Help:Contents

You can format your text using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, single quotes or equation marks which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two single quotes like  this 

Text formatting markup
{| align="center"
 * |Description
 * |You type
 * |You get
 * colspan="3" align="center" | applies anywhere
 * Italic text
 *  italic 
 * italic
 * Bold text
 *  bold 
 * bold
 * Bold and italic
 *  bold & italic 
 * bold & italic
 * Escape wiki markup
 *  no markup  
 * no markup
 * colspan="3" align="center" | only at the beginning of the line
 * Indent text
 *  :Indent text 
 * Indent text
 * Headings of
 * no markup
 * colspan="3" align="center" | only at the beginning of the line
 * Indent text
 *  :Indent text 
 * Indent text
 * Headings of
 * Indent text
 * Headings of
 * Headings of

different levels. Use of a heading created by single equal signs is discouraged as it appears with the same formatting and size as the page title, which can be confusing. An article with four or more headings will automatically create a table of contents.  ==level 1== 

 ===level 2=== </tt>

 ====level 3==== </tt>

 =====level 4===== </tt>

Level 4
 </tt>
 * Horizontal rule
 * Horizontal rule

&#42; one &#42; two &#42; three &#42;&#42; three and one-third &#42;&#42; three and two-thirds &#35; one
 * Bullet list
 * Bullet list
 * one
 * two
 * three
 * three and one-third
 * three and two-thirds
 * Numbered list
 * Numbered list
 * Numbered list

&#35; two  spanning several lines   without breaking the numbering

&#35; three

&#35;&#35; three point one

&#35;&#35; three point two

and numbered lists &#35; one
 * 1) one
 * 2) two spanning several lines without breaking the numbering
 * 3) three
 * 4) three point one
 * 5) three point two
 * Mixture of bulleted
 * Mixture of bulleted
 * Mixture of bulleted

&#35; two

&#35;&#42; two point one

&#35;&#42; two point two

&#59;Definition
 * 1) one
 * 2) two
 * 3) * two point one
 * 4) * two point two
 * Definition list
 * Definition list
 * Definition list

&#58;item 1

&#58;item 2


 * Definition
 * item 1
 * item 2
 * item 2

preformatted text is done with
 * Preformatted text
 * Preformatted text

a space at the

beginning of the line

preformatted text is done with a space at the beginning of the line Body text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
 * Blockquotes
 * Blockquotes

"quote quote quote quote quote quote"

text text text text text text text text text text text text Body text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

"quote quote quote quote quote quote"

text text text text text text text text text text text text


 * }
 * }

Paragraphs
MediaWiki ignores normal line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can also start a new line with the HTML tags  or  </tt>.

HTML
Some HTML tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example 
 * mediazilla
 * http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/
 * metawikipedia
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/
 * mediawikiwiki
 * http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/
 * wikibooks
 * http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/
 * wikimedia
 * http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/
 * wikinews
 * http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/
 * wikiquote
 * http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/
 * wikisource
 * http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/
 * wikispecies
 * http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/
 * wiktionary
 * http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/
 * wikipedia
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
 * }
 * wikiquote
 * http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/
 * wikisource
 * http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/
 * wikispecies
 * http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/
 * wiktionary
 * http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/
 * wikipedia
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
 * }
 * http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/
 * wiktionary
 * http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/
 * wikipedia
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
 * }
 * wikipedia
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
 * }
 * }
 * }
 * }

How to avoid auto-links
By default, when you write a URL as is, it will be transformed in an external link.

To avoid that effect, put the URL between &lt;nowiki&gt; start & end tags as in:

&lt;nowiki&gt; http://mediawiki.org &lt;/nowiki&gt;

Source
MediaWiki Help