User:Proteins/Wiki markup

Wiki-markup is a set of commands to specify how an article should look. This markup is incorporated into the article; it is invisible to readers, but becomes apparent as soon as you click on the edit this page tag. If you wish to contribute to Wikipedia, it is essential that you learn wiki-markup, at least the basic elements.

The following tables are designed to help you learn wiki-markup. The first two tables present the most basic and commonly used wiki-markup, whereas later tables show wiki-markup of ever greater complexity. All the tables highlight the wiki-markup in red, and show examples of the results. They also describe the customary way these markup commands are used on Wikipedia, with links to the Wikipedia's Manual of Style for more details.

Wiki-markup is a shorthand for HTML markup. It replaces HTML tags with punctuation marks that are very rare in normal text, such as a double square bracket, double equal signs, or double single quotes. If you know HTML tags, learning wiki markup should be relatively easy. The HTMl equivalents are also given in the tables below.

A simpler version of this page can be found at WP:CHEAT ("the cheat sheet").

Article basics
{| border="2" style="text-align:center;" ! Description !! Example !! Wiki !! HTML tag !! Usage || DNA ||  DNA   (2 square brackets) || &lt;a href="DNA"&gt; text &lt;/a&gt; || Common || || ==  Section heading ==  (2 equal signs)
 * + Article basics
 * rowspan=2 | Paragraphs || || blank line || &lt;p&gt; text &lt;/p&gt; || Common
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | Paragraphs are separated by a exactly one blank line. They are the most common, but most invisible, markup.
 * rowspan=2 | Wikilinks
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | Paragraphs are separated by a exactly one blank line. They are the most common, but most invisible, markup.
 * rowspan=2 | Wikilinks
 * rowspan=2 | Wikilinks
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | Wikilinks (also known as "internal links") are the bread-&-butter of Wikipedia, and part of the reason for its success. They can be used in lieu of a detailed explanation — and to reconcile the sometimes competing needs to be intelligible to lay-people, and yet technically accurate.  Thus, if readers wish to know more about the topic, they can click on the link.  For more details on the customary usage of wikilinks, please follow this link.
 * rowspan=2 | Headings
 * rowspan=2 | Headings
 * rowspan=2 | Headings

Subsection heading
(3 equal signs)

Subsubsection heading
(4 equal signs) &lt;h3&gt; text &lt;/h3&gt; &lt;h4&gt; text &lt;/h4&gt; || Common || Assertion. || Assertion. &lt;ref&gt; Text &lt;/ref&gt; || none || Common ||  || thumb|left|120px|  Diagram of DNA replication (2 square brackets + parameters) || &lt;img src=" DNA_replication.svg " width="120" /&gt; || Common
 * &lt;h2&gt; text &lt;/h2&gt;
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | Headings are essential for organizing the articles. However, you should never create an H1 heading with one equal sign, e.g., =  Subsection heading =.
 * rowspan=2 | References
 * rowspan=2 | References
 * rowspan=2 | References
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | References are essential for Wikipedia's reliability. They are placed after the assertion and any adjacent punctuation, such as a period or comma.   They appear as superscripted numbers that link to a "References" section at the end of the article.
 * rowspan=2 | Images
 * rowspan=2 | Images
 * rowspan=2 | Images
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | In this example, "thumb" allows for a caption, "left" aligns the image on the left margin, and "120px" sets the width in pixels. The final parameter is the caption.
 * }
 * }

Font effects
A complementary introduction to character formatting can be found here.

Templates and tables
&lt;caption&gt; Table caption &lt;/caption&gt; &lt;tbody&gt; &lt;tr&gt; &lt;th&gt; Heading 1 &lt;/th&gt; &lt;th&gt; Heading 2 &lt;/th&gt; &lt;th&gt; etc. &lt;/th&gt; &lt;/tr&gt; &lt;tr&gt; &lt;td&gt; Row 1, column 1 &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt; Row 1, column 2 &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt; etc. &lt;/td&gt; &lt;/tr&gt; &lt;tr&gt; &lt;td&gt; Row 2, column 1 &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt; Row 2, column 2 &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt; etc. &lt;/td&gt; &lt;/tr&gt; &lt;/tbody&gt; &lt;/table&gt;
 * align="left" | &lt;table&gt;
 * Rare
 * colspan=4 style="background-color:lightblue;" | Although far simpler than the corresponding HTML code, the wiki markup for tables is probably the most difficult to learn. It may be simplest just to learn to click on the toolbar button (shown here in the leftmost column under Tables).  Tables are powerful tools for presenting information, but they should be used sparingly, since Wikipedia favors prose explanations.  Table markup symbols generally consist of vertical bars | (also called "pipes") combined with other punctuation.
 * }
 * }

Deprecated
Although wiki-markup allows for them, these HTML elements should not be used on Wikipedia.