Quickstart guide/basic editing

Editing on Wikieducator is not difficult at all. These basic instructions will have you up and running in no time, and you can learn while doing.

Step 1: Create an account

First you need an account on WikiEducator. If you don't have one already, please Create an account now.

Step 2: Read this overview of wiki editing

A wiki has two modes of viewing a page:


 * 1) The published view - the view you are looking at right now.
 * 2) The editing mode, which you use when editing text on the wiki.

To activate the edit mode, you need to click on one of the edit links on the relevant wiki page. If you are planning to edit the whole page at once, click on the edit tab which you will find at the top of the page in your browser. This link is useful when working with new or short pages that do not have too much text. In the case of long articles, it becomes difficult to find the appropriate place to edit.

However, the Mediawiki software has a useful feature on pages that contain subheadings. You will notice an edit link displayed next to each subheading on the right side of the page. You can use this link when you want to make changes to the relevant subsection.



By clicking on one of the edit links, you will be in the editing mode of the wiki and see a page similar to the one shown here. You edit text simply by typing in the editing window.

Formating of text, for example headings, bold, italics requires a special wiki syntax. At first this may seem confusing, but after you have worked with one or two pages this will become second nature. The basic wiki syntax is summarised in the subsection below for the majority of formatting features you will be using.

There is also a graphic user button interface you can use in case you can't remember the syntax required for different features. First you must highlight the relevant word or phrase to which you want to apply the formatting. (You can do this by holding and dragging your mouse over the relevant word. Once you are happy with the area that is highlighted, simply click on the relavent icon to insert the wiki syntax. For example, click on the button to bold the text you have highlighted in the edit window.)

Step 3: Remember to save your work 

The most common error made by wiki newbies is forgetting to save your edits. The good news is that you don't make this mistake too often, particularly after you've lost a large section of work by forgetting to save your edits! Saving your work is easy. At the bottom of the editing window you will see a save button. When you are finished with your editing, you must remember to click the save button. If you're unsure whether your formatting will display properly, you can click on the preview button. Remember that the preview button does not save your work. It merely gives you the option to preview your work in the published view. If you are happy with your edits in the preview mode, you must scroll down the page until you see the save button". Click on the save button''' to save your work.



The basic wiki syntax
{| style="border:1px solid #B8C7D9; text-align:left; background:#f5faff; font-size: 95%;"  italic  italic  bold  bold  bold & italic  bold & italic
 * width="25%" style="background: #cedff2; padding: 3px 5px; text-align:center;"|Description
 * style="background: #cedff2; padding: 3px 5px; text-align:center;"|You type
 * width="25%" style="background: #cedff2; padding: 3px 5px; text-align:center;"|You get
 * colspan="3" style="background: #cedff2; padding: 3px 5px; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; text-align:center;" | Applies anywhere
 * Italicise text
 * colspan="3" style="background: #cedff2; padding: 3px 5px; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; text-align:center;" | Applies anywhere
 * Italicise text
 * Italicise text
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Bold text
 * Bold text
 * Bold text
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Bold and italic
 * Bold and italic
 * Bold and italic
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Internal link
 * Internal link
 * Internal link

(within Wikipedia)  name of page 

 display text 

name of page

display text

 #redirect Target page  1. redirect Target page
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Redirect
 * Redirect
 * Redirect
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * External link
 * External link
 * External link

(to other websites)  

 display text </tt>

 http://www.example.com </tt> 

display text

http://www.example.com  with markup </tt>
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Escape wiki markup
 * Escape wiki markup
 * Escape wiki markup

 without markup  </tt> with markup

without markup
 * colspan="3" style="background: #cedff2; padding: 3px 5px; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; text-align:center;" | Applies only at the beginning of the line
 * Headings
 * Headings
 * Headings

of different sizes  ==level 1== </tt>

 ===level 2=== </tt>

 ====level 3==== </tt>

 =====level 4===== </tt>

Level 4
&#42; one</tt>
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Bullet list
 * Bullet list
 * Bullet list

&#42; two</tt>

&#42;&#42; two point one</tt>

&#42; three</tt> &#35; one</tt>
 * one
 * two
 * two point one
 * three
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Numbered list
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Numbered list
 * Numbered list

&#35; two</tt>

&#35;&#35; two point one</tt>

&#35; three</tt> &#59;Definition</tt>
 * 1) one
 * 2) two
 * 3) two point one
 * 4) three
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Definition list
 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Definition list
 * Definition list

<tt>&#58;item 1</tt>

<tt>&#58;item 2</tt>
 * Definition
 * item 1
 * item 2
 * item 2


 * colspan="3" style="border-top:1px solid #cedff2;"|
 * Thumbnail image
 * Thumbnail image
 * Thumbnail image
 * }