Help:Editing

NOTE: Before you can edit, you need to first create an account and make at least 25 posts on our forum.

Editing Pages

When you begin a new wiki page or edit an existing one, much of the time you will simply be entering text. You will notice above the edit window there are several buttons. Some affect selected/highlighted text; for example, to make a certain word or section of text bold or italic - first, select text as you would in Word or most other text editing programs (ie. left mouse down and drag over the text you wish to select). Other buttons help make links, whilst others insert images and media files onto a page. The uses of some of these buttons are described below.

Making text BOLD

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_bold.png ~ This button will format any selected text in a bold style.

Italicising text

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_italic.png ~ This button will format any selected text in italics.

Making an Internal Link

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_link.png ~ This button will create a internal link (that is a link to any other page in this wiki) for any selected text. Once the page is saved you will see that the selected text now shows as an internal link that, when clicked on, will take you to a new page with the name of said link. The link can be to an existing page or a new page. It does not matter if the page doesn't already exist within WikiED - when the link is visited, a blank page with the link's name will be created, and you can start entering text and data into it immediately. You can achieve links in a couple of different ways. One will make a link to a page using the linked page's name as the link, like so: An internal link gives An internal link. A different way is to make a link to a page but display the link with a shortened or different name. This is handy with particularly long link names or ones that don't immediately make sense or just look a bit untidy ~ such as User:Noverflow, which would look neater as simply Noverflow ~ both link to the same page (a bio page about Noverflow, very exciting...) but are executed differently.

[[User:Noverflow]] gives User:Noverflow
[[User:Noverflow|Noverflow]] gives Noverflow ~ this latter type of internal link is called a "piped link."

Making an External Link

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_extlink.png ~ This button will create an external link (one to somewhere else on the internet, outside of WikiED) in numbered format. If you enter a full url (ie. http://www.photoblogring.org/) in the edit box, when the page is saved that url will automatically become a link. However, if you highlight it and click on the External link button, it will appear on the page like so: [1] - to give this kind of numbered format link a name, leave a space between the full url and an appropriate name for the linked site, like so: [http://www.photoblogring.org/ photoblogring.org]. This will appear on the saved page as: photoblogring.org

Making a Headline

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_headline.png ~ This button will make highlighted/selected text a Level 2 Headline. These are headlines for subsections within a page, and also appear in the Table of Contents of a page which contains more than a couple of subsections (such as the headings for each category on this page, ie. "Making a Headline").

Embedding an Image

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_image.png ~ This button will allow you to embed an image onto the page. Initially in the edit box you will see [[Image:Example.jpg]] when you click on this buttton. To emebed the image you need to replace Example.jpg with the name and extension type (ie. .jpg .gif .png) of an uploaded image file. You can see a list of images uploaded on the Imagelist page.

use the function "thumb" or "thumbnail" to have the image automatically resized.

Embedding Media

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_media.png ~ Used to embed other types of media files (such as .mp3 audio files) into a page. Once again this is to include a file already uploaded so probably wont be relevant here - see above.

Embedding Mathematical "Stuff"

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_math.png ~ Inserts a mathematical equation.

"No Wiki" Formatting

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_nowiki.png ~ This button will allow highlighted text to be displayed without wiki formatting - example:

with wiki formatting
'''without''' ''wiki formatting''
This is how examples of wiki formatting have been included in this "help" page.

Your Signature

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_sig.png ~ This button causes your user signature (that you set in preferences) to be displayed along with the time and date you left a message/edit. Your user signature is also a link that will take other users to a page specifically for your user name. You may want to include a short bio, and even a picture of yourself, on this page. In addition, your user page has a discussion tab. All pages have this, but if someone leaves a message on your discussion page, when you next log in you will be notified that you have messages.

The Horizontal Line

http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/skins/common/images/button_hr.png ~ Creates a horizontal line, like so: