The MediaWiki software, which drives Wikipedia, allows the use of a subset of HTML5 elements, or tags and their attributes, for presentation formatting.^[1] But most HTML can be included by using equivalent wiki markup or templates; these are preferred within articles, as they are simpler for most editors, and less intrusive in the editing window. But HTML is useful outside of articles, for example for formatting within templates. For help with Cascading Style Sheet use within Wikipedia see Help:Cascading Style Sheets.

Some tags look like HTML, but are actually MediaWiki parser and extension tags, and so are really wiki markup. HTML in pages can be checked for HTML5 compliance by using validation.

This help page gives only an overview of allowed markup. For further assistance and detailed specifications:

• HTML5 Introduction at developer.mozilla.org
• HTML5 Introduction at w3schools.com

HTML attributes provide additional information about an element and are always specified in the start tag. They are formatted as a name/value pair like name="value".

Global attributes apply to all tags. Attributes not listed here are not allowed by MediaWiki^[1]:

• class: one or more classifications to which the element belongs. See Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes.
• dir: text direction— "ltr" (left-to-right), "rtl" (right-to-left) or "auto".
• id: unique identifier for the element.
• lang: primary language for the contents of the element per BCP 47. The MediaWiki software automatically adds the xml:lang attribute whenever lang is defined, but xml:lang will no longer be passed when included as a separate attribute.
• style: applies CSS styling to the contents of the element.
• title: advisory information associated with the element.

HTML5 microdata attributes apply to all tags:^[2]

• Any attribute beginning with data-
• itemid
• itemprop
• itemref
• itemscope
• itemtype

Other tags such as <table> support specific attributes – these are listed in the appropriate section.

This is <span style="color:red">red</span> text.

The MediaWiki Sanitizer.php does some cleanup on attributes. A best practice is to use the proper syntax.

• Discards attributes not on a whitelist for the given element.
• Turns broken or invalid entities into plaintext.
• Double-quotes all attribute values.
• Attributes without values are given the name as value.
• Double attributes are discarded.
• Unsafe style attributes are discarded.
• Prepends space if there are attributes.

These HTML elements are supported by the MediaWiki software. This section gives a brief overview of the HTML element, an example, relevant wikimarkup and templates.

Basic

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6

The <h1>...</h1> through <h6>...</h6> tags are headings for the sections with which they are associated. <h1> is used for the article title. Headings are styled through CSS and added to the page's table of contents.

<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>

Wikimarkup: surround the text with the appropriate number of equal signs. Headers formatted with wikimarkup add an [edit] link.

= Heading 1 =
== Heading 2 ==
=== Heading 3 ===
==== Heading 4 ====
===== Heading 5 =====
====== Heading 6 ======

Wiki headers use the following default CSS:

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.8em; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia,Times,serif; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; line-height: 1.3; padding: 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAAAAA;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 1.17em; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

color: #000000; background: none; overflow: hidden; page-break-after: avoid; font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.6; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0;

Templates: {{fake heading}} for use in documentation

p

<p>...</p> tag places content into a separate paragraph.

<p>HyperText Markup Language</p><p>HyperText Markup Language</p>

Wikimarkup: Separate paragraphs by a single blank line.

HyperText Markup Language

HyperText Markup Language

br

<br> or <br /> inserts a line break. Both versions of the break are supported by HTML5. </br> is invalid.

HyperText<br>Markup Language

Templates:

• {{break}} adds multiple line breaks.
• {{crlf2}} adds a true carriage return and line feed.
• {{-}} adds a break with styling to clear floating elements.
• {{plainlist}} creates an unbulleted list.

hr

<hr> represents a paragraph-level thematic break and presents as a horizontal rule.

<hr>

Wikimarkup: use ----

----

Templates: {{hr}}

comment

<!--...--> formats the enclosed text as a hidden comment.

HyperText<!--Markup Language-->

Formatting

abbr

<abbr>...</abbr> creates a tooltip to define an abbreviation or acronym that is displayed on mouse-over.

<abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</abbr>

Support: not supported by IE6 or IE7.

Templates: {{abbr}}; supports Unicode display

b

<b>...</b> formats text stylistically offset from other text (bold) without conveying extra importance.

<b>HyperText Markup Language</b>

Wikimarkup: Use ''' to open and close bold text.

'''HyperText Markup Language'''

bdi

<bdi>...</bdi> isolates the content from the surrounding text-direction settings.

اليمين إلى اليسارleft to right

اليمين إلى اليسار<bdi>left to right</bdi>

Support: Firefox, Chrome

bdo

<bdo>...</bdo> specifies the text direction.

Attributes and values:

• dir — Specifies the text direction.
  • ltr
  • rtl

<bdo dir="rtl">HyperText Markup Language</bdo>

blockquote

<blockquote>...</blockquote> presents text in an offset block.

<blockquote>HyperText Markup Language</blockquote>

Templates: {{quote}}; supports pre-formatted attribution and source parameters. For other specialized quotation templates, see Category:Quotation templates.

cite

<cite>...</cite> contains the title of a work and by default is formatted in italics. This is a new definition in HTML5— in the previous XML implementation <cite> was used to contain a citation or a reference to other sources.

<cite>HyperText Markup Language</cite>

code

<code>...</code> formats a section of computer code. Styled with CSS through Template:Elements.css as a Courier monospaced slab serif typeface with border.

<code>HyperText Markup Language</code>

Templates: {{code}} uses <syntaxhighlight>.

data

<data>...</data> formats a machine-readable version of contents.

<data value="978-0764502149">HTML for Dummies</data>

Attributes: value

del

<del>...</del> formats deleted text.

<del>HyperText Markup Language</del>

dfn

<dfn>...</dfn> is used for indicating a definition.

<dfn>Definition</dfn>

Templates: {{dfn}}

em

<em>...</em> represents a span of text with emphatic stress.

<em>HyperText Markup Language</em>

Templates: {{em}}

i

<i>...</i> represents a span of text offset from its surrounding content without conveying any extra emphasis or importance, and for which the conventional typographic presentation is italic text.

<i>HyperText Markup Language</i>

Wikimarkup: Use '' to open and close italic text.

''HyperText Markup Language''

ins

<ins>...</ins> indicates a range of text that has been added. Styled as underlined text. Used on talk pages to indicate refactored text; see WP:REDACT.

<ins>HyperText Markup Language</ins>

kbd

<kbd>...</kbd> indicates user input such as keyboard input or voice commands.

Press <kbd>Enter</kbd>

Templates:

• {{kbd}} applies gray styling
• {{key press}} renders illustrated keys and keystrokes.

mark

<mark>...</mark> represents a run of text in one document marked or highlighted for reference purposes, due to its relevance in another context. Marked text is formatted with a yellow background by default.

<mark>HyperText Markup Language</mark>

<mark style="background:lightblue">HyperText Markup Language</mark>

Support: Not supported by Internet Explorer 8 and below.

pre

<pre>...</pre> element represents a block of preformatted text. In MediaWiki, <pre> is actually a parser tag and not HTML, but the function is the same.

<pre>HyperText Markup Language</pre>

HyperText Markup Language

HTML entities

<pre> parses HTML entities. If you want to escape this, replace & with &.

<pre>&amp;</pre>

&

<pre>&lt;</pre>

<

<pre>&amp;amp;</pre>

&

<pre>&amp;lt;</pre>

<

Templates:

• {{pre}} wraps text that overflows the page.
• {{pre2}} wraps or uses scrollbox.

q

<q>...</q> is used to mark a short quotation.

<q>HyperText Markup Language</q>

rp, rt, ruby

<ruby>...</ruby> marks spans of phrasing content with ruby annotations.

<rt>...</rt> marks the ruby text component of a ruby annotation; the ruby text shows in a reduced size over top of the normal characters.

<rp>...</rp> is used to provide parentheses around a ruby text component of a ruby annotation, to be shown by user agents that don’t support ruby annotations.

Browsers that do not support ruby characters will show the ruby text in normal size, enclosed in parentheses and after the normal content.

<ruby>
東<rp>(</rp><rt>とう</rt><rp>)</rp>
京<rp>(</rp><rt>きょう</rt><rp>)</rp>
</ruby>

Templates:

• {{ruby}}
• {{ruby-ja}} for Japanese
• {{Ruby-zh-p}} for Chinese pinyin
• {{Ruby-zh-b}} for Chinese bopomofo

s

<s>...</s> is used to indicate content that is no longer accurate or relevant and that has been struck from the page. It is not appropriate when indicating document edits; to mark a span of text as having been removed from a document, use <del>.

<s>HyperText Markup Language</s>

Templates: {{strikethrough}}

samp

<samp>...</samp> indicates sample output from a program or computing system.

<samp>HyperText Markup Language</samp>

Templates: {{samp}} applies gray styling

small

<small>...</small> format small text.

<small>HyperText Markup Language</small>

Templates:

• {{small}} uses <small style="font-size:85%;">. {{small}} is recommended over <small> since not all browsers render small text the same.

strong

<strong>...</strong> formats a span of text with strong importance.

<strong>HyperText Markup Language</strong>

Templates: {{strong}}

sub

<sub>...</sub> formats a span of text as a subscript.

HyperText <sub>Markup Language</sub>

Templates:

• {{sub}} (_subscript text)
• {{subsub}} (_{subscript subscript} text)
• {{ssub}} (_{subscript, small} text)
• {{sup}} (^superscript text)
• {{su}} (^superscript
  _subscript text)
• {{sup sub}} (text^sup
  _sub)
• {{e}} (1.23×10⁴)

sup

<sup>...</sup> formats a span of text as a superscript.

HyperText <sup>Markup Language</sup>

Templates:

• {{sub}} (_subscript text)
• {{subsub}} (_{subscript subscript} text)
• {{ssub}} (_{subscript, small} text)
• {{sup}} (^superscript text)
• {{su}} (^superscript
  _subscript text)
• {{sup sub}} (text^sup
  _sub)
• {{e}} (1.23×10⁴)

time

<time>...</time> defines either a time (24 hour clock), or a date in the Gregorian calendar, optionally with a time and a time-zone offset.

<time>10:00</time>

Attributes: datetime

Support: Not supported by Internet Explorer 8 and below.

u

<u>...</u> represents a span of text offset from its surrounding content without conveying any extra emphasis or importance, and for which the conventional typographic presentation is underlining; for example, a span of text in Chinese that is a proper name (a Chinese proper name mark), or span of text that is known to be misspelled.

<u>HyperText Markup Language</u>

Templates: {{underline}}

var

<var>...</var> formats text in italics to indicate a variable in a mathematical expression or programming context, or placeholder text that the reader is meant to mentally replace with some other literal value.

<var>HyperText Markup Language</var>

Templates:

• {{var}}
• {{varserif}} formatted in italic serif to differentiate characters

wbr

<wbr> is a word break opportunity; that is, it specifies where it would be OK to add a line-break where a word is too long, or it is perceived that the browser will break a line at the wrong place.

Now is the time to become a power editor, by learning HyperText Markup Language

Now is the time to become a power editor, by learning Hyper<wbr>Text Markup Language

As the browser window is adjusted narrower, the second example wraps between Hyper and Text.

Lists

Do not leave blank lines between items in a list unless there is a reason to do so, since this causes the MediaWiki software to interpret each item as beginning a new list.

dl, dt, dd

<dl>...</dl>, <dt>...</dt> and <dd>...</dd> are used to create a description list (formerly definition list) with terms and descriptions. Terms are displayed in bold and descriptions are indented. Each term must include one or more descriptions.

<dl>
<dt>Term</dt>
<dd>Definition 1</dd>
<dd>Definition 2</dd>
<dd>Definition 3</dd>
<dd>Definition 4</dd>
</dl>

Wikimarkup: <dt> is created using ; while automatically enclosed in <dl>...</dl>. <dd> is created using : for each value. For a single or first value the : can be placed on the same line after ; where subsequent values must be placed on separate lines.

; Term
: Definition 1
: Definition 2
: Definition 3
: Definition 4

Templates: {{defn}}

ol, ul, li

<ol>...</ol> represents an ordered list; <ul>...</ul> represents an unordered list; <li>...</li> represents a list item within either type of list.

<ol>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
<li>Item 4</li>
</ol>

<ul>
<li>Item 1</li>
<li>Item 2</li>
<li>Item 3</li>
<li>Item 4</li>
</ul>

Wikimarkup: use * for items in an unordered list and # for ordered lists.

# Item 1
# Item 2
# Item 3
# Item 4

* Item 1
* Item 2
* Item 3
* Item 4

Templates: for a variety of specialized uses, see Category:List formatting and function templates.

Containers

div

<div>...</div> is a generic container for flow content that displays as a block element.

HyperText <div>Markup</div> Language

span

<span>...</span> is a container for flow content that displays as an inline element.

HyperText <span>Markup</span> Language

Tables

table, td, tr

<table>...</table> defines a table.

<tr>...</tr> defines a table row.

<td>...</td> defines a data cell with contents that may include text, links, images, lists, forms, other tables, etc.

<table border=1>
<tr>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
</table>

Attributes:

• <table>:

  Allowed but not recommended: border="" and border="1"

  Allowed but obsolete: border (with a non-empty value different from "1"), align, bgcolor, cellpadding, cellspacing, frame, rules, summary, width^[3]

• <td>: colspan, headers, rowspan

  Allowed but obsolete: abbr, align, axis, bgcolor, scope, height, nowrap, valign, width^[3]

th

<th>...</th> defines a table header; styled as centered and bold.

<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Header</th>
<th>Header</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
</table>

Attributes:

• <th>: colspan, headers, rowspan, scope

  Allowed but obsolete: abbr, align, axis, bgcolor, scope, height, nowrap, valign, width^[3]

caption

<caption>...</caption> adds a caption to a table.

<table border=1>
<caption>Caption</caption>
<tr>
<td>data</td>
<td>data</td>
</tr>
</table>

Attributes:

• <caption>:

  Allowed but obsolete: align^[3]

thead, tfoot, tbody

<thead>, <tfoot> and <tbody> are not supported, but are automatically generated when the page is rendered.

These elements are now obsolete in HTML5, but still supported by browsers.^[3] These tags either have an alternate tag or a template that replaces their function with CSS. See Wikipedia:HTML5 for more details on obsolete HTML parts and their replacements.

big

<big>...</big> (obsolete) formats text in a larger font size.

Templates: {{big}} uses CSS.

center

<center>...</center> (obsolete) is used to center text elements.

Templates: {{center}} uses CSS.

font

<font>...</font> (obsolete) is used to set the font size, font face and color of text.

Templates: {{font}} uses CSS.

rb

<rb>...</rb> (obsolete) Used to mark base text in a ruby annotation

strike

<strike>...</strike> (obsolete) formats strike-through characters; use <s> instead.

tt

<tt>...</tt> (obsolete) formats text in a fixed-width font. Use <code>, <kbd> or <samp> instead.

Templates: {{mono}} uses CSS.

These elements are not supported, but have equivalent wiki markup. Attempting to use any element not whitelisted by Sanitizer.php will result in the markup showing as plain text.

a

<a> is used to create links. Use the [[ ]] wikimarkup for internal links and [ ] for external links.

input

<input> is used to create forms. The <inputbox> extension tag is used to create a text box with a button.

HTML Tidy is enabled for the English Wikipedia. Tidy parses the MediaWiki output and cleans it up to ensure that valid HTML is rendered. For example, <br>, </br>, <br/>, <br.> will all render as <br />. Tidy is not enabled for MediaWiki interface pages. Tidy is not perfect, and has been known to introduce errors.

In some pages in the MediaWiki namespace, typically the short messages like button labels, HTML is not parsed, and tags will be exposed.

User and sitewide CSS and JavaScript pages are interpreted as if inside a <pre> block. See Help:User style.

The MediaWiki software attempts to fix HTML errors, but it does not catch all of them. Where HTML is used, it is helpful to verify it with the W3C Markup Validation Service.

For a machine-generated list, see Special:Version#mw-version-parser-extensiontags. It may include tags not documented here.

Parser tags

<gallery>, <includeonly>, <noinclude>, <nowiki>, <onlyinclude>, <pre>

Extension tags

<categorytree>, <charinsert>, <chem> (alias <ce>), <graph>, <hiero>, <imagemap>, <indicator>, <inputbox>, <mapframe>, <maplink>, <math>, <math chem>, <poem>, <ref>, <references>, <score>, <section>, <syntaxhighlight> (alias <source>), <templatedata>, <templatestyles>, <timeline>

• Help:Wiki markup

• HTML 4.01 specification: elements | attributes