Basic formatting
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# Basic Formatting
Click on the "edit source" button at the top of the page to start editing a page.
Formatting WikiDoc articles is a bit different from writing on a standard word processor. Instead of a strict WYSIWYG or "what you see is what you get" approach, Wikipedia uses text codes to create particular elements of the page (e.g. headings). This "language" is known as Wikitext (or Wiki-markup) and is designed for ease of editing.
When you click "edit source", you can begin to enter or edit text on a page. The right hand column of the table below shows you what to type in the space where you are editing to end up with the text you see in the left hand column.

# Why Use the Formatting Below Including "Equal Signs" to Create Sections, Subsections, and Sub Sub Sections?
So that WikiDoc can automatically generate a table of contents for you. If you just use bold, an automatic table of contents will not be created.

## Examples
This page is for assisting in basic formatting of text on wiki pages.

# Boldness and Italics
Boldness can be performed simply by using three apostrophes on each side of the text you wish to boldify. For example,
becomes This is bold text
Italics can be perfomed by using two apostrophes on either side of the text you wish to italicise. For example,
becomes This is italicised text.
Naturally, these two can be combined:
becomes This is bold and italicised.
In order to print something like multiple apostrophes or tildes (without wiki interpreting), use the nowiki tag:  Here are five apostrophes in a row '''''without bold italics'''''. 

# Putting Something in Quotes
and it looks like this (indented with big quote marks)

# Font Color
Changing the font color can be performed by placing  and  around your text.  For example,
becomes this red text: your text
Text can be in any hexadecimal color.  For example,
becomes your text with hexadecimal color #1f4099: your text

# Font Size
The fonts come in sizes from 1 to 7. The standard size is 3, unless otherwise specified in the  or other tags.
Changing the font size can be performed by placing  and  around your text.  For example,
creates a bigger font size of size 4: your text
Also, typing this:
creates text with size 1 bigger than the standard: your text
Typing this:
creates text with size 1 smaller than the standard: your text

# Font Typeface
Changing the font typeface can be performed by placing  and  around your text.  For example,
creates text with Courier font: your text

# Signatures
Users can leave timestamped signatures to identify themselves. Three tildes (~~~) inserts the user's name, four tildes (~~~~) inserts the user's name with a timestamp, and five tildes (~~~~~) gives just a timestamp with no name. You can also insert your signature with timestamp from edit screen toolbar (second button from the right).
- Three tildes: C Michael Gibson  talk
- Four tildes: C Michael Gibson  talk  14:23, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
- Five tildes: 14:23, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
Signatures should be used on all talk pages.

# Line Breaks
Paragraphs are identified in wikicode by the simple expedient of leaving a blank line between paragraphs. This has the side effect that two lines of text without a blank line between them will remain on the same line on-screen. Also,  can be used to force a line break (but not a paragraph break) at any time within a paragraph, though you shouldn't need to use this much.

# Horizontal Lines
A horizontal lines can be created by adding four dashes in a row on a separate line.
This code in the edit window:
creates this horizontal line:
(Equivalently, the XHTML code  also creates a horizontal line.)
Also, the largest two section headers automatically create a horizontal line immediately below the heading title.

# HTML and XHTML tags

## What's the Difference?

### Background
HTML is an interpreted language that is currently used to write web pages. HTML is now considered deprecated by the W3C, and is strongly discouraged. XHTML is a revised version of HTML, designed to counter problems within the HTML standard.

### Compatability and Future Proofing
Older browers will rarely have issues with XHTML, but the same cannot be said of any browser in regards to regular HTML; the flaws within the original HTML specifications left too much room for ambiguity and both can, and often have been, misinterpreted.
The primary reason behind the stated strong preference for wikimarkup over either HTML or XHTML is future proofing. As stated earlier, HTML is deprecated and discouraged. One can imagine that backwards compatability with aging and defunct standards may eventually be discarded in order to reduce the size and complexity of browsers.
At present, wikimarkup can be likened to "shorthand" of XHTML, but will presumably take advantage of the capabilities of XML when it becomes reasonable. Therefore, it is strongly advised that wherever possible, wikimarkup should be used instead of HTML or XHTML.

## Non-exhaustive List of HTML and XHTML Tags
Some more useful HTML formatting codes are as follows:
- Using  and  to put items in typewriter font. These tags are often synonymous, but not in every case. The  tag is actually intended to delineate program source code from other text.
- Using  or  to strikethrough text.
- Using  to underline text.
- Using  to put text in small caps. Technically, this is using XHTML and CSS.
- Using  and  to make text Superscript and subscript respectively.
- As mentioned previously,  generates a line break. Use blank lines wherever possible, try to use the  tag as a last resort.
- As mentioned previously  will generate a horizontal line. Again, use  as a last resort.