^ Heading 1      ^ Heading 2       ^ Heading 3          ^
| Row 1 Col 1    | Row 1 Col 2     | Row 1 Col 3        |
| Row 2 Col 1    | some colspan (note the double pipe) ||
| Row 3 Col 1    | Row 3 Col 2     | Row 3 Col 3        |

Table rows have to start and end with a ''|'' for normal rows or a ''^'' for headers.

  ^ Heading 1      ^ Heading 2       ^ Heading 3          ^
  | Row 1 Col 1    | Row 1 Col 2     | Row 1 Col 3        |
  | Row 2 Col 1    | some colspan (note the double pipe) ||
  | Row 3 Col 1    | Row 3 Col 2     | Row 3 Col 3        |

To connect cells horizontally, just make the next cell completely empty as shown above. Be sure to have always the same amount of cell separators!

Vertical tableheaders are possible, too.

|              ^ Heading 1            ^ Heading 2          ^
^ Heading 3    | Row 1 Col 2          | Row 1 Col 3        |
^ Heading 4    | no colspan this time |                    |
^ Heading 5    | Row 2 Col 2          | Row 2 Col 3        |

As you can see, it's the cell separator before a cell which decides about the formatting:

  |              ^ Heading 1            ^ Heading 2          ^
  ^ Heading 3    | Row 1 Col 2          | Row 1 Col 3        |
  ^ Heading 4    | no colspan this time |                    |
  ^ Heading 5    | Row 2 Col 2          | Row 2 Col 3        |

You can have rowspans (vertically connected cells) by adding ''%%:::%%'' into the cells below the one to which they should connect.

^ Heading 1      ^ Heading 2                  ^ Heading 3          ^
| Row 1 Col 1    | this cell spans vertically | Row 1 Col 3        |
| Row 2 Col 1    | :::                        | Row 2 Col 3        |
| Row 3 Col 1    | :::                        | Row 2 Col 3        |

Apart from the rowspan syntax those cells should not contain anything else.

  ^ Heading 1      ^ Heading 2                  ^ Heading 3          ^
  | Row 1 Col 1    | this cell spans vertically | Row 1 Col 3        |
  | Row 2 Col 1    | :::                        | Row 2 Col 3        |
  | Row 3 Col 1    | :::                        | Row 2 Col 3        |

You can align the table contents, too. Just add at least two whitespaces at the opposite end of your text: Add two spaces on the left to align right, two spaces on the right to align left and two spaces at least at both ends for centered text.

^           Table with alignment           ^^^
|         right|    center    |left          |
|left          |         right|    center    |
| xxxxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxxxx |

This is how it looks in the source:

  ^           Table with alignment           ^^^
  |         right|    center    |left          |
  |left          |         right|    center    |
  | xxxxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxxxx |

Note: Vertical alignment is not supported.

===== No Formatting =====

If you need to display text exactly like it is typed (without any formatting), enclose the area either with ''%%<nowiki>%%'' tags or even simpler, with double percent signs ''<nowiki>%%</nowiki>''.

<nowiki>
This is some text which contains addresses like this: http://www.splitbrain.org and **formatting**, but nothing is done with it.
</nowiki>
The same is true for %%//__this__ text// with a smiley ;-)%%.