Basic formatting edit
Wikisource uses a special syntax called Wikitext or Wiki markup to format and link text. Wikitext is especially designed to be easy to use. In the boxes below, what you type is on the left and what the system produces is on the right.
| what you type in Wikitext | how Wikisource renders it
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|---|---|
Paragraphs are produced simply by leaving a blank line between them. There is no need for any additional markup but all text within a paragraph wraps as normal depending on the size of the window. Vary the width to see what happens. |
Paragraphs are produced simply by leaving a blank line between them. There is no need for any additional markup but all text within a paragraph wraps as normal depending on the size of the window. Vary the width to see what happens. |
spaces at the start of the line produce an emphasis box so be very careful about them |
spaces at the start of the line produce an emphasis box so be very careful about them |
For font emphasis, use ''double apostrophes'' for italic |
For font emphasis, use double apostrophes for italic |
and '''three apostrophes'' for '''bold''' |
and three apostrophes for bold |
You can even do '''''bold''' within italic'' or '''bold with ''italic''''' but they only apply within the text line |
You can even do bold within italic or bold with italic but they only apply within the text line |
* '''Lists''' are easy to do: * start every line * with a star ** more stars mean *** deeper levels |
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# '''Numbered lists''' are just as easy # Start with a hash ## and use more of them for embedded lists # and come back to continue |
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'''Indented texts''' such as poems can be made to any level. :Simply start with colons ::The more you use the more indentation there is. |
Indented texts such as poems can be made to any level.
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Templates for other effects edit
For more complex layout, templates are normally the favored approach in Wikisource. These are indicated by a pair of braces {{ }}, with a name and other information following a | character inside.
| what you type in Wikitext | how Wikisource renders it
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|---|---|
If you want {{larger|a bigger font size}}, or a {{smaller|smaller size}}, that's easy.
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If you want a bigger font size, or a smaller size, that's easy. |
We don't use absolutes, like "large" so as to make reading text easier whatever the size of the device, but there are {{x-larger|even bigger}} and {{xx-larger|huge}} size available, as well as {{x-smaller|even smaller}} and {{xx-smaller|tiny}}.
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We don't use absolutes, like "large" so as to make reading text easier whatever the size of the device, but there are even bigger and huge size available, as well as even smaller and tiny. |
{{center|'''A centred title'''}}
Note that you can use any normal formatting within the template. In this case "center" is often abbreviated to "c".
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A centred title Note that you can use any normal formatting within the template. In this case "center" is often abbreviated to "c". |
You can also do
{{right|'''right aligned''' text}} and the normal is {{left|'''left aligned'''.}}
{{justify|But if you want to use '''justified text''', this is also available in a similar way. Note in these examples that the template may introduce a new paragraph implicitly.}}
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You can also do
right aligned text and the normal is left aligned.
But if you want to use justified text, this is available in a similar way. Note in these examples that the template may introduce a new paragraph implicitly. |
The '''rule''' template {{rule|5em}} uses its argument to govern the length of the rule: "em" is the width of a single wide character whereas "px" stands for pixels.
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The rule template
uses its argument to govern the length of the rule: "em" is the width of a single wide character whereas "px" stands for pixels. |
Footnotes edit
Footnotes found at the bottom of the scanned page, denoted with ¹ * †, etc., are replaced by inline versions which are normally rendered at the end of a chapter or article. They introduce a third notation used in Wikitext, that of the underlying html used for web pages, which has been extended for the purpose. These use a pair of matching brackets, in this case <ref> and </ref> to enclose the footnote and an unpaired version <references /> to indicate where any accumulated references are to be printed.
| what you type in Wikitext | how Wikisource renders it
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|---|---|
Here is some text<ref>in a footnote</ref> which will not be seen immediately. Footnotes are commonly used for explanations and citations.<ref>Here is the citation.</ref> <references /> |
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''One caution''. Some authors use long footnotes with several paragraphs.<ref>Here is an example. There are paragraph breaks in this footnote but they didn't appear.</ref> Unfortunately the breaks will disappear if you use the normal wikitext conventions. See the footnote below. <references /> |
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The solution is to use more html notation to replace the breaks.<ref>This is a similar example.<br />This paragraph will start a new line.</ref> You can use either a line break, <br /> or new paragraph <p>. <references /> |
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Footnotes often appear in books in a smaller type. Although it is possible to use CSS styling<ref>the normal method of styling in html</ref> in wikitext to achieve this, the common uses are provided by templates in wikisource, in this case {{smallrefs}}, used here.
{{smallrefs}}
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