How to use MediaWiki

1. How to use MediaWiki By Melissa Aaron Sources: http://meta.wikimedia.org/ http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~mea36/wink

3. What is wiki? • A wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change some available content • This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborate authoring • The wiki records every edit made to a page • This makes it easy to restore vandalized pages or fix an accidental deletion

4. How do I create an account? • Creating an account is as simple as clicking the Log in / create account link in the top right corner • If you don’t login then the wiki will use your IP address as your username • Some wikis may make you email an administrator to get an account

6. Navigation and Search • Navigation • Main Page – displays the home page • Categories – lists all the categories that are within the wiki • Recent changes – lists recent changes to the wiki • Random page – directs the user to random page • Search • For a quick search just type in your query and push Search • To go directly to a page type in the title and push Go

7. Tabs • When you are logged in there are six different tabs on the top of your screen that basically tell you what you are doing • Article – tells you that you are viewing an article • If you are on a special page it will say that here • Discussion – this allows you to talk about the page with other users • Edit – allows you to edit the page • History – lists the page’s history; if you accidentally delete something, don’t worry, it’ll be in the history • Move – moving a page is serious business; make sure you read the instructions before moving a page • Watch – watching allows you to keep track of pages. Any page you put on your watchlist will appear in bold on when you view Recent changes

8. Top links • My talk – this page allows other users to talk to you • Preferences – allows you to change your preferences; take a few minutes and look through this • My watchlist – lists all the pages you are watching • My contributions – lists all the changes you have made to pages

9. Toolbox • All of the options in the toolbox are self explainable • The toolbox changes depending on what namespace you are in

10. Special pages • Most are the links here are also self explainable • This page is important because it provides the user with links that ease the editing process • For example: • Unused files • File list • Dead-end pages • New pages • Wanted pages

11. How to upload a file (1 of 2) • Under Destination filename you can rename the file • When uploading files keep in mind that other people will be viewing them too, so it may be a good idea to give the files descriptive names • Also, include a sentence or two in the Summary box so other users know what you have uploaded

12. How to upload a file (2 of 2) • Uploadable extensions include:png, gif, jpg, jpeg, ogg, zip, tar, wmv, tiff and tif • Every file you upload gets its own page • To view uploaded files • Click Special pages in the toolbox • Choose File list • There are two types of files, images and media. Media includes images, but images does not include media. Images include png, gif, jpg, and tif

14. Editing a page (1 of 15) • You can end up at an editing page two ways • Clicking on the edit tab • Clicking on a link who’s page doesn’t exist yet • A link who’s page doesn’t contain anything will be red; whereas links with content are blue • When editing a page make sure to use the Show Preview button • This way you don’t clutter the history page with a lot of minor edits

15. Editing a page (2 of 15) • These buttons are at the top of the text box on the editing page • They give you the code necessary to perform the action you want

16. Editing a page (3 of 15) • Bold – put three apostrophes on either side of the text. • ‘’’text’’’ gives text • Italic – put two apostrophes on either side of the text. • ’’text’’ gives text • Bold and Italic – put five apostrophes on either side of the text. • ’’’’’text’’’’’ gives text

17. Editing a page (4 of 15) • To make a new page or link to a page in the wiki use two brackets. • [[Page_name]] gives Page name • If the page doesn’t exist it will automatically be made • Use underscores (_) instead of spaces in page names • Page names are case sensitive, so if you named a page “This Page” and you want to refer to it as “this page” you use a pipe ( | ) • If you type: Check out [[This_Page|this page]] the text will show: Check out this page

18. Editing a page (5 of 15) • External links only use one set of brackets. You need to include http:// • [http://google.com] gives [1] • To include a name you just put a space between the address and the name • [http://google.com Google] gives Google

19. Editing a page (6 of 15) • To make a section heading use two equal signs ( == ) • ==Section== gives • The underline is automatic • To make a subsection just at an equal sign to either side of the text • A subsection will not be underlined, just bold • Section headings are good to use because they organize your page • Additionally they automatically make a table of contents at the top of the page

20. Editing a page (7 of 15) • Since every upload gets it’s own page, inserting an image or media is like making an internal link; you can even use pipes • The only difference is that you have to prefix the filename with “Image:” or “Media:” • [[Image:filename.ext]] or [[Media:filename.ext]]

21. Editing a page (8 of 15) • When inserting images you have many options • Pipes (“|”) separate all the parameters • To put the image in a frame just type frame • A image with a caption needs to be in a frame • [[Image:filename.ext | frame | caption text]] • You can make the image an external link by adding the link as a parameter • You can choose where you want the link to be located; just add right, left or center as a parameter • To make an image a thumb nail use the word thumb • To make the image a certain size just add the pixel size • [[Image:file.ext | thumb | caption | 300px | right | [http://google.com Google] ]]

22. Editing a page (9 of 15) • If you want the editor to ignore the wiki markup then use the nowiki tags (<nowiki>) • <nowiki>==Heading==</nowiki> gives ==Heading== • On a talk page you should “sign” your comments • Three tildes (~~~) gives your user name • Four tildes (~~~~) gives your user name and date and time • Five tildes (~~~~~) give only the date and time • You can make a horizontal line by typing ----

23. Editing a page (10 of 15) • To make an unordered (bulleted) list just type an asterisk (*) before your text • To go a level deeper add an asterisk (*) • To stay at the same level but not show a bullet, type an asterisk and a colon (*:) before your text

24. To make an ordered (numbered) list type the pound sign (#) The same rules that apply to unordered lists apply to ordered lists To make a definition list type a semicolon (;) before the word you want to define and a colon (:) before the definition ; Word : Definition : Another definition Editing a page (11 of 15)

25. Editing a page (12 of 15) • It is possible to use bulleted, numbered and definition lists all at the same time

26. Editing a page (13 of 15) • To start a new paragraph you have to insert an empty line (press enter twice) • A colon (:) before text indents a paragraph • Multiple colons (::) indent multiple times • To redirect to another page type: #REDIRECT [[Pagename]]

27. Editing a page (14 of 15) • You can make an anchor or link to a section heading on a page • This is like making any other internal link except you put the pound sign (#) before the section name • To link to a section on another page: [[Pagename#section name]] • To link to a section on the same page: [[#section name]]

28. Editing a page (15 of 15) • Making tables • Everything is surrounded by a bracket and pipe ( {| ) • Set the border, cellspacing, cellpadding and alignment • A pipe ( | ) denotes a different column on a row • An exclamation mark ( ! ) does the same thing as a pipe but makes the text bold • A pipe followed by a dash ( |- ) creates a new row • {| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" align="center" ! This ! is |- | a | table |- |}

29. HTML that can be used to edit (1 of 4) • To start a new line insert <br> • If you want to write a comment to other editors, but you do not want people who view the page to see the comment use <!-- --> • <!-- text written here will not show up on the page--> • To center information use the center tags (<center> </center>) • <center>text placed here will appear in the center of the page</center> • If you want to block your text use the blockquote tags (<blockquote> </blockquote>) • <blockquote>text in here will be indented from both sides</blockquote>

30. HTML that can be used to edit (2 of 4) • If you use code tags (<code> </code) when you write code in a wiki the editor changes the font and puts a dotted line around it • If for some reason the code tags don’t work try surrounding your text with pre tags • Pre tags (<pre> </pre>) will ignore wiki markup and will not reformat the text

31. HTML that can be used to edit (3 of 4) • Span tags (<span> </span>) are recognized by the editor • Span has many attributes, two resourceful attributes are font-variant and style • Surrounding you text in typewriter tags (<tt> </tt>) will make change the font of your text to that of a typewriter

32. HTML that can be used to edit (4 of 4) • To make super or sub scripts use the  and  tags • The strikeout tag <strikeout> </strikeout> puts a line thru text • The underline tag <u> </u> will underline text

33. Templates (1 of 4) • Templates are segments of Wiki markup that are meant to be copied automatically into a page • You add them by putting the template's name in double braces ( {{ }} ) • {{Template_name}} • To edit the template just click on the link you made to it

34. Templates (2 of 4) • Some templates take parameters, which you separate with the pipe character ( | ) • This means that your template can have replaceable fields where you send in the word that you want to insert in the template • The parameter names are surrounded by three braces ( {{{ }}} )

35. Templates (3 of 4) • Lets say you made a template {{Biography}} that contained:{{{name}}} was born on {{{date}}} in {{{birthplace}}}.{{{name}}} likes to {{{hobbies}}} and is {{{job}}}. • Now you call the template:{{Biography|name=Jason|date=Feb 21, 1985|birthplace=Philadelphia|hobbies=build stuff|job=a student}} • When you save the page the text will show: Jason was born on Feb 21, 1985 in Philadelphia. Jason likes to build stuff and is a student.

36. Templates (4 of 4) • Templates don’t have to have parameters • You can just write the text you want and when you call the template the text will appear • If you call a template that uses parameters but you don’t include the parameters then the text will show the parameter names • If you called {{Biography}} the text will show: {{{name}}} was born on {{{date}}} in {{{birthplace}}}. {{{name}}} likes to {{{hobbies}}} and is {{{job}}}.

37. Namespaces (1 of 2) • Namespaces can be viewed as folders which separate different basic types of information or functionality • There are 18 namespaces: main (which has no prefix) media, special, and 15 others • The namespace is the prefix of the page • For example, whenever possible, you should categorize your pages • [[Category:Category_name]] Here Category is the namespace • Each namespace (except for Special) has a corresponding talk page that can be found at namespace_talk (except for the main page where it is just Talk) • Talk pages allow users to discuss the article or page or communicate amongst each other • Namespaces allow to pages to have the same title but as long as they are in different namespaces they will not conflict with eachother

38. main - no prefix, or optionally a colon (this is needed when using the page as template) Media - or images and other files themselves, as opposed to the image description pages Special – for special pages, they have no wiki text and are created by the software on demand User – each user gets a page on the wiki, it is found at User: username Meta – this is for matters about the project, like guidelines or discussions Images – for images or other uploaded files, with image description pages MediaWiki – system messages Template – the default namespace for templates When you write {{name}} it refers to the page Template:name Help - typically used for the MediaWiki User's Guide Category – each page represents a category of pages, with each category page displaying a list of pages in that category and optional additional text. Namespaces (2 of 2)

39. Keyboard shortcuts • Mediawiki contains many keyboard shortcuts • Some important ones are: • Alt – e (edit a page) • Alt – f (search) • Alt – h (show history) • Alt – j (shows what links to that page) • Alt – l (opens your watchlist) • Alt – o (log in or log out) • Alt – p (show preview) • Alt – u (upload file) • Alt – w (watch this page) • Alt – z (main page) • For more go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Keyboard_shortcuts