Help:Formatting

Formatting a page on AmtWiki is different than formatting something in a word processor like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer. Instead of seeing the text you are editing exactly as it will be displayed on the page, wikis use a simple markup language called wikitext. This is similar to other markup languages like HTML, but is very simple and easy to understand and use. This pages goes over the basics of wikitext that you can use to edit pages here on AmtWiki.

Bold and Italics

Similarly to word processors, you can make text on AmtWiki bold and/or italic. For both, this is accomplished by surrounding words with multiple apostrophes (').

For bold words and phrases, you write the text surrounded by two apostrophes: '''Bold text'''

For italicized words and phrases, you write the text surrounded by three apostrophes: ''Italicized text''

You can make text both bold and italicized, by surrounding the text with five apostropes: '''''Bold and italicized text'''''

Heading and Subheadings

Headings and subheadings are a way to organize a page, making things easier to find and read. To create headings and subheadings, text is surrounded by equal signs (=).

Coming soon: Heading table

Subscript and Superscript

To type text in superscript^{like so}, use the tag ^{before the text and} after the text.

To type text in subscript_{like so}, use the tag _{before the text and} after the text.

By using a combination of these tags, we can create things like: H₂SO₄ → 2 H⁺ + SO₄²⁻

Edit Box Toolbar

Above the edit box is a toolbar with a few buttons. These can be used to automatically insert wikitext into the page at the point where your cursor bar is located. You can also highlight the text that you want formatted, press the appropriate button, and the toolbar will automatically put the wikitext on both sides.

HTML

Wikitext contains a number of features, but its uses are limited. If you want to change other things, like text color or page layout, you'll need to use HTML. HTML is the markup languages used on internet pages, and contains a number of useful functions, but it's more complicated than wikitext.