Note: I have republished this document because it has personal and historical significance.

See Also: richard.rathe.org/mtx/

Summary of Simple Marked Text (MTX) Format
Version 1.5.5 - January 1997

General Considerations

  Source file names have an .mtx extension.
  HTML file names have an .html extension.
  Files contain only ASCII characters
    (return, linefeed, tab, space to ~).
  Paragraphs are delimited by blank lines. Extra blank
    lines will be eliminated. Adjacent lines will be
    combined into a single paragraph.
  Lines indented with spaces or tabs will become an item
    in a list.
  Items marked by a "N" use Netscape HTML extensions. For
    maximum compatibility, avoid these tags.
  Items marked by a "**" are depreciated. They will disappear
    in a future release of MTX and should be avoided.

Special Tags (must occur one to a line at top of file)

  %TITLE title       - title for HTML page
 N%TITLE $title      - title with centered heading
**%HEADING none      - supress heading
**%HEADING heading   - heading different from title
**%HEADING $heading  - centered heading
  %FILE name         - name for HTML file
  %IMAGES path       - path for image files
**%LOGO name         - title inline graphic (.gif)
**%LOGO $name        - centered title graphic (.gif)
 N%WATERMARK name    - watermark graphic (.gif)
 N%COLORS colors     - background and text colors
  %HOME text         - label for home document
  %HOMEURL url       - URL for home document
  %HOMEURL none      - no URL for home document
  %PARENT text       - label for parent document
  %PARENTURL url     - URL for parent document
  %PARENTURL none    - no URL for parent document
  %INDEX text        - label for index document
  %INDEXURL url      - URL for index document
  %INDEXURL none     - no URL for index document
  %PREV text         - label for previous document
  %PREVURL url       - URL for previous document
  %PREVURL none      - no URL for previous document
  %NEXT text         - label for next document
  %NEXTURL url       - URL for next document
  %NEXTURL none      - no URL for next document
  %BASE path         - path for relative URLs
  %PATH path         - path for document only
  %AUTHOR text       - author info
  %AUTHURL url       - URL for author
  %CONTACT text      - page contact info
  %CONTURL url       - URL for page contact
  %VERSION text      - document version info
  %VERSURL url       - URL for document version
  %COPYRIGHT text    - document copyright info
  %COPYURL url       - URL for document copyright
  %OUTLINE none      - no outline
  %OUTLINE long      - long outline
  %LAYOUT cover      - suppress administrative info
  %LAYOUT print      - suppress navigation info
**%LAYOUT keyword    - file contains a keyword list
**%LAYOUT noindex    - suppress indexing of this file
  %LAYOUT feedback   - override feedback suppression
  %LAYOUT nofeedback - suppress feedback for all questions
  %LAYOUT url        - review materials for quizCGI tests
 N%LAYOUT slide      - presentation slide format
 N%REFRESH seconds   - client pull refresh
 N%REFRESH secs url  - client pull refresh with link
  %ABSTRACT text     - description for page indexing
  %KEYWORDS words    - keywords for page indexing
  %COUNTER date url  - counter date and cgi url
  %QUIZCGI url       - url for quizCGI testing engine
  %QUIZCGI name      - name of user list for quizCGI test
  %MTX version       - MTX format version
  %%text             - comment line (ignored)

  NOTE: Each document will have a short outline at the top
    unless otherwise specified. Links to email addresses
    will be prefixed with "mailto:" automatically. Default
    "Home," "Parent," "Previous," and "Next" labels will
    be used if not otherwise specified.

Heading Tags (must occur at the beginning of line)

  #heading text      - primary outline heading
  ##heading text     - secondary outline heading
  ###...             - up to ##### (5) levels deep
  #!heading text     - page heading (if different from title)
  #!!name            - page heading graphic
  #!!name text       - page heading graphic with alternate text
 N#$heading text     - centered heading
  #text#url name     - heading link to url outside document
  #text#=anchor name - use heading as named anchor

  NOTE: Any text that precedes the first #heading will appear
    just after the page heading and before the outline.

Embedded Tags (can occur anywhere)

  {B}            - line break
  {P}            - paragraph break
  {S}            - non-breaking space
  {*text*}       - strong (bold) text
  {!text!}       - emphasized (italics) text
**{@text@}       - fixed font text
  {FtextF}       - fixed font text
 N{BtextB}       - big text
 N{StextS}       - small text
 N{PtextP}       - superscript text
 N{NtextN}       - subscript text
  {=name=}       - inline graphic (.gif)
  {=name text=}  - inline graphic with alternate text
  {+name+}       - inline (.gif) with linked (.jpg) graphic
  {+name text+}  - inline graphic with alternate text
  {-name-}       - inline (.gif) with linked (.gif) graphic
  {-name text-}  - inline graphic with alternate text
  {#name#}       - inline (.gif) with linked (.html) file
  {#name text#}  - inline graphic with alternate text
 N{MnameM}       - inline (embedded .mov) quicktime movie
 N{M!nameM}      - hidden (embedded .mov) quicktime audio
  {#url##}         - link to quoted url
  {#text#url#}     - link to url
  {#text#anchor#}  - link to named anchor
  {#text#=anchor#} - create named anchor
 N{=\name=}      - floating graphic (left)
 N{=/name=}      - floating graphic (right)
 N{=$name=}      - floating graphic (vertically centered)
 N{C}            - clear floating graphic alignment

  NOTE: File extensions (.gif, .jpg, .mov, and .html) are
    automatically added to file names. Linked .gif files
    have an "L" added to the name (pictureL.gif). Anchor
    names are case sensitive (#name <> #NAME). Links to
    email addresses will be prefixed with "mailto:"
    automatically. Floating graphic alignment must be
    cleared using {C}. Graphic alignment may also be used
    with {+...+}, {-...-}, {#...#}, and {M...M}.

List Tags (must occur after leading white space)

   text   - bulleted list item
  #text   - numbered list item (1, 2, 3...)
 N@text   - lettered list item (a, b, c...)
 N!text   - roman numbered list item (I, II, III...)
  +text   - glossary list title item (bold)
  -text   - glossary list definition

  NOTE: Lists may be nested by using variable amounts
    of leading white space.

Format Tags (must occur at the beginning of line)

  'text   - block quote
 N''text  - pull quote
  =text   - preformatted text
  +text   - non print text (suppressed with print layout)
 N$text   - centered text
  -----   - horizontal rule (one or more dashes)

Question Tags (must occur at the beginning of line)

  ?x           - begin question (single correct answer)
  ?xyz         - begin question (multiple correct answers)
  ?x?none      - begin question (suppress feedback)
  question text   - question text
  @answer text    - answer text
    feedback text - indented at least one space

  NOTE: Questions may have up to 26 (A-Z) answer choices.
    Inline graphics may be used as part of any question,
    answer, or feedback element.

Tables (each line must begin with "|") (N)

The first line must be one of the following:
  |                     - no caption
  |none                 - no caption
  |caption text         - caption for table
  |caption|noborder     - caption for table with no border
  |caption|nowide       - caption for minimal width table
  |caption|noblanks     - caption for table with no blanks
  |caption|nowide|noborder|noblanks  - combination of above
Subsequent lines can be variations of the following:
  |text 1|text 2|text 3 - row with three cells
  |text 1||text 3       - use empty cells where needed
  |text 1|two   |text 3 - pad cells with spaces or tabs
  |text 1\3             - use "\n" to span n columns
  |text 1|*     |text 3 - non-blank empty cell use "*"
  |text 1|^two  |text 3 - force cell alignment to top
  |*col 1|*col 2|*col 3 - column headings begin with "*"
  |*row 1|text 1|text 2 - row headings begin with "*"

  NOTE: Each line becomes one row in the table. Cells may
  contain graphics or hypertext links. Use {BR} to force
  word wrap within a cell. By default, tables will have
  borders, blanks for empty cells, and resize to cover 95%
  of the window side to side.

Author and Copyright

MTX was developed in 1996 by Richard Rathe, MD the then Director of the Office
of Medical Informatics for the College of Medicine at the University of Florida.
I hereby release the MTX format, documentation, and tools into the public domain.

Please retain the author attribution for old times sake!

Enjoy! RR

April 14, 2016