Creating and Editing articles
From MIwiki
Here are the basic instructions for Creating and Editing articles
When working on a wiki you don't always need to create new articles but you can also edit old ones, correct mistakes and rephrase things. Each article has an Edit feature (a link on the top of the page) that let's you into the sandbox mode where you can edit the article as you wish (detailed below). Also sub-headers have an Edit-link on the right-side of the page and clicking this you can edit merely a section of an article instead of having to skim through the content and code of the entire article.
All your edits are visible in the page's History found behind the link on the top of the page. This way you can keep track of the edits that have been made to the page.
Contents |
Before you start
Before you start you have to know what you are going to write about. Before you start to worry about anything else, worry about content. Organise your info into facts and represent them in the order you deem the most logical. Start by writing an opening paragraph detailing what said article is about. Then go into greater detail about the aspects you consider noteworthy.
Try to use a formal tone and try not to insert any personal opinions about a given subject. If you present a statement which seems controvercial verify it by finding a source on the internet which re-inforces this. Once you have all your material together you can start writing the article.
Creating & Editing
Creating an article
First decide what your article will be called. Type the name in the search box and press the "Search" or "Go" command-buttons. If an article of the name you searched for doesn't exist you are presented by a list of pages that possibly mention your search-item. Above you should see a text saying "No page with that title exists" and under it "You can create this page or request it." Click "Create this page".
Remember that article-name automatically starts with a capital letter. All the other words of the article-name are case sensitive and this may cause problems for internal linking (2.4). Redirecting can alleviate this problem (4.).
You will be presented with a sandbox in which you literally type the article in. The Wiki recognises most symbols you type. Before you publish your work (Save page) you can get a preview of it by clicking "Show preview". The article will appear infront of you with the sandbox at the bottom. There are function buttons above the sandbox if you don't wish to learn the wiki-codes for yourself but most users will learn quickly how each of the codes work.
Bold and Italic text
To avoid having to use quatation-marks to emphasise words Wikipedia prefers to use bold and italic text. The use of these is very simple. For instance. If you need a text to be bold you inclose it in two sets of three apostrophes.
- example: '''Monkey Island''' >> Monkey Island
Similarly to have a text in Italics enclose the word inside two sets of two Apostrophes
- example: ''Guybrush'' >> Guybrush
A single apostrophe does not denote any code and when typing you may accidentally miss an apostrophe (you can check this by previewing the page).
Additionally if you want the text to in both bold and italics then use sets of five apostrophes on each side.
- example: '''''Guybrush Threepwood''''' >> Guybrush Threepwood
- Why do we use them? - We want to save the quotation-marks for actual quotations. Using Italics for instance is a lot more descrete than having quotation-marks uglying up the page. Also an article is usually started by a bolded version of the name of the article starting a sentence in the spirit of an actual encyclopedia.
- Note: An Apostrophe is not the same as ยดยด or ``. These are diacritics (accents) and will not be registered by Wikipedia.
Subheaders
To better organise the information in an article (especially long articles) the texts ought to be organised under subheaders. This is done by placing two sets of two equals-signs (==) on either side of a subheader.
- example: ==Game Appearances==
If you wish to make a subheader to the subheader then add an extra pair of equals-sings on each side of the subheader.
- example: ===Exploits===
This process can be repeated further.
When a page has four sunheaders or more the a Contents-list will be automatically added to the top of the page below the top paragraphs and before the first subheader.
- Why do we use them? - Subheaders help arrange information into a format where it is easy to access. If a person looks for a particular piece of information on a person, a fictional character etc. (s)he will not have to go through the trouble of reading the entire article to find the info (s)he is looking for. A subheader can also be internal-linked to (2.4)
Internal and External linking
When you wish to draw a link to another article you must enclose a word in pairs of two square brackets [[]].
- example: [[Monkey Island]] >> Monkey Island
If an internal link is red it means that the articles the link refers to either doesn't exist or hasn't been created yet. Check for spelling errors by doing a preview before saving. If the wording of the article is not ideal such as when using a genetive or a different form of a word you can do the following...
- [[Guybrush]]'s >> Guybrush's
Leave out the parts you don't need.
- [[Herman Toothrot|Herman]] >> Herman
If you refer to someone by their first name, but their article uses his full name. Separate the link and the attached text with a vertical bar (pipe). See also (2.3.)
You can also link directly to the subheader of the article...
- example: [[Article_name#Subheader_name|the article text attached to the link]]
In the above example: "_" can be suplemented with spaces.
To draw a link to a website outside Wikipedia (an external link) enclose the URL and a phrase attached to it inside Squared brackets, separated by a space.
- example:
- [http://www.imdb.com The Internet Movie Database] >> The Internet Movie Database
- or
- [http://www.google.com] >> [1]
You may also choose to simply enclose the URL inside the brackets (as shown above) if you wish to simply cite a piece of text. In this case only the External Link symbol will appear in the text. Remember to have the whole starter part of the url (http://www.) at the beginning or the link will not work.
- Why do we use them? - The important aspect of a Wiki is to be able to connect pieces of information together and to be able to get to the item you're interested in fast. External Links are used for confirming what is being said in the article by referring to an external web-page for citation. Lists of useful links with more info on a subject may also be included at the end of the article.
Indenting and lists
If you wish to differentiate a piece of text from the rest of the article by indenting use a colon (:) by placing it at the beginning of a paragraph.
- example:
- :This page only concerns info related to...
If you wish to indent further add more colons.
- example:
- ::For info on [subject] click here
Remember that the colon must be placed at the beginning of every paragraph you want to indent. The effect of the code does not carry over to a following paragraph. Subheaders can't be indented.
Lists are an easy way to collect information together that is tied only loosely or is difficult to form into well-written paragraphs. You may make lists of Trivia items, Notes etc. To create a bullet point put an asterisk (*) at the beginning of a sentence/paragraph.
- example:
- *In Monkey Island 2 Guybrush had brown hair.
- >>
- In Monkey Island 2 Guybrush had brown hair.
To make a subpoint or indent a list to denote that the bullet point is related to the previous bullet point you can use a combination of a colon and an asterisk or two asterisks.
- example:
- **Guybrush has white socks
- >>
- Guybrush has white socks
- or
- :*Guybrush has white socks
- >>
- Guybrush has white socks
If you wish to make a numbered list of items you can save the trouble of typing the numbers by simply using a "number sign" (#) at the beginning of each item.
- example:
- # first item
- # second item
- # third item
- >>
- first item
- second item
- third item
This way if you make a mistake you won't need to retype all of the numbers.
Categories
Each article belongs to a category. This is a method used for organising articles. The category is seen at the bottom of the article. An article may belong to more than one category. To access a category directly type the following to the search bar:
- Category:[Name of Category]
To add an article to a category write the following at the bottom of the article.
- [[Category:Name of Category]]
Creating a category
Note that items may be listed to categories even if they haven't been created yet. To create a category access it as shown in above and click the "create this page" link. Proceed to write a short description of the category and save the page. Remember that just as in creating an article the title is case sensitive and the first letter is automatically a capital letter.
A category belongs in a category
A category can also be a part of another category, in which case it then becomes a sub-category. To add a category simply click the Edit link at the top of the page and add the category-internal [[Category:X]] link to the page.
Redirecting
An item may have multiple spelling forms and alternative titles or widely used acronyms. You can help a wiki-user by redirecting these titles to the article in question. The process is simple. Follow up on the title you wish to redirect, click "create this page" and add the following text:
- #REDIRECT [[Page Name]]
