authors (basic)
Wikistyle basics
WikiStyles allow authors to modify the color and other styling attributes of a page’s contents. A wikistyle is written using percent-signs, as in %red%
or %bgcolor=blue%
.
The most basic use of wikistyles is to change text attributes such as color, background color, and font. PmWiki defines several wikistyles for changing the text color to %black%, %white%, %red%, %yellow%, %blue%, %gray%, %silver%, %maroon%, %green%, %navy%, and %purple%.
The basket contains %red% apples, %blue% blueberries, %purple% eggplant, %green% limes, %% and more. |
The basket contains apples, blueberries, eggplant, limes, and more. |
For colors other than the predefined colors, use the %color=...%
wikistyle. (Note: RGB colors (#rrggbb) should always be specified with lowercase letters to avoid WikiWord conflicts.)
I'd like to have some %color=#ff7f00% tangerines%%, too! |
I’d like to have some tangerines, too! |
To change the background color, use %bgcolor=...%
as a wikistyle:
This sentence contains %bgcolor=green yellow% yellow text on a green background. |
This sentence contains yellow text on a green background. |
See PmWiki:WikiStyleColors for more color help.
Scopes
Wikistyles can also specify a scope; with no scope, the style is applied to any text that follows up to the next wikistyle specification or the end of the paragraph, whichever comes first. Including a scope changes the specification to apply to the whole paragraph (%p ...%
), an entire list (%list ...%
), an item within a list (%item ...%
), or any block (%block ...%
). Those scopes are predefined shortcuts for the “apply=“ attribute, which is discussed below.
%p bgcolor=#ffeeee% The wikistyle specification at the beginning of this line applies to the entire paragraph, even if there are %blue% other wikistyle specifications %% in the middle of the paragraph. |
The wikistyle specification at the beginning of this line applies to the entire paragraph, even if there are other wikistyle specifications in the middle of the paragraph. |
The >>style<<
block can be used to apply a wikistyle to a large block of items. The style is applied until the next >><<
is encountered.
>>blue font-style=italic bgcolor=#ffffcc<< Everything after the above line is styled with blue italic text, This includes preformatted text * lists -> indented items >><< |
Everything after the above line is styled with blue italic text, This includes preformatted text
indented items
|
Wikistyle attributes
The style attributes recognized within a wikistyle specification are:
------------ CSS ------------- —HTML— color bgcolor class background-color margin id text-align padding hspace text-decoration border vspace font-size float target font-family list-style rel font-weight width* accesskey font-style height* value display Special: define, apply
The attributes in the first two columns correspond to the cascading style sheet (CSS) properties of the same name. The attributes in the last column apply only to specific items:
class=
andid=
assign a CSS class or identifier to an HTML elementtarget=name
opens links that follow in a browser window called “name”rel=name
in a link identifies the relationship of a target pageaccesskey=x
uses ‘x’ as a shortcut key for the link that followsvalue=9
sets the number of the current ordered list item
* The width and height attributes have asterisks because they are handled specially for <img …/> tags. If used by themselves (i.e., without anything providing an “apply=“ parameter to the wikistyle), then they set the ‘width=‘ and ‘height=‘ attributes of any <img … /> tags that follow. Otherwise, they set the ‘width:’ and ‘height:’ properties of the element being styled.
Applying wikistyles to blocks
Normally a wikistyle applies to a span of (inline) text, but the apply= attribute allows a style to be applied to something else. The predefined apply= values are:
apply=img | apply the style to any image that follows | |
apply=p | apply the style to the current paragraph | * |
apply=pre | apply the style to the current preformatted text | |
apply=list | apply the style to the current list | * |
apply=item | apply the style to the current list item | * |
apply=div | apply the style to the current div | |
apply=block | apply the style to the current block, whether it’s a paragraph, list, list item, heading, or division. | * |
The starred items also have wikistyle shortcuts already defined,
thus %p color=blue%
is the same as %apply=p color=blue%
, and
%list ROMAN%
is the same as %apply=list list-style=upper-roman%
.
Some wikistyle shortcuts also make use of apply, thus %right%
is a shortcut for %text-align=right apply=block%
.
An applied wikistyle will only take effect if it’s on the line that starts the thing it’s supposed to modify. In other words, a wikistyle in the third markup line of a paragraph can’t change the attributes of the paragraph:
here is some text in a paragraph and if we try to %apply=p color=blue% change the color of the paragraph in the middle it won't work because the style comes after the paragraph has already been started. |
here is some text in a paragraph and if we try to change the color of the paragraph in the middle it won’t work because the style comes after the paragraph has already been started. |
However, this %p color=red% paragraph ''will'' be in red because its block style does occur in the first line of its text. |
However, this paragraph will be in red because its block style does occur in the first line of its text. |
* Here's a list item * %list red% Oops, too late to affect the list! |
|
Enabling Styles
Styles not listed above can be enabled by a PMWiki Adminstrator by modifying the local/config.php file. For instance to enable the “line-height” style attribute add the line
$WikiStyleCSS[] = ‘line-height’;
to the local/config.php file.
Custom style shortcuts
The define=
attribute can be used to assign a shorthand name to any wikistyle specification. This shorthand name can then be reused in later wikistyle specifications.
%define=box block bgcolor=#ddddff border="2px dotted blue"% %box% [@ $ echo "Hello world" Hello World $ exit @] %box font-weight=bold color=green% [@ $ echo "I said, HELLO" @] |
$ echo "Hello world" Hello World $ exit $ echo "I said, HELLO" |
Tip: It’s often a good idea to put common style definitions into Group Header pages so that they can be shared among multiple pages in a group. Or, the wiki administrator can predefine styles site-wide as a local customization (see CustomWikiStyles).
Tip: Use custom style definitions to associate meanings with text instead of just colors. For example, if warnings are to be displayed as green text, set %define=warn green%
and then use %warn%
instead of %green%
in the document. Then, if you later decide that warnings should be styled differently, it’s much easier to change the (one) definition than many occurrences of %green%
in the text.
Predefined style shortcuts
PmWiki defines a number of style shortcuts.
- Text colors: black, white, red, yellow, blue, gray, silver, maroon, green, navy, purple (shortcut for
%color=...%
) - Justification:
%center%
and%right%
- Images and boxes
- Floating left or right:
%rfloat%
and%lfloat%
- Framed items:
%frame%
,%rframe%
, and%lframe%
- Thumbnail sizing:
%thumb%
- Floating left or right:
- Open link in new window:
%newwin%
(shortcut for%target=_blank%
) - Comments:
%comment%
(shortcut for%display=none%
) - Ordered lists:
%decimal%
,%roman%
,%ROMAN%
,%alpha%
,%ALPHA%
(see also Cookbook:OutlineLists)
Examples
WikiStyleExamples contains a number of examples of ways to use wikistyles in pages.
Known Issues
- Percents in style definitions (like:
%block width=50% %
) require the use of “pct” instead of “%”.
See Also
« Table directives | Documentation Index | WikiStyle examples »
Q Some of my colors aren’t working! For example, %color=#AAAAAA%
works, but %color=#AA3333%
doesn’t work. What’s wrong?
Be sure to use lowercase letters for rgb hex colors, otherwise PmWiki may mistake the color value for a WikiWord.