Help:Wiki markup
This page is a tutorial for learning to work with the essential rules of wiki-formatted text, or "wikitext". Wikitext is designed to be as simple as possible so that an article may be quickly typed and styled without having to take a break to type out long HTML codes. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to channel your thoughts into writing the perfect article (or even a not-so-perfect article!).
Contents
Text formatting
Creating italicized or bold text is the simplest rule — simply use the apostrophe character in groups of two or three to create the style. (Be sure to use the "straight" apostrophe and not the curved "smart quote" characters used in some text editors and word processors!)
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
| ''italicized text'' | italicized text |
| '''bold text''' | bold text |
| '''''italicized and bold text''''' | italicized and bold text |
To create a tabbed list or a block of text using a monospace font, start the line with a space. (Be sure not to make the line too long, or it will stretch the page horizontally!) Text can also be indented in blockquotes using the colon character.
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
Preformatted text |
Preformatted text |
| : Indented text |
|
Lists
Both unordered and numbered lists are simple to create as well: simply use the asterisk or hash characters at the beginning of a line to create the entry. To create nested lists, simply add an extra asterisk or hash to the front of the line. You can even mix and match the kinds of list in a single group!
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
| * Item One * Item Two |
|
| # Item One # Item Two |
|
| * Item One ** Item Two |
|
| * Item One *# Item Two |
|
| ; term : definition |
|
Links and URLs
In a wiki, it's important to help build the web by creating links to other articles in every appropriate context. Use the following techniques to create "free links" to other OpenVistA Wiki articles:
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
| [[OpenVistA Wiki]] | OpenVistA Wiki |
| [[USS Enterprise|USS ''Enterprise'']] | USS Enterprise |
| [[This article doesn't exist]] | This article doesn't exist |
| [[OpenVistA Wiki:Policies and Guidelines]] | OpenVistA Wiki:Policies and Guidelines |
| [[OpenVistA Wiki:Policies and Guidelines|]] | Policies and Guidelines |
You can also make external links to other websites using the following formatting rules:
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
| [[Wikipedia:Star Trek]] | Wikipedia:Star Trek |
| [[Wikipedia:Star Trek|Star Trek]] | Star Trek |
| http://www.memory-alpha.org/ | http://www.memory-alpha.org/ |
| [http://www.memory-alpha.org/] | [1] |
| [http://www.memory-alpha.org/ OpenVistA Wiki] | OpenVistA Wiki |
See also: Interwiki links
Sections
If an article is long enough, you can divide the page into different sections. OpenVistA Wiki will automatically generate a table of contents based on the content for all articles with more than three sections.
You can also create a horizontal divider by using four dashes in a row.
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
| == Header Two == | Header Two |
| === Header Three === | Header Three |
| ==== Header Four ==== | Header Four |
| ---- |
|
Images and other media
See: Help: Image markup
Tables
See: Help: Table markup
Mathematical formulae
See: Help: Math markup
Variables
The MediaWiki software has a number of built-in variables for common elements that may change depending on the date.
| Code | Effect |
|---|---|
| {{CURRENTMONTH}} | 11 |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} | November |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} | November |
| {{CURRENTDAY}} | 5 |
| {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} | Tuesday |
| {{CURRENTYEAR}} | 2024 |
| {{CURRENTTIME}} | 23:22 |
| {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} | 2,606 |
NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect (i.e. number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages).
See also: Help:Template
Suppressing markup
It's also possible to tell MediaWiki to ignore any of the above rules using a simple tag:
| What you type | What you see |
|---|---|
| <nowiki>'''text here'''</nowiki> | '''text here''' |
Preformatted Terminal Output
To show preformatted text, use the <pre> html tag
<pre>
MU-beta>D ^XUP
Setting up programmer environment
This is a TEST account.
Access Code: *****
MU-beta>D ^XUP
Setting up programmer environment
This is a TEST account.
Access Code: ***********
Terminal Type set to: C-VT100
You have 117 new messages.
Select OPTION NAME: EVE
1 EVE Systems Manager Menu
2 EVENT CAPTURE ECX ECS MAINTENANCE Event Capture
3 EVENT CAPTURE (ECS) EXTRACT AU ECX ECS SOURCE AUDIT Event Capture
(ECS) Extract Audit
4 EVENT CAPTURE DATA ENTRY ECENTER Event Capture Data Entry
5 EVENT CAPTURE EXTRACT ECXEC Event Capture Extract
Press <RETURN> to see more, '^' to exit this list, OR
CHOOSE 1-5:
</pre>
