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This page is designed to cover the basics of editing pages on WikiCom. For a more detailed explanation visit:
For basic steps on how to read and navigate through a Wiki site:
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Editing Existing Pages
In order to begin editing pages on WikiCom you must first create a user account. Creating an account also means:
- You get a page called 'My Contributions' that lets you see what pages you've created and/or edited.
- Everyone else on WikiCom can get to know who you are and what you've added.
- You get a personal page on WikiCom where you can write a bio of yourself, upload an image, etc.
If you don't have an account already, get one here.
The basic steps for editing an existing WikiCom page begin by clicking the 'edit' tab at the top of the page (you should see in a row: article, discussion, edit, history, watch, etc). Edit the content, then scroll down to click the 'preview' button to see how your changes will appear when complete. When you're satisfied, give a brief reason for your changes in the summary box and click the 'save' button. This helps others to quickly tell what has been changed and allows the Wiki admin to track changes more easily.
A good place to test out your editing skills is on your personal bio page. Here, all the factors that come into editing a page can come into play, from emboldening or italicising text to creating headers, inserting images and adding links to other pages.
Starting a New Page
There are multiple ways to start a new page. One way is to edit an existing document and insert a new link (see Inserting Links below below). Links to articles that do not exist yet will be coloured red, like this. Good page editors will often add a link to a word that they feel should be expanded upon later. Clicking on a red link will take you to the edit page for the new article. Once the page has been created, the link will change from red to blue. Another way is if you search for a page that doesn't exist (using the search box and 'go' button on the left of the page). You will be provided with a link to create the new page. (Note that this technique doesn't work if you use the 'search' button).
Headers
Creating headers is a very simple way of separating your page into different sections. You'll probably want your biography page to have a section for your biography, maybe a list of your favorite movies, and an image or two to spice things up. Separating each of these sections into headed sections gives three fine advantages:
- Each section can be found easily
- Each section becomes editable separately by clicking on the 'Edit' link at the right-hand side of the header, so you can edit each part of the page without worrying about messing-up the other parts (the page as a whole can still be edited with the 'Edit' tab at the top of the page, however).
- You get a nice 'Contents' list at the top of your page.
So how do we set up a header? It's simple, really. Headers have to be added on a line all to themselves, so if you're doing your biography, a header called 'Biography' would be on one line and the bio info on the following lines. Headers are formatted by having two equal( = ) signs followed by a space, then the text you want in the header, then a space, then two equals signs. Sub headers can be added to pages by adding more equals signs around the header and these will also be displayed in the contents list a the top of your page. The difference between headers and sub-headers is that headers get an edit button and sub-headers don't, so you'd have to edit those from inside the initial header, or by editing the page as a whole.
So, for headers and sub-headers, we have the following coding:
== Example Header == === Example Sub-Header === ==== Example Sub-Sub-Header === and so on.
Indentations
Paragraphs can be indented by placing a colon( : ) at the start of a paragraph. To indent a paragraph twice, use two colons, and so forth.
Text Emphasis
Emphasis can be placed on words and phrases by putting a certain number of apostrophes ( ' ) around the word or phrase to be emphasised. The amount of apostrophes determines the particular emphasis placed on the word/phrase. You'll need the same amount of apostrophes at the start as at the end, or the emphasis won't work.
- Italics require two apostrophes
- Bold text requires three apostrophes
Putting single apostrophes around something will simply display that something with apostrophes around it.
Inserting Links
Links work in two ways on WikiCom, depending on whether you're linking to another page on the Wiki or another page on the Internet. We'll cover both types of link here.
Wiki Links
These are links only to other pages on WikiCom, and not elsewhere on the Internet. Wiki Links are coded using double square brackets ( [[ ) and the contents of the brackets will be the page name being linked to, so a link to a page called 'Example' would be created by putting 'Example' between double square brackets.
If you want to link to a page called 'Example' but make the link display 'An Example' in your text, you'd do this by putting 'Example | An Example' between square brackets. The pipe ( | ) indicated to WikiCom that the bit on the left is the Link and the bit on the right is the text to be displayed on the page.
So we have:
[[Example]] links to another page on the Wiki that is called Example. [[Example | An Example]] does the same but calls the link 'An Example' in the text.
Internet Links
It is important to keep as much of our information and writing local to WikiCom. There are times, however, when it is helpful to link to somewhere else on the Internet to illustrate a point or provide tangent material. To do this you only need one set of brackets ( [ ) and do not use a pipe ( | ) between the link and the description. So, a link to Google can be made by entering the following:
[http://www.google.com/ Click Here!] links to www.google.com with the link text 'Click here!'.
It's worth noting at this point that Internet links must begin with http:// or the system will assume the link is somewhere on WikiCom. Internet links can also be used to create e-mail links, by using the mailto tag instead of http: so a link to student@clarku.edu with a link as 'e-mail me!' would be created by entering:
[mailto:student@clarku.edu e-mail me!]
Lists
There are two main forms of list on a Wiki: numbered and unordered. Both work in exactly the same way and are simply designated with a hash ( # ) or asterisk ( * ) at the start of each line. Hashes provide numbered lists, asterisks provide unordered lists. They look like this:
Some of my favorite movies: # Blade Runner # Lawrence of Arabia # Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf Any text just below the list is then displayed as a standard paragraph.
The above text, when put into a MediaWiki page, would display as follows:
Some of my favorite movies:
- Blade Runner
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolf
Any text just below the list is then displayed as a standard paragraph.
Images
WikiCom also supports the ability to include images in its pages. This facility is designed to allow pages to avoid complex, confusing descriptions or to show something when it would take a long time to describe in text. Image posting should not get out of control and should be used only where it would benefit the document. Some images may already exist on WikiCom and can be used with a simple link. In other cases you may want to upload your own images to include in a WikiCom document.
Uploading an Image
The easiest way to upload an image is to use the Upload file link (located under the 'toolbox' header, below the search bar) on the main menu. This will take you to a page that allows you to select a file to upload from your system, set the filename it will be referred to on WikiCom and ask you for a description of the file for the benefit of other viewers. Always use the description option when uploading.
Please be mindful of keeping your image files as small as possible. WikiCom will warn you if your files are too big. If the file is only slightly larger than suggested that's ok, but if your file is significantly larger please resize your image and try again.
Inserting an Image
To insert an image into a page use the [[Image:filename]] command, where filename is the name of the file as it is named on WikiCom.
The below image was inserted using the line [[Image:Foxtrot-tron.jpeg]] to link to an image called ''Foxtrot-tron.jpeg'':
You can also show the image as a thumbnail (smaller version) and define its size, set its alignment on the page, and add caption text using the extended image code: [[Image:filename|thumb|alignment|caption]]. The pipes ('|') are used to separate each piece of information in the code in the same way as they do in links. Our second example shows that the Foxtrot-tron.jpeg image has been defined as a right aligned thumbnail of 150 pixels with a text caption.
The image to the right was done with the command [[Image:Foxtrot-tron.jpeg|thumb|right|A thumbnail Foxtrot-tron]]
Adding 'thumb' sets the image as a thumbnail (smaller version) of the full image and allows other a caption to be added to the image. Adding a caption will display text below the image. Please use captions as a synopsis of the image. Remember: captions will not display unless the image link contains the 'thumb' command. Clicking on the image will take the reader to a full-size version of the image. The alignment option can take the form of 'left', 'right' and 'center' to determine the image's position on the screen.
You can also specify exactly how large you want the thumbnail to appear on the page by using another image option '|px'. In this third case we forced the thumbnail to 300 pixels wide.
The image to the right was done with the command [[Image:Foxtrot-tron.jpeg|thumb|300px|right|A thumbnail Foxtrot-tron]]
