Help:Formatting

Format text by using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, single quotes or equal signs which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, include it in two pairs of single quotes like.

See also the Official Gentoo wiki guidelines and the other help pages about editing the wiki.

Text formatting markup
{| class="wikitable" ! Description ! width=40% | Type ! width=40% | To get ! colspan="3" style="background:#ABE" | character (inline) formatting – applies anywhere italic italic bold bold bold & italic bold & italic &lt;nowiki>no markup</nowiki&gt; no markup ! colspan="3" style="background:#ABE" | section formatting – only at the beginning of the line
 * Italic text
 * Italic text
 * Bold text
 * Bold text
 * Bold and italic
 * Bold and italic
 * Escape wiki markup
 * Escape wiki markup
 * Headings of different levels
 * Headings of different levels

Level 6
Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Text above
 * Horizontal rule
 * Horizontal rule

Text below Text above

Text below Any other start ends the list. Any other start ends the list.
 * Bullet list
 * Bullet list
 * Start each line
 * with an asterisk (*).
 * More asterisks gives deeper
 * and deeper levels.
 * Line breaks don't break levels.
 * But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * Start each line
 * with an asterisk (*).
 * More asterisks gives deeper
 * and deeper levels.
 * Line breaks don't break levels.
 * But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * Numbered list
 * Numbered list
 * 1) Start each line
 * 2) with a number sign (#).
 * 3) More number signs gives deeper
 * 4) and deeper
 * 5) levels.
 * 6) Line breaks don't break levels.
 * 7) But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * 8) Blank lines

Any other start also ends the list.
 * 1) end the list and start another.
 * 1) Start each line
 * 2) with a number sign (#).
 * 3) More number signs gives deeper
 * 4) and deeper
 * 5) levels.
 * 6) Line breaks don't break levels.
 * 7) But jumping levels creates empty space.
 * 8) Blank lines
 * 1) Blank lines

Any other start also ends the list.
 * 1) end the list and start another.
 * Definition list
 * item 1
 * definition 1
 * item 1
 * definition 1


 * item 2
 * definition 2-1
 * definition 2-2


 * item 1
 * definition 1
 * definition 1


 * item 2
 * definition 2-1
 * definition 2-2


 * Indent text
 * Single indent
 * Double indent
 * Multiple indent
 * Double indent
 * Multiple indent


 * Single indent
 * Double indent
 * Multiple indent
 * Multiple indent


 * Mixture of different types of list
 * Mixture of different types of list
 * 1) one
 * 2) two
 * 3) * two point one
 * 4) * two point two
 * 5) three
 * 6) ; three item one
 * three def one
 * 1) four
 * four def one
 * this looks like a continuation
 * and is often used
 * instead of &lt;nowiki> &lt;/nowiki>
 * 1) five
 * 2) five sub 1
 * 3) five sub 1 sub 1
 * 4) five sub 2

Start each line with a space. Text is preformatted and markups can be done
 * 1) one
 * 2) two
 * 3) * two point one
 * 4) * two point two
 * 5) three
 * 6) ; three item one
 * three def one
 * 1) four
 * four def one
 * this looks like a continuation
 * and is often used
 * instead of
 * 1) five
 * 2) five sub 1
 * 3) five sub 1 sub 1
 * 4) five sub 2 
 * Preformatted text
 * Preformatted text
 * Preformatted text

Start each line with a space. Text is preformatted and markups can be done (before the ).
 * Preformatted text blocks
 * Start with a space in the first column,
 * Start with a space in the first column,

Then block format will be   maintained. This is good for copying in code blocks:

def function: """documentation string"""

if True: print True else: print False Start with a space in the first column. (before the ).

Then 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
MediaWiki ignores single line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. Force a line break within a paragraph with the HTML tag.

HTML tags
Some HTML tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example,  ,   and. These apply anywhere they are inserted.

Unicode characters
Unicode characters which are not available on the keyboard can be entered indirectly by copy'n paste or, if one knows the unicode numbers, be written as numeric character references. As an example, the unicode character ✔ which has unicode number U+2714 can be written as, being rendered as.

HTML symbols
An HTML symbol entity is a sequence of characters that produces one particular character. For example,  produces a right arrow " " and   produces an em dash " ". HTML symbol entities are allowed in MediaWiki and are sometimes used in advanced editing for two main reasons: to insert characters not normally available on keyboards:


 * &amp;copy; &rarr; &copy;
 * &amp;delta; &rarr; &delta;

and to prevent the parser from interpreting and displaying HTML tags and symbols:


 * &amp;amp;euro; &rarr; &amp;euro;
 * &amp;euro; &rarr; &euro;


 * &amp;lt;span style="color:green;">Green&amp;lt;/span> &rarr; &lt;span style="color:green;">Green&lt;/span>
 * &lt;span style="color:green;">Green&lt;/span></tt> &rarr;  Green 

The following is a list of characters (including spaces, denoted with a dotted border: ) that can be produced using HTML symbols. "Hover" over any character to see the HTML entity that produces it (see also the official list). Some symbols not available in the current font will appear as empty squares that produce nothing when hovered over. (If many of these appear in the table below, check out our recommendations on choosing good fonts).

Other formatting
Beyond the text formatting markup shown above, here are some other formatting references:


 * Links
 * Images
 * Tables