Text Formatting Rules

Table of contents

This page provides a more complete list of some of the markup sequences available in PmWiki. Note that it's easy to create and edit pages without using any of the markups below, but if you ever need them, they're here.

To experiment with the rules, please edit the Wiki Sandbox.


Paragraphs

To create paragraphs, simply enter text. Use a blank line to start a new paragraph.

Words on two lines in a row will wrap and fill as needed (the normal XHTML behavior). To turn off the automatic filling, use the (:linebreaks:) directive above the paragraph.

Indented Paragraphs (Quotes)

Arrows (->) at the beginning of a paragraph can be used to produce an indented paragraph. More hyphens at the beginning (--->) produce larger indents.

->Four score and seven years ago our fathers placed upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers placed upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Inverted Arrows (-<) at the beginning of a paragraph can be used to produce a paragraph with a hanging indent. Adding hyphens at the beginning (---<) causes all the text to indent.

-<Four score and seven years ago our fathers placed upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers placed upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
--<Four score and seven years ago our fathers placed upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  And that food would be good too.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers placed upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. And that food would be good too.

Blocks of text to which (:linebreaks:) has been applied can be indented by preceding the first line of the block with indention arrows (->) and aligning subsequent lines under the first. An unindented line stops the block indentation. See Cookbook:Markup Tricks for an example.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists

Bullet lists are made by placing asterisks at the beginning of the line. Numbered lists are made by placing number-signs (#) at the beginning of the line. More asterisks/number-signs increases the level of bullet:

* First-level list item
** Second-level list item
### Order this
#### And this (optional)
### Then this
** Another second-level item
* A first-level item: cooking
## Prepare the experiment
### Unwrap the pop-tart
### Insert the pop-tart into the toaster
## Begin cooking the pop tart
## Stand back
  • First-level list item
    • Second-level list item
      1. Order this
        1. And this (optional)
      2. Then this
    • Another second-level item
  • A first-level item: cooking
    1. Prepare the experiment
      1. Unwrap the pop-tart
      2. Insert the pop-tart into the toaster
    2. Begin cooking the pop tart
    3. Stand back
# A list is terminated
by the first line that is not a list.
# Also terminate a list using the escape sequence [@[==]@]
[==]
# Continue a list item by lining
 up the text with leading whitespace.
# Use a forced linebreak \\
 to force a newline in your list item.
  1. A list is terminated

by the first line that is not a list.

  1. Also terminate a list using the escape sequence [==]

  1. Continue a list item by lining up the text with leading whitespace.
  2. Use a forced linebreak
    to force a newline in your list item.
## Text between list items can cause numbering to restart
## %item value=3% this can be dealt with
  1. Text between list items can cause numbering to restart
  2. this can be dealt with

Also see: PmWiki:ListStyles, Cookbook:WikiStylesPlus.

Definition Lists

Powerful new* feature
When you define terms using this markup
PmWiki will recognize them as PageTextVariables
that you can use on any page or PageList.
* Added in PmWiki version 2.2.0

Definition lists are made by placing colons at the left margin (and between each term and definition):

:term:definition of term
term
definition of term

Whitespace Rules

Whitespace indentation in lists. Any line that begins with whitespace and aligns with a previous list item (whether bulleted, numbers or definitional) is considered to be "within" that list item. Text folds and wraps as normal, and the (:linebreaks:) directive is honored.

# First-level item\\
 Whitespace used to continue item on a new line
# Another first-level item
 # Whitespace combined with a single # to create a new item one level deeper
  1. First-level item
    Whitespace used to continue item on a new line
  2. Another first-level item
    1. Whitespace combined with a single # to create a new item one level deeper

This rule also apply on definition lists, but only the number of leading colons is significant for the following whitespace indented lines.

:Item: Definition text
dispatched on several
lines
::SubItem: Same kind
 of multiline
 definition
Item
Definition text dispatched on several lines
SubItem
Same kind of multiline definition

Otherwise, lines that begin with whitespace are treated as preformatted text, using a monospace font and not generating linebreaks except where explicitly indicated in the markup. Note to administrators: Starting with version 2.2.0-beta41, this feature can be modified using $EnableWSPre. (Another way to create preformatted text blocks is by using the [@...@] markup.)

Horizontal Line

Four or more dashes (----) at the beginning of a line produce a horizontal line.

Emphasis and character formatting

Other styling

'+big+', '-small-', '^super^', '_sub_',

{+insert or underscore+},

{-delete or strikethrough or strikeout-}

big, small, super, sub,

insert or underscore,

delete or strikethrough or strikeout

See also Wiki Styles for advanced text formatting options.

References

See Links for details.

Headings

Headings are made by placing an exclamation mark (!) at the left margin. More exclamation marks increase the level of heading. For example,

!! Level 2 Heading
!!! Level 3 Heading
!!!! Level 4 Heading
!!!!! Level 5 Heading

Level 2 Heading

Level 3 Heading

Level 4 Heading

Level 5 Heading

Note that level 1 heading is already used as page title (at least in the PmWiki skin), so you should start with level 2 headings to create well formed, search engine optimized web pages.

See Cookbook:Numbered Headers for numbered headings.

Escape sequence

Anything placed between [= and =] is not interpreted by PmWiki, but paragraphs are reformatted. This makes it possible to turn off special formatting interpretations and neutralise WikiWords that are not links (even easier is to use a tick ` in front, like `WikiWord).

For preformatted text blocks, use the [@...@] markup. It does neither reformat paragraphs nor process wiki markup:

[@
Code goes here like [[PmWiki.PmWiki]]
'$CurrentTime $[by] $AuthorLink:  [=$ChangeSummary=]'; #just some code
@]
Code goes here like [[PmWiki.PmWiki]]
'$CurrentTime $[by] $AuthorLink:  [=$ChangeSummary=]'; #just some code

The multiline [@...@] is a block markup, and in order to change the styling of these preformatted text blocks, you need to apply a "block" WikiStyle.

%block blue%[@
 The font color of
 this text is blue
@]
 
  The font color of 
  this text is blue

It is also useful to use [= =] within other wiki structures, as this enables the inclusion of new lines in text values. The example below shows how to include a multi-line value in a hidden form field.

(:input hidden message "[=Line1
Line2=]":)

Comments

(:comment Some information:) can be very kind to subsequent authors, especially around complicated bits of markup.

Special Characters

When creating pages it's common to use commercial trademarks, copyright, umlaut, and other non-keyboard symbols. therefore it's important that you have the means to input these special characters.

ISO Standard codes

PmWiki supports the HTML special character listings by the w3c. W3C Page of Special Character codes ISO standard.

Here are some samples:


&#169; | &#188; | &#189; | &#174; | &#181; | &#168;

© | ¼ | ½ | ® | µ | ¨


&#198; | 32&#176; | Un&#239;ted St&#228;tes | &#182; | &#165;Yen | PmWiki&#8482;

Æ | 32° | Unïted Stätes | ¶ | ¥Yen | PmWiki™

For a nice table of the same codes that show the codes with the output go to the Noble Desktop special character page.

Other ways to do it:

Character Map

Find the "Character Map" utility in your computer's System Tools folder. Click the symbol you're interested in, and note the keystroke information at the bottom of the box. You execute these by holding "Alt" while keying the numbers on the numerical keypad of your keyboard (not the numbers across the top of the board).

&#169; = Alt+0169 = © | &#174; = Alt+0174 = ® | &#176; = Alt+0176 = ° (degrees).

Paste

There's a list of special characters at PmWiki:SpecialCharactersList. There's another illustration at PmWiki:Characters

Tables

Tables are defined by enclosing cells with '||'. A cell with leading and trailing spaces is centered; a cell with leading spaces is right-aligned; all other cells are left-aligned. An empty cell will cause the previous cell to span multiple columns. (There is currently no mechanism for spanning multiple rows.) A line beginning with '||' specifies the table attributes for subsequent tables. A '!' as the first character in a cell provides emphasis that can be used to provide headings.

||border=1 width=50%
||!Table||!Heading||!Example||
||!Left   || Center || Right||
||A       ||!  a B   ||     C||
||        || single ||      ||
||        || multi span   ||||
TableHeadingExample
LeftCenterRight
Aa BC
 single 
 multi span

See Table Directives for advanced tables.

Can't find it here?

See Markup Master Index.

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