Help:How to Write an Article
From WikiAV
Writing an article is very easy to do, unlike regular web pages where you have to create a page, and then make links to it with Wiki you create the link and the page makes it self
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[edit] Editing Pages
To modify an existing page all you have to do is click on edit, this can be found at the top of the page; almost all pages are editable except for a few exceptions.
If you make a change and want to see what it will look like please click on preview rather than save page, this allows you to correct any mistakes before they are published it also keeps the pages history clear.
When you are happy with your changes remember to click on save before you move on
Why not go to the sandbox and try your editing skills
[edit] Creating a New Page
There are various was of creating a new page:-
- You can follow a red link to a page that hasn't been created yet.
- You can edit the URL.
If you want to write about something that relates to an existing article you can edit the existing article and turn a word or phrase that you want to write about into a link and then follow it.
To do this you need to edit the existing article and surround the word you want to write about with two square [[brackets]] this will create a new page with that word as it's title.
If you want the title to be different from the word you are writing about you can use the following style link [[word |Page Title]], simply place a pipe between you page title and the word you want to link to it.
The second way to create a new page is to edit the URL, say you want to write about a new signal type or new connector and you want a link in the main category page then the easiest method is to follow the procedure below.
Edit the URL so it reads “http://www.wikiav.com/wiki/Page Title‿ where Page Title is your new connector name, signal type or any other page title; you can use spaces but you should avoid other punctuation. When you hit return you will be presented with an edit box for you new page
When you have created the new page you will need to link it to another page so people can find it, if you have followed the first procedure above you don’t need to place any links but you may want to place a glossary link.
To add you page to one of the four categories add the following text to the bottom of your page [[Category:Connectors]], [[Category:Signals]] or whatever is appropriate for your article.
This will add a link to the category page to your article and add a link to your article from the category page
[edit] Formatting
Formatting your articles is slightly different from normal work processing or website design although it is very powerful and easy to pick up.
When you click on edit you will be presented with a large text box, this box holds all the content for the page, you will also see several buttons above it, these provide some basic formatting.
To create some bold text all you have to do is highlight the text and click on B, the same goes for Italic text.
You won’t notice the changes in the box but you will see some exclamation marks around the text, when you view the article the website sees these marks and replaces them with the appropriate formatting, to see the changes click on preview.
Headings can be added by using the large A button, this adds two equals signs == around the text; the number of equals signs determines the size of the heading, the fewer the equals signs the larger the heading.
[edit] Linking
Creating links is a key part of a Wiki, these link all the different pages together making sure everybody can find all the pages.
To create an internal link all you have to do is put brackets [[around your text]], the text within the box will become a link to a new page, the link text will make up the title of the new page
The link will appear red if the page is a new one and hasn’t been created yet or it will appear blue if it already exists.
If you want to have a different page title to the name of the link you are creating, you can add a name to the title by separating the link from the name using a pipe divider "|", for example to link to a page named scart connector but to have only the word scart appear you would place the text [[scart connector|scart]]
[edit] External Linking
If you want to add a link to another website you can easily do this by clicking on the external link icon at the top of the edit page, this will automatically place the following text for you [http://www.example.com link title] as you can see you enter the website address and then enter the site title after it, this is all enclosed in single square brackets.
You need to put a site title in as well otherwise no text will show up
The links automatically have the nofollow attribute set, this means that search engines won’t follow the links when they crawl this site and your site won't benefit from an increased rating in search engines.
Please only place links if they are relevant
[edit] Talk Pages
Talk pages also known as discussion pages are available for all the pages on this site, the pages can be accessed through the discussion tab at the top.
The talk page allows you to post any questions or comments related to the page; say you think the entire article is wrong, instead of making a drastic change and deleting it you should post your comments for other people to review if there is a general consensus that the content is wrong the changes can be made.
The talk pages are also useful for proposing design or layout changes or for having a general discussion on the page topic
If you are replying to someone’s comment or post you should always indent your reply, this allows people to easily see what comments are related to what, this can be done by adding a colon : to the beginning of your text. Each colon you place is the equivalent of a tab, multiple colons give you multiple indents. For example
- comment
- reply
- second reply
- reply
You should also add your name and the date to your reply, this can be done by clicking the signature button, this will add the following symbols --~~~~ the website then converts this to the following --WikiAV Admin 16:38, 5 Jun 2005 (GMT Daylight Time)
[edit] Copyrights
Please do not submit copyrighted material or material to which you do not own the rights, if you want to add something please put some effort in and make it you own work.
[edit] Registration
Registration is optional on this site; this means that changes can be made without being logged in.
There are several benefits to being registered, firstly your name will appear in your comments rather than your IP address, secondly you get your own webpage where you can write a little something about your self and thirdly you can track page changes.
If you create your own page you can have the system track it and notify you when someone changes it.
