Help:Wiki markup

Most text formatting is usually done with wikitags, so you don't have to learn HTML.

Formatting

Bold and italics

Bold and italics are added by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):

• ''italics'' is rendered as italics. (2 apostrophes on either side)
• '''bold''' is rendered as bold. (3 apostrophes on either side)
• '''''bolded italics''''' is rendered as bolded italics. (2 + 3 = 5 apostrophes on either side)

Headings and subheadings

Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up your article by inserting a heading for each section.

Headings can be created like this:

• ==Top level heading== (2 equals signs)
• ===Subheading=== (3 equals signs)
• ====Another level down==== (4 equals signs)
• =====Another level down===== (5 equals signs)

If an article has at least three headings, a table of contents (TOC) will be automatically generated. Try creating some headings in the sandbox and see the effect on the TOC.

There are some magic words you can use to alter the appearance (or not) of the TOC. Simply place the following text in the article for it to take effect:

• __NOTOC__ - Do not show a TOC
• __FORCETOC__ - Always show a TOC
• __TOC__ - Place the TOC here

Indenting

To indent text, place a colon (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.

For example:
This is aligned all the way to the left.

:This is indented slightly.

::This is indented more.

is shown as:
This is aligned all the way to the left.

This is indented slightly.

This is indented more.

Bullet points

To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (*). Similar to rectal indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.

A brief example:

*First list item

*Second list item

**Sub-list item under second

*Isn't this fun?

Which is shown as:

• First list item
• Second list item
  • Sub-list item under second
• Isn't this fun?

Numbered lists

You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). Using more #s will affect the level of indenting.

Example:

#First item

#Second item

##Sub-item under second item

#Third item

Shows up as:

1. First item
2. Second item
   1. Sub-item under second item
3. Third item

References

BattleTechWiki requires specific references for all licensed (i.e. non-fandom) material included cited within articles. When you have an item of cited information to include, close out the sentence (or paragraph) and then and the citation between the following two tags: <ref></ref>. If the article does not yet have an External Links section, create one and add <references /> to the first line. All references contained within the article will appear at this point.

Citations can either be in Wikilinks or URLs. Remember, URLS do not need piping (|) between the URL and the chosen title for the link.

Example:

• Note: Though not indicated in the respective titles, both Martial Arts/Quick Death and Martial Arts/Systema are rated Difficult.<ref>[http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,39004.0.html "Martial Arts/Systema and /Quick Death"]</ref>

would look like the following in the completed article:

• Note: Though not indicated in the respective titles, both Martial Arts/Quick Death and Martial Arts/Systema are rated Difficult.

The actual citation would appear like this, in an External Links section:

"Martial Arts/Systema and /Quick Death"