1 ## <a name="Text Formatting FAQ"></a> Text Formatting FAQ
3 The most frequently asked questions about text formatting are answered. Also, [[TextFormattingRules]] contains the complete TWiki shorthand system on one quick reference page.
7 <li><a href="#Text Formatting FAQ"> Text Formatting FAQ</a><ul>
8 <li><a href="#How do I make a separator?"> How do I make a separator?</a></li>
9 <li><a href="#How do I create a heading?"> How do I create a heading?</a></li>
10 <li><a href="#Text enclosed in angle brackets"> Text enclosed in angle brackets like <filename> is not displayed. How can I show it as it is?</a></li>
11 <li><a href="#Some words appear highlighted, w"> Some words appear highlighted, with a "?" link at the end. How can I prevent that?</a></li>
12 <li><a href="#How can I write fixed font text?"> How can I write fixed font text?</a></li>
13 <li><a href="#Text I enter gets wrapped around"> Text I enter gets wrapped around. How can I keep the formatting as it is?</a></li>
14 <li><a href="#How do I create tables?"> How do I create tables?</a></li>
15 <li><a href="#Can I include images on a page?"> Can I include images on a page?</a></li>
16 <li><a href="#Can I write colored text?"> Can I write colored text?</a></li>
24 ### <a name="How do I make a separator?"></a> How do I make a separator?
26 Create a separator - a horizontal rule - by entering three dashes at the beginning of a blank line: `---`. You can enter more than three if you like, for a more visible separator in edit mode: <br />`--------------`
30 ### <a name="How do I create a heading?"></a> How do I create a heading?
32 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?`.
34 - 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).
38 <a name="TextEnclosed"></a>
40 ### <a name="Text enclosed in angle brackets"></a><a name="Text enclosed in angle brackets "></a> Text enclosed in angle brackets like <filename> is not displayed. How can I show it as it is?
42 TWiki interprets text as HTML, and the '<' and '>' characters define where HTML commands start and end. Text _inside_ angle brackets is treated as HTML, and ignored if it doesn't actually do anything - either way, the brackets and its contents are not displayed.
44 If you want to display angle brackets, enter them as HTML codes instead of typing them in directly:
46 - `<` = `<`<br />`>` = `>`
48 - **_You enter:_** `(a > 0)`
49 **_Result:_** `(a > 0)`
53 ### <a name="Some words appear highlighted, w"></a> Some words appear highlighted, with a "?" link at the end. How can I prevent that?
55 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.
57 To prevent auto-linking - say you want to enter a word like JavaScript (the proper spelling!) - prefix the [[WikiStyleWord]] with an exclamation point:
59 - `!WikiStyleWord` displays as WikiStyleWord
63 ### <a name="How can I write fixed font text?"></a> How can I write fixed font text?
65 The quickest way is to enclose the text in equal signs:
67 - **_You enter:_** `Proportional text, =fixed font=, proportional again.`
68 **_Result:_** Proportional text, `fixed font`, proportional again.
72 <a name="VerbatimText"></a>
74 ### <a name="Text I enter gets wrapped around"></a> Text I enter gets wrapped around. How can I keep the formatting as it is?
76 TWiki interprets text as HTML, so you can use the `preformatted` HTML option to keep the new line of text as is. Enclose the text in <pre> </pre>, or in TWiki's own <verbatim> </verbatim> tag:
78 This text will keep its format as it is:
81 ------- ------ --- ------
85 The `pre` tag is standard HTML; `verbatim` is a special TWiki tag that forces text to fixed font mode, and also prevents other tags and TWiki shortcuts from being expanded.
87 **NOTE:** VARIABLES are still Set within verbatim tags (this is a historical peculiarity)
91 ### <a name="How do I create tables?"></a> How do I create tables?
93 There are three possibilities:
95 1. Use Wiki rule with "|" vertical bars.
96 2. Use HTML tables with <table>, <tr>, <td> tags.
97 3. Use preformatted text with <verbatim> tags.
99 **1\. Use Wiki rule with "|" vertical bars**
101 - Example text: %BR% `| cell A1 | cell B1 | cell C1 |` %BR% `| cell A2 | cell B2 | cell C2 |`
102 - Example output: <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
115 **2\. Use HTML tables with <table>, <tr>, <td> tags**
117 This is a manual process using HTML commands.
123 <th> Head A </th> <th> Head B </th>
125 <td> Cell A2 </td> <td> Cell B2 </td>
127 <td> Cell A3 </td> <td> Cell B3 </td>
148 **3\. Use preformatted text with <verbatim> tags**
150 See [["Text I enter gets wrapped around..."|Main/WebHome#VerbatimText]]
154 ### <a name="Can I include images on a page?"></a> Can I include images on a page?
156 Yes. The easiest way is to [[attach|Main/FileAttachment]] a GIF, JPG or PNG file to a topic and then to place it with: `%ATTACHURL%/myImage.gif`. This works only for the topic where the image is attached to.
158 To place an image on any topic, there are two ways of including inline images.
160 **1\. Using URL ending in .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png**
162 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|Main/WebHome#ImgUpload]] as a URL.
164 - **_You enter:_** ` %PUBURL%/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif logo.`<br />**_Result:_** ![T-logo-80x15.gif](http://www.dementia.org/twiki//view/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif) logo.
166 <a name="ImgUpload"></a> You can upload images directly to your server with FTP access. You can also [[attach|Main/FileAttachment]] image files to a topic - you could even create a dedicated image topic, like `ImageLibrary` - and then link to the images directly:
168 - Attach `pic.gif` to `Someweb.SomeTopic`<br /> Display with `%PUBURL%/Someweb/SomeTopic/pic.gif`
170 **2\. Using <img> tag**
172 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 rendering 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.
174 - **_You enter:_** ` <img src="%PUBURLPATH%/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif" width="80" height="15" border="0" alt="logo" /> logo.`<br />**_Result:_**<br /><img src="http://www.dementia.org/twiki//view/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif" width="80" height="15" alt="logo" /> logo.
178 ### <a name="Can I write colored text?"></a> Can I write colored text?
180 [[TWikiPreferences]] defines some commonly used colors: **%YELLOW% %YELLOW%%ENDCOLOR%, %RED% %RED%%ENDCOLOR%, %PINK% %PINK%%ENDCOLOR%, %PURPLE% %PURPLE%%ENDCOLOR%, %TEAL% %TEAL%%ENDCOLOR%, %NAVY% %NAVY%%ENDCOLOR%, %BLUE% %BLUE%%ENDCOLOR%, %AQUA% %AQUA%%ENDCOLOR%, %LIME% %LIME%%ENDCOLOR%, %GREEN% %GREEN%%ENDCOLOR%, %OLIVE% %OLIVE%%ENDCOLOR%, %MAROON% %MAROON%%ENDCOLOR%, %BLACK% %BLACK%%ENDCOLOR%, %GRAY% %GRAY%%ENDCOLOR%, %SILVER% %SILVER%%ENDCOLOR%** and **%ENDCOLOR%**.
182 - **_You enter:_** `%RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR%`
183 **_Result:_** %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR%
185 **_Note:_** `%<color>%` text must end with `%ENDCOLOR%` . If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with `%ENDCOLOR%`, e.g. write `%RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%`.
187 If you need more colors you can use HTML, like `<font color="#ff0000"> red text </font>`. You can also use the up-to-date `style` attribute - ex: `style="color:#ff0000"` - placed in most HTML tags. `span` is an all-purpose choice: `<span style="color:#ff0000">CoLoR</span>`. Only old (like 3.x IE & NS) browsers have a problem with `style`.
189 The code 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 `"#ff0000"` for Web page purposes. [[StandardColors]] lists basic colors.