Editing Colon (punctuation) (section)

===Text markup===
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2022}}

It is often used as a single post-fix [[delimiter]], signifying a token keyword had immediately preceded it or the transition from one mode of character string interpretation to another related mode. Some applications, such as the widely used [[MediaWiki]], utilize the colon as both a pre-fix and post-fix delimiter.
<!-- Could work more wikimarkup into that as an example. --><!-- What is this trying to say? -->

In [[wiki markup]], the colon is often used to indent text. Common usage includes separating or marking comments in a discussion as replies, or to distinguish certain parts of a text.
{{markup
|<nowiki>
Normal text.
:Indented text by the means of a colon.
::The gap increases with colon number.
</nowiki>
|
Normal text.
:Indented text by the means of a colon.
::The gap increases with colon number.
}}

In human-readable text messages, a colon, or multiple colons, is sometimes used to denote an action (similar to how [[asterisk]]s are used){{Original research inline|date=May 2012}} or to emote (for example, in [[vBulletin]]). In the action denotation usage it has the inverse function of quotation marks, denoting actions where unmarked text is assumed to be dialogue. For example:

:'''Tom:''' Pluto is so small; it should not be considered a planet. It is tiny!
:'''Mark:''' Oh really? ::drops Pluto on Tom's head:: Still think it's small now?

Colons may also be used for sounds, e.g., ::click::, though sounds can also be denoted by asterisks or other punctuation marks.

Colons can also be used to represent eyes in [[emoticon]]s.