## Text Formatting FAQ The most frequently asked questions about text formatting are answered. Also, [[TextFormattingRules]] contains the complete TWiki shorthand system on one quick reference page.
---- ### How do I make a separator? 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:
`--------------` ---- ### 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). ---- ### Text enclosed in angle brackets like <filename> is not displayed. How can I show it as it is? 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. If you want to display angle brackets, enter them as HTML codes instead of typing them in directly: - `<` = `<`
`>` = `>` - **_You enter:_** `(a > 0)` **_Result:_** `(a > 0)` ---- ### 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 an exclamation point: - `!WikiStyleWord` displays as WikiStyleWord ---- ### 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. ---- ### 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 option to keep the new line of text as is. Enclose the text in <pre> </pre>, or in TWiki's own <verbatim> </verbatim> tag: This text will keep its format as it is: Unit Price Qty Cost ------- ------ --- ------ aaa 12.00 3 36.00 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. ---- ### 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:_**
Head A Head B
Cell A2 Cell B2
Cell A3 Cell B3
**_Result:_**
Head A Head B
Cell A2 Cell B2
Cell A3 Cell B3
**3\. Use preformatted text with <verbatim> tags** See [["Text I enter gets wrapped around..."|Main/WebHome#VerbatimText]] ---- ### Can I include images on a page? 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 page that the image is attached to. To place an image on any page, ther are 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|Main/WebHome#ImgUpload]] as a URL. - **_You enter:_** ` TWiki http://www.dementia.org/twiki//view/TWiki/TWikiLogos/twikilogo88x31.gif logo.`
**_Result:_** TWiki ![twikilogo88x31.gif](http://www.dementia.org/twiki//view/TWiki/TWikiLogos/twikilogo88x31.gif) logo. 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: - Attach `pic.gif` to `Someweb.SomeTopic`
Display with http://www.dementia.org/twiki//view/Someweb/SomeTopic/pic.gif **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. has more on inline images. - **_You enter:_** `TWiki logo logo.`
**_Result:_**
TWiki logo logo. ---- ### Can I write colored text? [[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%**. - **_You enter:_** `%RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR%` **_Result:_** %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR% **_Note:_** `%%` 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%`. If you need more colors you can use HTML, like ` red text `. 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: `CoLoR`. Only old (like 3.x IE & NS) browsers have a problem with `style`. 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. ---- -- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 15 Aug 2004 %BR% -- TWiki:Main.MikeMannix - 14 Sep 2001 %BR%