Shorthand Basics

If you can enter text, you're ready for Foswiki. With a few simple rules, you'll be able to use plain text to create well-styled postings, instantly. What you are going to learn here is called Topic Markup Language, or simply TML. So here comes a fast-track guide to shorthand basics:

General text formatting

• Separate each paragraph with a blank line.

• To display a bold type word or phrase, use asterisks: *bold type*.

• To display an italic word or phrase, use underscores: _italic_.

• To display bold with italics word or phrase, use double underscores: __bold italic__.

• To display a word or phrase in MONOSPACED TYPE, use equal signs: =like this=.

• Use ==double equal signs== for bold: bold mono.

• To display colored text, enter:__ %RED% red text %ENDCOLOR% and %GREEN% green text %ENDCOLOR% to get red text and green text .
  • %<color>% text must end with %ENDCOLOR%. If you want to switch from one color to another one you first need to end the active color with %ENDCOLOR%, e.g. write %RED% some text %ENDCOLOR% %GREEN% more text %ENDCOLOR%.
  • DefaultPreferences defines some commonly used colors: %YELLOW%, %RED%, %PINK%, %PURPLE%, %TEAL%, %NAVY%, %BLUE%, %AQUA%, %LIME%, %GREEN%, %OLIVE%, %MAROON%, %BLACK%, %GRAY%, %SILVER% and %ENDCOLOR%.

• To display headings, type (from the beginning of a line) three dashes (-), from one to six plus signs (+), a space, and your heading text.
  • The quantity of plus signs is related to the size of the heading - the more plus signs you use, the smaller the heading.
  • You can insert a nested table of contents, generated from headings, by placing %TOC% wherever you like on a page (see Macros for more %TOC% options).

• Use <verbatim> to enclose code excerpts, filenames, and other unformatted text:

   <verbatim>
   unformatted text!
   and more of it!
   </verbatim>

Working with special characters (advanced)

• If you want to display angle brackets, enter them as HTML codes instead of typing them in directly:
  • < = <
&gt; = >
  • You enter: (a > 0)
    Result: (a > 0)

• Sometimes you will not see the & character and you need to escape it to see it as it is. The reason behind is that & has a special meaning in HTML - it starts so called character entities, like '©' which is the © copyright character.
  • Type 'This & that' to get 'This & that'.

Preventing Macro/variable expansion (advanced)

Place <nop> within a %MACRO% statement to prevent it from being expanded, as follows:

• %<nop>MACRO%, result: %MACRO%

Working with <verbatim> (advanced)

Although text inside a <verbatim> block should be displayed exactly as it is typed (without being expanded), Foswiki does not necessarily ignore it. The following examples show TML that Foswiki will process inside a <verbatim> block:

<verbatim>
Example 1:
   * Set VARIABLE = This variable may be used as normal, Eg. %VARIABLE%

Example 2:
%STARTSECTION{"section"}%
This section may be used as normal, Eg. %INCLUDE{"WikiSyntax" section="section"}%
%ENDSECTION{"section"}%

Example 3:
%TMPL:DEF{"template"}%
This template definition may be used as normal, Eg. %TMPL:P{"template"}%
%TMPL:END%
</verbatim>

Internal and external links

• To link to another Wiki topic in the same web, type the WikiWord of that topic: WebHome. Acronyms will also be linked if the topic exists. See ACRONYM.

• To link to a Wiki topic in a different web, type the name of the web, and a dot, first: Sandbox.WebHome.

• A Wiki topic that doesn't exist will appear highlighted, with question mark at the end, prompting you (or someone else) to start that topic by clicking the ?: ExampleOfANewTopic (click the ?, but don't save, to preserve the example!).

• To create an external link, type the full URL: http://foswiki.org/.

• To prevent a WikiWord from becoming a link, place <nop> or an exclamation mark (!) in front of the WikiWord: <nop>NoLinkPlease or !NoLinkPlease.

• To escape the exclamation mark escape, try prefixing a <nop>, e.g. write A <nop>!= B to get "A != B". Alternatively, use the HTML entity !, which renders as an exclamation mark, e.g. write A != B to get "A != B".

Bullet and numbered lists

• To indent with a bullet, enter [space][space][space][asterisk][space].
  • Use multiples of 3 spaces to nest bullets.
    • That's 3-6-9 spaces…

• To create a numbered list:
  1. Start items in a numbered list with [space][space][space][1][space].
  2. The "1" (or any number) will be replaced by a correct numbering order.
  3. To add a new paragraph without restarting list numbering, use the %BR% variable, like this:
     Text added (in a new paragraph)
  4. and the numbered list continues.

Always start counting spaces for bullets or numbers from the beginning of a new line.

Others

• To display an image in a topic, attach it and type in edit mode:
  %ATTACHURL%/yourimagefilename.jpg

• Three (or more) consecutive hyphens will create a horizontal rule:
  ---

Follow GoodStyle recommendations when editing topics. In general, it is always nice to add one's signature at the end of a topic or comments. To add your signature, type Main.YourName, it will then expand to WikiGuest.

See EditingShorthand for the complete set of formatting rules.

Related Topics: WikiWords, Macros, EditingShorthand, FileAttachment