Mediawiki markup overview

Features currently not working with moin’s mediawiki parser are marked with MWTODO.

Features currently not working with moin’s rst parser are marked with reSTTODO.

Headings

Markup:

= Level 1 =
== Level 2 ==
=== Level 3 ===
==== Level 4 ====
===== Level 5 =====
====== Level 6 ======

Result:

Level 1

Intentionally not rendered as level 1 so it does not interfere with Sphinx’s indexing

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5
Level 6

Text formatting

These markups can be used within text to apply character style.

Markup

Result

'''Bold text'''

Bold text

''Italic text''

Italic text

'''''Bold and italic text'''''

Bold and italic text

<nowiki>no ''markup''</nowiki>

no ''markup''

<u>underline</u>

underline

<del>strikethrough</del>
or
<s>striketrough</s>

strikethrough

<code>Fixed width</code>
or
<tt>Fixed width</tt>

Fixed width

<pre>Preformatted text
without '''markups'''</pre>
Preformatted text
without '''markups'''

reSTTODO table headers are not formatted as headers (see “Tables” section for corresponding MWTODO)

Images

MWTODO Use of [[File:...]] causes this error: AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'keyword'

Syntax

The syntax for inserting an image is as follows:

[[File:<filename>|<options>|<caption>]]

The options field can be empty or can contain one or more of the following options separated by pipes (|).

Format option:

Controls how the image is formatted in the item.

one of border and/or frameless, frame or thumb

Resizing option:

Controls the display size of the picture. The aspect ratio cannot be changed.

one of <width>px, x<height>px, <width>x<height>px or upright

Horizontal alignment option:

Controls the horizontal alignment of an image.

one of left, right, center or none

Vertical alignment option:

Controls the vertical alignment of a non-floating inline image.

one of baseline, sub, super, top, text-top, middle (default), bottom or text-bottom

Link option:

The option link=<target> allows to change the target of the link represented by the picture. The image will not be clickable if <target> is left empty.

Please note that the link option cannot be used with one of the options thumb or frame.

Other options:

The alt=<alternative text> option sets the alternative text (HTML attribute alt=) of the image.

The option page=<number> sets the number of the page of a .pdf or .djvu file to be rendered.

Examples

Markup

Description

[[File:example.png]]

Displays an image without further options.

[[File:example.png|border]]

Displays the image with a thin border.

[[File:example.png|frame|text]]

Displays the image in a frame (not inline) and shows text as caption.

[[File:example.png|thumb|text]]

Displays a thumbnail of the image (not inline) and shows text as caption.

[[File:example.png|frameless]]

Like thumb but inline and without border and frame

Paragraphs

Markup:

You can leave an empty line to start a new paragraph.

Single breaks are ignored.
To force a line break, use the <br /> HTML tag.

Result:

You can leave an empty line to start a new paragraph.

Single breaks are ignored. To force a line break, use the
HTML tag.

Horizontal rules

Markup:

A horizontal rule can be added by typing four dashes.

----

This text will be displayed below the rule.

Result:

A horizontal rule can be added by typing four dashes.


This text will be displayed below the rule.

reSTTODO Horizontal rule is not interpreted.

Preformatted text

Markup:

␣Each line that starts
␣with a space
␣is preformatted. It is ''possible''
␣to use inline '''markups'''.

Result:

Each line that starts
with a space
is preformatted. It is possible
to use inline markups.

MWTODO Preformatted text is not interpreted.

reSTTODO Line blocks (lines starting with |) are not interpreted.

Comments

Markup:

<!-- This is a comment -->
Comments are only visible in the modify window.

Result:

Comments are only visible in the modify window.

MWTODO This is not interpreted (i.e. comments are printed).

MWTODO A line starting with ## is treated as comment, although it should be treated as part of an ordered list (see section “Ordered lists”).

MWTODO It seems that /*…*/ is treated as comment, whereas this is not intended in mediawiki syntax.

Symbol entities

A special character can be placed by using a symbol entity. The following table shows some examples for symbol entities:

Entity

Character

&mdash;

&larr;

&rarr;

&lArr;

&rArr;

&copy;

©

It is also possible to use numeric entities like &#xnnnn; where “nnnn” stands for a hexadecimal number.

Lists

Ordered lists

Ordered lists are formed of lines that start with number signs (#). The count of number signs at the beginning of a line determines the level.

Markup:

# First item
# Second item
## First item (second level)
## Second item (second level)
### First item (third level)
# Third item

Result:

  1. First item

  2. Second item

  1. First item (second level)

  2. Second item (second level)

  1. First item (third level)

  1. Third item

Unordered lists

Markup:

* List item
* List item
** List item (second level)
*** List item (third level)
* List item

Result:

  • List item

  • List item

  • List item (second level)

  • List item (third level)

  • List item

Definition lists

Markup:

;term
: definition
;object
: description 1
: description 2

Result:

term

definition

object

description 1

description 2

Mixed lists

It is possible to combine different types of lists.

Markup:

# first item
# second item
#* point one
#* point two
# third item
#; term
#: definition
#: continuation of the definition
# fourth item

Result:

  1. first item

  2. second item

  • point one

  • point two

  1. third item

term

definition

continuation of the definition

  1. fourth item

Indentations

Definition lists can also be used to indent text.

Markup:

: single indent
:: double indent
:::: multiple indent

Result:

single indent
double indent

multiple indent

Footnotes

Footnotes can be used for annotations and citations rolled out of the continuous text.

Markup:

This is a footnote <ref>This description will be placed at the item's bottom.</ref>

Result:

This is a footnote [1].

[1] This description will be placed at the item’s bottom.

Tables

Syntax

Markup

Description

{|

table start (required)

|+

table caption (optional) MWTODO (not interpreted)

only between table start and first row

|-

table row (optional)

This is not necessary for the first row.

|

table data (required)

Start each line that contains table data with | or separate data on the same line with ||

!

table header (optional) MWTODO (not formatted as header)

Start each line that represents a table header with ! or separate different headers on the same line with !!.

|}

table end (required)

Basic tables

Note that the following tables do not have visible borders as this has to be done with XHTML attributes.

MWTODO Tables should be borderless by default, the border attribute is not interpreted.

Markup:

{|
|row 1, column 1
|row 1, column 2
|-
|row 2, column 1
|row 2, column 2
|}

Result:

row 1, column 1

row 1, column 2

row 2, column 1

row 2, column 2

Markup:

{|
!header 1
!header 2
|-
|A
|B
|-
|C
|D
|}

Alternative syntax:

{|
!header 1!!header 2
|-
|A||B
|-
|C||D
|}

Result:

header 1

header 2

A

B

C

D

It is possible to use other elements inside tables:

Markup:

{|
!header 1
!header 2
|-
|A line break<br />can be done with the XHTML tag.
|A pipe symbol has to be inserted like this: <nowiki>|</nowiki>
|-
|
* This
* is a bullet list
* in a table cell.
|[http://www.example.com Hyperlink]
|}

Result:

header 1

header 2

A line break
can be done with the XHTML tag.

A pipe symbol has to be inserted like this: |

  • This

  • is a bullet list

  • in a table cell

Hyperlink

MWTODO Lists cannot be used inside cells.

XHTML attributes

It is allowed to use XHTML attributes (border, align, style, colspan, rowspan, …) inside tables.

Markup:

{|border="1"
|This table has a border width of 1.
|align="left" | This cell is left aligned.
|-
|colspan="2" | This cell has a colspan of 2.
|}

Result:

This table has a border width of 1.

This cell is left aligned.

This cell has a colspan of 2.

MWTODO attributes border and align are not interpreted

reSTTODO colspan is not interpreted