Wikis use symbols such as asterisks, single-quotes, square-brackets and braces to represent formatting elements like making words into links to other sites or articles, or creating tables for layout and dividing the text into headings. This kind of text markup used in the MediaWiki (Wikipedia) project is called wikitext.

Below is a table of the most commonly used wikitext formatting, the middle column is what you type into the article in "edit mode" (after clicking the edit link at the top of the page), and the right-hand column shows what the result would be when viewing the article normally. For more detailed information about editing and wikitext, see Help:Wikitext.

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 this wiki)	[[name of page]] [[name of page|display text]]	name of page display text
Internal link (to a category)	[[:Category:name of category]]	Category:name of category
Interwiki Link (to partner wiki)	[[w:name of article]] [[wiki:name of article]] [[wiki:name of article|display text]]	w:name of article wiki:name of article display text red links mean the page doesn't exist yet
External link (to other websites)	[http://www.example.com] [http://www.example.com display text] http://www.example.com [mailto:jane@example.com Jane's email]	display text http://www.example.com Janes's email
Redirect	#redirect [[Target page]]	redirect Target page
Signature	~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~	J.Doe J.Doe 19:21, 28 July 2025 (UTC) 19:21, 28 July 2025 (UTC)
Escape wiki markup	with ''markup'' <nowiki>without ''markup''</nowiki>	with markup without ''markup''
Applies only at the beginning of the line
Headings of different sizes	== level 1 == === level 2 === ==== level 3 ==== ===== level 4 ===== Put __NOTOC__ in an article to remove its table-of-contents	Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Outline numbered headings	# one # two ## two point one # three	one two two point one three
Bullet list	* one * two ** two point one * three	one two two point one three
Definition list	; Definition : item 1 : item 2	Definition item 1 item 2
Thumbnail image	[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|Caption text]]