Help:Editing
From PACSOA Wiki
Welcome to the Pacsoa Wiki! If you're a first timer here please read this before publishing any edits in the website.
This website is a Wiki, which means that anyone can edit it whenever they please. Feel free to write as you will, but always keep in mind that vandalism will not be tolerated. If you need more help with editing or anything leave a message on any one of the Administrator's talk pages.
Before submitting any new pages to the Wiki, please check that the information you are to submit is not already published in any other pages. This makes the admins work easier. Thanks!
Absolute beginner?[edit]
If you can type and click, you can edit most pages on this wiki.
- Log in First you must be logged in, and for that you must create an account (username, password) - top right of every page.
- Find a page to improve. (If you want, you can practice in the Sandbox first. It's there for "practicing", or experimenting with almost anything. It's a good place to get used to how the wiki works.)
- Click "Edit this page".
- An "edit box" will open - type your new sentences or corrections (just like MS or Lotus or WordPerfect wordprocessing)
- Click the "Save" button - (well, it may be wise to hit the "Preview" button first, in case of mistakes!)
- You're now a Web Publisher. Welcome to the team!
More detail[edit]
As with all wikis, you can edit any non-protected page on this Wiki. Your changes will be visible immediately. Just click the "edit" link that appears near the top of every page.
Explain your edit in the "Summary" box between the edit window and the save and preview buttons. eg: "typo" or "added info on xyz".
Use the "Show preview" button to check your edit and get the formatting right before saving. Remember to Save page before moving on.
If you are logged in, you can mark an edit as minor by checking the This is a minor edit box to let people know your edit is not something substantive.
To try editing, open a new window and go to the Sandbox (which is an editing test area), and then click the "edit" link. Add something and click save.
Formatting[edit]
Most text formatting is usually done with wiki markup, so you don't have to learn HTML.
Bold and italics[edit]
Bold and italics are added by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):
- ''italics'' is rendered as italics. (2 apostrophes on each side)
- '''bold''' is rendered as bold. (3 apostrophes on each side)
- '''''bolded italics''''' is rendered as bolded italics. (2 + 3 = 5 apostrophes on each side)
Headings and subheadings[edit]
Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up your article by inserting a heading for each section.
Headings can be created like this:
- ==Main heading== (2 equals signs)
- ===Subheading=== (3 equals signs)
- ====Another level down==== (4 equals signs)
- =====Another level down===== (5 equals signs)
If an article has at least three headings, a table of contents (TOC) will be automatically generated. Try creating some headings in the Sandbox and see the effect on the TOC.
Indenting[edit]
To indent text, place a colon (:) right at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.
For example:
This is aligned all the way to the left.
- :This is indented slightly.
- ::This is indented more.
is shown as:
This is aligned all the way to the left.
- This is indented slightly.
- This is indented more.
Bullet points[edit]
To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (*). Similar to rectal indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.
A brief example:
- *First list item
- *Second list item
- **Sub-list item under second
- *Isn't this fun?
Which is shown as:
- First list item
- Second list item
- Sub-list item under second
- Isn't this fun?
Numbered lists[edit]
You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). Using more #s will affect the level of indenting.
Example:
- #First item
- #Second item
- ##Sub-item under second item
- #Third item
Shows up as:
- First item
- Second item
- Sub-item under second item
- Third item
Tables[edit]
You can also create tables, however this is a bit more complicated. Go here to find out about creating tables.
Blank lines etc[edit]
To get a blank line in the page, just leave a blank line in the text.
To force a clear separation between 2 sections, enter
<br clear=all>
for example where the text and images are becoming to intertwined, put the above in and it will separate it all out.
Images[edit]
Uploading[edit]
To upload an image, simply drag it onto the dark blue/grey band that says "Drop files here" at the top of the edit box, then click "Click here to upload file". If there is already a file of that name in the Wiki, then a warning message will be displayed. Only overwrite a file if you are absolutely sure that you want to update that particular image. If you aren't updating an image, then it would be best to clear the list, and then rename the file so that there aren't any name clashes. Its usually best to use a naming convention like "Genus_speciesXX.jpg", where XX is the next consecutive file number (you can see all the other filenames in the page that you are editing).
Displaying[edit]
Once the filename is fixed, there is a wide variety of image formatting options, however on this wiki we always use the following style:
[[File:filename.extension|alignment|frame|caption]]
where alignment can be left, right, or center, frame is always frame (it just puts a thin border around the image), and caption always starts with a Figure x.
For example:
[[File:Bowenia_serrulata03.jpg|right|frame|Figure 1. '''B. serrulata''' in habitat, Byfield State Forest.]]
results in
For all the image display options, go here.
Links[edit]
Links are important on wikis to help readers navigate your site.
Internal links[edit]
You can extensively cross-reference wiki pages using internal links. You can add links to existing titles, and also to titles you think ought to exist in future.
To make a link to another page on the same wiki, just put the title in double square brackets. Species pages have the naming convention Genus_species so they can be referenced like that, but that puts an underscore in the name e.g.
[[Lepidozamia_peroffskyana]]
results in Lepidozamia_peroffskyana
To get rid of the underscore, put a | after the page name, and then you can refer to the species however you want e.g.
[[Lepidozamia_peroffskyana|L. peroffskyana]]
gives L. peroffskyana
[[Lepidozamia_peroffskyana|Lepidozamia peroffskyana]]
results in Lepidozamia peroffskyana and
'''''[[Lepidozamia_peroffskyana|Lepidozamia peroffskyana]]'''''
causes Lepidozamia peroffskyana
To refer to a genus page, put :Category: (note the : at the start and end of the word Category (this is very important)), then a | and the genus name e.g.
'''''[[:Category:Lepidozamia|Lepidozamia]]'''''
results in Lepidozamia
If you want to make a link to the Main Page, it would be [[Main Page]].
When you want to use the plural of an article title (or add any other suffix) for your link, you can add the extra letters directly outside the double square brackets.
For example, you would write:
- Add questions to the Wikia for [[quiz]]zes.
It would appear as:
- Add questions to the Wikia for quizzes. (the link will be red if this page does not yet exist)
Interwiki links[edit]
To link to another Wikia, you can use its title followed by a colon and the article name, instead of using the full URL.
For example, the Creatures Wiki home page is at Creatures:Main Page, which can be typed as
- [[Creatures:Main Page]]
- rather than as http://creatures.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
This style of link works for any wiki in the interwiki map, not just for Wikia. See the Central Wikia page at Wikia:Help:Interwiki link.
External links[edit]
If you want to link to a site outside of Wikia, you may just type the full URL for the page you want to link to.
It is often more useful to make the link display something other than the URL, so use one square bracket at each end, with the alternative title after the full URL address, separated by a space (not a pipe). So if you want the link to appear as Google search engine, just type:
- [http://www.google.com/ Google search engine]
To get a link to Kew Gardens, enter:
- [http://www.kew.com/ Kew Gardens]
To get a link to a google search for a species, e.g. Dypsis lutescens substitute the genus for GENUS, and species for SPECIES in the following:
- [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22GENUS%20SPECIES%22&num=10&sa=Google+Search GENUS SPECIES]
Redirects[edit]
To redirect automatically from one page to another, type #REDIRECT and then put in brackets the name of the page to be redirected to.
For example, you could redirect from "Cats" to "Cat". That way, anyone typing either version in the search box will automatically go to "Cat".
Wiki variables and templates[edit]
Use {{SITENAME}} to see the current Wikia. For instance, {{SITENAME}} on this site prints out as PACSOA Wiki.
That and a few other templates are common to MediaWiki sites.
Check the current list of all templates on this Wikia.
You can create templates. After you create the page Template:XXX, using the command {{XXX}} will include that content in your current page. So, if you have something that needs to be included on many other pages, you might want to use a template.
Most templates available on the Central Wikia can be used on individual wikia with just "wikia:" prefixed to the name. See the help page on Central at Wikia:Help:Shared templates.
Special pages[edit]
Special pages are dynamic pages provided by the Wiki application to show information about the contents of the Wiki. Not every page might be very interesting for everybody in daily use, so here is the list of useful pages:
All Pages: All pages that have been added to the Pacsoa Wiki so far
Wanted Pages: Pages to which somebody set an internal link from another page, but the page doesn't exist. If you have something to contribute to such a page, this is a good start off.
Recent Changes: Pages that have been changed recently.
Dead End Pages: Pages that do not link to any other page (try to help to keep the list short).
Orphaned Pages: Pages to which no other page links (try to help to keep the list short).