Contents |
To edit a wiki page, click on the "edit" link at the bottom of the page. This will bring you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext: the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage.
After adding to or changing the wikitext it is useful to press the "Show preview" button, which produces the corresponding webpage in your browser but does not make it publicly available yet. Errors in formatting, links, tables, etc., are often much easier to discover from the rendered page than from the raw wikitext.
If you are not satisfied you can make more changes and preview the page as many times as necessary. When you are satisfied with the pages layout and content write a short description of your changes in the small text field below the edit-box and then press the "Save page" button. The new page is now available to the public.
When editing a page, a user has the option of flagging the edit as a "minor edit". This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.
When to use this is somewhat a matter of personal preference. The rule of thumb is that an edit of a page that consists of spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text should be flagged as a "minor edit". A major edit is basically something that makes the entry worth revisiting for somebody who wants to watch the article rather closely. So any "real" change, even if it is a single word, should be flagged as a "major edit".
In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.
You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox.
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
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[edit] New section[edit] Subsection[edit] Sub-subsectionNotes:
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== New section == === Subsection === ==== Sub-subsection ==== |
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Newline: A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
| You can break lines without starting a new paragraph. |
You can break lines<br> without starting a new paragraph. |
marks the end of the list.
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* Lists are easy to do: ** start every line with a star *** more stars means deeper levels *A newline *in a list marks the end of the list. *Of course *you can *start again. |
marks the end of the list.
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# Numbered lists are also good ## very organized ## easy to follow #A newline #in a list marks the end of the list. #New numbering starts #with 1. |
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* You can even do mixed lists *# and nest them *#* like this<br>or have newlines<br>inside lists |
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* You can also **break lines<br>inside lists<br>like this |
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; Definition list : list of definitions ; item : the item's definition |
A manual newline starts a new paragraph. |
: A colon indents a line or paragraph. A manual newline starts a new paragraph. |
IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines won't wrap;
ENDIF
this is useful for:
* pasting preformatted text;
* algorithm descriptions;
* program source code
* ASCII art;
* chemical structures;
WARNING If you make it wide,
you force the whole page to be wide and
hence less readable. Never start ordinary lines with spaces. (see also below)
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IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines won't wrap;
ENDIF
this is useful for:
* pasting preformatted text;
* algorithm descriptions;
* program source code
* ASCII art;
* chemical structures; |
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Centered text.
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<center>Centered text.</center> |
| A horizontal dividing line: above
and below. (However, in most cases a section header is more useful. The horizontal dividing line should only be used if what follows is logically part of the same section; otherwise that part would be hidden in the TOC.) |
A horizontal dividing line: above ---- and below. |
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
Sue is reading the video policy.
Thus the link above is to http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_policy, which is the page with the name "Video policy". |
Sue is reading the [[video policy]]. |
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Link to a section on a page, e.g. List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco; when section linking does not work the link is treated as link to the page, i.e. to the top; this applies for:
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[[List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco]]. |
| Link target and link label are different: answers. | Link target and link label are different: [[User:Devsupaul|answers]] |
| Endings are blended into the link: official positions, genes |
Endings are blended into the link: [[official position]]s, [[gene]]s |
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Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom. Automatically hide namespace: Village pump. The server fills in the part after the | when you save the page. Next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. A preview interprets the abbreviated form correctly, but does not expand it yet in the edit box. Press Save and again Edit, and you will see the expanded version. The same applies for the following feature. |
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[kingdom (biology)|]]. Automatically hide namespace: [[Wikipedia:Village pump|]]. |
| When adding a comment to a Talk page,
you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name: or four for user name plus date/time:
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When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name: : ~~~ or four for user name plus date/time: : ~~~~ |
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Redirect one article title to another by putting text like this in its first line. |
#REDIRECT [[United States]] |
External links: Novell, [1],http://www.novell.com
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External links: [http://www.novell.com Novell], [http://www.novell.com], http://www.novell.com |
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To link to books, you can use ISBN links. ISBN 0123456789X See Help:ISBN links |
ISBN 0123456789X |
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Link to Request for Comments: RFC 123 (URL specified in mediawiki:Rfcurl) |
RFC 123 |
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To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link.
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[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]] |
| Use links for dates, so everyone can set their own display order. Use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting. | [[July 20]], [[1969]] , [[20 July]] [[1969]] and [[1969]]-[[07-20]]will all appear as 20 July 1969 if you set your date display preference to 1 January 2001. |
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
A picture: 
To add an image to your page, you first need to upload the image. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list. Web browsers render alternative text when not displaying an image -- for example, when the image isn't loaded, or in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud. See Alternative text for images for help on choosing alternative text. See Extended image syntax for more options, including options to change the position and size of images. |
A picture: [[Image:Penguin.png]] or, with alternative text [[Image:Penguin.png|Penguin Image]] |
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Clicking on an uploaded image displays a description page, which you can also link directly to: Image:Penguin.png |
[[:Image:Penguin.png]] |
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To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
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[[media:Penguin.png|Image of a Penguin]] |
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
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Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.
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''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''. |
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You can also write italic and bold if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulas:
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You can also write <i>italic</i> and <b>bold</b> if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulas: :<b>F</b> = <i>m</i><b>a</b> |
| A typewriter font for technical terms. | A typewriter font for <tt>technical terms</tt>. |
| You can use small text for captions. | You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. |
| You can and underline new material. |
You can <strike>strike out deleted material</strike> and <u>underline new material</u>. |
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Umlauts and accents: |
è é ê ë ì à À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ |
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Punctuation: |
¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • - – — |
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Commercial symbols: |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
| Subscript: x2 Superscript: x2 or x² |
Subscript: x<sub>2</sub> Superscript: x<sup>2</sup> or x² ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]] |
| Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ |
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω |
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Math characters: |
∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ → ↔ ↑ |
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For comparison for the following examples: arrow → italics link |
arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
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Use <nowiki> to suppress interpretation of wiki markup, but interpret character references and remove newlines and multiple spaces: arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
<nowiki>arrow → ''italics'' [[link]]</nowiki> |
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Use <pre> to suppress interpretation of wiki markup and keep newlines and multiple spaces, and get typewriter font, but interpret character references: arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
<pre>arrow → ''italics'' [[link]]</pre> |
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Use leading space on each line to keep newlines and multiple spaces, and get typewriter font: arrow → italics link |
arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
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Use typewriter font: arrow → italics link |
<tt>arrow →</tt> <tt>''italics''</tt> <tt>[[link]]</tt> |
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Show character references: → |
&rarr; |
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Commenting page source:
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<!-- comment here --> |
All pages can be put in a category by adding a category tag, e.g.:
[[Category:Category name]]
This provides a link to the appropriate category page, which is in the namespace "Category". Pages can be included in more than one category by adding multiple category tags. These links show up at the bottom of the page.
Adding a category tag to a category page makes the edited category a subcategory of the tag's category.
For example, you could edit [[Category:PHP]] and add the link [[Category:Programming Languages]]. The PHP category would then be a subcategory of the Programming Languages category.
A category page is automatically created for each category in which a page is categorized. A category page consists of:
The items in the lists all link to the pages concerned; in the case of the images this applies both to the image itself and to the text below it (the name of the image).
The category page lists are ordered alphabetically based on the categorized pages title. If a page seems to be in the wrong place in the list, you can adjust it in the pages category tag by adding a sort key.
[[Category:category name|sort key]]
For example to add an article called Albert Einstein to the category "people" and have the article sorted by "Einstein, Albert" instead of "Albert Einstein". You would type "[[Category:People|Einstein, Albert]]".
If you want to link to a category page without the current page being added to it, you should use the link form [[:Category:Category name]]. Note the extra : before Category.
The mediawiki handbook is the best resource for information on how to use this wiki. They document many advanced editing features that are not even mentioned here. You may also find it helpful to visit the Wikipedia site and view their help documentation.
© 2008 Novell, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
