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Markup Syntax

WikiWriter markup is intended to be quick to write, easy to read, and sensible to use. I put the whole syntax on this one page, in case you'd like to print it out for reference.

Topics: Page Links | Create New Page | Here Links | External Links | Headings | Paragraphs | Bulleted Lists | Numbered Lists | Mixed Lists | Spans | Divs | Images | Tables | Macros such as Included Files, Index Entries, HeadInfo, Title, Mark, SuperComment Commands

HTML is Okay

If you are comfortable writing HTML markup, go right ahead and use it. HTML works just fine in WikiWriter. But it's easier and faster to use WikiWriter's simplified markup with features like automatic page creation and linking and quick layout with DIV blocks.

WikiWriter Markup

WikiWriter has special markup for links (double-parentheses), inline formatting (double-brackets), and structure commands (token followed by a space at the beginning of a line). Explanations and examples follow, below.

Page Links

To create a link to an WikiWriter page, put the page name in double parentheses:

    ((Getting Started))

will produce the link Getting Started

You can use a description for the link display. Separate the page name from the description with a vertical bar:

    ((intro|Introduction))

will produce the link Introduction.

Create a new page by writing a link for the page. When you Save your text, then click on the new link in the displayed page, WikiWriter will create the page. Select Edit page, and go to work on it.

"You are here" Links

Links to the current page have the "here" style applied to them:

    ((Markup Syntax))

will look like Markup Syntax. This is a feature for building navigation lists, like the box in the upper right corner of this page. Build a list of page links in a separate file, include that file on each page, and WikiWriter will highlight the current page in the list to give the viewer a sense of location. You can disable this effect by deleting or commenting-out the "here" style in the CSS file.

Web Links

External links, to Web sites in the Outside World, will work (of course!) only while you are connected to the Internet. Since the external site will not know about your WikiWriter project, there will be no way to get back when you follow an external link. Therefore, WikiWriter will create a link that uses target="_blank" in the link reference so the link will open a new browser window. Then users can close the external link window when they're done, to return to WikiWriter.

External links use the full URL, in single brackets

    [http://hytext.com/]

will produce the code:

    [<a href="http://hytext.com/" target="_blank">http://hytext.com/</a>]

which will produce the link [http://hytext.com/]. Notice the brackets are still in place, as a sign to the user that the link is external.

You can use a link description by following the URL with a space. Anything after the space, still inside the brackets, will be the link description. So:

    [http://hytext.com/ HyText Wiki Works]

will produce a link that looks like [HyText Wiki Works] without the inelegant URL stuff.

Headings

Use leading equal signs to designate a line for a heading. Heading levels 1-6 are supported by WikiWriter:

    = Heading One
    == Heading Two
    === Heading Three
    ==== Heading Four
    ===== Heading Five
    ====== Heading Six

produces:

Heading One

Heading Two

Heading Three

Heading Four

Heading Five

Heading Six

Note that you must have a space between the equal sign(s) and the text.

Paragraphs

Create paragraph endings by pressing Enter. You may use one or more blank lines, if you wish. In the HTML display, only one blank line will appear between paragraphs, no matter how many blank lines you have in the source text. Paragraph spacing is controlled by the CSS file.

Bulleted (Unordered) Lists

Indicate a list item with a leading star (asterisk (*)) with a space separating it from the text. Use two, or three, stars to produce second or third level sublist (list item indentation). A slash-star(/*) marks the end of a list or sublist. You need a slash-star for each level you want to end:

    * List item one
    * List item two
    * List item three
    ** Second level item
    ** Another second level item
    *** Third level item
    /*
    /*
    * Back at level one
    /* End of list

produces:

List item one
List item two
List item three
- Second level item
- Another second level item
  - Third level item
Back at level one

End of list

Numbered (Ordered) Lists

Use hash marks (#) for numbered lists, with a slash-hash (/#) to end a list or sublist:

    # List item one
    # List item two
    # List item three
    ## Second level item
    ## Another second level item
    ### Third level item
    /#
    /#
    # Back at level one
    /# End of list

produces:

List item one
List item two
List item three
1. Second level item
2. Another second level item
  1. Third level item
Back at level one

End of list

Mixed Lists

You can mix bullets and numbers:

    # List item one
    # List item two
    # List item three
    ** Second level bullet
    ** Another second level bullet
    *** Third level bullet
    /*
    /*
    # Back at level one
    /# End of list

List item one
List item two
List item three
- Second level bullet
- Another second level bullet
  - Third level bullet
Back at level one

End of list

Spans

Mark text with double brackets for applying a SPAN style for inline text formatting. The first word in the brackets is the style name listed in the CSS file. For instance, "b" for bold, "i" for italics, and "rev" for reverse are in the default CSS file.

For instance, [[b "b" for bold]], [[i "i" for italics]],
and [[rev "rev" for reverse]] are in the default CSS file.

For instance, "b" for bold, "i" for italics, and "rev" for reverse are in the default CSS file.

You can nest spans if the nesting is logical, but you have to keep track of the brackets:

This would be [[b [[i [[rev bold italic reversed]]]]]].

This would be bold italic reversed.

Available SPAN styles are in the SPANS sections of the iwiki.css CSS file, as shown in the SPAN Styles dropdown list in the WikiWriter menu bar.

Divs

For blocks of text (and/or graphics, lists, other blocks, etc.) use DIV elements named in the CSS file. Open the DIV with a dot and the class name (followed by a space if you have additional text on the same line), and close it with a dot and "end" where you want to terminate the effect of hte DIV.

.result This is a "result" DIV.
.end

This is a result DIV.

The appearance and behavior of DIVs is specified in the CSS file. If you nest DIVs, you have to close with a dot-end for each DIV in the set:

.plan This is a "plan" DIV...
.result ... holding a "result" DIV.
.end
.end

This is a "plan" DIV...

... holding a "result" DIV.

Available DIV styles are in the DIVs sections of the iwiki.css CSS file, as shown in the DIV Styles dropdown list in the WikiWriter menu bar.

Preformatted Text

The HTML "PRE" tag serves to block WikiWriter display formatting and show the raw text. To disable HTML tags in a PRE block, you must replace any left-angle brackets (the opening mark for an HTML tag) with ampersand-lt-semicolon (<).You can see how to use the PRE tag by selecting Edit page and looking at the source for this page. Use Cancel Editing to get back to the display view of the page.

Images

Use typical HTML to call in an image:

 <img src="frog.gif">

gives you

Tables

You have to use HTML markup to create tables. There's the PRE tag version:

<pre>
--------------------------------------
Some text          Some more text
A word or two      Maybe three or four
--------------------------------------
</pre>

gives you:

--------------------------------------
Some text          Some more text
A word or two      Maybe three or four
--------------------------------------

For more elegant tables, use HTML table markup:

<table border=1>
<tr>One Cell</td><td>Another cell</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2>Big 2-column cell</td></tr>
</table>

which gives you:

One Cell Another cell

Big 2-column cell

Macro Commands: Include, Index, HeadInfo, Title, Mark, SuperComment commands

Include — To include one WikiWriter page in another, use the token "@@inc" at the beginning of a line, followed by a space and the page name:

   @@inc HelpTOC

inserts the navigation menu at the top of this page, for instance. The menu itself is at HelpTOC. Notice that the menu simply lists the links for the Help project. The "here" link processing identifies the link for the current page, and gives it special display treatment according to the "here" style in the CSS file.

Index — To add an item for indexing, put the item on a separate line, marked with @@index. Use commas to separate multiple items in a single index entry line:

   @@index Indexing
   @@index navigation, edit box, syntax

To build an index for a project, select the menu item Tools > Build Index. The system will scan all the pages in the project and build an index file index.db list index entries with their pages.

Headinfo — To insert information to be included in an HTML page's HEAD element, put the item on separate lines starting at the very top of the file, each line marked with @@headinfo:

   @@headinfo <meta name="keywords" value="markup, syntax, tools">
   @@headinfo <link rel="STYLESHEET" href="print.css" type="text/css">

Title — To provide an alternative to the default page title (derived from the page filename), use @@title:

   @@title Markup Syntax

The filename for this page is markup.db, and the default title is therefore markup. The above macro entry gives this page the title Markup Syntax when the page is converted to HTML, making the page more presentable (since the title is displayed in the window title bar) and more accessible to search engines (which use the title to display search results) when uploaded to a web site.

Mark — Use this one to mark the anchor for an internal (within-the-page) link:

  @@mark top

Then, for the link to "top", insert a link with the "#" symbol:

  ((#top))

or, more elegantly if you want a fancier link than "#top":

  ((#top|Top of Page))

Don't use spaces in @@mark names.

SuperComment — You can already put non-displaying comments into your pages with the HTML  tags. To create non-compiling SuperComments, readable in WikiWriter source .DB files but not compiled out to HTML or MHT pages, bracket the comment block with !! and /! starting in the first column of a line:

  !! SuperComment block starts here -- this line does not compile.
  Any lines in this block do not compile.
  /! SuperComment ends here -- this line does not compile,
 but any lines after it do compile.