Wiki markup

For Wikitext formatting in relation to Wikipedia, see Help:Wiki markup.

File:Wikitext-wiki markup-wikipedia.png

Wikitext as it is used in Wikipedia

Wikitext language or wiki markup is a lightweight markup language used to write pages in wiki websites, such as Wikipedia, and is a simplified alternative/intermediate to HTML. Its ultimate purpose is to be converted by wiki software into HTML, which in turn is served to web browsers.

There is no commonly accepted standard wikitext language. The grammar, structure, justification, keywords and so on depend on the particular wiki software used on the particular website. For example, all wikitext markup languages have a simple way of hyperlinking to other pages within the site, but there are several different syntax conventions for these links. Many wikis, especially the earlier ones, used CamelCase to mark words that should be automatically linked. In MediaWiki, this convention was replaced with the [[…]] notation, which Wikipedia calls "free links".

Different Wiki programs may support use of different sets of HTML elements within wikitext. In some cases, permitted HTML elements may be configured by individual wiki sites. MediaWiki supports many common HTML tags.

Standardization

Creole is an effort for a "common wiki markup language to be used across different Wikis". There are several wiki engines that have implemented Creole. Version 1.0 of the specification was released in July 2007.

External links

• What you see is Wiki - Questioning WYSIWYG in the Internet Age
• Media Wiki alternative parsers
• Discussions about MediaWiki alternative parsers