Help:Format a page

Most text formatting is usually done with Wiki markup, so people don't have to learn HTML.

Wiki markup

Writing for wikipedia articles is a bit different from writing on a standard word processor. Instead of a strict "what you see is what you get" approach (also called [|WYSIWYG] by fans of computer jargon), wiki uses simple text codes for formatting. The approach is similar to that used in writing HTML for web pages, but the codes are simpler.

The wiki can accept some HTML tags directly, but most people use the built-in MediaWiki markup language, which is designed for ease of editing.

Bold and italics

The most commonly used wiki tags are bold and italics. Bolding and italicizing is done by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):

• ''italics'' is rendered as italics. (2 apostrophes on either side)
• '''bold''' is rendered as bold. (3 apostrophes on either side)
• '''''bolded italics''''' is rendered as bolded italics. (2 + 3 = 5 apostrophes on either side)

It is a Wikipedia convention to boldface the subject of an article when it is first mentioned in the article. For example, the article Sikhism starts:

Sikhism, the youngest of the world religions, is barely five hundred years old. Its founder, Guru Nanak, was born in 1469....

If there are alternatives to the title the same applies, for example Naam Japo starts:

Naam Japo or Naam Japna - To remember God by repeating His name. This is a guideline in the Rehit Mariyada of Guru Gobind Singh. This concept is permeated in the Siri Guru Granth Sahib as the way in which humans can conquer ego, greed, attachment, anger and lust....

Another Wikipedia convention is to italicize book, movie and computer/video game titles. If the first mention of the subject of an article is also a book or movie title then bold italics is used. For example, the article Wand kay Shako starts:

Wand kay Shako is one of the three main pillars of the teaching of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith. The other two pillars are Naam Japo and Kirat Karni...

Headings and subheadings

Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up the article by inserting a heading for each section.

Headings can be created like this:

• ==Top level heading== (2 equals signs)
• ===Subheading=== (3 equals signs)
• ====Another level down==== (4 equals signs)

If an article has at least four headings, a table of contents will automatically be generated. Try creating a heading in this page's sandbox. It will be added automatically to the table of contents for the page, assuming three others already exist. When you're done, click below to continue.

Indenting

For instructions on how to indent, see Chapter 6 of this tutorial

Size of Text/Fonts

This sections show you how to increase or decrease the size of the text being displayed:

• <div style="font-size:75%;">

• </div>

• <div style="font-size:125%;">

• </div>

• <div style="font-size:150%;">

• </div>

• <div style="font-size:200%;">

• </div>

Adding Color to Text

This section deal with the commands to add color to text. You need a command to switch on the color and a command to switch it off. The command to switch on is: </font color= ''name of color''> and the command to switch off color is simply

• <font color=red> This will give you text in RED </font color>

• <font color=green> This will give you text in GREEN </font color>

• <font color=blue> This will give you text in BLUE </font color>

• <font color=yellow> This will give you text in YELLOW </font color>

• <font color=brown> This will give you text in BROWN </font color>

• <font color=purple> This will give you text in PURPLE </font color>

• <font color=orange> This will give you text in ORANGE </font color>

Combining various commands

Some of the Wiki commands can be combine to give striking results.

The example below shows enlarged text(125%) in color (Red):

• <div style="font-size:125%;">

• </div>

The example below shows enlarged text(150%) in color (Purple) with the words "bigger text" in bold italics:

• <div style="font-size:150%;">

• </div>