Article sections in a page will follow that page's lead or introduction and, if there are four or more, the table of contents.
Further information: Help:Section and Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Section headings
The = through ====== markup are headings for the sections with which they are associated.
Templates: {{fake heading}} for use in documentation.
Further information: WP:LINE
The horizontal rule represents a paragraph-level thematic break. Do not use in article content, as rules are used only after main sections, and this is automatic.
The four hyphens must appear at the beginning of a line.
The HTML equivalent is <hr />, which can be indented if required. (---- always starts at the left margin.)
The template {{Hr}} produces a similar rule but allows the thickness to be specified.
Further information: WP:TOC
When a page has at least four headings, a table of contents (TOC) will automatically appear after the lead and before the first heading. The TOC can be controlled by magic words or templates:
Further information: Help:Line-break handling, Wikipedia:Line breaks usage, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Indentation
Line breaks or newlines are used to add whitespace between lines, such as separating paragraphs.
A single newline herehas no effect on the layout.
But an empty line starts a new paragraph, or ends a list or an indented part.
HTML equivalent: <br> or <br /> can be used to break line layout.
Templates for line breaks:
Unbulleted list:
Further information: WP:INDENT and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Indentation
Indentation is most commonly used on talk pages.
Indentation as used on talk pages:
so long as no carriage return or line break is used.)
Templates: {{outdent}}, {{outdent2}}
When there is a need for separating a block of text. This is useful for (as the name says) inserting blocks of quoted (and cited) text.
Normal text
The blockquote tag will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does.
This uses an HTML tag; template {{quote}} results in the same render.
See also: Span and div, HTML tag, and Template:Align
Template {{center}} uses the same markup. To center a table, see Help:Table#Centering tables. Please do not use <center>...</center> tags, as it is obsolete.
You can align content in a separate container:
Or; make the text float around it:
Further information: Help:List and MOS:LIST
Do not leave blank lines between items in a list unless there is a reason to do so, since this causes the MediaWiki software to interpret each item as beginning a new list.
To list terms and definitions, start a new line with a semicolon (;) followed by the term. Then, type a colon (:) followed by a definition. The format can also be used for other purposes, such as make and models of vehicles, etc.
Description lists (formerly definition lists, and a.k.a. association lists) consist of group names corresponding to values. Group names (terms) are in bold. Values (definitions) are indented. Each group must include one or more definitions. For a single or first value, the : can be placed on the same line after ; – but subsequent values must be placed on separate lines.
Do not use a semicolon (;) simply to bold a line without defining a value using a colon (:). This usage renders invalid HTML5 and creates issues with screen readers. Also, use of a colon to indent (other than for talk page responses) may also render invalid HTML5 and cause accessibility issues per MOS:INDENTGAP.
HTML equivalent: <dl> <dt>...</dt>, <dd>...</dd> </dl>
Templates: {{defn}}
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>; the template {{poemquote}} provides a convenient shorthand. CSS styles may be applied to this tag, e.g.: <poem style="margin-left: 2em;">.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree:Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to manDown 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.
Poems and their translation can be presented side by side, and the language can be indicated with lang="xx". Following the last side-by-side block, {{Clear|left}} must be used to cancel "float:left;" and to re-establish normal flow. Note that this method does not require a table and its columns to achieve the side-by-side presentation.
Markup
Renders as
Frère Jacques, frère Jacques, Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines! Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John, Brother John, Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing! Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
italics, bold, small capital letters
To italicize text, put two consecutive apostrophes on each side of it.
Three apostrophes each side will bold the text.
Five consecutive apostrophes on each side (two for italics plus three for bold) produces bold italics.
Italic and bold formatting works correctly only within a single line.
To reverse this effect where it has been automatically applied, use {{nobold}} and {{noitalic}}.
For text as small caps, use the template {{smallcaps}}.
Small chunks of source code within a line of normal text.
Code is displayed in a monospace font.
function int m2() is nice.
Syntax highlighting for source code.
Computer code has colored text and more stringent formatting. For example, to define a function: int m2(), with highlights, in C++.
See here for a full list of supported languages that can be put in lang="????"
Small text
Use small text only when necessary.
a <small> span
To match, for example, the font-size used in an image caption, the "small" tag can also be used to reduce a text's font-size to 87%.
Big text
Better not use big text, unless it's within small text.
To prevent two words from becoming separated by a linewrap (e.g. Mr. Smith or 400 km/h) a non-breaking space, sometimes also called a "non-printing character", may be used between them. (For three or more words, the template {{nowrap}} is probably more suitable.)
Mr. Smith or 400 km/h
Extra spacing within text is usually best achieved using the {{pad}} template.
Mary had a little lamb.
See also: Help:Special characters and List of XML and HTML character entity references
Special characters can often be displayed using numeric character references or character entity references. See Character encodings in HTML for more information. For example, À and À both render À (A-grave). Percent-encoding can't be used, as it works only in URLs.
Diacritic marks, using character entity references.
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 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
Using character entity references.
The
Main page: Help:WikiHiero syntax
WikiHiero is a software extension that renders Egyptian hieroglyphs as PNG images using <hiero> HTML-like tags.
Example:
Subscripts
x1 x2 x3 or
x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄
x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉
Superscripts
x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴
x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹
Combined
ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m
1 hectare = 1 E+4 m²
Main page: MOS:TEXT § PUA and RTL
Invisible and PUA (Private Use Areas) characters should be avoided where possible. When needed, they should both be replaced with their (hexa)decimal code values (as "&#(x)...;"). This renders invisible characters visible, for manual editing, and allows AWB to process pages with PUA characters. The latter should also be tagged with the {{PUA}} template for tracking and future maintenance.
Main page: Help:Displaying a formula
2 x × 4 y ÷ 6 z + 8 − y z 2 = 0 {\displaystyle 2x\times 4y\div 6z+8-{\frac {y}{z^{2}}}=0}
2x × 4y ÷ 6z + 8 − y/z2 = 0
sin 2 π x + ln e {\displaystyle \sin 2\pi x+\ln e} sin 2πx + ln e
It follows that x2 ≥ 0 for real x.
∑ n = 0 ∞ x n n ! {\displaystyle \sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{n}}{n!}}}
Indenting by using the colon (:) character (i.e. using :<math></math> instead of <math display=block></math>) is discouraged for accessibility reasons.
Main page: Help:Link
Wikilinks are used in wikitext markup to produce internal links between pages. You create wikilinks 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.
London has public transport.
Link to this page: "Help:Wikitext" will appear only as bold text.
New York also has [[public transport|public transportation]].
New York also has public transportation.
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses
[[kingdom (biology)|]]
kingdom
Automatically hide namespace
[[Wikipedia:Village pump|]]
Village pump
Or both
[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)|]]
Manual of Style
But this doesn't work for section links
[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]]
San Francisco also has [[public transport]]ation. Examples include [[bus]]es, [[taxicab]]s, and [[tram]]s.
Blending suppressed
A [[micro-]]<nowiki />second.
A micro-second
[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics]] is a link to a section within another page.
Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics is a link to a section within another page.
[[#Links and URLs]] is a link to another section on the current page. [[#Links and URLs|Links and URLs]] is a link to the same section without showing the # symbol.
#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.
[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics|Italics]] is a piped link to a section within another page.
Italics is a piped link to a section within another page.
Links to pages that don't exist yet look red.
The article about [[cardboard sandwiches]] doesn't exist yet.
The article about cardboard sandwiches doesn't exist yet.
Main page: Help:Redirect
Redirect to an article
#REDIRECT [[United States]]
Redirect to a section
#REDIRECT [[United States#History]]
See the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]].
See the Wikipedia:Manual of Style.
Main pages: Help:Interlanguage links and Wikipedia:Complete list of language wikis available
Link from English article "Plankton" to the Spanish article "Plancton".
"es" is the language code for "español" (the Spanish language).
Other examples: French (fr for français), German (de for Deutsch), Russian (ru), and simple English (simple).
Linking to a page on another wiki in English.
All of these forms lead to the URL https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hello.
Simple link.
Without prefix.
Named link.
[[Wiktionary:hello]]
[[Wiktionary:hello|]]
[[Wiktionary:hello|Wiktionary definition of "hello"]]
Wiktionary:hello
hello
Wiktionary definition of "hello"
Linking to a page on another wiki in another language.
All of these forms lead to the URL https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/bonjour.
[[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour]]
[[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|]]
[[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|bonjour]]
Wiktionary:fr:bonjour
fr:bonjour
bonjour
Categorize an article.
[[Category:Character sets]]
Link to a category.
[[:Category:Character sets]]
Category:Character sets
[[:Category:Character sets|]]
Character sets
Named link with an external link icon
[https://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]
Wikipedia
Unnamed link
This should not be used in articles except in certain lists.
[https://www.wikipedia.org]
[1]
Bare URL
(Bad style)
use <nowiki></nowiki> to keep this bad style from showing
https://www.wikipedia.org
Link without arrow
(Not often used)
<span class="plainlinks">[https://www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]</span>
[[media:Classical guitar scale.ogg|Sound]]
Sound
Using the {{fullurl}} template
[{{fullurl:Help:Wiki markup|action=edit}} edit]
edit
Using the {{Edit}} template
{{edit}}
[[Hindenburg disaster|''Hindenburg'' disaster]]
Hindenburg disaster
Main page: Help:Score
Musical notation is added by using the <score>...</score> extension HTML-like tag. For example:
Main pages: Help:Visual file markup and Wikipedia:Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons can be used. To upload images, use the Commons upload wizard for photos you have taken, and the Wikipedia upload page if there may be copyright issues. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.
See the Wikipedia's image use policy for the policy used on Wikipedia.
For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the picture tutorial and extended image syntax.
File:wiki.png
Image of jigsaw globe
Main page: Help:Table
See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Tables § Appropriate
There are two ways to build tables:
Main page: Help:Columns
Use {{colbegin}} and {{colend}} templates to produce columns.
Main pages: Wikipedia:Citing sources and Help:Footnotes
See also: APA style, Chicago style, Harvard style, and MLA style
Making a reference citing a printed or online source can be accomplished by using the <ref> wiki markup tags. Inside these tags details about the reference are added.
Details about the citation can be provided using a structure provided by various templates; the table below lists some typical citation components.
Main page: Wikipedia:Transclusion
See also: Help:Template § Noinclude, includeonly, and onlyinclude
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. They are specified by putting the template's name in {{double braces}}. Most templates are pages in the Template namespace, but it is possible to transclude mainspace pages (articles) 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".
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 before, within, or after 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 |.
This text comes from the page named Template:Transclusion demo.It has been transcluded into this page.
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 ahover box for many modern browserssupporting CSS:
Hover your mouse over this text
Go to this page to see the Tooltiptemplate itself: {{Tooltip}}
These are likely to be helpful on talk and project pages.
You should sign your comments by appending four tildes to the comment, which adds your user name plus date/time.
~~~~
Username (talk) 09:39, 31 May 2025 (UTC)
Adding three tildes will add just your user name.
~~~
Username (talk)
Adding five tildes gives the date/time alone.
~~~~~
09:39, 31 May 2025 (UTC)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Wiki_markup&diff=330350877&oldid=330349143 Diff between revisions 330349143 and 330350877]
Diff between revisions 330349143 and 330350877
[[Special:Diff/330349143/330350877|Diff between revisions 330349143 and 330350877]]
[[Special:Diff/330350877|Diff between revisions 330349143 and 330350877]]
[[Special:Permalink/330350877|Revision 330350877]]
Revision 330350877
[[Special:WhatLinksHere/Beetroot]]
Special:WhatLinksHere/Beetroot
[[Special:RecentChangesLinked/Beetroot]]
Special:RecentChangesLinked/Beetroot
I will change the color in {{color|blue|the middle part of}} this sentence.
I will change the color in the middle part of this sentence.
This is how to {{Font color||yellow|highlight part of a sentence}}.
This is how to highlight part of a sentence.
The {{xt}} family of templates can be used to highlight example text. These templates do not work in mainspace—that is, in regular articles—they are intended for use on project pages (such as Wikipedia:Manual of Style), help pages, and user pages.
Further information: Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines § Editing own comments
You can indicate <del>deleted</del> and <ins>inserted</ins> material.
You can indicate deleted and inserted material.
See also: Help:HTML in wikitext § s
The {{Strikethrough}} template marks up an inline span of text with the <s>...</s> tag. This is usually rendered visually by drawing a horizontal line through it. Outside of articles, it can be used to mark something as no longer accurate or relevant without removing it from view. Do not use it, however, to indicate document edits. For that, use the <del>...</del> tag instead. See § Show deleted or inserted text for details.
The {{Strikethrough}} template and <s>...</s> tag are for inline content only; to strike out a block of text, such as a multi-line talk page post, use either {{Strikethroughdiv}} or <div style="text-decoration: line-through"></div> to render the entire block with strikethrough 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!
<nowiki> tag:
The <nowiki> tag ignores [[wiki]]''markup''. It reformats text byremoving newlines and multiplespaces. It still interpretscharacters specified by&name;: →
<pre> tag:
[Text without a URL]:
Single square brackets holding[text without a HTTP URL] arepreserved, but single squarebrackets containing a URL aretreated as being an externalWeb link.
Leading space:
Leading spaces are another wayto preserve formatting.
"WP:NOWIKI" redirects here. For the essay about the name "Wiki", see Wikipedia:Don't abbreviate "Wikipedia" as "Wiki"! For the Wikipedia language edition, see Norwegian Wikipedia.
There are two types of nowiki markup, which operate in different ways:
Both forms neutralize the rendering of wiki markup, as shown in the examples below. For example, the characters that have wiki markup meaning at the beginning of a line (*, #, ; and :) can be rendered in normal text. Editors can normalize the font of characters trailing a wikilink, which would otherwise appear in the wikilink font. And newlines added to wikitext for readability can be ignored.
Note to template editors: tag <nowiki> works only on its source page, not the target.
# Ordered list
A micro-second.
ab
''Italics' markup''
[[Example]]
<!-- revealed -->
The rest of the section consists of simple, live examples showing how a single nowiki tag escapes entire linkage structures, beyond [[wikilink]] and {{template}}:
Unless you use the two "balanced" nowiki tags, troubleshooting strip marker errors and template parameter-handling inconsistencies is a risk. Also, a rendering error may arise when two [[...]] square brackets are on the same line, or two {{...}} curly brackets are in the same section, but only when the two have the nowiki markup placed inconsistently.
(These are all live examples.)
page name [[ wp:pagename | page name ]][[ wp:pagename | page name ]][[ wp:pagename | page name ]][[wp:pagename | page name ]]
For nested structures, escaping an inner structure escapes its outer structure too.
wp: pagename [[ wp: {{ 1x | pagename }} ]][[ wp: {{ 1x | pagename }} ]][[ wp: {{ 1x | pagename }} ]]
For two, first pipes, two nowiki tags are required:
label [[ wp: pagename | {{ 1x | label }} ]][[ wp: pagename | {{ 1x | label }} ]]
See also: Template:tl
For templates, put nowiki before the first pipe. If a parameter has a wikilink, put it in that, an inmost position.
{{ val | u=> ms | 49082 }}{{ val | u= > ms | 49082 }}{{ val | u=> ms | 49082 }}{{ val | u=> ms | 49082 }}{{ val | u=> [[ ms ]] | 49082 }} Y
Further information: Help:Magic words and Help:Parser function
For input parameters, {{{1}}}, {{{2}}}, just write them out, unless they have a default (which goes behind their pipe): {{<nowiki />{1|default}}} → {{{1|default}}}
For a parser function nowiki goes between bracketing-pair characters, or anywhere before the : colon.
outYes{{ #ifeq: inYes | inYes | outYes | outNo }}{{ #ifeq: inYes | inYes | outYes | outNo }}{{ #ifeq: inYes | inYes | outYes | outNo }} {{ #ifeq: inYes | inYes | outYes | outNo }}
Behavioral switches expect the tag anywhere:
Tags do not display; they are just markup. If you want them to, insert <nowiki /> after an < opening angle bracket; it goes only in the very front. Opening tags and closing tags must be treated separately.
Blue <span style=color:blue> Blue </span>bel /> N<section end=label /> Y
Use template {{tag}} instead of nowiki tags to display parser tags:
Character entities, nowiki cannot escape. To escape HTML or special character entities, replace & with &. For example, &lt; → <
To display a nowiki tag, you can (1) use {{tag}}, (2) replace the < left angle bracket with its HTML character entity, or (3) nest nowiki tags in each other:
<nowiki>...</ nowiki >< nowiki>...</ nowiki >< nowiki>...</ nowiki >
<nowiki />< nowiki />< nowiki />< nowiki />
Nowiki tags do not otherwise nest, so it is the second and fourth that displays:
12<nowiki>34</nowiki> second and fourth {{!}}<nowiki>|</nowiki>
These simply scan from left to right. The paired tags cannot overlap, because the very first pair-match nullifies any intervening tags inside. Unbalanced tags always display.
Nowiki tags do not display table markup, use <pre>...</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-like and wiki markup tags are escaped, spaces and line breaks are preserved, but HTML elements are parsed.
As <pre> is a parser tag, it escapes wikitext and HTML tags. This can be prevented with the use of <includeonly></includeonly> within the <pre>, making it act more like its HTML equivalent:
Invisible HTML <pre> tags can also be inserted by preceding text with a space character, like:
Alternatively, consider using {{pre}} template or <syntaxhighlight lang="text">...</syntaxhighlight>.
See also: Help:Hidden text
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 visible only 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.:
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.
See also: Help:Magic words § Variables
Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, etc., but Sunday = 0
{{ns:index}} e.g. {{ns:1}} → full name of namespace
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} is the number of pages in the main namespace that contain a link and are not a redirect. This includes full articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages but not in English; {{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}}.
Main page: Help:HTML in wikitext
Many HTML tags can be used in wiki markup. You can check your HTML by using markup validation.
See the 'Coding wiki markup' section of the Help navigation navbox below for additional links.
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that uses wikitext—wikitext is not named after Wikipedia. ↩
The version of LaTeX used is a subset of AMS-LaTeX markup; see Help:Displaying a formula for details. /wiki/Help:Displaying_a_formula ↩