Help:Wikitext
Wiki markup is the markup language you use to write a Wikipedia page; please see Editing for details on it, and Wikitext examples for a longer list of the possibilities of Wikitext.
Links and URLs
The anchor element, <a>, is not allowed. The following are used instead: [[ ]], [ ], ~~~~, ~~~, http, ISBN, RFC & {{ }}. See the table below.
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London has public transport. (Article link)
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San Francisco also has public transportation. (Renamed link)
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San Francisco also has public transportation. (Blend link) Examples include buses, taxicabs, and trams.
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See the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. (Other page link)
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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. Italics is a piped link to a section within another page.
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(Example renamed links) Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom. Automatically hide namespace: Village pump. Or both: Manual of Style But not: [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]]
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(Create page link) Links to pages that don’t exist yet look red: Wikipedia:Community portal/Opentask/Requested articles
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(Navigation links) Wikipedia:How to edit a page is a link to this page.
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(Signing comments) The character tilde (~) is used when adding a comment to a Talk page. You should sign your comment by appending four tildes (~~~~) to the comment so as to add your user name plus date/time:
Adding three tildes (~~~) will add just your user name:
and adding five tildes (~~~~~) gives the date/time alone:
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(Redirects)
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(Wikimedia link) To connect, via interwiki link, to a page on the same subject in another language, put a link of the form: [[language code:Title]] near the bottom of the article. For example, in article "Plankton", which is available on a lot of other wikis, the interwiki link to the German Wikipedia looks like:
where the "de" is the language-code for "Deutsch" (the German language).
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(Linked and why) What links here and Related changes
pages can be linked as: |
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(User edits) A user's Contributions page can be linked as: Special:Contributions/UserName or Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0 |
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(Categorize)
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(Category page link)
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(External links) Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources:
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(Wikimedia text link) Linking to other wikis:
Linking to another language's wiktionary:
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(Book sources) ISBN 012345678X ISBN 0-12-345678-X Link to a book using alternate text, such as its title.
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(RFC number) Text mentioning an RFC number anywhere, e.g. RFC 4321. |
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(“As of” tag) “As of” tags like "As of April 2009" and "as of April 2009" categorize info that will need updating. |
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(Media link)
Some uploaded sounds are listed at Commons:Sound. |
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(Edit links) Link directly to edit for an existing page, or apply other link attributes.
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Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.
| What it looks like | What you type |
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| A picture:
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A picture: [[Image:wiki.png]] |
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With alternative text: [[Image:wiki.png|alt=Puzzle globe logo]]
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Floating to the right side of the page using the frame attribute and a caption:
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Floating to the right side of the page using the ''frame'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|frame|alt=Puzzle globe logo|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]
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| Floating to the right side of the page using the thumb attribute and a caption:
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Floating to the right side of the page using the ''thumb'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|thumb|alt=Puzzle globe logo|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]
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| Floating to the right side of the page without a caption:
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Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|right|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]
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| A picture resized to 30 pixels...
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A picture resized to 30 pixels... [[Image:wiki.png|30 px|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]
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| Linking directly to the description page of an image: | Linking directly to the description page of an image: [[:Image:wiki.png]]
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| Linking directly to an image without displaying it: | Linking directly to an image without displaying it: [[Media:wiki.png|Image of the jigsaw globe logo]]
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| Using the span and div tag to separate images from text (note that this may allow images to cover text): | Example: <div style="display:inline; width:220px; float:right;"> Place images here </div> |
| Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers): | Example: {| align=right
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Place images here
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See the Wikipedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Wikipedia.
For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the picture tutorial.
Section headings
Use headings to split articles into sections. Put a heading on a separate line. A level-two heading is the highest level editors use in an article.
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Section headings
Headings organize your writing into sections. The Wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. Subsection
Using more equals signs creates a subsection. A smaller subsection
Start with 2 equals signs. Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs. |
==Section headings== ''Headings'' organize your writing into sections. The Wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. ===Subsection=== Using more equals signs creates a subsection. ====A smaller subsection==== Start with 2 equals signs. Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs. |
Lists
| What it looks like | What you type |
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marks the end of the list.
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* ''Unordered lists'' are easy to do: ** Start every line with a star. *** More stars indicate a deeper level. *: Previous item continues. ** A new line * in a list marks the end of the list. * Of course you can start again. |
A new line marks the end of the list.
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# ''Numbered lists'' are: ## Very organized ## Easy to follow #: Previous item continues A new line marks the end of the list. # New numbering starts with 1. |
Character formatting
| What it looks like | What you type |
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Italicized text |
''Italicized text'' '''Bold text''' '''''Italicized & Bold text''''' |
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Syntax highlighting for source code. Computer code has a colored background
and more stringent formatting. Suppose we
want to define #include <iostream>
int main ( int argc, char **argv ) {
std::cout << "Hello World!";
return 0;
}
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Computer code has a colored background
and more stringent formatting. Suppose we
want to define <code>int main()</code>:
<source lang=cpp>#include <iostream>
int main ( int argc, char **argv ) {
std::cout << "Hello World!";
return 0;
}</source>
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You can use small text for captions. |
You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. |
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Better stay away from big text, unless it's within small text. |
Better stay away from <big>big text</big>, unless <small> it's <big>within</big> small</small> text. |
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You can You can also mark
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You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new <del>logical</del> with the old <s><del>physical</del></s> markup. |
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Suppressing interpretation of markup:
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<nowiki>Link → (''to'')
the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]</nowiki>
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Commenting page source:
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<!-- comment here --> |
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Extra spacing within text can best be achieved using the pad template: Mary had a little lamb. |
Mary {{pad|4em}} had a little lamb.
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Diacritical marks:
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À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ |
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Punctuation:
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¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” |
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Commercial symbols:
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™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
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Subscripts:
Superscripts:
Combined:
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x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]] |
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Greek characters:
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α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω |
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Mathematical characters:
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∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔ |
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Mathematical formulae:
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<math>\,\! \sin x + \ln y</math><br>
{{math|sin ''x'' + ln ''y''}}
<math>\mathbf{x} = \mathbf{0}</math><br>
{{math|<b>x</b> {{=}} <b>0</b>}}
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Spacing in simple math formulae:
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Obviously, {{math|''x<''<sup>2</sup> ≥ 0}} is true
when {{math|<VAR >x</VAR >}} is a real number.
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Complicated formulae:
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: <math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>
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(see also: Chess symbols in Unicode)
No or limited formatting—showing exactly what is being typed
A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them—what you see, is what you get!
| What it looks like | What you type |
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| <nowiki> tag: The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: → |
<nowiki> The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: → </nowiki> |
<pre> tag:The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: → |
<pre> The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: → </pre> |
| Leading space: Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting.
Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets Wiki markup and special characters: → |
Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets [[Wiki]] ''markup'' and special characters: → |
Invisible text (comments)
It's uncommon, but on occasion acceptable, to add a hidden comment within the text of an article. The format is this:
<!-- This is an example of text that won't normally be visible except in "edit" mode. -->
Table of contents
At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the table of contents (TOC) to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also Compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.
Tables
There are two ways to build tables:
- in special Wiki-markup (see Table)
- with the usual HTML elements: <table>, <tr>, <td> or <th>.
For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see When to use tables.
Variables
(See also Variable)
| Code | Effect |
|---|---|
| {{CURRENTWEEK}} | 20 |
| {{CURRENTDOW}} | 0 |
| {{CURRENTMONTH}} | 05 |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} | May |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} | May |
| {{CURRENTDAY}} | 18 |
| {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} | Sunday |
| {{CURRENTYEAR}} | 2025 |
| {{CURRENTTIME}} | 20:30 |
| {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} | 6,995,371 |
| {{NUMBEROFUSERS}} | 49,156,573 |
| {{PAGENAME}} | Wikitext |
| {{NAMESPACE}} | Help |
| {{REVISIONID}} | - |
| {{localurl:pagename}} | /wiki/Pagename |
| {{localurl:Wikipedia:Sandbox|action=edit}} | /w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=edit |
| {{fullurl:pagename}} | //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagename |
| {{fullurl:pagename|query_string}} | //en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pagename&query_string |
| {{SERVER}} | //en.wikipedia.org |
| {{ns:1}} | Talk |
| {{ns:2}} | User |
| {{ns:3}} | User talk |
| {{ns:4}} | Wikipedia |
| {{ns:5}} | Wikipedia talk |
| {{ns:6}} | File |
| {{ns:7}} | File talk |
| {{ns:8}} | MediaWiki |
| {{ns:9}} | MediaWiki talk |
| {{ns:10}} | Template |
| {{ns:11}} | Template talk |
| {{ns:12}} | Help |
| {{ns:13}} | Help talk |
| {{ns:14}} | Category |
| {{ns:15}} | Category talk |
| {{SITENAME}} | Wikipedia |
NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.
CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; 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}}.
Templates
The MediaWiki software used by Wikipedia has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text), can be inserted into articles. For example, typing {{stub}} will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: {{disambig}} for disambiguation pages and {{sectstub}} like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example: {{Geo-stub}}, {{Hist-stub}}, and {{Linux-stub}}. For a complete list of stubs see Stub types.