The most frequently asked questions about text formatting are answered. Also, TextFormattingRules contains the complete TWiki shorthand system on one quick reference page.

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How do I make a separator?

You can make a horizontal separator by entering three dashes at the beginning of a line: ---.

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How do I create a heading?

You can create six sizes of headings - <h1>...<h6> in HTML - by typing, from the beginning of a line, three dashes (-), from one to six plus signs (+), a space, and your heading text. The FAQ questions on this page are created with: ---+++ Have a question?.

• You can insert a nested table of contents, generated from headings, by placing %TOC% wherever you like on a page (see TWikiVariables for more %TOC% options).

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Text enclosed in angle brackets like <filename> is not displayed. How can I show it as it is?

TWiki interprets text as HTML. The '<' and '>' characters are used to define HTML commands. Text contained in angle brackets is interpreted by the browser if it's a valid HTML instruction, or ignored if it isn't - either way, the brackets and its contents are not displayed.

If you want to display angle brackets, enter them as HTML codes instead of typing them in directly:

• < = <
&gt; = >

• You enter: (a > 0)

  Result: (a > 0)

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Some words appear highlighted, with a "?" link at the end. How can I prevent that?

A question mark after a word is a link to a topic that doesn't yet exist - click it to create the new page. This is a TWiki feature - typing a MeaningfulTitle^? in a comment is an invitation for someone else to add a new branch to the topic.

To prevent auto-linking - say you want to enter a word like JavaScript (the proper spelling!) - prefix the WikiStyleWord^? with the special TWiki HTML tag <nop>:

• <nop>WikiStyleWord displays as WikiStyleWord

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How can I write fixed font text?

The quickest way is to enclose the text in equal signs:

• You enter: Proportional text, =fixed font=, proportional again.

  Result: Proportional text, fixed font, proportional again.

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Text I enter gets wrapped around. How can I keep the formatting as it is?

TWiki interprets text as HTML, so you can use the preformatted HTML text option to keep the new line of text as is. Enclose the text in <pre> </pre>, or in TWiki's own <verbatim> </verbatim> tags:

This text will keep its format as it is:
<verbatim>
  Unit     Price   Qty  Cost
  -------  ------  ---  ------
  aaa       12.00    3   36.00
</verbatim>

The pre tag is standard HTML; verbatim is a special TWiki tag that also forces text to fixed font mode, and also prevents other tags and TWiki shortcuts from being expanded.

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How do I create tables?

There are three possibilities:

1. Use Wiki rule with "|" vertical bars.
2. Use HTML tables with <table>, <tr>, <td> tags.
3. Use preformatted text with <verbatim> tags.

1. Use Wiki rule with "|" vertical bars

• Example text:
  | cell A1 | cell B1 | cell C1 |
| cell A2 | cell B2 | cell C2 |
• Example output:

  cell A1	cell B1	cell C1
  cell A2	cell B2	cell C2

2. Use HTML tables with <table>, <tr>, <td> tags

This is a manual process using HTML commands.

You enter:

<table border="1">
  <tr>
    <th> Head A  </th> <th> Head B  </th>
  </tr><tr>
    <td> Cell A2 </td> <td> Cell B2 </td>
  </tr><tr>
    <td> Cell A3 </td> <td> Cell B3 </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Result:

Head A	Head B
Cell A2	Cell B2
Cell A3	Cell B3

3. Use preformatted text with <verbatim> tags

See "Text enclosed..."

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Can I include images and pictures?

Yes, this is possible. The easiest way of including images is to attach a GIF, JPG or PNG file to a topic and then to include it with text %ATTACHURL%/myImage.gif . FileAttachment has more.

There are actually two ways of including inline images.

1. Using URL ending in .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png

This is a simple and automatic way of including inline images. Simply write the URL of the image file, this will create the inline image for you. Note: The images must be accessible as a URL.

• You enter: TWiki http://pyqplayer.sourceforge.net/pub/wikiHome.gif logo.
  Result: TWiki logo.

2. Using <img> tag

This is a manual process where you have more control over the rendering of the image. Use the <img> tag of HTML to include GIF, JPG and PNG files. Note: The display of the topic is faster if you include the WIDTH and HEIGHT parameters that have the actual image size. http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/wilbur/special/img.html has more on inline images.

• You enter: TWiki <img src="http://pyqplayer.sourceforge.net/pub/wikiHome.gif" width="46" height="50" /> logo.
  Result:
  TWiki logo.

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Can I write colored text?

Sure. The quickest way is to use the <font color="colorCode"> and </font> tags - they're HTML tags that work in any browser, (although they've been phased in the latest version).

You can also use a style attribute: style="color:#ff0000", placed in most HTML tags - span is an all-purpose choice: "<span style="color:#ff0000">.

"colorCode" is the hexadecimal RGB color code, which is simply Red, Green and Blue values in hex notation (base 16, 0-F). For pure red, the RGB components are 255-0-0 - full red (255), no green or blue. That's FF-0-0 in hex, or "#ff000=" for Web page purposes. For a basic color selection (you can StandardColor names instead of hex code in the =font tag only):

Black:	"#000000"	Green:	"#008000"	Silver:	"#c0c0c0"	Lime:	"#00ff00"
Gray:	"#808080"	Olive:	"#808000"	White:	"#ffffff"	Yellow:	"#ffff00"
Maroon:	"#800000"	Navy:	"#000080"	Red:	"#ff0000"	Blue:	"#0000ff"
Purple:	="#800080"=	Teal:	"#008080"	Fuchsia:	"#ff00ff"	Aqua:	"#00ffff"

• You enter: <font color="#ff0000"> Red color </font> draws attention.

  Result: Red color draws attention.

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-- PeterThoeny - 13 Sep 2001
-- MikeMannix^? - 14 Sep 2001

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