Help:Contents
From SEA.unu.edu/wiki
SEA Wiki is a collaboratively edited encyclopedia to which you can contribute. This tutorial will help you become a Wikipedian.
This is a basic tutorial, not an extensive manual. If you want more details, there are links to other pages for more information. To read them as you go along, you can open them in a separate window.
* How to add a New SEA System * How to add a New SEA by Sector * How to add a New Case Study
How can I start editing SEA-Wiki
If you want to start Editing a new page, first you have to create a new user on the system.
1. To create an account you have to go to the right top of the SEA-Wiki page, and you will see the Log in / create account
2. Create an account
3. Now you can start editing SEA-Wiki
How can I help?
Don't be afraid to edit, anyone can edit almost any page, and we encourage you to be bold (but please don't vandalize)! Find something that can be improved, either in content, grammar or formatting, and fix it.
You can't break Wikipedia. Anything can be fixed or improved later. So go ahead, edit an article and help make Wikipedia the best information source on the Internet!
How to create a New Article
| Type a title: and click "Create article" |
|
"Create article" takes you to an edit page where you can enter the new text. The edit page also has a link for Editing tutorial, in case you need it. You do not have to always return to this page to create a new article. New pages can also be started by following a link to a non-existent page, which likewise leads to an edit page (see Starting a page through the URL, below).
When creating a new article, bear in mind that:
- The title that you choose is important, as this will be the title of your new article.
- classify your article by Categories.
General principles
- Search to see whether someone has written a similar page before you start one yourself. Choose the title carefully.
- Review conventions of the project you are working in regarding e.g.:
- naming conventions.
- whether a separate page is justified; perhaps it is better to add the text to a related page (especially if the text is not very long); that page can always be split later, after it has grown.
- how-to guidance for writing regarding style, content and formatting. E.g. for the Wikipedia project see How to write a great article.
- While creating the page and before saving it, check the What links here link on the creation page. Align the new content with existing links, or change the new title, or fix the other links.
- If nothing points here, the page is isolated. Links to it will need to be added on other pages.
Starting a page from a red link, after a search
To start a new page, you will have to sign in with your account name. If you do not have an account, you can create one here. After signing in, you can click the red link to that new page. This takes you to edit mode of the new page, which allows you to edit that page.
Another way to start a new page, on the English Wikipedia, is to perform a search for the new title with the Go button (as you should have done before). When the search finds nothing, press "create the article".
Links to non-existing pages are common. They are typically created in preparation for creating the page, and/or to encourage other people to do so. Links are not only convenient for navigation, but also make people aware of the new page (those who read a related page and also those who watch the related page). New page links are not really broken, as long as the name correctly identifies the intended content. (A new page link with a "wrong" or misspelled name, or that duplicates content found under another name is "broken", but in a different sense.)
New page links typically look different from links to existing pages. Depending on settings, a different color or a question mark is used. (Sometimes links to new pages are called "red links", the display option of one of the settings). Links to non-existent pages are created with [[New page name]] from the wiki editor. (In this case, the empty page "New page name" would be created).
Of course, you can also create the link yourself, in a related page, index page or your user page. However, it may be better to wait with creating links until after creating the new page, especially if the new link replaces one to an existing page. In this case, create the link but press Preview, instead of Save. From preview area, clicking the new link will create the new page (without updating the referring page).
Starting a page through the URL
Using the browser address bar to enter a URL to a new page is an easy way to start the new page process. Easier still is editing the pagename part of a URL for an existing page. Using the URL for the new page displays the default 'no article' message (see MediaWiki:Noarticletext). The default page has the usual Edit this page link, which can be used to begin adding content.
An interwiki link to a non-existent page gives the same result, but is not recommended. Such an attempt will usually not work as different Wikis have different sets of usernames. Thus, you will be led to a page where you will find yourself in logged out condition. Furthermore, interwiki links should be added only after the page exists, hence avoid doing it.
To get access to a MediaWiki project page, with the links at the edges but without the superfluous loading of a page, use a bookmark to a non-existing page. The default 'no article' page will display the edge links.
Creating an empty page
A new page is distinguished from a blank page: the latter has a page history. However, creating a new page is just like editing a blank page, except that a new page displays the text from MediaWiki:Newarticletext (which may vary by project).
Occasionally it is useful to create an empty page — For example a template can be made such that, depending on a parameter, it produces either just a standard text or also an additional text. This is done by having it call another template, of which the name is a parameter; one version of the other template contains the additional text, the other version is blank. See optional text.
To create an empty page, save a page with the wikitext __END__. This code will not be saved, it just prevents refusal by the system to create an empty page. Alternatively, first create a non-empty page, e.g. with just one character, then edit the page to make it empty. A page with one or more blank spaces at the end, including a page only containing one or more blank spaces, is not possible.
Using the sandbox and user sub-pages
The sandbox can be used for temporary experimentation, but is emptied on a regular basis. For persistent draft material, you can use your user account sub-pages, and move the sub-page to the main article namespace when ready. This will require a user account. To create a user sub-page, use a reference (title) like: 'User:UserName/New sub page'. User sub-pages can also be used for testing new template material with the syntax {{User:UserName/Sub page name}}. Use your own username in place of UserName. Using any name would result in a sub-page, but it is strongly recommended to use your own.
Using text from some other editing environment
Although pasting existing text into the wiki is often the simplest way to start, you may want to try converting from Word or HTML to wiki markup.
Protecting a page from being created
It is not really possible to protect a page from being created, but one can create a page with a standard text such as in Template:Deletedpage and protect that page. Note that sometimes a terminology like "This page should not be created" is used even though for the system the page exists. Therefore it is not suitable for demonstrating a link to a non-existing page.
How to Classify my new Article by Categories
Categories help users find information, even if they don't know that it exists or what it's called.
Every page in the article namespace should belong to at least one category. Categories should be major topics that are likely to be useful to someone reading the article.
- Article: Hungary
- Useful category: Category:SEA Systems
Questions to ask to determine whether it is appropriate to add an article to a category:
- If the category does not already exist, is it possible to write a few paragraphs or more on the subject of the category, explaining it?
The best way to find which categories to put in is to look at pages on similar subjects, and check which categories they use. For example if you write an article about Ecuador, you may look at an article on another Sea by Sector, Case Study, etc to see which categories could be appropriate.
How to add an article to an existing or new category
A doble square bracket "[[" that is normally use to create an Internal Wiki Link and the word Category:, genertes a Wiki Category link.
- [[Category:SEA by Sector]]
How to link to a category
A colon (":") before the "category tag", e.g., Category:NameOfCategory, will allow you to include a link to a category page without actually adding the article to that category.
By convention, the category tags are placed before the interwiki links, which are usually the very last tags on the article.
How to format a text on SEA-Wiki
Wikipedia page formatting is done with Wikitext, so you don't need to learn HTML.
Wikitext or Wiki markup
Writing for Wikipedia articles is a bit different from writing on a standard word processor. Instead of a strict "what you see is what you get" approach (WYSIWYG), wiki uses a simple built-in MediaWiki markup language designed for ease of editing. The approach is similar to writing HTML for web pages, but the codes are much simpler.
Bold and italics
The most commonly used wiki tags are bold and italics. Bolding and italicizing is done by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):
- ''italics'' appears as italics. (2 apostrophes on both sides)
- '''bold''' appears as bold. (3 apostrophes on both sides)
- '''''bolded italics''''' appears as bolded italics. (5 apostrophes on both sides)
It is a Wikipedia convention to bold the subject of an article when it is first mentioned in the article. For example, the article Klinefelter's syndrome starts:
- Klinefelter's syndrome is a condition caused by a chromosome nondisjunction in males...
If there are alternatives to the title the same applies, for example Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom starts:
- Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor), styled HM The Queen (born 21 April 1926) is the Queen regnant...
Another Wikipedia convention is to italicize book, movie and computer/video game titles. If the first mention of the subject of an article is also a book or movie title then bold italics is used. For example, the article The Lord of the Rings starts:
- The Lord of the Rings is an epic fantasy story by J. R. R. Tolkien, a sequel to his earlier work, The Hobbit.
Headings and subheadings
Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up the article by inserting a heading for each section.
Headings can be created like this:
- ==Top level heading== (2 equals signs)
- ===Subheading=== (3 equals signs)
- ====Another level down==== (4 equals signs)
If an article has at least four headings, a table of contents will automatically be generated. Try creating a heading in this page's sandbox. It will be added automatically to the table of contents for the page, assuming three others already exist.
How to add a Dynamic Page List or DPL
DynamicPageList is a Mediawiki 1.5 extension, it allows wiki users to create a list of pages that are listed in a set of categories.
In the case of SEA-Wiki we use this extension to display the SEA System list, SEA by Sector list and Case Studies list.
<DPL> category=SEA Systems order=ascending ordermethod=title </DPL>
When you Edit a page that contains a DPL, you are not able to see the List because is automatic generated by this extension.
Sometimes when you add a new topic to a category, it doesn't appears in the Dynamic Page List, you need to go edit and save the page.
How to transform a HTML table to a Wiki Table
If you need a table from HTML to your Wiki page you need a special program that transform HTML language to Wikis language, just copy and paste.
Check this sites:
http://diberri.dyndns.org/wikipedia/html2wiki/ http://www.uni-bonn.de/~manfear/html2wiki-tables.php#wiki
How to edit the Side-Bar Menu or Navigation Menu
Go to this link and edit:
http://sea-wiki.unu.edu/index.php/MediaWiki:Sidebar
- Navigation Menu
- Mainpage|Home
- About|About the SEA Wiki
- Information Resources
- Strategic Environmental Assessment|What is SEA?
- SEA Systems|SEA Systems
Wikipedia Tutorials, External Links
>
