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
  • lists
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= and id= assign a CSS class or identifier to an HTML element
  • target=name opens links that follow in a browser window called "name"
  • rel=name in a link identifies the relationship of a target page
  • accesskey=x uses 'x' as a shortcut key for the link that follows
  • value=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=imgapply the style to any image that follows 
apply=papply the style to the current paragraph*
apply=preapply the style to the current preformatted text 
apply=listapply the style to the current list*
apply=itemapply the style to the current list item*
apply=divapply the style to the current div 
apply=blockapply 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!
  • Here's a list item
  • 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 s