Help:Editing

From Student Link

This guide walks you through the basic steps of editing Student Link.

Contents

[edit] Tools

[edit] The Toolbox

[edit] The Editing Navigation Bar

Along the left hand side of the screen you will find the Editing tools. These tools are all you need to edit pages. The list that follows details the expanded...

  • Title -- This link allows you to go back to the article you are working on without saving your edits.
  • Discussion -- This is a page dedicated to talking about the issues unique to the particular page you might be working on. Here people will talk about what changes they would like to see made, are making, or have made. These pages allow people to work out differences of opinion without making the article itself a place for open debate.
  • Edit -- This link takes you to a textbox that contains all the mark-up information for the article you would like to edit.
  • History -- A list of links to previous versions of the same article. If you make a mistake, you can use this to find the previous working version of a page.

[edit] How To

[edit] Edit

Editing a Student Link page is not very difficult. Simply click on the "Edit" link in the sidebar (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox; not here.

There are many possible options for markup (i.e. making the page look pretty.) The edit box has a formatting toolbar, which works very much like a toolbar in a word processor. By highlighting text and clicking one of the buttons, such as "Bold", the text will be surrounded by the appropriate markup to make it appear bold. In general, just looking at how existing pages do things (by clicking on Edit and looking at the "raw" content) should let you figure out the markup — which is very simple! (Always make sure you "Preview" before you "Save Changes", otherwise you might end up editing a page several times)

You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes (Note: We need to develop a legend for shorthand notation), and when you have finished, press the Show preview button to see how your changes will look. You can also see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and press the Save page button. Your changes will immediately be visible to other Student Link users.

You can also click on the "Discussion" link in the sidebar to see the corresponding "talk page", which contains comments about the page from other Wikipedia users. Click on the "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.

You should remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages, but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the Wiki software keeps track of which user makes each change.

[edit] Link

The most important concept in a Wiki is linking. This is an aside, but in Network Theory (Think: the internet), the more nodes in a network, the shorter the average distance between any two single nodes, ergo Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon works because he has been in so many movies, and Wikis work just as well when you link the pages).

The idea is to have all pages linked together in a logical and intuitive way. To make a link to a page, type the exact name of the page you wish to link to, surrounded by double brackets. This means to link to the page Main Page I type [[Main Page]]. It's that simple. To make a link to a page that displays differently, such as a link to Main Page that displays as Hello World! you just write [[Main Page|Hello World]]. But beware! Capitalization matters for links.

Also, try to be descriptive in your linking. Don't use "click here!": "For more info check here" is bad! Instead, use something like "Check out Wiki Sand Box for more info."

To link to a page outside the wiki, you write you link like [http://www.duke.edu this] which displays as this. Of course, you can also just write http://www.duke.edu/ if you don't want any alternative text. So remember — use double brackets for things inside the wiki, no brackets for things outside it (other websites).

Example:

[edit] How to make a redirect

To redirect a page (1) to a different page (2), enter the following on the top of page 1. 

#REDIRECT [[NAME OF PAGE 2]]

Note - there should not be a space between the pound symbol and the capital R in REDIRECT.

[edit] Images

In brief, the syntax for displaying an image is: 

'''[[Image:{name}|{type}|{location}|{size}|{caption}]]'''

For example, 

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|right|Example image caption.]]

Only [[Image:{name}]] is required. Most images should use [[Image:{name}|thumb|Example image caption]] (and should not specify a size). The other details are optional and can be placed in any order.

  • Type: 'thumb' / 'thumbnail' or 'frame'. Causes image to be displayed with specific formatting.
  • Location: 'right', 'left', 'center' or 'none'. Determines placement of the image on the page.
  • Size: {width}px (e.g. 50px), scales the image to the given width, keeping its aspect ratio.
  • Caption: Any element which cannot be identified as one of the above is assumed to be caption text.


[edit] How do you reduce the size of images in a given article?

To reduce the size of images in a given article, simply add a dimension to the tag.

Example: 

[[Example.jpg|300px]]

[edit] New pages

To create a page, first think about where you want this page to be linked from. Say you want to create a page about your favorite local band. Ideally, there should be a link to this band in Music Scene or perhaps other pages as well. You would go edit Music Scene to add a link to your page — even though your page hasn't been made yet. Once you save your changes and click on the new link, you'll be given the opportunity to create the page!

TIP: If you can't think of a page to create, look over the Wanted Pages. It is a list of pages which have been linked but have not been created. Perfect candidates for a write-up!

If this is unclear, just view the source (by clicking on "Info" and clicking on "raw" for the top item — or if you're lazy, just by clicking "Edit") of some pages! It will become perfectly clear after a few minutes.

To create a page without making a link to it first, simply type the name of the desired page into the search box. Then you will be prompted with the option of creating the page.

But remember: because you made the page without first making a link to it, it might get lost in the sea of pages. Linking is very important for this reason — If you don't link your new page from existing pages, then no one will be able to find it.

Spend some time thinking about good places where you should make a link to your new page. Using the search box is very useful for finding phrases and material where you might want to provide a link.

You should head over to the Wiki Sand Box and edit it and play around!

[edit] Revision History

The wiki tracks all the changes made to all the pages, and this information is available in the History in the Editing Tools. Every edit of a page accounts for a new version, and clicking "Campare selected version" once in the History allows you to see differences between selected versions. Clicking an individual revision shows the page as it looked at the that point in time.

Under Editing tools you may also "watch" a page, which allows you to track the changes to the page every time you visit the wiki. Setting watched pages allows you to easily see when pages important to you change, and allows you to keep a list of pages you like, as well. You user page is automatically watched.

[edit] Now what?

After you've made an account, viewed the source of some pages, and played around with editing over in Wiki Sand Box, you should go ahead and make a home page for yourself. To make a homepage, simply click on your username under Personal Tools. This means if your name is Student LinkSysop (it's not), you simply make the page with the title User:Student LinkSysop and fill it with whatever you want (another way to do this is to search for User:<your username> and create the resulting page). After making your homepage, head over to Student Link People and add your page to the list. Then, you should check out the community portal for a discussion of topics important to the Wiki right now, or over to the FAQ to ask a question if you have one.

[edit] Tips

  • Watch Pages! You can watch any page by simply click "Watch" on the sidebar under Editing Tools. When a page is watched, you'll be told whenever the page changes (without having to check Recent Changes).
  • Link link link! After you've made a page you should search the wiki looking for places to add links to your new page. After all, if you make a page, shouldn't you make sure everyone else can see it? Occurrences of the page name are immediately candidates for links. Beyond this, you can get creative and link relevant text accordingly.
  • Preview! Always click "Preview" before you click "Save Changes" in order to make sure everything looks right, etc! Even the best of us forget this all too often.

[edit] Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a question, ask it here!

[edit] Q: How do you add pictures?

Adding a picture is a 2 step process.

[edit] Step 1: Upload the Image

To upload an image, go to the toolbox on the left navbar, and click upload. Then, find the image file on your computer by clicking browse. Add a description, preferably indicating the source of the image, and then click upload.

[edit] Step 2: Add the image to an appropriate page

Navigate to the page where you would like the image placed, then click edit under the editing tools. To add the image, use the following syntax: 

[[Image:imagename.jpg|thumb|left|200px|This is the caption]]
  • Thumb: Puts a pretty border around the image and allows text to flow around it.
  • Alignment: this can be left or right (above the image is aligned left)
  • Size: this can be any value, generally 300px or fewer.
  • Caption: Simply type the caption text last.

Any of the options can be omitted. The minimum you must do to place an image is: 

[[Image:imagename.jpg]]

Hope this helps!

[edit] Q: What are the conventions for linking and naming?

[edit] Q: Is there a way to see a list of all the pages in the wiki?

Check out Special:Allpages to see every page on the Duke Wiki.

[edit] Q: Can I see which pages link to a particular page?

Check out Special:Whatlinkshere&target=FAQ

  • Note: You must be on a page to click on this. It is located in the Toolbox.

[edit] Q: Where can I find out geeky things about this site?

[edit] Q: How do I rename a page?

[edit] See also...

Retrieved from "http://student.groups.duke.edu/Help:Editing"