Help:Basic MediaWiki Syntax

This is a brief introduction to MediaWiki source syntax. For a more comprehensive guide, see here.

Text

Description	You type	You get
Applies anywhere
Italicise text	''italic''	italic
Bold text	'''bold'''	bold
Bold and italic	'''''bold & italic'''''	bold & italic
Internal link (within the Computer History wiki)	[[name of page]] [[name of page|display text]]	name of page display text
External link (to other websites)	[http://www.example.org] [http://www.example.org display text] http://www.example.org	[1] display text http://www.example.org
Sign your posts on talk pages	~~~~	Your username 03:48, 13 November 2025 (UTC)
Items below only apply at the beginning of a line
Headings A Table of Contents will automatically be generated when four headings are added to an article.	== Level 1 == === Level 2 === ==== Level 3 ==== ===== Level 4 ===== ====== Level 5 ======	Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
Indented items (used mostly on Talk: pages)	: foo :: bar	foo bar
Bullet list	* one * two ** two point one * three	one two two point one three
Numbered list	# one # two ## two point one # three	one two two point one three

Tables

{| class="wikitable"
! Table !! Prototype
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | Headers
|-
| aa || rowspan="2" | yy
|-
| bb
|-
| cc || zz
|}

produces:

Table	Prototype
Headers
aa	yy
bb
cc	zz

Images

[[Image:Pdp-11-40.jpg|thumb|200px|Caption text]]

produces:

Caption text

Leaving out the '200px' inserts the image full-size. The optional keywords 'left' and 'right' can be added to control the horizontal placement.