What is an ACRONYM?

An acronym is an abbreviation that is typically made up of the first letter or letters of a phrase. A very familiar example would be WWW standing for World Wide Web. In Foswiki, an acronym of 3 or more letters will be automatically linked only if a topic of that name already exists in the Web.

When you type an Acronym, you establish a possible hyperlink. It's as easy as that.

Just like WikiWord linking, acronym linking is easy to use:
  • You don't need to write HTML
  • Easy linking leads to interesting texts with links placed in context

Syntax of an Acronym

  • 3 or more Uppercase letter(s)

Acronym syntax in Extended Backus.Naur form (EBNF):

    Acronym        = 3*upperLetters ;

Examples of Acronyms

  • HTML

But Not
  • HTML5 - A digit breaks the acronym link.
  • FAQs - The lower case letter breaks the link.

Variations in linking


  • To force a link to to an acronym, use bracket notation: [[HTML5]] - this becomes: HTML5 and will display the broken link indicator (?) if the topic does not exist.



Related Topics: WikiSyntax, TextFormattingRules
Topic revision: r1 - 13 Sep 2010, ProjectContributor