Simple editing is one of the major benefits of using a wiki. Users can edit pages without knowing HTML, and still use many formatting features of HTML. Most wikis define a set of formatting rules to convert plain text into HTML. Some wikis (like this one) also allow some HTML "tags", like <b>, <i>, and <pre> within a page.

The following text is an overview of the MediaWiki text formatting rules. For examples without all the explanatory text. Feel free to use our Sandbox to test your skills. To see how any page is formatted, just follow the link "Edit" at the top of the page.

Contents 1 Basic text formatting 2 Paragraphs 3 Headlines 4 Lists 4.1 Simple (bulleted) lists 4.2 Numbered lists 5 Internal links 6 External links 7 Tables 8 Indented text 9 Preformatted text 10 Horizontal lines 11 Disable formatting 12 Redirecting 13 Rules

Basic text formatting Edit

Code	In the article	Explanation
'''Text'''	Text	Bold text.
''Text''	Text	Italic text.
'''''Text'''''	Text	Bold and italic text.

Paragraphs Edit

You should divide your text into paragraphs to improve the readability of the article. To start a new paragraph, just add a blank line between two lines.

Headlines Edit

The text "Headlines" is formatted as a headline. Headings are delimited by 1-6 equal signs (=). They correspond to HTML's <h1> to <h6> tags.

= Headline size 1 =
== Headline size 2 ==
=== Headline size 3 ===
==== Headline size 4 ====
===== Headline size 5 =====
====== Headline size 6 ======

Lists Edit

Simple (bulleted) lists Edit

* List 1, item 1.
* List 1, item 2.
** List 2, item 1.
*** List 3, item 1.
*** List 3, item 2.
* List 1, item 3.

• List 1, item 1.
• List 1, item 2.
  • List 2, item 1.
    • List 3, item 1.
    • List 3, item 2.
• List 1, item 3.

Numbered lists Edit

# List 1, item 1.
# List 1, item 2.
## List 2, item 1.
### List 3, item 1.
### List 3, item 2.
# List 1, item 3.

1. List 1, item 1.
2. List 1, item 2.
   1. List 2, item 1.
      1. List 3, item 1.
      2. List 3, item 2.
3. List 1, item 3.

This means that list 2 is a sub-item of list 1, item 2 and list 3 is a sub-item of list 2, item 1.

Internal links Edit

Internal links are links to another article in this wiki. Put the article's name (as displayed at the top of the page) between [[ and ]]. For instance, [[N]] is displayed like that: N.

If the displayed text diverses from the article's name, use this syntax: [[Article's name|text which shall be displayed]]. For example, the link [[N|this page]] is used in the following sentence:

To learn more about N, visit this page.

Some internal links are displayed red which means that the corresponding articles don't exist yet. When following the link, you come to the "Edit" page where you can create the article if you want. If you want to create an article, it's the best strategy if you insert a link to this page in another article first. This way, other wikipedians will find your article easier.

External links Edit

External links use this syntax: [URL text which shall be displayed]. For example, this link has this syntax: [http://metanet.2.forumer.com this link].

If you use only [http://metanet.2.forumer.com] without any other text, a link like this is created: [1] (The numbers increase; for example the 5th external link without description in one article is displayed as [5].)

Tables Edit

• To start a table, start a new line and add only {|.
• To start a new table row, start a new line and add only |-.
• To start a table cell, start a new line, add | followed by a space and the content of the table cell.

Indented text Edit

Text can be indented to several levels. Example:

: Text indented to first level
:: Text indented to second level
::: Text indented to third level

Text indented to first level

Text indented to second level

Text indented to third level

Preformatted text Edit

Preformatted text is used for instance to display code examples.

<pre>
Text number one
Text number one
</pre>

 Text number two
 Text number two

creates this two paragraphs:

Text number one
Text number one

Text number two
Text number two

Text number one is defined as pre-formatted text by the <pre> tag while text number two is formatted like pre-formatted text because of the spaces at the beginning of each line. Pre-formatted text means that every format (like line breaks or multiple spaces) is displayed in the same way.

Line breaks and multiple spaces are reduced to one single space. Use <br> to create a line break and &nbsp; to create a space that won't be reduced.

Horizontal lines Edit

To insert a line between two paragraphs, write four hyphens on a separate line.

----

Disable formatting Edit

You can disable Wiki formatting for a certain region of text by enclosing this region in <nowiki> and </nowiki>. For example, the code:

<nowiki>''This isn't italic.''</nowiki>

creates this paragraph:

''This isn't italic.''

This feature should only be used to describe Wiki formatting to new users, like on this page.

Redirecting Edit

You can create a redirecting page by typing "#REDIRECT [[example]]". For example, Help: Contents redirects to this page:

#REDIRECT [[Help:Editing]]

This feature should be used when there are two or more terms for the same thing, or in a similar scenario.

Rules Edit

• To quote text without applying the wiki formatting rules, enclose it within a ... section. Within a nowiki section, only HTML-quoting of special characters (<>&) will occur--no other formatting rules will be applied.
• A line which ends in a backslash character (\) will be joined with the next line before most formatting rules are applied. This can be useful for breaking up long sections of text in line-sensitive sections (like lists or indented text).
• If raw-HTML sections are enabled (they are disabled by default), you can enter raw HTML code within a <html> ... </html> section. Note that no special character escaping is done, so you will need to use sequences like < if you want to display a < character.
• Most of the formatting rules are order-independent. On rare occasions the order of processing may be important. The rules are processed in the following order: raw HTML sections, HTML quoting, nowiki tags, backslash line joining, preformatted sections, paragraphs, lists and indented text, horizontal lines, italic/bold text, URLs, and finally ordinary WikiName links.
• Do not indent paragraphs. (Indenting may cause your text to appear in a monospaced font.)
• Leave a single blank line between paragraphs.
• To create a horizontal line, type 4 or more minus/dash/hyphen (-) characters.
• If you want to test your abilities, use the Help:Sandbox.
• When writing an article, please write more than one sentence. Reasons:
  • This is simply stupid.
  • Others will think: "Hey, this link is blue, so there's nothing to do." The article will never be improved or expanded, even if there were people who know how to expand it.

Please respect these rules. There are people called administrators or sysops (system operators) like Maestrosync, Lord of Destiny, or Maniac who will delete stupid articles. These administrators are even allowed to ban you if you misbehave. If you have any questions, however, you should leave a message on their user talk pages.