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

Indenting can improve the layout of a discussion considerably, making it much easier to read. A standard practice is to indent your reply one more level deep than the person you are replying to.

There are several ways of indenting in Wikipedia:

Plain indentations

The simplest way of indenting is to place a colon (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.

For example:

This is aligned all the way to the left.

:This is indented slightly.

::This is indented more.

is shown as:

This is aligned all the way to the left.

This is indented slightly.

This is indented more.

Bullet points

You can also indent using bullets, usually used for lists. To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (*). Similar to indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.

A brief example:

*First list item

*Second list item

**Sub-list item under second

*Isn't this fun?

Which is shown as:

• First list item
• Second list item
  • Sub-list item under second
• Isn't this fun?

Numbered items

You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). This is usually used for polls and voting. Again, you can affect the indent of the number by the number of #'s you use.

Example:

#First item

#Second item

##Sub-item under second item

#Third item

Shows up as:

1. First item
2. Second item
   1. Sub-item under second item
3. Third item

Example discussion

Here is an example of a well-formatted discussion:

Hi. I have a question about this article. I'm pretty sure purple elephants only live in New York! JayRandumWikiUser 02:49, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Well, last time I was in New York, the elephants I saw were green. — try2BEEhelpful 17:28, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I think you should find a source for your claims. Living × Skepticism 20:53, 11 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:

• Elephants Monthly
• Elephants World

— try2BEEhelpful 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I live in Australia, where the elephants look like kangaroos! The people below agree with my statement: -DontGdayMateMe 17:28, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)

1. ElefantLuvr 01:22, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
2. AisleVoteOnAnything 05:41, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)
3. alittlebehindthetimes 18:39, 27 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Note that if you want to include a list in your comments, add colons before each item, for example:

:::Okay, these elephant journals agree with me:
:::* ''Elephants Monthly''
:::* ''Elephants World''
:::— [[Wikipedia:User page|try2BEEhelpful]] 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Also, signing your message off is done by:

• Writing ~~~ for the name (try2BEEhelpful), or
• Writing ~~~~ for the name and date (try2BEEhelpful 19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)), or
• Writing ~~~~~ for the date only (19:09, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)).

You should usually sign with both name and date but votes are often signed with names only.

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>

Experiment

Experiment! This time, instead of editing a sandbox, leave a message on the talk page by clicking "Discuss this page" or "discussion". Remember to sign your user name. You might want to try responding to someone else's post. Remember, you should use "Show preview" to see if your formatting works before you save.