About/Text Formatting Rules

This page provides a more complete list of some of the markup sequences available. 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 try editing the Wiki Sandbox. Some additional markup may be listed in a box when you are actually editing a page.

See also Images in Wiki Pages for more formatting tips, and Example Indentation in Trope Lists.

Paragraphs

 * Do not indent paragraphs
 * Words wrap and fill as needed
 * Use blank lines as separators
 * Use \ (backslash) at the end of a line to join the next line to the current one
 * Use \\ (two backslashes) at the end of a line to force a line break

Bulleted Lists
Bullet lists are made by placing asterisks at the left margin. More asterisks increases the level of bullet. We limit to three levels:


 * First-level list item
 * Second-level list item
 * A third level item
 * Four bullets, but still a third level item!
 * Another second-level item
 * A first-level item

Horizontal Line
Four or more dashes at the beginning of a line produce a horizontal line.

Emphasis

 * Use doubled single-quotes (), i.e., two apostrophes, for emphasis (usually italics'')
 * Use tripled single-quotes (), i.e. three apostrophes, for strong emphasis (usually bold''')
 * Use five single-quotes (), or triples within doubles (five apostrophes), for some other kind of emphasis (usually bold italics')
 * Use pairs of doubled at-signs (@@monospace@@) for  text.
 * Note: the two pairs of at-signs have to be on the same line of markup text, and they cause line breaks.
 * The equivalent of is to put double at-signs at the beginning and end of each line.
 * Emphasis can be used multiple times within a line, but cannot span across markup line boundaries (i.e., you can't put a paragraph break in the middle of bold text).
 * Little note about potholes and emphasis: the single-quotes need to go outside the brackets in order for it to work properly. For example, PotHole this is the right way, and gets you this. On the other hand, PotHole this is the wrong way, and leaves you with this. In order to bold/italicize only part of a pothole, you need to make a separate one; PotHole like PotHole this, for instance, to get it like this.

Text Effects

 * Big and Small caps: AC:Text for (as opposed to using [-...-] for ALL CAPS in smaller text )
 * Superscript: superscript:2 for 2
 * Subscript: subscript:2 for 2
 * Spoiler tagging: spoiler:hide this text for.
 * Strike-through: strike:text (note that, due to abuse, this only works on the forums, and is invisible on the wiki proper)

Images
URLs ending with .gif, .jpg, or .png are displayed as images in the page and float left, allowing text to appear on the right if there is room.

Making an image caption: caption-width:number:some text  will place an enclosed box under the image. Setting the number parameter to the width of the image will make the caption line up nicely with the image.

To shift an image and text to the right:

For images: quoteright:Number:Image URL

For text: caption-width-right:number:some text

Redirects
If you want a trope title to redirect to another trope with content (e.g. make Buffy point to Buffy the Vampire Slayer), in Buffy enter the following (but see Creating New Redirects first for guidelines!):

redirect: BuffyTheVampireSlayer

In order to redirect an un-punctuated title page to its punctuated title counterpart, use the "Ptitlexxxxx" is found at the end of the punctuated title page's URL. Note that redirects to punctuated titles and single word titles (such as Handguns) must have the page title be surrounded by double curly brackets. Like so :

See Creating New Redirects for more information.

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

Escape Sequence
Anything placed between [= and =] is not interpreted. This makes it possible to easily do WikiWords that are not links and turn off other special formatting interpretation. The [= and =] can span multiple input lines, allowing effects to be applied to multiple input lines. For example,  to be monospace and uninterpreted (useful for program listings).

Note that some markups--if left complete within the escape sequence--are interpreted. The redirect markup is one. For these, you will need to escape in parts, like just the brackets.

Numbered Lists
Numbered lists are made by placing number-signs (#) at the left margin.


 * 1) Prepare the experiment
 * 2) Unwrap the pop-tart
 * 3) Insert the pop-tart into the toaster
 * 4) Begin cooking the pop tart
 * 5) Stand back

The starting number can be changed by putting [ numlist:START_NUMBER ] at the beginning of the list and [ /numlist ] at the end, where START_NUMBER is the number you want the list to start at. Inside this block, all lines that do not begin with "#" are treated as comments and are not displayed; nested lists are not supported here, either.

This line will not be displayed.
 * 1) Prepare the experiment
 * 1) Unwrap the pop-tart
 * 2) Insert the pop-tart into the toaster
 * 3) Begin cooking the pop tart
 * 4) Stand back
 * 5) If cooking bacon at the same time, make sure to not back towards the stove unless you're wearing a shirt. And pants.

Definition Lists
Definition lists are made by placing colons at the left margin:


 * term
 * definition of term
 * second-level item: definition of 2nd-level item

This effect can be duplicated by using "->", where each additional "-" increases the indent. Font size is decreased for lines prefixed in this manner. Note: insert a dummy comment line before each indented line (-- and higher) to ensure that all indents show.

becomes "term"

"definition of term"

"second-level item"

"definition of 2nd-level item"

Tables
Table 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.


 * align=center border=1 width=50%
 * Left || Center || Right||
 * A || B || C||
 * || single || ||
 * || multi span ||||

Folders
Long spans of text can be collapsed like so:

folder:Title Or Description Text to hide. /folder
 * List
 * To
 * Hide

Title Or Description
Text to hide.
 * List
 * To
 * Hide

Pages with collapsing folders often have a folder control listed first:

foldercontrol

Quote Blocks
Useful only on the forums, since the markup doesn't work in the main wiki. It can be practiced in the Sandbox forum.

Text that you want to quote.

Special Characters
HTML special characters can be used ("named character entities"). There is a list of them here.

Right To Left Text
Some languages and scripts like Arabic or Hebrew require the opposite of the usual left to right text flow.

For example rtl:Text goes here. would end up as this:

Notice that the punctuation will be mirrored accordingly.

Comments
Text following a %% tag, up to the end of the line, is not displayed and will be visible only in the editing markup. Using this tag at the start of the line will make the entire line hidden from view.

Any word surrounded by percent signs -- e.g. %comment%, %rem%, or so on, will also be treated as a comment marker and text following it (until the end of line) will not be displayed.

Note that any line containing an external link will not allow a comment after the link. This is to prevent parts of the URL from becoming part of a comment in case the URL has more than one percent sign in it. This line, for example, won't, due to the following link to this page. [Administrivia/Text Formatting Rules]]

Examples:

Behold as I disappear as if by

Alternatively, an entire comment block can be created by utilizing a side-effect of the "numlist" block discussed above, where no lines that do not start with # are displayed.