **ID** |||| **Name** || **Description** ||
|| 123 || John || Foo || Some foo user ||
|| 456 || Mary || Richardson || Contact person from Foo Corp. ||

Contact persons
ID	Name		Description
123	John	Foo	Some foo user
456	Mary	Richardson	Contact person from Foo Corp.