authors (basic, advanced)
WikiStyle basics
WikiStyles allow authors to modify the color and other styling attributes of the contents of a page.
A WikiStyle is written using percent-signs, as in %red%
or %bgcolor=lightblue%
.
WikiStyle attributes
The style attributes recognized within a WikiStyle specification are:
------------ CSS -------------
| —HTML—
|
bgcolor
background-color
border1
color
background-color
border
display
float
font-size
font-family
font-weight
font-style
|
heightfn
list-style
margin1
padding1
text-align
text-decoration
white-space
widthfn
|
accesskey
align
class
hspace
id
target
rel
vspace
value
|
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.
- margin, padding, and border can be suffixed by -left, -right, -top, and -bottom
WikiStyles versus CSS styles
WikiStyles, as written in the wiki page, are not exactly CSS styles or CSS classes. WikiStyles allow authors to use both pre-defined by the administrator CSS classes, and to define new combinations of styles, without any need to edit/update local CSS files on the server.
Note that PmWiki allows advanced authors to use of class=
and style=
in tables and division blocks, but these are raw HTML attributes, and not WikiStyles, knowledge of CSS is required to use them.
Text color and font
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 WikiStyle Colors for more color help.
Text justification
WikiStyles are used to control the text justification
%center% This text is centered.
%right% Right justified.
| This text is centered.
Right justified.
|
and to create floating text:
%rfloat% This text floats to the right
%rframe% floats to the right with a
frame
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
sadipscing elitr
| This text floats to the right
floats to the right with a frame
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer sadipscing elitr
|
Scope
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. The apply= attribute and its shortcuts allow to change the scope as follows:
apply attribute | shortcut | style applies to… |
%apply=img ...% | - | all images that follow until another style applied |
%apply=p ...% | %p ...% | the current paragraph |
%apply=pre ...% | - | the current preformatted text |
%apply=list ...% | %list ...% | the current list |
%apply=item ...% | %item ...% | the current list item |
%apply=div ...% | - | the current div |
%apply=block ...% | %block ...% | to the current block, whether it’s a paragraph, list, list item, heading, or division. |
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 predefined style shortcuts also make use of apply, thus %right%
is a shortcut for %text-align=right apply=block%
.
Example: Apply a style to a paragraph:
%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.
|
Caveat: 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:
after the first line of the paragraph,
we try to %apply=p color=blue% change
color.
This does't work because the style comes
after the first line of the paragraph.
| after the first line of the paragraph,
we try to change color.
This does’t work because the style comes after the first line of the paragraph.
|
However, this %apply=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!
|
Larger blocks
The >>WikiStyle<<
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 %red%text%%
* lists
-> indented items
>><<
|
Everything after the above line is styled with blue italic text,
This includes
preformatted text
indented items
|
Note, the (:div style="..." class="...":)
directive does not work the same way as >>WikiStyke<<
, it can only contain the regular HTML style and class attributes.
HTML “class” and “style” attributes for tables and divisions
WikiStyles are only the commands between %...%
percent signs.
Tables, table directives and (:div:) division blocks allow advanced authors to incorporate the HTML/CSS attributes class=
and style=
. Note that these attributes are not WikiStyles, knowledge of CSS is required to use them.
(:table style="font-style:italic;
color:green; border:1px solid blue;
background-color:#ffffcc":)
(:cellnr:)
Everything after the above line is
styled with green italic text,
This includes
preformatted text
* lists
-> indented items
(:tableend:)
|
Everything after the above line is styled with green italic text,
This includes
preformatted text
indented items
|
|
Note, the (:div style="..." class="...":)
directive does not work the same way as >>style<<
, as mentioned above, it can only contain the HTML style and class attributes.
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% [@some sort of text@]
%box font-weight=bold color=green%
[@some sort of text@]
| some sort of text
some sort of text
|
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.
Tip: Any undefined WikiStyle is automatically treated as a request for a class, thus %pre%
is the same as saying %class=pre%
.
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%
- 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)
Enabling Styles
Styles not listed above can be enabled by a PmWiki Administrator 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.
Defining scope for other HTML elements
You can add additional HTML elements to $WikiStyleApply
to apply WikiStyles to other HTML elements. For example to allow styling on table rows, or anchor tags.
To apply styling to anchor tags, place in config.php:
$WikiStyleApply['link'] = 'a';
Then, you can apply a class or style to an anchor link:
%apply=link red%[[PmWiki.WikiStyles |
test link]]
| test link
|
Or, to apply an ID attribute to a table row TR, place in config.php:
$WikiStyleApply['row'] = 'tr';
Then, in an advanced table, you can have:
(:cellnr:) %apply=row id=myid bgcolor=pink% cell content
And also in a simple table:
|| border=1
|| %apply=row id=myrowid% 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 ||
Note, the %apply=row...% WikiStyle should be on the same line as (:cellnr:)
.
Examples
WikiStyle Examples 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 “%”. PmWiki will convert the “pct” into “%” so that it becomes valid CSS.
- If you specify multiple values for an attribute, like
border=“2px solid blue”
make sure you place the values in quotes.
- Be sure to use lowercase letters for red-green-blue hex colors,
%color=#aa3333%
will work, %color=#AA3333%
may not.
See Also