Help:Editing
From Tacoma Biodiesel
This article provides information on editing pages and the style tags available for the formatting of text.
Contents |
General
To edit a wiki page, click the "Edit" link at the top of the content pane.
Add or change the text as you desire using wiki formatting. To preview your changes, click the "Show preview" button to see how the page renders in your browser. Because your changes will not be saved until you hit "Save page", you can continue to preview your page until it looks the way you want it to. Before finally hitting "Save page" to make your changes effective, enter a short description in the summary area, which will appear in the page history so that other users can easily tell what you changed on the page.
Minor Changes
A page edit can be marked as "minor" using the checkbox under the summary field. This denotes changes to things such as grammar, spelling, formatting, etc., that do not affect the actual information content of the page. If you change is insignificant enough that a past visitor would not want to come back and review the changes, it might be wise to mark your change as minor. However, this is optional.
Wiki Markup
Though the MediaWiki engine is capable of rendering HTML in page content, its use is discouraged in favor of a wiki-style markup language used to format text to the screen. The following is a brief overview the most-used wiki style tags.
The sections below show the wiki markup used to acheive various effects in the displayed text.
Section Headers
To get a top-level header (such as "Wiki Markup" above):
==Wiki Markup==
To get a subheading (such as "Section Headers" above):
===Section Headers===
To get a sub-subheading:
====Sub-subheading style====
Paragraph Formatting
Paragraphs are pretty much rendered exactly as you type them. Note that two paragraphs much be separated by a blank line.
Thus:
Biodiesel is cool
Renders as:
Biodiesel is cool
Whereas:
Biodiesel is cool. I like to put it in my car.
Renders as:
Biodiesel is cool.
I like to put it in my car.
To force a line break, use the <br> tag.
For example:
Biodiesel is cool.
I like to put it in my car.
Renders as:
Biodiesel is cool.
I like to put it in my car.
Lists
Wiki markup supports several kinds of lists.
Bulleted Lists
Bulleted lists can be made using the asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line.
For example:
Biodiesel is good for: * Environment * National Security * Economy
Renders as:
Biodiesel is good for:
- Environment
- National Security
- Economy
In addition, you can have sub-lists using additional asterisks
For example:
Biodiesel is good for: * Environment ** Reduced carbon emissions ** Biodegradable * National Security * Economy
Renders as:
Biodiesel is good for:
- Environment
- Reduced carbon emissions
- Biodegradable
- National Security
- Economy
Numbered Lists
Numbered lists are created by using the number sign (#) at the beginning of the line.
For example:
# Put nozzle in car # Pump fuel
Renders as:
- Put nozzle in car
- Pump fuel
Sublists are supported for numbered lists, as well.
For example:
# Put nozzle in car ## Open gas cap ## Get nozzle from pump ## Put nozzle into opening # Pump fuel
Renders as:
- Put nozzle in car
- Open gas cap
- Get nozzle from pump
- Put nozzle into opening
- Pump fuel
Mixed-Style Lists
Numbered and bulleted lists can be mixed.
For example:
# Get groceries #* Milk #* Eggs # Buy fuel # Go home
Renders as:
- Get groceries
- Milk
- Eggs
- Buy fuel
- Go home
Definition Lists
Definition lists can be used for a series of words and concepts and accompanying description text. They are defined in the format ; Term: Definition.
For example:
; Biodiesel: A fuel made from vegetable oil for use in diesel engines. ; Ethanol: A fuel made from vegetable oil for use in gasoline engines.
Renders as:
- Biodiesel
- A fuel made from vegetable oil for use in diesel engines.
- Ethanol
- A fuel made from vegetable oil for use in gasoline engines.
Links
Wiki pages can link to both pages internal to the wiki and external internet pages.
Internal Wiki Links
Internal links are enclosed in double brackets.
Therefore [[About biodiesel]] would be rendered as About biodiesel. Spaces in the link will automatically resolve to underscore (_) symbols in the page name, so the link to the About_biodiesel page need not include that character.
For any given page on the site, its link is the text after the last slash in the URL bar of your browser. For example, to link to this page, you would link to "Help:Editing".
If you wish to have different text appear for the link, use the pipe (|) character after the page name. So if you wanted the above link to the "About biodiesel" page to display "learn more about biodiesel" instead, [[About biodiesel|learn more about biodiesel]] would be used to get the link learn more about biodiesel.
External Web Links
To get a link to an external web site, you can simply include its URL in the text. For example, entering http://forums.biodieselnow.com/ automagically creates the link without any special markup.
To get alternate text for an external link, enclose it in single brackets and place your alternate text after the link inside the brackets, separated by a space. Thus, [http://forums.biodieselnow.com/ BiodieselNow.com forums] would be used to create a link that displays as BiodieselNow.com forums.
Text Formatting
To achieve italic and/or bold text, use the surround your text with double and triple apostrophes (not quotation marks).
Thus:
italic bold italic and bold
Becomes:
italic bold italic and bold
For underlined text, use the <u> tag, so that <u>underline me</u> becomes underline me.
For strikethrough text, use the <strike> tag, so that <strike>strike me</strike> becomes strike me.
For typewriter-style (fixed width) font, use the <tt> tag. This will allow you to enter items such as a <tt>technical term</tt> to display as technical term.
Images
Images can be included in the text using the format [[Image:filename.jpg]], referencing an image that has been uploaded to the wiki.
To upload images, use the upload file page, which should appear in your toolbox on the left side of the page.
For example:
[[Image:TacomaBiodieselLogo.png]]
Renders as:
Adding alternate text to images is strongly recommended, as most browsers will show this text while the image is being loaded or if it cannot be loaded, and often will show the alternate text if you hover over the image. This is done using the "|" symbol after the image name.
For example:
[[Image:TacomaBiodieselLogo.png|Here is our logo]]
Renders the same but includes the alternate text:
You may have noticed that the example images are also links to a page specifically for those images, which both displays the image and provides a description of its contents. If you wish to display a small "thumbnail" of the image that shows a version of the image in a small size (in this case, we are working with a small image already, so it doesn't make a difference), along with a caption, page readers can then click on the image if they wish to view it full-sized.
The following thumbnail format:
[[Image:TacomaBiodieselLogo.png|thumb|Text For Caption]]
Renders as shown. Note the included caption, and that it appears inline with the text that follows it, as shown with the following boilerplate text.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Etiam consectetuer nulla vitae nisl. Nunc mauris. Sed vitae pede. Cras iaculis. In auctor est a ante. Proin sit amet nunc. Quisque ipsum lectus, ultrices dapibus, tristique eget, accumsan eget, lacus. Aliquam ultrices risus in libero. Vivamus vel augue. Integer at est quis pede molestie suscipit. Ut vel odio. Suspendisse potenti. Maecenas dolor ligula, lacinia vitae, blandit in, blandit ut, eros. Aliquam elit. Mauris urna arcu, rhoncus rhoncus, sagittis mattis, pulvinar non, urna. Phasellus tincidunt vehicula pede. Suspendisse dignissim fermentum magna. Nunc tempor, nisi et accumsan pharetra, arcu dolor pretium erat, at tristique neque odio a justo. Mauris vestibulum, velit sed eleifend sollicitudin, odio dolor tempor quam, id facilisis ante tellus ac massa. Etiam accumsan lacus ac metus.
Experimenting With Wiki Markup
One excellent way to experiment with wiki markup without modifying actual content is to use your "User" page and using it as a "sandbox" for experimenting with formatting. You can access this by clicking on your name in the top bar when you are logged in to the site.
For More Information
Additional help editing pages can be found at:
- Homestar Runner Wiki Editing Help
- A great cheat sheet for Wiki editing, and if you've never visited HomestarRunner.com, let this be your introduction.
- MediaWiki Editing Help
- Good thorough resource for editing with MediaWiki.
