Example of syntax
Example of syntax
Output shown to
Wiki markup Equivalent in HTML
readers
"You mean
you can't
take
''less'',"
said the
Hatter.
"It's very
easy to take
''more''
than
nothing."
Visual editing
While wiki engines have traditionally offered source editing to users,
in recent years some implementations have added a rich text
editing mode. This is usually implemented, using JavaScript, as an
interface which translates formatting instructions chosen from
a toolbar into the corresponding wiki markup or HTML. This is
generated and submitted to the server transparently, shielding
users from the technical detail of markup editing and making it
easier for them to change the content of pages. An example of such
an interface is the VisualEditor in MediaWiki, the wiki engine used by
Wikipedia. WYSIWYG editors may not provide all the features
available in wiki markup, and some users prefer not to use them, so
a source editor will often be available simultaneously.
Version history
Some wiki implementations keep a record of changes made to wiki
pages, and may store every version of the page permanently. This
allows authors to revert a page to an older version to rectify a
mistake, or counteract a malicious or inappropriate edit to its
content.[13]
These stores are typically presented for each page in a list, called a
"log" or "edit history", available from the page via a link in the
interface. The list displays metadata for each revision to the page,
such as the time and date of when it was stored, and the name of
the person who created it, alongside a link to view that specific
revision. A diff (short for "difference") feature may be available,
which highlights the changes between any two revisions.
Edit summaries
"Edit summary" redirects here. For the Wikipedia help page,
see Help:Edit summary.
The edit history view in many wiki implementations will include edit
summaries written by users when submitting changes to a page.
Similar to the function of a log message in a revision control system,
an edit summary is a short piece of text which summarizes and
perhaps explains the change, for example "Corrected grammar" or
"Fixed table formatting to not extend past page width". It is not
inserted into the article's main text.
Navigation
Traditionally, wikis offer free navigation between their pages
via hypertext links in page text, rather than requiring users to follow
a formal or structured navigation scheme. Users may also
create indexes or table of contents pages, hierarchical
categorization via a taxonomy, or other forms of ad hoc content
organization. Wiki implementations can provide one or more ways to
categorize or tag pages to support the maintenance of such index
pages, such as a backlink feature which displays all pages that link
to a given page. Adding categories or tags to a page makes it easier
for other users to find it.
While this system made it easy to link to pages, it had the downside
of requiring pages to be named in a form deviating from standard
spelling, and titles of a single word required abnormally capitalizing
one of the letters (e.g. "WiKi" instead of "Wiki"). Some wiki
implementations attempt to improve the display of camel case page
titles and links by reinserting spaces and possibly also reverting to
lower case, but this simplistic method is not able to correctly
present titles of mixed capitalization. For example, "Kingdom of
France" as a page title would be written as "KingdomOfFrance", and
displayed as "Kingdom Of France".
To avoid this problem, the syntax of wiki markup gained free links,
wherein a term in natural language could be wrapped in special
characters to turn it into a link without modifying it. The concept
was given the name in its first implementation, in UseModWiki in
February 2001.[16] In that implementation, link terms were wrapped
in a double set of square brackets, for example [[Kingdom of
France]]. This syntax was adopted by a number of later wiki
engines.