In order to display Tiddlers (usually the text field), the WikiText parser reads and interprets the content and applies WikiText rules. The parser has three modes:
- pragma mode - the parser will recognise only pragma mode WikiText punctuation
- block mode - the parser will recognise only block mode WikiText punctuation
- inline mode - the parser will recognise only inline mode WikiText
The parser transitions between these modes based on the text it encounters. In addition, there are places where the parser ignores WikiText punctuation. The parser mode can also be set directly with the Pragma: \parsermode.