Technical writing/Tools/Wiki Tables

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Why make tables?
Tables are a very easy way of organising information.

Basic markup
All tables begin with {| and end with |}.

The most common markup used is known as the "pipe" - which looks like this |.

Building a basic table
The following code will build a basic table.

In the first line we set the widths of the borders and the space between cells.

{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"

On the second line we enter the title of the table.

|+ 2006/07 Premier League Table

The following lines create the column headings, when creating the column headings we use a "!" instead of a pipe.

|-    !Position !Club Name !Points

Now we create the rows and the information that goes in them. Each line starts with a pipe and each row of information is seperated by a |-.

|-  |1  ||  Manchester United  ||  89 |-  |2  ||  Chelsea  ||  83 |-  |3  ||  Liverpool  ||  68 |-  |4  ||  Arsenal  ||  68 |-  |5  ||  Tottenham  ||  60 |-  |6  ||  Bolton  ||  59

Notice that each cell is split by a double pipe ||. Usually there would be no space between the pipes, here the space is there to make reading the code easier.

This will create a basic table, which looks like this.

Useful extras
Table width:

In the first line of the table it is possible to define the table's width, for example:

{| width=1000pt border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"

Column width:

To define the column width just add a percentage of the overall width to the column heading lines, as follows:

! width=25% | Position ! width=50% | Club Name ! width=25% | Points

The table now looks like this:

Common mistakes
One of the most common mistakes people make with tables is forgetting to put pipes in the code.

Also common is forgetting to finish the table with |}