Help:Editing Tips
Categories: WikiTree Help | Profile Editing Help
The text section of every person profile should have these two sections:
- == Biography ==
- == Sources ==
- <references />
Editing the text in these sections is easier than it may seem at first. Most common formatting — such as italics, bold, and subheadings — can be done through the toolbar at the top of the editing box.
The toolbar is a short-cut for creating what is called "wiki markup". This page has tips on doing wiki markup by hand.
It is strongly recommended that you don't try to be creative with formatting. Plain text is almost always best.
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Italics
This is useful for denoting, for example, the text of a birth, death or marriage notice. It can also be used to italicize the name of a book, journal or ship. To italicize a word or phrase, place two single apostrophes around the word or phrase, like this:
- ''National Genealogy Society Quarterly''
The results will look like this:
- National Genealogy Society Quarterly
Note that this is two apostrophes, not a quotation mark.
Bold Text
To make a word or phrase bold, place the word or phrase inside of three single apostrophes like this:
- '''Be Bold!'''
The results will look like this:
- Be Bold!
Please don't use bold formatting for headers and subheaders; those are explained below.
Bold and Italics
You can combine both bold and italics by using five single apostrophes before and after the desired text. For example:
- '''''This is bold and italicized'''''
will produce
- This is bold and italicized
Line Breaks
In wiki markup, one line break (i.e. clicking Enter/Return) will be ignored. The line will wrap in the output. If you need to create a single line break, enter <br> at the end of the line.
Two line breaks (clicking Enter/Return twice) creates a new paragraph.
Horizontal Rule
You can break up the page into sections with a horizontal rule. Just type four minus (-) signs on a line by themselves.
For example, ---- will produce this:
Horizontal rules should be used sparingly. Subheadings are preferable. There should be no horizontal rules above the Biography.
Subheadings
Subheadings are a way to improve the organization of a profile's sections.
Every profile should have two headlines. One for Biography and one for Sources . These have "==" before and after the headline.
Subheadings can make the biography more readable. Creating them is easy. Simply add "===" before and after the line.
What you type:
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Headings and subheadings should be plain text. Do not put images, links, source citations (reference tags), templates, etc., inside headline tags on profiles.
Lists
There are four types of lists:
- bulleted lists
- numbered lists
- mixed lists and
- indentations.
Bulleted lists
Simply add a " * " before a line of text to give it a bullet, like this:
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Add an extra '*' to go a level deeper, like this:
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Numbered lists
Instead of bullets you can also have a numbered list. This is just as easy. Just start with a "#" instead of a "*", the list will number it self.
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Again, you can create different levels by adding an extra "#":
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Mixed lists
Or you can create mixed lists:
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Indentations
You can create an indentation by adding a colon (:) at the start of a line of text. The text will keep on indenting until you start a new line:
Note: Indentation should not be used to start paragraphs or for extended quotations. It should only be used for spacing other special elements that need to be set apart from the text.
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If you want to start a new line of text, but keep the indentation, simply add the colon again to the start of the new line:
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By adding an extra colon to the start of the line, you get a bigger indent:
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Here's an example how you can use this:
Death Certificate
Family:
Further information:
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Indentation should not be used to start paragraphs or for extended quotations. It should only be used for spacing other special elements that need to be set apart from the text.
Tables
If you have data in a spreadsheet you can easily create a table by using this web site to convert it to a Wiki Table ready for insertion in your page. Just copy and paste all the cells from your spreadsheet into the text entry box and process it. If you deselect the format header it will not provide a header for the table.
For tables already in a HTML format.
Tables are created by using the 'pipe-syntax' developed by Magnus Manske, and substitutes pipes (|) for HTML. The pipe-symbol is usually found above the 'Enter'-key (shift + \). Here is an on-line script which converts html tables to pipe syntax tables.
- Start your table with "{|"
- To start a new row add "|-" at the beginning of a line of text.
- To separate cells on a single line use "||".
- End your table with "|}"
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It can also be sortable:
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Superscript and Subscript
In some cases, such as when you want to render a transcription from an old document correctly, you may need to use superscript or subscript. You can do this by surrounding the text to be superscripted or subscripted with <sup></sup> or <sub></sub>. For example:
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Note that this should not be used for any extended length of text, and it is not for footnote numbers. See Sources.
Centering
You can center text or other elements using <center>...</center>. For example:
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Centering is not recommended for styling purposes, e.g. it shouldn't be used just because you like the look of centered headlines. It can be used when you want to properly transcribe the original appearance of something like a headstone.
Advanced Styling
Some members with advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS want to apply their skills inside profiles. This is not recommended. See HTML and Inline CSS.
More Help
See more tips in these pages:
If you have a problem, feel free to ask the community for help in G2G.
This page was last modified 19:47, 5 November 2024. This page has been accessed 76,700 times.