Difference between revisions of "Help:Formating"

Latest revision as of 08:12, 11 January 2019

You can format your text by using Knowledge Management system markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, apostrophes or equal signs which have a special function in the Knowledge Management system, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two pairs of apostrophes like this

Text formatting markup

''italic''

'''bold'''

'''''bold & italic'''''

<nowiki>no ''markup''</nowiki>

== Level 2 ==

=== Level 3 ===

==== Level 4 ====

===== Level 5 =====

====== Level 6 ======

Text before
----
Text after

* Start each line
* with an [[Wikipedia:asterisk|asterisk]] (*).
** More asterisks give deeper
*** and deeper levels.
* Line breaks <br />don't break levels.
*** But jumping levels creates empty space.
Any other start ends the list.

* combine bullet list
** with definition
::- definition
** creates empty space

* combine bullet list
** with definition
*:- definition
** without empty spaces

*bullet list
:- definition
:* sublist that doesn't create empty
:* spaces after definition

# Start each line
# with a [[Wikipedia:Number_sign|number sign]] (#).
## More number signs give deeper
### and deeper
### levels.
# Line breaks <br />don't break levels.
### But jumping levels creates empty space.
# Blank lines

# end the list and start another.
Any other start also
ends the list.

;item 1
: definition 1
;item 2
: definition 2-1
: definition 2-2

: Single indent
:: Double indent
::::: Multiple indent

# one
# two
#* two point one
#* two point two
# three
#; three item one
#: three def one
# four
#: four def one
#: this looks like a continuation
#: and is often used
#: instead <br />of <nowiki><br /></nowiki>
# five
## five sub 1
### five sub 1 sub 1
## five sub 2

 Start each line with a space.
 Text is '''preformatted''' and
 ''markups'' '''''can''''' be done.

Start each line with a space.
Text is <b>preformatted</b> and
<i>markups</i> <i><b>can</b></i> be done.

 <nowiki>Start with a space in the first column,
(before the <nowiki>).

Then your block format will be
    maintained.

This is good for copying in code blocks:

def function():
    """documentation string"""

    if True:
        print True
    else:
        print False</nowiki>

Start with a space in the first column,
(before the <nowiki>).

Then your block format will be
    maintained.

This is good for copying in code blocks:

def function():
    """documentation string"""

    if True:
        print True
    else:
        print False

Paragraphs

Knowledge Management system ignores single line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can force a line break within a paragraph with the HTML tag.

HTML tags

Some HTML tags are allowed in Knowledge Management system, for example 'code', 'div', and 'span'. These apply anywhere you insert them.

<ins>Inserted</ins>

or

<u>Underline</u>

<s>Struck out</s>

or

<del>Deleted</del>

<code>Source code</code>

or

<code>Fixed width text</code>

Text before
<blockquote>Blockquote</blockquote>
Text after

<q>This is a quotation</q>

<!-- This is a comment -->
Comments are visible only
in the edit zone.

<pre>Text is '''preformatted''' and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done</pre>

Text is '''preformatted''' and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done

<pre style="color: red">Text is '''preformatted'''
with a style and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done
</pre>

Text is '''preformatted'''
with a style and
''markups'' '''''cannot''''' be done

Inserting symbols

Symbols and other special characters not available on your keyboard can be inserted in a multitude of ways. Many Operating Systems and browsers allow you to insert special characters through a menu option or Operating System panel. Additionally, you can use the Knowledge Management system Editor or VisualEditor to insert them into the edit screen.

As a last resort, you can use a special sequence of characters. Those sequences are called HTML entities. For example, the following sequence (entity) → when inserted will be shown as right arrow HTML symbol → and — when inserted will be shown as an em dash HTML symbol —.

See the list of all HTML entities on the Wikipedia article List of HTML entities. Additionally, Knowledge Management system supports two non-standard entity reference sequences: ‏ and ‏ which are both considered equivalent to ‏ which is a right-to-left mark. (Used when combining right to left languages with left to right languages in the same page.)

HTML tags and symbol entities displayed themselves (with and without interpreting them)

€  → €

<span style="color: red; text-decoration: line-through;">Typo to be corrected</span>  → Typo to be corrected

&lt;span style="color: red; text-decoration: line-through;">Typo to be corrected</span>  → <span style="color: red; text-decoration: line-through;">Typo to be corrected</span>

Nowiki for HTML

<nowiki /> can prohibit (HTML) tags:

• <<nowiki />pre>  → <pre>

But not & symbol escapes:

• &<nowiki />amp;  → &

To print & symbol escapes as text, use "&" to replace the "&" character (eg. type " ", which results in " ").

Normal and sysop users cannot permanently delete a Knowledge Management system page, but sysops can delete a page such that it could still be restored. This is a deliberate design feature, and is an important part of why Knowledge Management system's work. Every kind of editing operation can be reverted by any other user, and that includes resurrecting deleted content. It doesn't cause significant wasted space; and with nothing but a 'delete' label, the page is effectively deleted anyway.

Deleting a page is, on the other hand, a straightforward operation for anyone with sysop permissions: it allows to semi-permanently remove a page from the Knowledge Management system, until a sysop undeletes (restores) it with the same ease. Typically sysops might look for delete labels, and do a proper delete on these pages, after a period of time. If for some reason you need a page to be deleted more quickly than that, you will need to contact a sysop to request this.

Revision deletion offers a more granular feature of deletion for edits with peculiar problems.

Before deleting

Sysops should also be aware of the general advice given on When not to delete a page: in particular, there are many situations where a deletion is too drastic. For example, a redirect is often more appropriate.

Before deleting you could perform various checks:

• Use the "What links here" tool. This gives an indication as to how important a page is, and what subjects it relates to. Perhaps the page is still linked to prominently from many places. All incoming links will become red links if you proceed with the delete. Ideally all incoming links should be changed/removed, if there is genuinely no need for this page to exist. You could do this work prior to deleting, or ask others in the Knowledge Management system community to do it.
• Check the page history and the associated talk page. Who was proposing the deletion? Does anyone disagree? Has it been properly discussed? Did people have adequate time to raise objections? Did somebody vandalize a page, which then led to a deletion proposal?

The care taken over these things might depend on the size of the Knowledge Management system community, and how clear-cut the case for deletion is. Remember that only sysop users can undo a delete action, so to a normal user the information appears to be lost forever.

Use the 'delete' action

Sysops should see a 'delete' tab or action menu option at the top of every page. To find the action menu, look for a down arrow or triangle next to the "View History" tab. If you mouse over the triangle you should see "delete", "move", "protect" and "watch". Click the delete action to delete the page. When using browsers which support keyboard shortcuts, you can also use (Control-Alt-D). You will be asked to confirm, and to supply a "Reason for deletion". This is a short textual description of why the page is being deleted. Your action will appear on the recent changes display, and in the deletion log (Special:Log).

Remember only the administrator can delete uploaded photograph files.

Undeleting

To undelete a page you must navigate to the exact page name of the page. You should then see a link to "View or restore n deleted edits". Tick the box next to the revision you wish to restore.

Configuring deletion reasons

The list of reasons in the dropdown box is maintained at Help:Deletereason-dropdown.

When not to delete a page

Typically you would delete a page if the contents are entirely inappropriate and do not match the purposes of the Knowledge Management system. In other situations, you would take a less extreme course of action, for example:

• The page should have a different title. See Help:Moving a page.
• The contents should have been placed on a different page -- Add the contents to the other page, and then supply a redirect. See Help:Redirects.
• The contents are already on a different page -- Delete the duplicate content and leave a redirect. That way, the page title, which made sense to somebody, will helpfully redirect to the information.
• The page is out-of-date -- Re-word sentences to be in the past tense, to make the page a historical record. Alternatively, label the information as out-of-date, with a warning notice.

An actual delete is generally necessary only if the title of the page is inappropriate. In other situations, a merge and redirect is more appropriate.

Proposing changes

Deciding on appropriate content/page titles can be a difficult aspect of Knowledge Management system organization, and one which can often provoke debates. If the merge or deletion you have in mind is one which might cause upset, you should propose the change first. Do this by leaving a note to give your reasons on the talk page. You might also establish a system for labeling the page with a delete/merge proposal template, to make everybody aware of your intentions.

Unlinking a page

The 'What links here' toolbox feature (bottom of left sidebar) will tell you which other Knowledge Management system pages link to the current page. Always use this feature to check before proceeding with deleting. These related pages will need to be edited for their links to reflect the change.

• Help:Starting a new page
• Help:Moving a page
• Help:Admin deleting and undeleting
• Help:Formating
• Help:Links
• Help:List
• Help:Images
• Help:Tables