In this post I will be focusing on the basics of how to edit pages and what basic wiki syntax looks like. To begin we need to get to an edit screen. Click on the edit tab at the top of the webpage.
This will bring up an edit box. If there is already text on the page the text will be in the edit box. If there is no text on the page, then the box will be blank.
Text can be typed into the editing box or you can type up your article in a word processor and then cut and paste it into the edit box. I recommend the later for long articles, since the wiki doesn’t have a spell checker. However, do not spend any time formatting the text in an external word processor. All formatting, except for line breaks, will be lost when you paste the text into the wiki editor.
Wiki syntax appears daunting at first. Most of us use WSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors like MS Word to do our word processing, so the formatting is hidden from us. Sadly, the world of wiki editors is not very advanced so we need to use special wiki syntax to modify text on wiki pages. There is a toolbar at the top of the edit box that will help you with some basic wiki formatting.
From left to right the buttons on the tool bar are:
Bold – Italic – Internal Link – External Link – Level 2 Header – Embed Image - Media File Link – Mathematical Formula (LaTeX) – Ignore Wiki formatting – Your Signature – Horizontal Line
To use the toolbar highlight a word and then click on the button you want use. The appropriate wiki syntax will be added to the text.
The basic syntax you are most likely to use:
Bold: ”’text”’
Italic: ”text”
Line Breaks
In order to have your text appear on different lines, you need to place a line between the lines of text you want separated. If you don’t then the text will show up on the same line.
Example:
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
Will appear as:
This is line 2. This is line 2.
While this:
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
Will appear as:
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
This does not apply to special formatting like ordered lists and headers.
You can also use the HTML command
at the end of a line to create a line break.
Example:
This is line 1.<br />
This is line 2.
Will appear as:
This is line 1.
This is line 2.
Headers
Headers are useful to separate content within an article. These headers are also used to automatically generate the table of contents at the top of a page. The header syntax is a series of “=” on both sides of the text to be included in the header.
Header 2: ==Header 2==
Header 3: ===Header 3===
Header 4: ====Header 4====
Lists
Adding a * at the beginning of a line will create a bulleted list. Add additional * to create sub bullets.
*Item 1
*Item 2
**Sub-Item 2
Adding a # at the beginning of a line will create a bulleted list. Add additional # to create sub items.
#Item 1
#Item 2
##Sub-Item 2
Links
Links are one of the best things about wiki. It allows you to easily reference other information in the wiki. Making an internal link to another wiki article is as simple as enclosing the title of the article inside double brackets.
Internal Link to another wiki article: [[Name of article]]
However you can change the name shown on the link by adding a pipe “| “ symbol after the name of the article and the alternate text you want to display. (This can be found above the backslash (“\”) on most keyboards.)
Internal Link to another wiki article: [[Name of article |A different Name]]
External links can be showed different ways.
Typing the full URL including http:// will make the URL a link,
External Link to another site: http://google.com
Adding single brackets will hide the URL and show the link as a number
External Link as a footnote: [http://google.com]
Adding a space and alternate text after the URL inside single brackets will show the alternate text as a link.
External link with alternate text: [http://google.com Google]
HTML
WikiKnitting supports HTML code formatting, but we strongly recommend using the wiki formatting for consistency. There are cases where HTML formatting is necessary, but if you don’t know what they are then stick with the wiki syntax.
Saving
Once your text is entered, click show preview at the bottom of the page to see what your editing page looks like.
This is an important step and should not be skipped. It’s very easy to add an extra apostrophe or not enough to one side of a word and have the formatting be incorrect.
In preview mode the edit box will remain at the bottom of the page. You can easily correct any mistakes and then select preview again.
When you are happy with your text then click save changes. The wiki article is now live.
More information can be found at http:wikiknitting.com/wiki/Help:Contents Stay tuned for Part 3: Adding Images
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