Wiki Tutorial

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Here I will attempt to help new users get through the learning process of wiki concepts.

[edit] Concepts

A wiki is a different beast of it's own. It is a way of people in it's community to contribute on roughly the same level as everyone. It collaborates effort from everyone to build a site.

This is drastically different from many other popular dynamic sites. In a forum you are allowed to contribute by adding posts to a set in stone post above yours. In a blog your contributions consist of submission of stories which again are set in stone. In a wiki every contribution can be further contributed with further contributions. It is not set in stone.

Confused yet? Let me run a simple example. Take a small story that users wish to add to like what you did in kindergarten when one person starts a story and the next adds to it and the next...

[edit] Creating

With that being said lets dive right in and create something.

All pages can be edited by clicking on the edit button. So if you find a page and want to see how something was formatted click on edit and see the source.

You can go directly to a page by typing the title into the search box. If it exists it will display. If it doesn't exist you will have the option to create it.

So lets begin by making a user page. Click on your username at the top of the page. It may be usefull to right click on it and open in another window so you keep this tutorial open as you work with the examples. If you don't see your username at the top you may need to Log In first.

Once you have it open click on the edit tab. You will be presented with a large text box ready for your input. This is where you will place your wiki textexplained in the following sections.

When you save your work the changes show up in the Special:Recentchanges page. If you are only making a minor change like spelling or grammar people need a way of telling if it is a minor or major change. So mark the edit as a minor edit with the checkbox before you save.

[edit] Formating

There are many formating options in wiki text. We call it wiki text because the "code" so to speak is nothing more then simple text with a few added syntax. You can enter just text and the content will display as such. in this chapter we will discuss how to add extra formatting to this text which makes a more aesthetic look to the plain text content.

There is much much more then what you see here. For a full list of formating see Help:Formating.

All text wraps around so that the content does not run off the edge. To create a seperate paragraph add a blank line:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

The other brown fox wasn't so quick and landed on the lazy dog.

[edit] Sections

You may have noticed the sections within this document. They are designated by the headers you see above each one and what is listed in the Contents box at the top.

These sections are created using equal signs. They have to begin at the start of a line and you can have sub catagories like you see in this page. they look in wiki text like this:

== Level 1 ==
=== Level 2 ===
==== Level 3 ===
===== Level 4 =====

If you need further examples take a look at the source for this page.

[edit] Text Style

Text can be styled like other online content. Simply put you can make bold and Italics

[edit] Lists

Adding listed content is easy. Either bulleted lists or numbered (and combinations of). To start a list just have the first character on a line be an asterisk or pound symbol. For example:

 * list item
 * list item
 ** List sub-item

And a numbered list:

 # list item
 # list item
 ## List sub-item

You can even add definition stile paragraphing:

 ;Title
 :Definition

(you can also use the preceding colon to make an indent without the definition list.)

[edit] Start your bio

Ok so we learned how to make sections and how to make some nifty looking text. So with your Userpage open and the edit button clicked. Start by typing in an intro and then fill in a few sections and fill those in. like this:

 Hello my name is Sukima. I am a computer programmer and I ''love'' wiki's.
 
 I mainly work on computer programs but occasionally I will work on more traditional creative means like writing and drawing.
 
 == Interests ==
 I like ''Computer Programming'', ''Biking'', ''Hiking'', ''Skiing''.
 
 == Contributions ==
 I have contributed the following to the community:
 * XML Plugin for VIM
 * This tutorial
 * MediaWiki Extentions

[edit] Linking

There are two distinct forms of linking. External and Internal. External links are those that point to websites outside of this one. You can usually notice them with a little arrow icon after them (for example: [1]).

[edit] Images

[edit] Extras

[edit] Discussions

[edit] Watch Lists

[edit] Categories

[edit] Namespaces

[edit] Templates

... To Be Continued ...