Help:Syntax highlighting

SyntaxHighlight-Comparison — Wikitext with and without syntax highlighting

Syntax highlighting is a feature designed to improve readability of code on Wikia. It takes what is written in the editor and highlights the various types of code in different colours to help a reader identify which parts do what.

It exists in three main forms - simple wikitext highlighting, CSS/JS/template/Lua page highlighting, and as a tag usable on articles.

Editor highlighting

Simple wikitext highlighting

SyntaxHighlight-WikitextDark — Wikitext highlighting on a dark theme

Wikitext is the main building block of articles across Wikia, but it can often be hard to comprehend what you're seeing at a glance, especially on more complex pages.

Syntax highlighting takes this code and adds blocks of colour behind the text. The main colors involved are:

blue-violet = section headings, bold and italic text
light blue = internal links
pale blue = external links
red = general wikitext
red-violet = tags
grey/brown = templates

CSS, JS, template and Lua highlighting

CSS, JS, template and Lua module pages have a more advanced syntax highlighter active.

Beyond simple readability improvements, the highlighting will also help you spot code issues - helping to prevent JavaScript errors, for example.

User preference

If you do not wish to use syntax highlighting, simply visit the 'Editing' tab in your preferences, and tick the "Do not show syntax highlighting in Source mode" option.

This will switch off all forms of syntax highlighting, including on CSS and JS pages.

Article highlighting

The <syntaxhighlight> tag can be used on articles to syntax highlight sections of code for readers. A rough list of supported languages can be found here, on MediaWiki.org.

For example, CSS highlighting:

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
.class {
  font-size:110%;
}
</syntaxhighlight>

creates:

.class {
  font-size:110%;
}

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