Technical writing/Tools/Wiki Tables

Back to Tools

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:

2006/07 Premier League Table
Position	Club Name	Points
1	Manchester United	89
2	Chelsea	83
3	Liverpool	68
4	Arsenal	68
5	Tottenham	60
6	Bolton	59

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 |}