Help:Wiki Basics
From Clinicaltools.com
Contents |
Starting a Page
- In the search field, enter the name of a page that you would like to start. It is important that you enter the title exactly as you want it to appear (this includes the use of upper- and lowercase letters).
- If a page with your title already exists on the wiki, it will appear in the Page title matches section of the search results. In that case, you will not be able to start a page with that particular name (duplicate titles are not allowed in MediaWiki), but you still can edit the page (see below).
- If a page with your title does not already exist, the search results will read: No page title matches. In order to get the page started, click on the red link at the top ("You searched for LINK"); for example, if the search results indicated that the wiki didn't have any pages related to coffee, then you would click on "You searched for Coffee" in order to get that entry started).
- Upon clicking the link, you will be taken to an edit page with a large edit field. Begin typing your entry. Once you click on the Save page button, the software registers your page as a new entry.
Editing a Page
Unless a page is protected by an administrator, you should be able to edit simply by clicking on the edit tab at the top. If you know (X)HTML, you can—for the most part—enter said markup in the edit field, and it will render properly. However, the MediaWiki software includes its own markup that it converts to (X)HTML. Said markup is not intuitive, but the Wikimedia Foundation has provided a useful cheatsheet with the most common formatting.
A page's edit section includes buttons at the top for some of the more common formatting functions:
- Bold text
- Italic text
- Internal link (linking to another page in the wiki)
- External link
- Level 2 headline
- Embedded file (e.g., an image)
- File link (e.g., a media file)
- Mathematical formula
- Ignore wiki formatting
- Your signature with timestamp
- Horizontal line
Beneath the edit field, you'll find a small Summary field where you can note your reasons for making an edit, if necessary.
Uploading and Displaying an Image
- Click on the special pages link in the upper-right.
- Click on Upload file.
- On the subsequent page, click on the Browse button to find the file that you want to upload.
- Once you select your file, the Source filename and Destination filename fields automatically populate. Add some content to the Summary field, if you wish.
- Click on the Upload file button (the allowable formats are .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, and .png).
- At that point, the software will display the new "Image" entry containing your file. This entry includes revisions and the pages that link to your file.
- To post an image onto a page, enter one of the following:
- [[Image:File.jpg]]
- [[Image:File.jpg|alt text]]
Here is an example, employing the Clinical Tools logo. If you click on the image, you will be taken to the Image:ClinicalToolsLogo.jpg entry for more detail.
You also can alter the size of an image by entering a new width (the height adjusts accordingly in order to maintain the ratio). The Clinical Tools logo above has a width of 662px; to decrease that by, say, 50 percent, we insert the following code: '''[[Image:ClinicalToolsLogo.jpg|331px|Clinical Tools Logo]]'''
...to get the following result:
Miscellany
- To view a chronological list of edits, compare different versions of the page, and undo changes, just click on the history tab.
- To post your views about the page—including questions, comments, and complaints—just click on the discussion tab.
Resources
- MediaWiki Cheatsheet
- MediaWiki Handbook: Wikitext Examples
- MediaWiki Handbook: HTML in Wikitext
- MediaWiki Handbook: Table - This page includes elaborate markup for the generation of tables. However, one may find it easier to generate tables via HTML.
