NOTE: This is a DistributionDocument. Please help maintain high quality documentation: This is a wiki, please fix the documentation if you find errors or incomplete content. Put questions and suggestions concerning the documentation of this topic in the comments section below. Use the Support web for problems you are having using TWiki.

TWiki Text Formatting

Working in TWiki is as easy as typing in text - exactly like email. 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 - refer back to this page in a pop-up window from the Edit screen.

TWiki Editing Shorthand

1st paragraph

2nd paragraph

---++ Sushi

---+++ Maguro

*Bold*

_Italic_

__Bold italic__

=Fixed font=

==Bold fixed==

_This works_,
_this not _

<verbatim>
class CatAnimal {
  void purr() {
    <code here>
  }
}
</verbatim>

class CatAnimal {
  void purr() {
    <code here>
  }
}

-------

   * bullet item
   * another
     bullet
     item
   * last bullet item

   * level 1
      * level 2

   1. Sushi
   1. Dim Sum

   A. Sushi
   A. Dim Sum

   i. Sushi
   i. Dim Sum

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

| *L* | *C* | *R* |
| A2 |  2  |  2 |
| A3 |  3  |  3 |
| multi span |||
| A4-6 | four | four |
|^| five | five |
|^| six | six |

WebNotify

Main.TWikiUsers

[[wiki syntax]]

[[Main.TWiki users]]

escaped:
![[wiki syntax]]

[[WikiSyntax][syntax]]

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

[[http://xml.org XML]]

[[WikiWord#NotThere]]

[[#MyAnchor][Jump]]

#MyAnchor To here

!SunOS

 <noautolink>
 RedHat &
 SuSE
 </noautolink>

[[mailto:a@z.com Mail]]

[[mailto:?subject=Hi Hi]]

TWikiLinkTypes? describes some of the surprising forms of links not mentioned above.

Using HTML

You can use just about any HTML tag without a problem - however, there are a few usability and technical considerations to keep in mind. If needed, use HTML if there is no TWiki equivalent, for example, write <strike>deleted text</strike> to get deleted text.

HTML and TWiki Usability

• TIP: On collaboration pages, it's preferable NOT to use HTML, and to use TWiki shorthand instead - this keeps the text uncluttered and easy to edit.
• NOTE: TWiki is designed to work with a wide range of browsers and computer platforms, holding to HTML 4.0 and XHTML 1.0 compatibility in the standard installation - adding raw HTML, particularly browser-specific tags (or any other mark-up that doesn't degrade well) will reduce compatibility.
• Recommendations when using HTML:
  • Use XHTML 1.0 Transitional syntax
  • Remove all empty lines. TWiki inserts <p /> paragraph tags on empty lines, which causes problems if done between 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
  • If you're pasting in preformatted HTML text and notice problems, check the file in a text processor with no text wrap. Also, save without hard line breaks on text wrap, in your HTML editing program.

TWiki HTML Rendering

• TWiki converts shorthand notation to XHTML 1.0 for display. To copy a fully marked-up page, simply view source in your browser and save the contents.
  • If you need to save HTML frequently, you may want to check out TWiki:Plugins/PublishContrib - it will "generate a directory containing rendered versions of a set of TWiki pages together with any attached files."
• NOTE: The opening and closing angle brackets - <...> - of an HTML tag must be on the same line, or the tag will be broken.
  • This feature allows you to enter an unclosed angle bracket - as a greater than or less than symbol - and have it automatically rendered as if you had entered its HTML character, <, ex: a < b

TWiki and JavaScript

You can use JavaScript for your TWiki applications. Since TWiki rendering might interfere with JavaScript code you need to escape it with HTML comments and <pre> tags:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!-- Hide JavaScript and <pre> escape TWiki rendering
... put your JavaScript code here...
// Stop hiding and stop </pre> escaping TWiki rendering -->
</script>

Hyperlinks

Being able to create links without any formatting required is a core TWiki feature, made possible with WikiWords. New TWiki linking rules are a simple extension of the syntax that provide a new set of flexible options.

Internal Links

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

• Email addresses like name@domain.com 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 Yahoo home page.

TWiki Variables

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 TWiki web is the default web. Example: %INCLUDE{"TWiki04x02.SiteMap"}%

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

• TWikiPreferences defines 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 point. Write: !%SOMEVARIABLE% to get: %SOMEVARIABLE%.

TWikiPlugin Formatting Extensions

Plugins provide additional text formatting capabilities and can extend the functionality of TWiki into many other areas. For example, the optional SpreadSheetPlugin lets you create a spreadsheet with the same basic notation used in TWiki tables.

Available Plugins are located in the Plugins web on TWiki.org. Currently enabled plugins on this TWiki installation, as listed by %PLUGINDESCRIPTIONS%:

• SpreadSheetPlugin (any TWiki, $Rev: 17387 (11 Aug 2008) $): Add spreadsheet calculation like "$SUM( $ABOVE() )" to TWiki tables and other topic text
• CommentPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17302 (11 Aug 2008) $): Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle
• BlackListPlugin (any TWiki, 13186): Utility to keep malicious users away from a public TWiki site
• ChartPlugin (1.401): Create PNG or GIF charts to visualize TWiki tables
• EditTablePlugin (4.8.4, $Rev: 17302 (11 Aug 2008) $): Edit TWiki tables using edit fields, date pickers and drop down boxes
• GaugePlugin (1.003): Build dashboards that contain graphical images of gauges defined with %GAUGE{}% variables.
• InterwikiPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 14913 (17 Sep 2007) $): Link ExternalSite:Page text to external sites based on aliases defined in a rules topic
• LocalCityTimePlugin (1.011): Shows the local time of a city embedded in a TWiki topic.
• PerlDocPlugin (1.001): Extract the Perl documentation (POD) from a Perl module and display it in a topic.
• PreferencesPlugin (TWiki-4.2, $Rev: 15487 (11 Aug 2008) $): Allows editing of preferences using fields predefined in a form
• RenderListPlugin (2.0, $Rev: 16235 (11 Aug 2008) $): Render bullet lists in a variety of formats
• SlideShowPlugin (02 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17260 (11 Aug 2008) $): Create web based presentations based on topics with headings.
• SmiliesPlugin (Dakar, $Rev: 16049 (11 Aug 2008) $): Render smilies as icons, like for  :-) or for  :eek:
• TWikiDrawPlugin (Dakar, 8154): Java Applet based drawing editor
• TWikiNetSkinPlugin (1.0, $Rev: 16530 (16 Mar 2008) $): Helps formatting TWikiNetSkin? design. Enable by setting the skin to "twikinet"
• TWikiOrgPlugin (1.001): TWiki.org specific extensions
• TablePlugin (1.034, $Rev: 17367 (11 Aug 2008) $): Control attributes of tables and sorting of table columns
• TagMePlugin (TWiki 4, 1.046): Tag wiki content collectively to find content by keywords
• TinyMCEPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17302 (11 Aug 2008) $): Integration of TinyMCE? with WysiwygPlugin
• TwistyPlugin (1.4.10, $Rev: 15653 (19 Nov 2007) $): Twisty section JavaScript library to open/close content dynamically
• VarCachePlugin (Dakar, 8154): Cache TWiki variables in selected topics for faster page rendering
• WysiwygPlugin (03 Aug 2008, $Rev: 17359 (11 Aug 2008) $): Translator framework for Wysiwyg editors

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 <filename> 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 <filename>' to get 'prog <filename>'.

• 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'.

-- TWiki:Main.MikeMannix - 02 Dec 2001
-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 01 Aug 2004

Comments & Questions about this Distribution Document Topic

Updated to cover improved mailto links (EmailThisPageLink) and EasierExternalLinking. This page is now a bit too wide to easily fit into the pop-up TextFormattingRules from the Edit page - we should either set it to be wider in the edit*.tmpl templates' launchWindow routine, or perhaps use a smaller font. We should target 800x600 screens since those are still quite common according to browser stats sites, so IMO the smaller font is the way to go, although perhaps parameterisable sizes for the pop-up windows would also be a good idea (see CVS:templates/edit.iejs.tmpl for an example of parameterising JavaScript using TWikiVariables.)

Perhaps if we put a common %STYLESHEET% variable in all templates that includes an optional CSS reference, which can then include a suitable font setup?

I have also temporarily removed the %TOC%, because (1) it was generating a '*' after the TOC, due to a bug, and (2) it takes up a lot of space and doesn't seem that useful since most of the content of the page is in a table. Without a TOC, the pop-up window shows the top part of the table, which is the most useful part IMO. However, others may disagree

-- RichardDonkin - 05 Apr 2002

I'd de-TOC TWikiShorthand instead! It's pretty similar to this page, but I was gonna edit it down for the simple user's guide version. And you don't want all that in a popup window. Makes even more sense with NewContents even sharper divisions of doc type/detail, if that goes anywhere!

-- Main.MikeMannix - 04 May 2002

Just knew from support that there is a tag for preventing a link for sections of text -rather than a single WikiWord- and it is not documented above: You must surround the text with <noautolink> ... </noautolink> tags. Hope this to be of some help.

-- AntonioVega - 12 Apr 2002

Hi, Antonio: I looked around. <noautolink> is over a year old, and was briefly documented, then undocumented because people didn't like - found confusing and inconsistent - the HTML style of the tag. . <verbatim> snuck in there, and <nop> is HTML-like - I can see how these would confuse. Then again, what good's an undocumented feature (if it's useful)? Thanks for the tip - I won't add it now, but will ask. If you think it should be docced - or the brackets changed - weigh in on the See DisableWikiWordLinks... page where the discussion still goes on.

RedHat and SuSE are GNU-Linux distributors.

Useful, but the tags are too long...

-- Main.MikeMannix - 04 May 2002

Has anyone else noticed that the TWiki Editing Shorthand table has these unbalanced HTML end tags at the end of the table?

</td></tr>
</table>

I removed them....they tend to mess up table-based skins.

-- GladeDiviney - 04 May 2002

I tweaked the text so that the table is more narrow. This is needed because the popup window when getting text formatting help is small.

-- PeterThoeny - 01 Feb 2003

According to TelnetURLSupport, "(http|ftp|gopher|news|file|https|telnet)" are all supported. So I've added them to the External Links section.

-- JohnRouillard - 01 Feb 2003

The noautolink tags can't be used inline, but must be on a line by themself. I think noautolink should always work, inline and otherwise.

I also think it is rather unwiki-like to use html-style code for this, but can't think of a suitable alternative right now.

-- MattWilkie - 06 Feb 2003

I've been unable to find any notes on what the ---# style of heading is for (I saw it in one of the standard TWiki pages) and was expecting to find some notes on here. Is it any different to ---+ ?

-- GrahamAshton - 25 Jun 2003

• Graham, it looks like ---# is the same as ---+ but we need confirmation from gurus. Be patient -- PeterMasiar - 10 Jul 2003
• Correct, they are currently the same. ---# is reserved for auto-numbered headings.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Jul 2003

In the NOTE on HTML formatting and unclosed angle brackets the example displays the wrong angle bracket for the HTML entity:

<, ex: a > b

I've changed it display the proper less than entity.

-- BasilJamesWhitehouseIII - 10 Jul 2003

There seems be something wrong in linking to local files. Various typo are rendered corretly in the source page, ex. a href="file://C:/... or a href="file:///C|/..., but clicking the link has no effect. It is in Win 2k Prof. Apache, Cygwin, Perl.

-- AndrzejGoralczyk - 11 Jan 2004

Mozilla file:// links are disabled by the browser. The gory details are at MozillaBug:84128. Scroll down to comment #20 for a workaround (and the http://preferential.mozdev.org/ extension for an easier way to implement it).

If you are not using Mozilla, something else is happening and you should go to Support (ie: file:// links should work fine).

-- MattWilkie - 13 Jan 2004

Thank You, Matt. Now Mozilla works.

-- AndrzejGoralczyk - 01 Feb 2004

I found myself in the awkward situation that I wanted to use JavaScript to embed a form with some dynamic properties on a wiki page. While I would be the first one to condemn this practice :-) it would be nice if there was a way to say "this is magical, don't touch". What I need to happen is for stuff like "if (number > 1000)" to get through to the JavaScript interpreter correctly, i.e. the larger-than sign should not be converted to an entity. (Of course I had to use &gt; here to make it through.)

-- EraEriksson - 03 Mar 2004

I removed the reference to "You need TablePlugin for multi-span rows to work." since this Plugin is preinstalled in the latest Beta.

-- PeterThoeny - 17 Mar 2004

It might be wise to leave in something like "(multi-span rows provided by TablePlugin)" just in case it is uninstalled. It could also help someone visiting this site who is running an earlier version.

-- SamHasler - 22 Mar 2004

Era: I added doc on how to escape JavaScript.

Sam: Good suggestion, done.

-- PeterThoeny - 30 Mar 2004

Explained continuation lines in lists. Please check my suggested wording.

-- DanielKabs - 23 Aug 2005

Thanks Daniel, it's descriptive.

-- PeterThoeny - 24 Aug 2005

I would like to know if there is any format code that would make any given text look like it has been crossed over (I want to show for everybody to see in a explicit way what was corrected or erased in the last revision of a page)

-- JaimeCaamanoRuiz - 25 Aug 2005

You can use HTML for that, see updated docs above (under "Using HTML" section)

-- PeterThoeny - 25 Aug 2005

It was right there and I didn't see it. Sorry and thanks!

-- JaimeCaamanoRuiz - 25 Aug 2005

You didn't see it because I just added it

-- PeterThoeny - 25 Aug 2005

Moved question about attaching files to HowDoIAttachFiles. This area is for commenting on TextFormattingRules documentation.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 13 Oct 2005

This topic is important. It should be promoted to WebHome

-- ZhengShao - 23 Jan 2006

Just noticed it's already on WebHome

-- ZhengShao - 23 Jan 2006

I couldn't find an existing topic for the html methods of displaying special characters. Since I had to create one for my own TWiki installation, I'm sharing the love. Check out SpecialCharacters which has a very long list of multiple methods of displaying special symbols and characters.

-- AmandaSmith - 20 Feb 2006

I want to put a <verbatim> code snippet in a table cell, but the presence of the <verbatim> tag seems to invalidate all table-related formatting in the line where it appears. Is it possible to do have a formatted snippet in a cell?

-- NickPollitt - 10 Mar 2006

Use either HTML (<table>) or try the RecursiveRenderPlugin.

-- FranzJosefSilli - 11 Mar 2006

Is there any way to collapse and expand the different %TOC% levels so that you can view just the main general headings and then drill down into each for greater detail? (i.e. Click on a heading in the TOC and have it expand to show and sub headings. Then click on any sub headings to show further sub-sub-headings, etc)

-- PatSchmidt - 30 Mar 2006

TWiki does not have collabsable TOC entries. That is a good candidate for a Plugin. (Please ask support questions in the Support web.)

-- PeterThoeny - 30 Mar 2006

Oops...sorry about that!

-- PatSchmidt - 31 Mar 2006

When making tables--using

-- AvirupDasgupta - 04 Apr 2006

Didn't you have a look at EditTablerowPlugin or EditInTablePlugin? And PLEASE ask support questions in the Support Web!

-- FranzJosefSilli - 04 Apr 2006

Is there some rason I'm not able to use ! to escape a variable with a parameter inside fixed font tags, e.g., why doesn't this work: !%INCLUDE{ "heading name" section="content" }%

-- CarlMcKinney - 22 Aug 2006

Please ask support questions in the Support web. You can use the ! escape character only if preceeded by whitespace. An alternative escape is <nop>, e.g. %<nop>INCLUDE{ ... }%

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Aug 2006

I'd recommend updating the comment on Anchors: from The anchor name must be a WikiWord. to The anchor name must be a WikiWord of no more than 32 characters. Thanks,

-- GregoryWalden - 17 Jan 2007

Fixed. This is a wiki, by all means please feel free to update the documentation directly!

-- PeterThoeny - 18 Jan 2007

Can anyone explain what differences and similarities exists within TWiki and MediaWiki formatting rules? - Nashev

-- IlyaNenashev - 29 Mar 2007

See MediaWiki, MediaWikiSyntaxPlugin, EditSyntaxPlugin, MediaWikiTablePlugin. And please ask support questions in the Support web.

-- PeterThoeny - 29 Mar 2007

Is the feature of the "automatic anchor" to a heading considered an undocumented feature (and thus, subject to change)?

(The feature to which I'm referring is that there is automatically an anchor to every heading in a document, initially or primarily used for the TOC feature, but also usable by anyone who is aware of the feature to create a link to that heading. Further, that anchor is constructed by taking the text of the heading and:

• prepending a "#"
• deleting (all?) punctuation (iirc?)
• replacing spaces with underbars
• limiting the length to 32 characters

If not, I don't see that feature documented anywhere--but maybe I missed something? (I have a note in WikiLearn? , but that isn't TWiki documentation.)

-- RandyKramer - 17 Mar 2008

This is an undocumented feature for TOC. Better to rely on manually entered anchors before a heading, such as this one:

#CommonEditingErrors
---++ Common Editing Errors

-- PeterThoeny - 18 Mar 2008

Peter,

Thanks!

Is it worth documenting the undocumented feature? I mean, something like the following; or, if not in the official documentation, maybe by just leaving the note here?

There is an undocumented feature which automatically creates an anchor for every heading in a document to support the TOC (Table of Content) feature. This is intentionally undocumented because the details may change and you should not rely on it. Instead, create your own anchor:

#CommonEditingErrors
---++ Common Editing Errors

-- RandyKramer - 18 Mar 2008

The code for anchors on my twiki causes the link to affix two '.pl's to the view script in the hyperlink.

ie. all anchors break because there is a "view.pl.pl" call in the link. is there a way I can manually change this or is there a likely point of error in my configuration?

-- StevenMoncada - 05 Sep 2008

I have the same problem (.pl.pl) with TWiki-4.2.3, Wed, 06 Aug 2008, build 17396, Plugin API-Vversion 1.2. Please help.

-- BernhardGonitianer - 05 Oct 2008