TextFormatRules

Search

1. Introduction

The purpose of this tool is to make it very simple to add content in order to build a knowledge-base.

There are two categories of formatting commands, those which apply to the current line and those which act on a block of text. The latter define a block of text as all the content that is indented (with spaces!) beyond the command.

2. Basic Text Format Commands

The commands in this section only work within the current line and apply to a group of words.

2.1. Strong Text

Text enclosed between two '*' characters is presented in bold. For example

  *text*

is rendered as text .

2.2. Emphasized Text

Text enclosed between two '_' characters is presented in italics. For example

 _text_

is rendered as text .

2.3. Strong Emphasized Text

Text encolosed in between '__' or '*_' will be presented in bold italics. For example

  __text__ or *_text_*

is rendered as text .

2.4. Embedded Code Sections

Text enclosed in between '=' characters will be shown in a typwritter font. For example

   =text code=

is rendered as text code .

2.5. Automagic URL Formatting

Whenever you write a plain URL in the text the formatter will automatically convert it into a link to that URL.

2.6. Embedding Images

When an URL to an image is found the formatter will replace it with an image tag so the browser can display it. If more control is needed the IMG: tag can be used. The format is of the form

IMG: filename or URL

IMG(Attributes): filename or URL

where the attributes can be any of 'left', 'right', 'top', 'bottom, 'middle' or any of the 'NAME=VALUE' pairs for an IMG tag.

A special feature of this command is that if the filename provided is that of an attached file in the page itr will use it as the source of the image.

2.7. CODE Formatting

In order to embed pre-formatted code it is possible to use the CODE or PRE tags. For example the text below

   CODE: 
     $x = 2*$y ;          # A program line
     %z = ( 'a' => 9 ) ;

is shown as

    $x = 2*$y ;          # A program line
    %z = ( 'a' => 9 ) ;

3. List Commands

This section contains a set of commands which are used to build lists. All the lists are defined by a starting sequence of characters and the entry content. The membership to a list is determined by the level of indentation. Lists can be arbitrarely nested.

3.1. Bullet List

Bulleted lists are built by a line starting with a '*' character. The following code

   * First Item
   * Second Item

is rendered as

• First Item
• Second Item

3.2. Numbered List

Bulleted lists are built by a line starting with a a number followed by a period character. The following code

   1. First Item
   4. Second Item

is rendered as

1. First Item
2. Second Item

Note that the numbers you provide are not used!

3.3. Definition List

The last type of list is obtained by following a label with a ':' character. For example

  Label 1:  First entry
  Label 2:  Second entry

is rendered as

Label 1

First entry

Label 2

Second entry

4. Other Block Commands

There are times when we need to apply some format property to a whole paragraph. For this purpose the \block{format tag} is used to define an indented block with the desired format tag. For example

   \block{STRONG}
       AAAAAA
           
       BBBBBB

would result in the following output

AAAAAA

BBBBBB

The format tag closes when the indented paragraph ends.