Learning to format - help!

Question

I've been attempting to clean up multiple profiles that spawned multiple suggestions when I linked up to them.

I have no background in writing to format, so it has stretched me but the results are less than acceptable!

Understatement!

I was trying to create a block for each child of Samuel Harmon and his wife Mercy Fisher Harmon.

Basically its no improvement at all. The marks I attempted to use remained in the finished product. Ugh!

[[Harmon-411|Lucinda (Harmon) Crocker]]  [[Harmon-387|Samuel Harmon]] [[Fisher-1060|Mercy (Fisher) Harmon]]

and [[Crocker-311|George Water house Crocker]] ...Makes for a long and grueling haul!

And it appears that Mercy Fisher did indeed have children late in life!  Thanks so much,  Margaret

Comments

What are you trying to do with the double pipes: ||

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I was trying to prevent everything from being a single paragraph. I wanted it to block each child. To separate them slightly.

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Start each line with either an asterisk (*) for a bullet, or a colon (:), for just an indent.  If you want a numbered list, then use the hash mark, aka the number sign (#).
Be sure to have no spaces or anything else between the formatting mark and the left margin.

Answer 1

This page provides some tips for formatting in Wikitree. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Editing_Tips

Answer 2

I think what you were trying to do is create a table. They are not recommended on profile pages because the formatting, or mark-up, is more complicated and can be intimidating, or like you have noticed, is easily messed up. Instead, use some simple wiki mark-up tools:

* An asterisk creates a bulleted list. It will separate each item on a separate line and is great for listing children.

# The pound sign creates a number list. Like the asterisk, you'll get each item on a separate line, but they'll have numbers instead of a bullet point.

: A colon indents the text and creates separate lines. It is better for paragraphs like if you are quoting a source and want to make the little paragraph stand out. Multiple colons will indent more.

<br /> Add a line after the sentence or paragraph. This is good if you want to force something to the next line.

You should get comfortable with these before attempting anything more fancy and remember, not on profile pages. Keep those simple for everyone to use.

Answer 3

Also, I just looked at the profile you linked. Some of your headings wound up below the sources. Every profile only needs three things:

== Biography ==

== Sources ==

<references />

If you like, you can add third tier headings like === Parents and Siblings === or === Children === Notice that the required Biography and Sources has 2 equal signs. The tertiary one have 3 equal signs. If you use those they must be between the Biography and the Sources.

If you have a relatively small amount of information for the profile, I personally do not recommend using the tertiary headings. I would just write it all together in paragraphs under the Biography heading.

So for the profile you linked, you need to move the == Sources == and <references /> to the bottom. The <references /> triggers all your inline citations to form a list wherever it is placed. Anything located below it will simply not show up. I hope this makes sense.

Answer 4

Have done some formatting to Harmon-411

See what you think, check out how I did it via editing button. 

Can be changed as you want but just an idea. 

Information gathered and tabled via WikiTree Sourcer, a browser add on. 

Cheers, Rich

Comments

Many thanks for all the great Answers! I am off to practice formatting on my watchlist profiles! It may take ages, but I need to start at A and grind my way through the lot. I need especially to review.my earliest attempts. Some of you have worked on these and I am grateful for that.Again, my gratitude for all of you!