TWiki Text Formatting

TWiki Text Formatting

Working in TWiki is as easy as typing in text. You don't need to know HTML, though you can use it if you prefer. Links to topics are created automatically when you enter WikiWords. And TWiki shorthand gives you all the power of HTML with a simple coding system that takes no time to learn. It's all laid out below.

TWiki Editing Shorthand

Formatting Command: You write: You get:

Paragraphs:
Blank lines will create new paragraphs.

1st paragraph

2nd paragraph

1st paragraph

2nd paragraph

Headings:
Three or more dashes at the beginning of a line, followed by plus signs and the heading text. One plus creates a top level heading, two pluses a second level heading, etc. The maximum heading depth is 6.

You can create a table of contents with the %TOC% variable. If you want to exclude a heading from the TOC, put !! after the ---+.

Empty headings are allowed, but won't appear in the table of contents.

---++ Sushi
---+++ Maguro
---+++!! Not in TOC

Sushi

Maguro

Not in TOC

Bold Text:
Words get shown in bold by enclosing them in * asterisks.

*Bold*

Bold

Italic Text:
Words get shown in italic by enclosing them in _ underscores.

_Italic_

Italic

Bold Italic:
Words get shown in bold italic by enclosing them in __ double-underscores.

__Bold italic__

Bold italic

Fixed Font:
Words get shown in fixed font by enclosing them in = equal signs.

=Fixed font=

Fixed font

Bold Fixed Font:
Words get shown in bold fixed font by enclosing them in double equal signs.

==Bold fixed==

Bold fixed

You can follow the closing bold, italic, or other (* _ __ = ==) indicator with normal punctuation, such as commas and full stops.

Make sure there is no space between the text and the indicators.

_This works_,
_this does not _

This works,
_this does not _

Verbatim (Literal) Text:
Surround code excerpts and other formatted text with and tags.

verbatim tags disable HTML code. Use and tags instead if you want the HTML code within the tags to be interpreted.
NOTE: Preferences variables (* Set NAME = value) are set within verbatim tags.


class CatAnimal {
  void purr() {
    
  }
}

class CatAnimal {
  void purr() {
    
  }
}

Separator (Horizontal Rule):
Three or more three dashes at the beginning of a line..

-------

Bulleted List:
Multiple of three spaces, an asterisk, and another space.

For all the list types, you can break a list item over several lines by indenting lines after the first one by at least 3 spaces.

   * level 1
      * level 2
   * back on 1
   * A bullet
     broken over
     three lines
   * last bullet

level 1
- level 2
back on 1
A bullet broken over three lines
last bullet

Numbered List:
Multiple of three spaces, a type character, a dot, and another space. Several types are available besides a number:

Type	Generated Style	Sample Sequence
1.	Arabic numerals	1, 2, 3, 4...
A.	Uppercase letters	A, B, C, D...
a.	Lowercase letters	a, b, c, d...
I.	Uppercase Roman Numerals	I, II, III, IV...
i.	Lowercase Roman Numerals	i, ii, iii, iv...

   1. Sushi
   1. Dim Sum
   1. Fondue

   A. Sushi
   A. Dim Sum
   A. Fondue

   i. Sushi
   i. Dim Sum
   i. Fondue

Sushi
Dim Sum
Fondue

Sushi
Dim Sum
Fondue

Sushi
Dim Sum
Fondue

Definition List:
Three spaces, a dollar sign, the term, a colon, a space, followed by the definition.

   $ Sushi: Japan
   $ Dim Sum: S.F.

Sushi: Japan
Dim Sum: S.F.

Table:
Each row of the table is a line containing of one or more cells. Each cell starts and ends with a vertical bar '|'. Any spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored.

| *bold* | header cell with text in asterisks
| center-aligned | cell with at least two, and equal number of spaces on either side
| right-aligned | cell with more spaces on the left
| 2 colspan || and multi-span columns with multiple |'s right next to each other
|^| cell with caret indicating follow-up row of multi-span rows
You can split rows over multiple lines by putting a backslash '\' at the end of each line
Contents of table cells wrap automatically as determined by the browser

The TablePlugin provides the |^| multiple-span row functionality and additional rendering features

| *L* | *C* | *R* |
| A2 |  B2  |  C2 |
| A3 |  B3  |  C3 |
| multi span |||
| A5-7 |  5  |  5 |
|^| six | six |
|^| seven | seven |
| split\
  | over\
  | 3 lines |
| A9 |  B9  |  C9 |

L	C	R
A2	B2	C2
A3	B3	C3
multi span
A5-7	5	5
	six	six
	seven	seven
split	over	3 lines
A9	B9	C9

WikiWord Links:
CapitalizedWordsStuckTogether (or WikiWords) will produce a link automatically if preceded by whitespace or parenthesis.

If you want to link to a topic in a different web write Otherweb.TopicName.

The link label excludes the name of the web, e.g. only the topic name is shown. As an exception, the name of the web is shown for the WebHome topic.

It's generally a good idea to use the TWikiVariables %TWIKIWEB% and %MAINWEB% instead of TWiki and Main.

WebStatistics

Sandbox.WebNotify

Sandbox.WebHome

WebStatistics

WebNotify

Sandbox

Anchors:
You can define a reference inside a TWiki topic (called an anchor name) and link to that. To define an anchor write #AnchorName at the beginning of a line. The anchor name must be a WikiWord. To link to an anchor name use the [[MyTopic#MyAnchor]] syntax. You can omit the topic name if you want to link within the same topic.

[[WikiWord#NotThere]]

[[#MyAnchor][Jump]]

#MyAnchor To here

WikiWord#NotThere

Jump

To here

Forced Links:
You can create a forced internal link by enclosing words in double square brackets.
Text within the brackets may contain optional spaces; the topic name is formed by capitalizing the initial letter and by removing the spaces; for example, [[text formatting FAQ]] links to topic TextFormattingFAQ. You can also refer to a different web and use anchors.

To "escape" double square brackets that would otherwise make a link, prefix the leading left square bracket with an exclamation point.

[[wiki syntax]]

[[Main.TWiki users]]

escaped:
![[wiki syntax]]

wiki syntax

Main.TWiki users

escaped: [[wiki syntax]]

Specific Links:
You can create a link where you specify the link text and the URL separately using nested square brackets [[reference][text]]. Internal link references (e.g. WikiSyntax) and URLs (e.g. ) are both supported. The rules described under Forced Links apply for internal link references.

Anchor names can be added as well, to create a link to a specific place in a topic.

[[WikiSyntax][wiki syntax]]

[[http://gnu.org][GNU]]

wiki syntax

GNU

Prevent a Link:
Prevent a WikiWord from being linked by prepending it with an exclamation point.

!SunOS

SunOS

Disable Links:
You can disable automatic linking of WikiWords by surrounding text with and tags.

It is possible to turn off all auto-linking with a NOAUTOLINK preferences setting.

 
 RedHat &
 SuSE

RedHat & SuSE

Mailto Links:
E-mail addresses are linked automatically. To create e-mail links that have more descriptive link text, specify subject lines or message bodies, or omit the e-mail address, you can write [[mailto:user@domain][descriptive text]].

[email protected]

[[mailto:[email protected]]\
[Mail]]

[[mailto:?subject=\
Hi][Hi]]

_email1

Using HTML

You can use just about any HTML tag without a problem. You can add HTML if there is no TWiki equivalent, for example, write deleted text to get ~~deleted text~~.

There are a few usability and technical considerations to keep in mind:

On collaboration pages, it's better not to use HTML, but to use TWiki shorthand instead - this keeps the text uncluttered and easy to edit.
If you use HTML use XHTML 1.0 Transitional syntax.
Script tags may be filtered out, at the discretion of your TWiki administrator.

Recommendations when pasting HTML from other sources:

Copy only text between and tags.
Remove all empty lines. TWiki inserts paragraph tags on empty lines, which causes problems if done between HTML tags that do not allow paragraph tags, like for example between table tags.
Remove leading spaces. TWiki might interpret some text as lists.
Do not span a tag over more than one line. TWiki requires that the opening and closing angle brackets - <...> - of an HTML tag are on the same line, or the tag will be broken.
In your HTML editing program, save without hard line breaks on text wrap.

TWiki converts shorthand notation to HTML for display. To copy a fully marked-up page, simply view the source in your browser and save the contents. If you need to save HTML frequently, you may want to check out .

Script tags

You can use HTML tags for your TWiki applications. However note that your TWiki administrator can disable in topics, and may have chosen to do so for security considerations. TWiki markup and TWikiVariables are not expanded inside script tags.

Hyperlinks

Being able to create links without any special formatting is a core TWiki feature, made possible with WikiWords and inline URLs.

Internal Links

GoodStyle is a WikiWord that links to the GoodStyle topic located in the current web.

NotExistingYet^? is a topic waiting to be written. Create the topic by clicking on the ?. (Try clicking, but then, Cancel - creating the topic would wreck this example!)

External Links

http://..., https://..., ftp://..., gopher://..., news://..., file://..., telnet://... and mailto:...@... are linked automatically.

E-mail addresses like are linked automatically.

[[Square bracket rules]] let you easily create non-WikiWord links.
- You can also write [[http://yahoo.com Yahoo home page]] as an easier way of doing external links with descriptive text for the link, such as .

TWiki Variables

TWiki Variables are names that are enclosed in percent signs % that are expanded on the fly.

%TOC% : Automatically generates a table of contents based on headings in a topic - see the top of this page for an example.

%WEB% : The current web, is TWiki.

%TOPIC% : The current topic name, is TextFormattingRules.

%ATTACHURL% : The attachment URL of the current topic. Example usage: If you attach a file to a topic you can refer to it as %ATTACHURL%/image.gif to show the URL of the file or the image in your text.

%INCLUDE{"SomeTopic"}% : Server side include, includes another topic. The current web is the default web. Example: %INCLUDE{"TWiki.SiteMap"}%

%SEARCH{"sushi"}% : Inline search showing the search result embedded in a topic. FormattedSearch gives you control over formatting, useful for creating web-based applications.

TWikiPreferences defines some site-wide variables. Among others:
- Line break: Write %BR% to start a new line.
- Colored text: Write: %RED% Red %ENDCOLOR% and %BLUE% blue %ENDCOLOR% colors to get: Red and blue colors.
- Documentation Graphics: Write: %H% Help, %T% Tip, %X% Alert to get: Help, Tip, Alert. For more info see TWikiDocGraphics.

There are many more variables, see TWikiVariables.

To "escape" a variable, prefix it with an exclamation mark. Write: !%SOMEVARIABLE% to get: %SOMEVARIABLE%.

TWikiPlugin Formatting Extensions

Plugins can extend the functionality of TWiki into many other areas. There are a huge number of TWiki plugins available from the web on TWiki.org.

Currently enabled plugins on this TWiki installation, as listed by %PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%:

SpreadSheetPlugin (Dakar, 8154): Add spreadsheet calculation like "$SUM( $ABOVE() )" to tables located in AVR32 Linux topics.
AliasPlugin (1.32, $Rev: 8756$): Define aliases which will be replaced with arbitrary strings automatically
BlackListPlugin (any TWiki, 9979): Utility to keep malicious users away from a public TWiki site
BlogPlugin (0.61, $Rev$): Basic blogging features used to implement the BlogUp TWikiApplication
CommentPlugin (Dakar, 8164): Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle.
DBCachePlugin (0.99, $Rev: 9173$): Lightweighted frontend to the DBCacheContrib
EditTablePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
FilterPlugin (0.94, $Rev: 8790$): Substitute and extract information from content by using regular expressions
GluePlugin (1.5, $Rev: 8784$): Enable TWikiML to span multiple lines
HeadlinesPlugin (2.01, 8154): Build news portals that show headline news based on RSS news feeds from news sites.
IfDefinedPlugin (v0.91, $Rev: 9172$): Render content conditionally
InterwikiPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8713$): Link ExternalSite:Page text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic
NatSkinPlugin (2.993, $Rev$): Supplements the bare bones NatSkin theme for TWiki
PreferencesPlugin (Dakar, 8170): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
RedDotPlugin (1.33, $Rev: 9171$): Renders edit-links as little red dots
SlideShowPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8713$): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
SmiliesPlugin (Dakar, 8154): Render smilies as icons, like :-) for or :cool: for :cool:
TablePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
TagCloudPlugin (v0.30, $Rev: 9161$): Renders a tag cloud given a list of terms
TimeSincePlugin (0.99, $Rev: 8784$): Display time difference in a human readable way.
TwistyPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 8862$): Twisty section javascript library to open/close content dynamically
UserInfoPlugin (1.50, 8832): Render information about users on your TWikiSite
WysiwygPlugin (Dakar, 8592): Translator framework and WYSIWYG editor for TWiki topics

Check on current Plugin status and settings for this site in TWikiPreferences.

Common Editing Errors

TWiki formatting rules are fairly simple to use and quick to type. However, there are some things to watch out for, taken from the TextFormattingFAQ:

Q: Text enclosed in angle brackets like is not displayed. How can I show it as it is?
- A: The '<' and '>' characters have a special meaning in HTML, they define HTML tags. You need to escape them, so write '<' instead of '<', and '>' instead of '>'.
  Example: Type 'prog ' to get 'prog '.

Q: Why is the '&' character sometimes not displayed?
- A: The '&' character has a special meaning in HTML, it starts a so called character entity, i.e. '©' is the © copyright character. You need to escape '&' to see it as it is, so write '&' instead of '&'.
  Example: Type 'This & that' to get 'This & that'.