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Text Formatting FAQ

This topics lists frequently asked questions on text formatting. Text formatting applies to people who edit TWiki pages in raw edit mode. TextFormattingRules contains the complete TWiki shorthand syntax on one quick reference page.

How do I make a separator?


How do I create a heading?






  • &lt; = <
    &gt; = >

  • You enter: (a &gt; 0)

    Result: (a > 0)

Some words appear highlighted with a red-link. How can I prevent that?

A red-link points to a topic that doesn't exist yet - click on 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 - prefix the WikiStyleWord with an exclamation point:

  • !WikiStyleWord displays as WikiStyleWord

How do I start a word with an exclamation mark?

A leading exclamation point is used to escape wiki formatting, as we have learned in the previous question. Sometimes it has an unwanted effect, such as when you want to write "!=" (e.g. "not equal"), you will not see the exclamation mark.


How can I write fixed font text?

The quickest way is to enclose the text in equal signs:


    Result: Proportional text, fixed font, proportional again.



This text will keep its format as it is:
  Unit     Price   Qty  Cost
  aaa       12.00    3   36.00



NOTE: The verbatim opening and closing tags are converted into pre tags; any HTML attributes (e.g., class, id) in the opening verbatim tag are included in the corresponding pre tag.

How do I create tables?

There are three possibilities:

  1. Use Wiki rule with "|" vertical bars.
  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


This is a manual process using HTML commands.

You enter:

<table border="1">


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..."

Can I include images on a page?

Yes. The easiest way is to attach 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.

To place an image on any topic, there are two ways of including inline images.



  • You enter: %PUBURL%/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif logo.
    Result: T-logo-80x15.gif logo.


  • Attach pic.gif to Someweb.SomeTopic
    Display with %PUBURL%/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 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.

  • You enter: <img src="%PUBURLPATH%/TWiki/TWikiLogos/T-logo-80x15.gif" width="80" height="15" border="0" alt="logo" /> logo.
    logo logo.

Can I write colored text?


  • You enter: %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR%

    Result: red text and green text


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.

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.

-- Contributors: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.MikeMannix

Topic revision: r22 - 2010-06-30 - TWikiContributor
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