To get an overview of all PyTextile’s features, simply type ‘tell me about textile.’ in a single line.
Textile process your text by dividing it in blocks. Each block is identified by a signature and separated from other blocks by an empty line.
All signatures should end with a period followed by a space. A
header <h1></h1> can be done this way:
h1. This is a header 1.
Blocks may continue for multiple paragraphs of text. If you want a block signature to stay “active”, use two periods after the signature instead of one. For example:
bq.. This is paragraph one of a block quote. This is paragraph two of a block quote. =p. Now we're back to a regular paragraph.
Becomes:
<blockquote> <p>This is paragraph one of a block quote.</p> <p>This is paragraph two of a block quote.</p> </blockquote> <p>Now we’re back to a regular paragraph.</p>
The blocks can be customised by adding parameters between the signature and the period. These include:
Here’s an overloaded example:
p(())>(class#id)[en]{color:red}. A simple paragraph.
Becomes:
<p lang="en" style="color:red;padding-left:2em;padding-right:2em;float:right;" class="class right" id="id">A simple paragraph.</p>
This is how you write a paragraph:
p. This is a paragraph, although a short one.
Since the paragraph is the default block, you can safely omit its
signature (p). Simply write:
This is a paragraph, although a short one.
Text in a paragraph block is wrapped in <p></p> tags, and
newlines receive a
tag. In both cases Textile will process
the text to:
<p>This is a paragraph, although a short one.</p>
Text in a paragraph block is processed with all the inline rules.
Pre-formatted text can be specified using the pre signature.
Inside a “pre” block, whitespace is preserved and < and > are
translated into HTML entities
automatically.
Text in a “pre” block is not processed with any inline rule.
Here’s a simple example:
pre. This text is pre-formatted. Nothing interesting happens inside here...
Will become:
<pre> This text is pre-formatted. Nothing interesting happens inside here... </pre>
A block code, specified by the bc signature, is a block of
pre-formatted text which also receives a <code></code> tag. As
with “pre”, whitespace is preserved and < and > are translated
into HTML entities automatically.
Text in a “bc” code is not processed with the inline rules.
If you have Twisted installed, Textile can automatically colorize your Python code if you specify its language as “Python”:
bc[python]. from twisted.python import htmlizer
This will become:
<pre> <code lang="python"> <span class="py-src-keyword">from</span> <span class="py-src-variable">twisted</span><span class="py-src-op">.</span><span class="py-src-variable">python</span> <span class="py-src-keyword">import</span> <span class="py-src-variable">htmlizer</span> </code> </pre>
The colors can be specified in your CSS
file. If you don’t want to install Twisted, you can download just
the htmlizer module independently.
A blockquote is denoted by the signature bq. The text in this
block will be enclosed in <blockquote></blockquote> and <p></p>,
receiving the same formatting as a paragraph. For example:
bq. This is a blockquote.
Becomes:
<blockquote> <p>This is a blockquote.</p> </blockquote>
You can optionally specify the cite attribute of the blockquote,
using the following syntax:
bq.:http://example.com Some text.
bq.:"John Doe" Some other text.
Becomes:
<blockquote cite="http://example.com"> <p>Some text.</p> </blockquote>
<blockquote cite="John Doe"> <p>Some other text.</p> </blockquote>
You can also specify the cite using a pair of dashes on the
last line of the blockquote:
bq. Some text. -- http://example.com
A definition list starts with the signature dl, and has
its items separated by a :. Here’s a simple example:
dl. name:Sir Lancelot of Camelot. quest:To seek the Holy Grail. color:Blue.
Becomes:
<dl> <dt>name</dt> <dd>Sir Lancelot of Camelot.</dd> <dt>quest</dt> <dd>To seek the Holy Grail.</dd> <dt>color</dt> <dd>Blue.</dd> </dl>
A header is produced by the signature hn, where n goes
from 1 to 6. You can adjust the relative output of the headers
passing a head_offset attribute when calling textile().
To make a header:
h1. This is a header.
Becomes:
<h1>This is a header.</h1>
A footnote is produced by the signature fn followed by
a number. Footnotes are paragraphs of a special CSS
class. An example:
fn1. This is footnote number one.
Will produce this:
<p class="footnote" id="fn1"><sup>1</sup> This is footnote number one.</p>
This footnote can be referenced anywhere on the text by the following way:
This is a reference[1] to footnote number one.
Which becomes:
<p>This is a reference<sup class="footnote"><a href="#fn1" title="This is footnote number one.">1</a></sup> to footnote number 1.</p>
Note that the text from the footnote appears in the title of the
link pointing to it.
If you don’t want Textile processing a block, you can simply
enclose it inside ==:
p. Regular paragraph
== Escaped portion -- will not be formatted by Textile at all ==
p. Back to normal.
This can also be used inline, disabling the formatting temporarily:
p. This is ==*a test*== of escaping.
Textile can automatically convert itex code to MathML for you, if you have the itex2MML binary (you can download it from the Movable Type plugin).
Block equations should be enclosed inbetween \[ and \]:
\[ e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0 \]
Will be translated to:
<math xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML' mode='display'> <msup><mi>e</mi> <mrow><mi>i</mi> <mi>π</mi></mrow></msup> <mo>+</mo><mn>1</mn><mo>=</mo><mn>0</mn> </math>
Equations can also be displayed inline:
Euler's formula, $e^{i\pi}+1=0$, ...
(Note that if you want to display MathML
your content must be served as application/xhtml+xml, which is not
accepted by all browsers.)
Ordered lists can be constructed this way:
# Item number 1. # Item number 2. # Item number 3.
And you get:
<ol> <li>Item number 1.</li> <li>Item number 2.</li> <li>Item number 3.</li> </ol>
If you want a list to “break” an extended block, you should add a period after the hash. This is useful for writing Python code:
bc[python].. #!/usr/bin/env python # This is a comment, not an ordered list! # So this won't break the extended "bc".
Lists can be nested:
# Item number 1. ## Item number 1a. ## Item number 1b. # Item number 2. ## Item number 2a.
Textile will transform this to:
<ol> <li>Item number 1. <ol> <li>Item number 1a.</li> <li>Item number 1b.</li> </ol> </li> <li>Item number 2. <ol> <li>Item number 2a.</li> </ol> </li> </ol>
You can also mix ordered and unordered lists:
* To write well you need: *# to read every day *# to write every day *# and X
You’ll get this:
<ul> <li>To write well you need: <ol> <li>to read every day</li> <li>to write every day</li> <li>and X</li> </ol> </li> </ul>
To style a list, the parameters should go before the hash if you want
to set the attributes on the <ol> tag:
(class#id)# one # two # three
If you want to customize the firsr <li> tag, apply the parameters
after the hash:
#(class#id) one # two # three
Unordered lists behave exactly like the ordered lists, and are defined using a star:
* Python * Perl * PHP
Becomes:
<ul> <li>Python</li> <li>Perl</li> <li><span class="caps">PHP</span></li> </ul>
Making a simple table is as easy as possible:
|a|b|c| |1|2|3|
Will be processed into:
<table> <tr> <td>a</td> <td>b</td> <td>c</td> </tr> <tr> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> <td>3</td> </tr> </table>
If you want to customize the <table> tag, you must use the
table signature:
table(class#id)[en]. |a|b|c| |1|2|3|
To customize a row, apply the modifier before the first |:
table. (class)<>|a|b|c| |1|2|3|
Individual cells can by customized by adding the parameters after
the |, proceded by a period and a space:
|(#id). a|b|c| |1|2|3|
The allowed modifiers are:
When a cell is identified as a header cell and an alignment is specified, that becomes the default alignment for cells below it. You can always override this behavior by specifying an alignment for one of the lower cells.
Inline formatting is applied within a block of text.
Quick tags allow you to format your text, making it bold, emphasized or small, for example. The quick tags operators include:
<strong>strong</strong>.<em>emphasis</em>.<b>bold</b>.<i>italics</i>.<big>bigger</big>.<small>smaller</small>.<del>deleted text</del>.<ins>inserted text</ins>.<sup>superscript</sup>.<sub>subscript</sub>.<span>span</span>.<code>code</code>.Note that within a ”@…@” section, < and > are
translated into HTML entities automatically.
Inline formatting operators accept the following modifiers:
Textile replaces some of the characters in your text with their equivalent numerical entities. These include:
Textile has support for character macros, which should be enclosed in curly braces. A few useful ones are:
{C=} or {=C}: euro sign
{+-} or {-+}: plus-minus sign
{L-} or {-L}: pound sign.
You can also make accented characters:
Expos{e'}
Becomes:
<p>Exposé</p>
You can also specify Unicode names like:
{umbrella}
{white smiling face}
You can define acronyms in your text the following way:
This is XHTML(eXtensible HyperText Markup Language).
The resulting code is:
<p><acronym title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language"><span class="caps">XHTML</span></acronym></p>
Acronyms can have letters in upper and lower caps, or even numbers, provided that the numbers and upper caps are the same in the abbreviation and in the description. For example:
XHTML(eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) OPeNDAP(Open source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol) L94(Levitus 94)
are all valid acronyms.
An image is generated by enclosing the image source in !:
!/path/to/image!
You may optionally specify an alternative text for the image, which will also be used as its title:
!image.jpg (Nice picture)!
Becomes:
<p><img src="image.jpg" alt="Nice picture" title="Nice picture" /></p>
If you want to make the image point to a link, simply append a comma and the URL to the image:
!image.jpg!:http://diveintopython.org
Images can also be resized. These are all equivalent:
!image.jpg 10x20! !image.jpg 10w 20h! !image.jpg 20h 10w!
The image image.jpg will be resized to width 10 and height 20.
Modifiers to the <img /> tag go after the opening !:
!(class#id)^image.jpg!
Allowed modifiers include:
Images receive the class “top” when using top alignment, “bottom” for bottom alignment and “middle” for middle alignment.
A links is done the following way:
"This is the text link":http://example.com
The result from this markup is:
<p><a href="http://example.com">This is the text link</a></p>
You can add an optional title attribute:
"This is the text link(This is the title)":http://example.com
The link can be customised as well:
"(nospam)E-mail me please":mailto:someone@example.com
You can use either single or double quotes. They must be enclosed in whitespace, punctuation or brackets:
You["gotta":http://example.com]seethis!
If you are going to reference the same link a couple of times, you can define a lookup list anywhere on your document:
[python]http://www.python.org
Links to the Python website can then be defined the following way:
"Check this":python
There are also shortcuts for Amazon, IMDB and Google queries:
"Has anyone seen this guy?":imdb:Stephen+Fry "Really nice book":amazon:Goedel+Escher+Bach "PyBlosxom":google ["Using Textile and Blosxom with Python":google:python blosxom textile]
Becomes:
<a href="http://www.imdb.com/Find?for=Stephen+Fry">Has anyone seen this guy?</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?index=blended&keyword=Goedel+Escher+Bach">Really nice book</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=PyBlosxom">PyBlosxom</a> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=python+blosxom+textile">Using Textile and Blosxom with Python</a>
Textile can help you generate valid XHTML.
It will fix any single tags that are not properly closed, like
<img />, @
@ and <hr />.
If you have mx.Tidy and/or µTidyLib installed, it also can optionally validade the generated code with these wrappers to ensure 100% valid XHTML.