Help:HTML in wikitext

Wiki markup
Basic markup Text, links, and talk pages Visual files Sound files Tables Template editing Using HTML

The MediaWiki software allows use of a subset of HTML5 markup elements or tags and their attributes for presentation formatting. Many HTML tags may also be included by equivalent wiki markup or templates which are simpler for most editors and less intrusive in the editing window. In normal practice, wiki markup or templates are preferred within articles, but HTML is quite useful for formatting within templates.

Tutorials

This help page gives only an overview of allowed markup. For further assistance and detailed specifications:

• HTML5 Introduction at w3schools.com

Attributes

Attributes provide additional information about an element and are always specified in the start tag. They are formatted as a name/value pair like name="value".

Global attributes apply to all tags. Attributes not listed here are not allowed by MediaWiki:

• class: one or more classifications to which the element belongs. See Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes.
• dir: text direction— "ltr" (left-to-right), "rtl" (right-to-left) or "auto".
• id: unique identifier for the element.
• lang: primary language for the contents of the element per BCP 47. The MediaWiki software automatically adds the xml:lang attribute whenever lang is defined, but xml:lang will no longer be passed when included as a separate attribute.
• style: applies CSS styling to the contents of the element.
• title: advisory information associated with the element.

HTML5 microdata attributes apply to all tags:

• Any attribute beginning with data-
• itemid
• itemprop
• itemref
• itemscope
• itemtype

Other tags such as <table> support specific attributes— these are listed in the appropriate section.

Markup	Renders as
This is <span style="color:red">red</span> text.	This is red text.

The MediaWiki Sanitizer.php does some cleanup on attributes. A best practice is to use the proper syntax.

• Discards attributes not on a whitelist for the given element.
• Turns broken or invalid entities into plaintext.
• Double-quotes all attribute values.
• Attributes without values are given the name as attribute.
• Double attributes are discarded.
• Unsafe style attributes are discarded.
• Prepends space if there are attributes.

Elements

These HTML elements are supported by the MediaWiki software. This section gives a brief overview of the HTML element, an example, relevant wikimarkup and templates.

Basic

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6

Further information: Help:Section and MOS:HEAD

The <h1>...</h1> through <h6>...</h6> tags are headings for the sections with which they are associated. <h1> is used for the article title. Headings are styled through CSS.

Markup	Renders as
<h2>Heading 2</h2> <h3>Heading 3</h3> <h4>Heading 4</h4> <h5>Heading 5</h5> <h6>Heading 6</h6>	Heading 2 Heading 3 Heading 4 Heading 5 Heading 6

Wikimarkup: Headers formatted with wikimarkup add an [edit] link.

Tag	Wikimarkup	Style
<h1>	=heading=	font size 188%; bottom border
<h2>	==heading==	font size 150%; bottom border
<h3>	====heading====	font size 132%; bold
<h4>	=====heading=====	font size 116%; bold
<h5>	======heading======	font size 100%; bold
<h6>	========heading========	font size 80%; bold

Templates: {{fake heading}} for use in documentation

p

<p>...</p> tag places content into a separate paragraph.

Markup	Renders as
<p>HyperText Markup Language</p><p>HyperText Markup Language</p>	HyperText Markup Language HyperText Markup Language

Wikimarkup: Separate paragraphs by a single blank line.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText Markup Language HyperText Markup Language	HyperText Markup Language HyperText Markup Language

br

Further information: Wikipedia:Line-break handling and Wikipedia:Don't use line breaks

<br> or <br /> inserts a line break. Both versions of the break are supported by HTML5.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText<br>Markup Language	HyperText Markup Language

Wikimarkup: two new lines will insert one break.

Templates:

• {{break}} adds multiple line breaks.
• {{crlf2}} adds adds a true carriage return and line feed.
• {{-}} adds a break with styling to clear floating elements.
• {{plainlist}} creates an unbulleted list.

hr

Further information: WP:LINE

<hr> represents a paragraph-level thematic break and presents as a horizontal rule.

Markup	Renders as
<hr>

Wikimarkup: use ----

Markup	Renders as
----

comment

Further information: WP:COMMENT

<!-- --> formats the enclosed text as a hidden comment.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText<!--Markup Language-->	HyperText

Formatting

abbr

<abbr>...</abbr> creates a tooltip to define an abbreviation or acronym that is displayed on mouse-over.

Markup	Renders as
<abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr>	HTML

Support: not supported by IE6 or IE7.

Templates: {{abbr}}; supports Unicode display

b

Further information: MOS:BOLD

<b>...</b> formats text stylistically offset from other text (bold) without conveying extra importance.

Markup	Renders as
<b>HyperText Markup Language</b>	HyperText Markup Language

Wikimarkup: Use ''' to open and close bold text.

Markup	Renders as
'''HyperText Markup Language'''	HyperText Markup Language

bdi

<bdi>...</bdi> isolates the content from the surrounding text-direction settings.

Markup	Renders as
اليمين إلى اليسارleft to right	اليمين إلى اليسارleft to right
اليمين إلى اليسار<bdi>left to right</bdi>	اليمين إلى اليسارleft to right

Support: Firefox, Chrome

blockquote

Further information: MOS:QUOTE

<blockquote>...</blockquote> presents text in an offset block.

Markup	Renders as
<blockquote>HyperText Markup Language</blockquote>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{quote}}; supports pre-formatted attribution and source parameters. For other specialized quotation templates, see Category:Quotation templates.

cite

<cite>...</cite> contains the title of a work and by default is formatted in italics. This is a new definition in HTML5— in the previous XML implementation <cite> was used to contain a citation or a reference to other sources.

Markup	Renders as
<cite>HyperText Markup Language</cite>	HyperText Markup Language

code

<code>...</code> formats a section of computer code. MediaWiki applies CSS styling to display <code> in a monospace font.

Markup	Renders as
<code>HyperText Markup Language</code>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{code}} uses <syntaxhighlight>.

data

<data>...</data> formats a machine-readable version of contents.

Markup	Renders as
<data value="978-0764502149">HTML for Dummies</data>	HTML for Dummies

Attributes: value

del

<del>...</del> formats deleted text.

Markup	Renders as
<del>HyperText Markup Language</del>	HyperText Markup Language

dfn

<dfn>...</dfn> is used for indicating a definition.

Markup	Renders as
<dfn>Definition</dfn>	Definition

Templates: {{dfn}}

em

Further information: MOS:ITALIC

<em>...</em> represents a span of text with emphatic stress.

Markup	Renders as
<em>HyperText Markup Language</em>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{em}}

i

Further information: MOS:ITALIC

<i>...</i> represents a span of text offset from its surrounding content without conveying any extra emphasis or importance, and for which the conventional typographic presentation is italic text.

Markup	Renders as
<i>HyperText Markup Language</i>	HyperText Markup Language

Wikimarkup: Use '' to open and close italic text.

Markup	Renders as
''HyperText Markup Language''	HyperText Markup Language

ins

<ins>...</ins> indicates a range of text that has been added. Styled as underlined text. Used on talk pages to indicate refactored text; see WP:REDACT.

Markup	Renders as
<ins>HyperText Markup Language</ins>	HyperText Markup Language

kbd

<kbd>...</kbd> indicates user input such as keyboard input or voice commands.

Markup	Renders as
Press <kbd>Enter</kbd>	Press Enter

Templates:

• {{kbd}} applies gray styling
• {{key press}} renders illustrated keys and keystrokes.

mark

<mark>...</mark> represents a run of text in one document marked or highlighted for reference purposes, due to its relevance in another context. Marked text is formatted with a yellow background by default.

Markup	Renders as
<mark>HyperText Markup Language</mark>	HyperText Markup Language
<mark style="background:lightblue">HyperText Markup Language</mark>	HyperText Markup Language

Support: Not supported by Internet Explorer 8 and below.

pre

<pre>...</pre> element represents a block of preformatted text. In MediaWiki, <pre> is actually a parser tag and not HTML, but the function is the same.

Markup	Renders as
<pre>HyperText Markup Language</pre>	HyperText Markup Language

HTML entities

<pre> parses HTML entities. If you want to escape this, replace & with &.

Markup	Renders as
<pre>&amp;</pre>	&
<pre>&lt;</pre>	<
<pre>&amp;amp;</pre>	&amp;
<pre>&amp;lt;</pre>	&lt;

Templates:

• {{pre}} wraps text that overflows the page.
• {{pre2}} wraps or uses scrollbox.

rp, rt, ruby

Further information: Ruby character

<ruby>...</ruby> marks spans of phrasing content with ruby annotations.

<rt>...</rt> marks the ruby text component of a ruby annotation.

<rp>...</rp> is used to provide parentheses around a ruby text component of a ruby annotation, to be shown by user agents that don’t support ruby annotations.

Markup	Renders as
<ruby> 東<rp>(</rp><rt>とう</rt><rp>)</rp> 京<rp>(</rp><rt>きょう</rt><rp>)</rp> </ruby>	東(とう) 京(きょう)

s

<s>...</s> is used to indicate content that is no longer accurate or relevant and that has been struck from the page. It is not not appropriate when indicating document edits; to mark a span of text as having been removed from a document, use <del>.

Markup	Renders as
<s>HyperText Markup Language</s>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{strikethrough}}

samp

<samp>...</samp> indicates output from a program or computing system.

Markup	Renders as
<samp>HyperText Markup Language</samp>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{samp}} applies gray styling

small

Further information: WP:FONTSIZE

<small>...</small> format small text.

Markup	Renders as
<small>HyperText Markup Language</small>	HyperText Markup Language

strong

<strong>...</strong> formats a span of text with strong importance.

Markup	Renders as
<strong>HyperText Markup Language</strong>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{strong}}

sub

Further information: WP:SUBSCRIPT

<sub>...</sub> formats a span of text as a subscript.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText <sub>Markup Language</sub>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates:

• {{sub}} (_subscript text)
• {{subsub}} (_{subscript subscript} text)
• {{ssub}} (_{subscript, small} text)
• {{sup}} (^superscript text)
• {{su}} (superscript
  subscript text)
• {{sup sub}} (textsup
  sub)
• {{e}} (1.23×10⁴)

sup

Further information: WP:SUBSCRIPT

<sup>...</sup> formats a span of text as a superscript.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText <sup>Markup Language</sup>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates:

• {{sub}} (_subscript text)
• {{subsub}} (_{subscript subscript} text)
• {{ssub}} (_{subscript, small} text)
• {{sup}} (^superscript text)
• {{su}} (superscript
  subscript text)
• {{sup sub}} (textsup
  sub)
• {{e}} (1.23×10⁴)

time

<time>...</time> defines either a time (24 hour clock), or a date in the Gregorian calendar, optionally with a time and a time-zone offset.

Markup	Renders as
<time>10:00</time>	10:00

Attributes: datetime

Support: Not supported by Internet Explorer 8 and below.

u

Further information: MOS:BADEMPHASIS and MOS:QUOTE

<u>...</u> represents a span of text offset from its surrounding content without conveying any extra emphasis or importance, and for which the conventional typographic presentation is underlining; for example, a span of text in Chinese that is a proper name (a Chinese proper name mark), or span of text that is known to be misspelled.

Markup	Renders as
<u>HyperText Markup Language</u>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{underline}}

var

Further information: MOS:ITALIC

<var>...</var> formats text in italics to indicate a variable in a mathematical expression or programming context, or placeholder text that the reader is meant to mentally replace with some other literal value.

Markup	Renders as
<var>HyperText Markup Language</var>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates:

• {{var}}
• {{varserif}} formatted in italic serif to differentiate characters

Lists

Further information: Help:List and MOS:LIST

Do not leave blank lines between items in a unless there is a reason to do so, since this causes the MediaWiki software to interpret each item as beginning a new list.

dl, dt, dd

Do not use ; to simply bold a line without defining a value using : as this usage now renders invalid HTML5.

<dl>...</dl>, <dt>...</dt> and <dd>...</dd> are used to create a definition list of group names corresponding to values. Group names are in bold and values are indented. Each group must include one or more definitions.

Markup	Renders as
<dl> <dt> Term <dd> Definition1 <dd> Definition2 <dd> Definition3 <dd> Definition4 </dl>	Term Definition1 Definition2 Definition3 Definition4

Wikimarkup: <dt> is created using ; while automatically enclosed in <dl>...</dl>. <dd> is created using : for each value. For a single or first value the : can be placed on the same line after ; where subsequent values must be placed on separate lines.

Markup	Renders as
;Term :Definition1 :Definition2 :Definition3 :Definition4	Term Definition1 Definition2 Definition3 Definition4

Templates: {{defn}}

ol, ul, li

<ol>...</ol> represents an ordered list; <ul>...</ul> represents an unordered list; <li>...</li> represents a list item within either type of list.

Markup	Renders as
<ol> <li>Item1</li> <li>Item2</li> <li>Item3</li> <li>Item4</li> </ol>	Item1 Item2 Item3 Item4
<ul> <li>Item1</li> <li>Item2</li> <li>Item3</li> <li>Item4</li> </ul>	Item1 Item2 Item3 Item4

Wikimarkup: use * for items in an unordered list and # for ordered lists.

Markup	Renders as
# Item1 # Item2 # Item3 # Item4	Item1 Item2 Item3 Item4
* Item1 * Item2 * Item3 * Item4	Item1 Item2 Item3 Item4

Templates: for a variety of specialized uses, see Category:Wikipedia list formatting templates.

Containers

div

Further information: Span and div

<div>...</div> is a a generic container for flow content that displays as a block element.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText <div>Markup</div> Language	HyperText Markup Language

span

Further information: Span and div

<span>...</span> is a container for flow content that displays as an inline element.

Markup	Renders as
HyperText <span>Markup</span> Language	HyperText Markup Language

Tables

Further information: Help:Table and MOS:TABLES

table, td, tr

<table>...</table> defines a table.

<tr>...</tr> defines a table row.

<td>...</td> defines a data cell with contents that may include text, links, images, lists, forms, other tables, etc.

Markup	Renders as
<table border=1> <tr> <td>data</td> <td>data</td> </tr> </table>	data data

Attributes:

• <table>: border
• <td>: headers, rowspan, colspan
• The scope attribute is allowed only when using the table header wikimarkup (!).
• Allowed but obsolete or unsupported: abbr, axis, align, charoff, char, valign

th

<th>...</th> defines a table header; styled as centered and bold.

Markup	Renders as
<table border="1"> <tr> <th>Header</th> <th>Header</th> </tr> <tr> <td>data</td> <td>data</td> </tr> </table>	Header Header data data

caption

<caption>...</caption> adds a caption to a table.

Markup	Renders as
<table border=1> <caption>Caption</caption> <tr> <td>data</td> <td>data</td> </tr> </table>	Caption data data

thead, tfoot, tbody

<thead>, <tfoot> and <tbody> are not supported, but are automatically generated when the page is rendered.

Obsolete elements

These elements are now obsolete in HTML5, but still supported by browsers. These tags either have an alternate tag or a template that replaces their function with CSS.

big

<big>...</big> (obsolete) formats text in a larger font size.

Markup	Renders as
<big>HyperText Markup Language</big>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{big}} uses CSS.

center

For centering tables, see Help:Table#Centering tables.

<center>...</center> (obsolete) is used to center text elements.

Markup	Renders as
<center>HyperText Markup Language</center>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{center}} uses CSS.

font

<font>...</font> (obsolete) is used to set the font size, font face and color of text.

Markup	Renders as
<font size="3" face="verdana" color="green">HyperText Markup Language</font>	HyperText Markup Language

Templates: {{font}} uses CSS.

rb

<rb>...</rb> (obsolete) Formerly used to mark base text in a ruby annotation; use <ruby>.

strike

<strike>...</strike> (obsolete) formats strike-through characters; use <s> instead.

Markup	Renders as
<strike>HyperText Markup Language</strike>	HyperText Markup Language

tt

<tt>...</tt> (obsolete) formats text in a fixed-width font. Use <code>, <kbd>, <samp> or <var> instead.

Markup	Renders as
<tt>HyperText Markup Language</tt>	HyperText Markup Language

Unsupported elements

These elements are not supported, but have equivalent wiki markup.

a

For more details on this topic, see Help:Wiki markup#Links and URLs.

<a> is used to create links. Use the [[ ]] wikimarkup for internal links and [ ] for external links.

input

For more details on this topic, see mw:Extension:InputBox.

<input> is used to create forms. The <inputbox> extension tag is used to create a text box with a button.

HTML Tidy

HTML Tidy is enabled for the English Wikipedia. Tidy parses the MediaWiki output and cleans it up to ensure that valid HTML is rendered. For example, <br>, </br>, <br/>, <br.> will all render as <br />. Tidy is not enabled for MediaWiki interface pages. Tidy is not perfect, and has been known to introduce errors.

Exceptions

In some pages in the MediaWiki namespace (typically the short messages like button labels) HTML is not parsed and tags will be exposed.

User and sitewide CSS and JS pages (see Help:User style) are interpreted as if inside a <pre> block.

Validation

Main page: Help:Markup validation

The MediaWiki software attempts to fix HTML errors, but it does not catch all of them. Where HTML is used, it is helpful to verify it with the W3C Markup Validation Service.

Parser and extension tags

The MediaWiki software adds elements that look and act like HTML tags. Parser tags are included in MediaWiki whereas extension tags are added by optional software extensions. Installed tags are listed at Special:Version.

Parser tags 

<gallery>, <nowiki>, <pre>

Extension tags 

<categorytree>, <charinsert>, <hiero>, <imagemap>, <inputbox>, <math>, <poem>, <ref>, <references>, <syntaxhighlight> (alias <source>), <timeline>

External links

• HTML 4.01 specification: elements | attributes
• For customizing the handling of HTML in MediaWiki, see the HTML and Tidy sections in mw:Manual:Configuration settings
• Some extensions allow adding arbitrary HTML to a page, for example mw:Extension:AddHTML, mw:Extension:SecureHTML and mw:Extension:Secure HTML; see $wgRawHtml for a more complete list
• Within the MediaWiki codebase, these HTML checks happen in includes/Sanitizer.php