WikiText is an attempt to specify a very simple text markup protocol, that retains readability and adheres to formatting conventions commonly found in text based communication, such as email or irc.
WikiText formatted documents strive to be easily readable by humans, judiciously using whitespace and special characters for formatting, and not cluttering the text with an abundance of markup tags.
WikiText documents can be converted to other formats, such as HTML or Latex, with relative ease.
A WikiText document consists of sections, environments, and paragraphs. Sections define the coarsest structure of the document, and can contain environments and paragraphs. Environments define the finer structure of the document, and can contain other environments and paragraphs. Paragraphs are the basic elements of a document, and contain the actual text, associated with a certain meaning.
A document is divided into sections. Each section consists of a heading and a list of environments or paragraphs. A section extends from its heading to the beginning of the next section, or the end of the document.
Environments further subdivide the sections of the document. Environments can nest, thus forming a tree structure. Nesting is controlled by indentation. Environments are nested into the last opened environment with less indentation. Paragraphs are nested into the last opened environment with less or equal indentation.
Four different environments are defined:
Three types of paragraphs, and three types of special, paragraph-like blocks are defined:
The three special blocks are
Text in normal paragraphs and preformatted text blocks can be formatted with inline markup. Inline markup is defined for
Text formatting tags must enclose the formatted text without intermediate whitespace. The opening character must be preceded by whitespace, an opening senctence character ("(", "¿", etc) or the beginning-of-paragraph, the closing character must be followed by whitespace, a closing sentence character (".", "!", "?", ",", ":", ";", etc) or the end-of-paragraph.
Valid inline formatting tags are "/" for emphasis, "*" for strong, "_" for underline, "-" for strikeout, and "{}" for typewriter font.
Note Underline and strikeout are not allowed in strict variants of HTML. Strikeout in Latex output requires the sout package. External links in Latex require the url and optionally the hyperref package.
Example
A -big- /small/ sample paragraph with *simple* text _formatting_
and a bit of {typewriter} font.Output
A
bigsmall sample paragraph with simple text formatting and a bit of typewriter font.
Links are denoted by enclosing the link target in square brackets ("[" and "]"). A link can point to other sections in the same document (see also section Sections), external objects, and images. If the type of the link is not mentioned explicitly, it is determined from the link target.
The type of the link can be set explicitly by adding a control character after the opening bracket. A greater-than character ("[>url]") indicates an external link, a hash-mark ("[#section]") indicates an internal link, and an equal-sign ("[=image]") includes the linked object directly.
A link or image description can be specified by adding a vertical bar and the description after the link target ("[url|title]"). If no link description is given, the target will be used.
Incomplete link targets are automatically completed by adding "http://" or "mailto:".
Example
This is a simple [http://nowhere.org/|link]. Another link to
[podius.wox.org].Output
This is a simple link. Another link to podius.wox.org.
A section of text enclosed in a double pair of curly braces is copied verbatim to the output, without replacing markup or HTML control characters.
Example
<em>substituted</em> and {{<em>verbatim *stuff*</em>}}There are different types of paragraphs. The type of each paragraph can be determined from its first line.
Text in ordinary paragraphs is subject to automatic line breaking, and may be formatted using inline markup. Ordinary paragraphs can optionally contain a paragraph heading.
Paragraphs end with a single empty line, or when a line with less indentation than the paragraph is encountered.
If the first line of a paragraph contains two colons in a row ("::"), the text before is taken to be the paragraph heading.
Example
First simple paragraph.
Lorem Ipsum:: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing
elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna
aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco
laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Output
First simple paragraph.
Lorem Ipsum Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Text in preformatted blocks in not subject automatic line breaking and is set using a typewriter font. It can, however, still be formatted using inline markup.
Preformatted blocks start with a single curly, opening brace ("{"), followed by a space or line break, and end with a single curly, closing brace ("}"), followed by a line break.
Contained lines must be indented at least as far as the opening brace.
Example
{
Hi there!
^-- *exclamation mark*
}Output
Hi there!
^-- exclamation mark
Code blocks contain material like source code or shell session records. The content is not subject to automatic line breaking, and inline markup is not recognized. The output is set using a typewriter font.
Code blocks are indented with vertical bars ("|") or exclamation marks ("!"). The indentation can be omitted if the text block is introduced by "(code)" and terminated by "(end)", each on a line by itself.
Example
| +------+
| | w00t |
| +------+Output
+------+ | w00t | +------+
Tabular material is delimited by a line containing only plus- ("+") and minus-signs ("-") at the front, and an empty line at the end. The starting line must start and end with a plus-sign.
Every line (except for separator lines) corresponds to a single table row. Table cells are separated by vertical bars ("|"). Cells spanning multiple columns can be specified by repeating the delimiter.
The table can optionally include separator lines, consisting of only plus- and minus-signs. A trailing separator line (if any) is discarded entirely. Separator lines inside the table mark the previous row as a table heading. The separator line itself is still discarded.
Example
+---------------+--------------+
| Effect | Markup |
+---------------+--------------+
| Emphasis | /some words/ |
| Strong | *some words* |
| Typewriter | {some words} |
| Underline | _some words_ |
| Strikeout | -some words- |
+---------------+--------------+Output
Effect Markup Emphasis some words Strong some words Typewriter some words Underline some words Strikeout some words
A line consisting of three or more dashes ("-"), followed immediately by a newline, generates a horizontal rule.
Example
---Output
Verbatim blocks are used to encapsulate code already in the output format. The complete block is copied verbatim to the output.
Verbatim blocks start with two curly, opening braces ("{{"), followend by a space or line break, and end with two curly, closing braces ("}}"), followed by a line break.
Contained lines must be indented at least as far as the opening braces.
Example
{{
<address>Me, Myself and I, no@whe.re</address>
}}All paragraph-like blocks can also be written using a unified syntax.
A block begins with the block type, optionally preceded by the word "begin" and a list of modifier words, written in parentheses ("(" and ")") on a line by itself. A block ends with the word "end", optionally followed by the block type, in parentheses on a line by itself.
Thus
(code)
void* memfrob(void* s, size_t n);
(end)is equivalent to
| void* memfrob(void* s, size_t n);Comment blocks are only available using this alternative syntax. Comments are skipped completely when converting to the output format.
Example
(comment)
business secret in here
(end)Environment markup is only recognized at the beginning of a new paragraph. The environment markup must be separated from the paragraph text by at least one space or line break. This is necessary to disambiguate certain environments from inline markup, and is required for all environments for consistency.
List markup is handled a bit differently to faciliate compact lists of short items. If the previous paragraph was part of a list environment of the same type, the paragraph separating empty line may be omitted.
A paragraph starting with a greater-than sign (">") introduces a quotation. Subsequent paragraphs belong to the same item as long as they don't introduce another environment and are indented (at least) as far as the starting paragraph.
Quotations can contain all types of paragraphs and other environments.
Contrasting to other environments, the markup character can be repeated on every line of the quoted text.
Example
> A language that doesn't affect the way you think about
> programming, is not worth knowing.
-- Alan PerlisOutput
A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing.
-- Alan Perlis
A paragraph starting with an asterisk ("*"), a dash ("-") or a small O ("o"), followed by a space or line break, starts a new bullet list item. Subsequent paragraphs belong to the same item as long as they don't introduce another environment and are indented (at least) as far as the starting paragraph.
Two bullet list paragraphs that both introduce a new list item, do not need to be separated by two line breaks in a row.
All item in a bullet list must use the same bullet character.
Example
* If you think you are beaten, you are.
* If you think you dare not, you don't.Output
- If you think you are beaten, you are.
- If you think you dare not, you don't.
A paragraph starting with a hash mark ("#") followed by a space or line break, starts a new numbered list item. Subsequent paragraphs belong to the same item as long as they don't introduce another environment and are indented (at least) as far as the starting paragraph.
Instead of a hash mark, a numbered list item may also be introduced with a number, followed by a closing parenthesis (")"), or a dot (".").
Two numbered list paragraphs that both introduce a new list item, do not need to be separated by two line breaks in a row.
Example
# tweak
# twiddle
# frobOutput
- tweak
- twiddle
- frob
A paragraph starting with a colon (":") starts a new definition list item. The term and the definition text are separated by another colon, followed by a space or linebreak. Subsequent paragraphs belong to the same item as long as they don't introduce another environment and are indented (at least) as far as the starting paragraph.
Two definition list paragraphs that both introduce a new list item, do not need to be separated by two line breaks in a row.
Example
:foo: A generic name.
:bar: Another generic name.
Much the same as "foo".
:baz, quu, quuz, quux:
The rest of the bunch.Output
- foo
- A generic name.
- bar
- Another generic name. Much the same as "foo".
- baz, quu, quuz, quux
- The rest of the bunch.
Sections consist of a heading, followed by a list of environments or paragraphs.
The heading begins with one or more equal-signs ("=") and ends with an empty line, or the same number of equal-signs at the end of a line. The number of equal-signs indicates the level of the section.
Headings are automatically available as link targets.
Example
= heading level 1 =
== heading level 2 ==The source of this specification in WikiText format.
Podius Content Management System uses WikiText for its rich text property.