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Help  Contents → Wiki markup

This page is a tutorial for learning to work with the essential rules of wiki-formatted text, or "wikitext". Wikitext is designed to be as simple as possible so that an article may be quickly typed and styled without having to take a break to type out long HTML codes. The goal is to make it as easy as possible to channel your thoughts into writing the perfect article (or even a not-so-perfect article!).

Text formatting[]

Creating italicized or bold text is the simplest rule – simply use the apostrophe character in groups of two or three to create the style. (Be sure to use the "straight" apostrophe and not the curved "smart quote" characters used in some text editors and word processors.)

What you type What you see
''italicized text'' italicized text
'''bold text''' bold text
'''''italicized and bold text''''' italicized and bold text

To create a tabbed list or a block of text using a monospace font, start the line with a space. (Be sure not to make the line too long, or it will stretch the page horizontally!) Text can also be indented in blockquotes using the colon character.

What you type What you see
 Preformatted text
Preformatted text
:Indented text
Indented text

Lists[]

Both unordered and numbered lists are simple to create as well: simply use the asterisk or hash characters at the beginning of a line to create the entry. To create nested lists, simply add an extra asterisk or hash to the front of the line. You can even mix and match the kinds of list in a single group!

To create a definition, start the line with a semicolon, and follow the term to be defined with a colon, then the definition. This will bold the term, and indent the definition on the following line.

What you type What you see
* Item One
* Item Two
  • Item One
  • Item Two
# Item One
# Item Two
  1. Item One
  2. Item Two
* Item One
** Item Two
  • Item One
    • Item Two
* Item One
*# Item Two
  • Item One
    1. Item Two
; term : definition
term
definition

Links and URLs[]

In a wiki, it's important to help build the web by creating links to other articles in every appropriate context. Use the following techniques to create "free links" to other Memory Alpha articles:

What you type What you see
[[Memory Alpha]] Memory Alpha
{{USS|Voyager}} USS Voyager
[[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)#Crew|USS ''Enterprise'' crew]] USS Enterprise crew
[[This article doesn't exist]] This article doesn't exist
[[Memory Alpha:Policies and guidelines]] Memory Alpha:Policies and guidelines
[[Template:Episode|]] Episode

You can also make external links to other websites using the following formatting rules:

What you type What you see
{{wikipedia|Star Trek}} Star Trek at Wikipedia
{{w|Star Trek}} Star Trek
{{el|memory-alpha.fandom.com|Default|memory-alpha.fandom.com}} Main Page at memory-alpha.fandom.com
{{el|memory-alpha.fandom.com|memory-alpha.fandom.com}} memory-alpha.fandom.com
{{el|memory-alpha.fandom.com}} [1]
{{bl|memory-alpha.org|memory-alpha.org}} memory-alpha.org(X)
{{bl|memory-alpha.org}} [2](X)

See also[]

Sections[]

If an article is long enough, you can divide the page into different sections. Memory Alpha will automatically generate a table of contents based on the content for all articles with more than three sections.

You can also create a horizontal divider by using four dashes in a row.

What you type What you see
==Header two== Header two
===Header three=== Header three
====Header four==== Header four
=====Header five===== Header five
======Header six====== Header six
----

Images and other media[]

See: Image markup

Tables[]

See: Table markup

Mathematical formulas[]

See: Math markup

Variables[]

The MediaWiki software has a number of built-in variables for common elements that may change depending on the date.

Code Result
{{CURRENTMONTH}} 03
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} March
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} March
{{CURRENTDAY}} 19
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}} Tuesday
{{CURRENTYEAR}} 2024
{{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}} 20240319022323
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} 56,832

{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} is the number of pages in the main namespace other than redirects. It counts stubs, dead-end pages, orphaned pages, and disambiguation pages.

See also[]

Suppressing markup[]

It's also possible to tell MediaWiki to ignore any of the above rules using a simple tag:

What you type What you see
<nowiki>'''text here'''</nowiki> '''text here'''
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