NBWiki information and source files

Page markup in NBWiki.
In NBWiki pages are edited as plain text. This text can be "marked up" in various ways to determine how it will be displayed after you click "Save changes". This page explains the mark-up "syntax" - in other words, how you can control the look of NBWiki pages.

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Basic text formatting rules

• Linebreaks (normally created by the Return or Enter key) are just that - linebreaks. Flowing text (where you don't press Enter) will be word-wrapped to fit the viewing window. Use two linebreaks between paragraphs.  
• To make text appear in italics, put two single quote marks both before and after it, like this: ''italics''.
• To make text appear bold, put three single quote marks both before and after it, like this: '''bold'''.
• Four dashes (----) alone on a line yield a horizontal "ruler" line
• Starting a line with exclamation marks (e.g. !!) shows it as a heading. The more the bigger - up to four.
• Bulleted lists (like this one) can be created by prefixing each line with an asterisk (*).
• Numbered lists are similar but start with a hash (#).
• Wiki links - links to pages within the Wiki - are created using double square brackets, thus: [[A page name]]. Page names may include letters, numerals, spaces and the special symbols commonly permitted in file names. Case may well be important - If the Web host is running (say) Linux then A will not equal a in page names.
• If the target of a clicked Wiki link does not exist a new page will be created.
• Generally, multiple spaces are retained.

Images to be displayed within the Wiki

• If the image is stored with the Wiki: [%Description|file name%]. The image file must be supplied to the administrator for uploading.
• If the image file is elsewhere on the Internet: [%Description|URL%]. The URL must commense with http:// .

The descriptions are used to provide alternative text, e.g. for use by text only browsers.

Links to non-Wiki documents etc.

Links can be included to websites, text documents, picture files, etc.

• To create a link to a non-Wiki file stored with the Wiki use [|Description|file name|]. The description is displayed as a link. The file must be supplied to the administrator for uploading.  
• To create a link to another website or to a file stored elsewhere on the Internet, use [!Description|URL!]. The description is displayed as a link. The URL, which may contain spaces, must be complete  (e.g. http://www.... not just www....).
• To do the same but forcing the referenced page to appear in a new window, use [!Description!URL!] - this has exclamation point rather than a vertical bar separating the description and URL.

Tables

Tables are defined using various combinations of curly brackets, vertical bars and percent signs.

Simple tables

These use the following markup sequences

• To start the table: {|| if visible ruler lines are required, or {%| if not
• To separate cells: ||  
• To separate rows: |||
• To end the table:  ||} Don't forget this

For convenience when editing the last three may be placed within an editing line or on a new line. The effect will be the same.

Cell attributes

The final vertical bar in the first three commands may be replaced by the sequence %x| where the "x" represents any valid HTML cell attributes. For example

• use {%%valign=top| to ensure that the text in the first cell of a borderless table starts at the top of that cell.
• use |%align=center bgcolor=pink rowspan=2 colspan=4| to show the text in the following cell horizontally centred in a pink "oversize" cell two normal rows deep and four normal columns wide.

 

More about tables

• Anything in cell attributes ("x") not recognised by a browser is normally ignored. Experiment!
• Note the spellings of color and center.
• Hard line breaks and other normal markup within cell contents will be applied.
• Headings and list items may occur within table cells. The introductory !, * or # may occur immediately following the markup sequence introducing a cell.
• Cells may contain images, links etc.  
• Tables may be nested.

Other markups

• Avoid unusual two-character sequences in text (such as |!) as they may be mis-interpreted. If necessary split them as described by the next item.
• Two opening curly brackets followed immediately by two closing curley brackets are removed just before display. Useful for splitting up sequences that the Wiki would otherwise treat as markup commands.
• The sequence "two opening curley brackets, any character sequence, two closing curley brackets"  is intended to preserve the exact layout of the character sequence, which is displayed in a monospace font. Only partially working and subject to change so best avoided.
• The sequence "three opening curley brackets, any character sequence, three closing curley brackets" form a comment for future editors and is not displayed

not displayed