Help:Formatting

You can format your text using wiki markup. Wiki markup consists of characters like asterisks (*), single quotes (') or brackets ([) which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two single quotes like ''this''

Wiki Markup Basics

Fanlore Cheatsheet
Description	You type	You get
Italicise text	''italic''	italic
Bold text	'''bold'''	bold
Bold and italic	'''''bold & italic'''''	bold & italic
Escape wiki markup (prevents the wiki from formatting things)	<nowiki>no ''markup''</nowiki>	no ''markup''
Indenting Text	no indent (normal) :first indent ::second indent :::third indent	no indent (normal) first indent second indent third indent
Bulleted Lists	* One * Two ** Two point one * Three	One Two Two point one Three
Numbered Lists Empty lines between list items restarts numbering at 1.	# One # Two ## Two point one # Three	One Two Two point one Three
Mixture of bulleted and numbered lists	# one # two #* two point one #* two point two	one two two point one two point two
Internal link (within Fanlore) Learn more about internal links	[[Name of page]] [[Name of page|Text to display]] The link will display in blue if the page exists, and red if it has not been made yet.	Name of page Text to display
External link (to other websites) Learn more about external links	[http://www.example.org Text to display] [http://www.example.org] http://www.example.org	Text to display [1] http://www.example.org
Embed thumbnail image Learn more about using images on Fanlore	[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|Caption text|alt=A field of sunflowers with the words 'Example Image' superimposed on top.]]	Caption text
Gallery Formats images as a gallery	<gallery> Image:Example.jpg Image:Example.jpg Image:Example.jpg </gallery>
Headings A Table of Contents will automatically be generated when four headings are added to an article or Talk page. To generate one manually, add the following markup: __TOC__	== Level 1 == === Level 2 === ==== Level 3 ==== ===== Level 4 ===== ====== Level 5 ======	Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Quotations Refer to our Restrictions on Quotation, Citation & Linking for information on what should and shouldn't be quoted on Fanlore.	{{Quotation| Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.}} {{Quotation2| Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.}} Optional: you can use this formatting to include a source for the quote: {{Quotation | quote = Quoted text goes here. | source = Source of the quote goes here.}} Refer to Template:NQuote to learn how to format nested quotes, e.g. Tumblr reblogs.	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. With source: Quoted text goes here. Source of the quote goes here.
References/Citations Numbering is generated automatically. Learn more about adding references to Fanlore pages.	To add a reference to an external source, use this format: Article text.<ref>[http://www.example.org Link to source webpage], any additional text (e.g. author, date of publication)</ref>	Article text.
	To display references, add a dedicated References header (==References==) with the following code - without this, the article will produce an error: <references/>
Footnotes/Endnotes Learn more about adding footnotes to Fanlore pages.	To add a footnote, use this format: Article text.<ref group=note>Text of footnote</ref>	Article text.
	To display footnotes, add a dedicated Notes section (==Notes==) with the following code - without this, the article will produce an error: <references group=note />
Categorizing a page Learn more about page categorization	[[Category:Help]]
Redirect to another page Learn more about redirects	#REDIRECT [[Target page]]	Target page
DISPLAYTITLE Changes the capitalization of a page title from Title Case (initial caps) to lowercase.	{{DISPLAYTITLE:page title}}	page title
DEFAULTSORT Alphabetically sorts a page by a letter other than the first letter of its title. Useful for when the page is included in lists and categories.	{{DEFAULTSORT:Fanlore Page, A}}	The page "A Fanlore Page" will be alphabetized under "F" rather than "A"
For Talk Pages
Signature	~~~~	Your username 18:20, 23 April 2025 (UTC)

Paragraphs

MediaWiki ignores normal line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can also start a new line with the HTML tags <br> or <br/>.

Indented Text and Long Quotations

There are several ways to indent text on the wiki:

• Put a colon (:) in front of a paragraph.
• Use the HTML tag <blockquote>.
• Use the quotation template, which indents the text and puts a blue border around it.
• Lists are also indented (like this one). Put * or # in front of each block of text you want to be a separate item in the list. Use * for a list with bullets (like this one). Use # for a numbered list.

Using columns

You can avoid whitespace to the right of lengthy, itemised lists using the template {{div col}} and {{div col end}} to format your list into columns. This makes pages easier to read and improves the flow of text. For example:

{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
*Programme A
*Programme B 
*Programme C 
*Programme D 
*Programme E 
*Programme F 
*Programme G 
*Programme H 
{{div col end}}

produces:

• Programme A
• Programme B
• Programme C
• Programme D
• Programme E
• Programme F
• Programme G
• Programme H

Similarly, you can force lengthy lists of references into columns using {{reflist}} instead of <references/>, for which no formatting options are available.

HTML

Some HTML tags are allowed in MediaWiki. Examples: <code>, <div>, <span> and <font>.

Other Formatting

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

• Links
• Images
• Tables
• More Formatting from Wikipedia

For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee.