Help
This tutorial in editing a wiki page was adapted from Wikipedia.
For useful reference, see the Wikipedia cheat sheet for editing.
We encourage users to add or update relevant information. Any content page can be edited. However, only registered users with confirmed email addresses can edit.
This tutorial is only an introduction. For more detail, see the Editing Wikipedia page. Additionally, each denomination page has a roadmap of the issues to develop on the discussion tab to guide the development of each page.
Editing
Most pages have a link that says "edit this page", which lets you edit the page you are looking at. It allows you to make corrections and add facts to articles. If you add information to a page, please provide references. This will open an edit window with the wikicode (text) for that page. One important feature to start using now is the Show preview button. Try making an edit in the sandbox, then clicking the Show preview button button instead of Save Changes. This allows you to see what the page will look like after your edit, before you actually save. We all make mistakes; this feature lets you catch them. Using Show Preview before saving also lets you try format changes and other edits without cluttering up the page history and has a number of other advantages. Do not forget to save your edits after previewing, though!
Edit summary
Your first practice edit (above) left off two steps that you should do if you are editing an article or other page that people will read. So click the "Edit" tab again, enter some text, and then do those two additional steps.
First, any time you edit a page, it is considered good etiquette (or "Wikiquette") to enter an explanation of your changes in the Edit summary box, which you'll find below the edit window. It's okay for your explanation to be quite short. For example, if you are making a spelling correction, you might just type "typo". Also, if the change you have made to a page is minor, such as correcting a spelling or grammar error, it's helpful if you check the box "This is a minor edit". (This box is only available if you have logged in.) For your sandbox edit, you probably want an edit summary such as "Testing".
Formatting
Formatting articles is a bit different from writing on a standard word processor. Instead of a strict "what you see is what you get" approach, this wiki uses text codes to create particular elements of the page (e.g. headings). This "language" is known as Wikitext and is designed for ease of editing.
Bold and italics
The most commonly used wiki tags are bold and italics. Bolding and italicizing are done by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):
| You Type | You Get |
|---|---|
| ''italic'' | italic |
| '''bold''' | bold |
| '''''bold italic''''' | bold italic |
Headings and subheadings
Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up the article by inserting a heading for each section. Headings can be created like this:
| You type | You get |
|
==Heading== |
HeadingSouth African Legion of Military Veterans |
|
===Subheading=== |
SubheadingThe SA Legion was founded in 1918 and exists to help military veterans in need. |
If an article has at least four headings, a table of contents will automatically be generated.
HTML
HTML code can be used in pages to produce more advanced formatting such as colors, tables, and edit page layout. However, you do not need to know HTML to use this wiki and follow formatting conventions.
Indenting
Indenting can improve the layout of a discussion considerably, making it much easier to read. A standard practice is to indent your reply one level deeper than the person you are replying to.
There are several ways of indenting in Wikipedia:
Plain indentations
The simplest way of indenting is to place a "colon" (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A "newline" (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.
For example:
- This is aligned all the way to the left.
- : This is indented slightly.
- :: This is indented more.
is shown as:
- This is aligned all the way to the left.
- This is indented slightly.
- This is indented more.
- This is indented slightly.
Bullet points
You can also indent using bullets, which are also used for lists. To insert a bullet (when your edit is saved), type an asterisk (*). Similar to indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.
A brief example:
- * First list item
- * Second list item
- ** Sub-list item under second
- * Third list item
Which is shown as:
- First list item
- Second list item
- Sub-list item under second
- Third list item
Numbered items
You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or "octothorpe" (#). This is usually used for polls and voting, and otherwise is fairly rare. Again, you can affect the indent of the number by the number of #s you use.
Example:
- # First item
- # Second item
- ## Sub-item under second item
- # Third item
Shows up as:
- First item
- Second item
- Sub-item under second item
- Third item
Creating Links
Linking wiki articles together is very important. These easily created links allow users to access information related to the article they are reading and greatly add to the wiki's utility.
Internal Wiki Links
When you want to make a link to another wiki page (called a wiki link) you have to put it in double square brackets, like this:
[[Abortion]] = Abortion
If you want the display text of the link to have a different title, you can do so by adding the pipe "|" divider (SHIFT + BACKSLASH on English-layout and other keyboards) followed by the alternative name. For example:
[[Target page|display text]] = display text
You can make a link to a specific section of a page like so:
[[Target page#Target section|display text]] = display text
If you want the display text of the link to appear in italics or bold, nest the double square brackets for the link within the multiple apostrophes that delimit the italicized or bold text, like this:
''[[War and Peace]]'' = War and Peace
External Links
Enclosing an external link in single square brackets without providing a description, like this:
[https://www.google.com] will display the link as a number in brackets, like this: [1].
If you simply type in the full URL for the page to which you wish to link:
https://www.google.com
The wiki will automatically treat this text as a link (https://www.google.com as has been done with the URL above) and will display the raw web address, including the "http://" part. It is recommended that you do not use this format much, as raw URLs are ugly and often give no clue to what the site actually is.
By including a space after a URL and inside a single set of brackets you can decide what text will be visible, for example:
[https://www.google.com Google search engine]
will make only the text following the space visible, yet will still keep the link seen here:
Google search engine
Footnotes
If you add information to an article, be sure to include your references. It is best to use inline citations so that other editors and readers can verify the information you add. Also, make sure that the sources you use are trustworthy and authoritative. The easiest way to create an inline citation is using footnotes. You can create footnotes with Wiki markup (under the edit box on your Wiki editing interface) by adding ref tags:
<ref>YOUR SOURCE</ref> around your source.
If your source is a website, you should create an external link to the website address.
To create an external link to your source, put the website address (URL) in square brackets after the text you add, such as
<ref>[http://www.google.com Google search engine]</ref>
It is a good idea to provide a short description just after the external site address. This description will be displayed in the reference list as the title of the external site, rather than the actual URL of the site.
Talk Pages
Talk pages offer the ability to discuss articles and other issues with other contributors. If you wanted to ask a question about an article, or you have a concern or comment, you can put a note in the article's talk page. You do that by clicking the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. Do not worry if the link shows up in red; it is alright to create the talk page if it does not already exist.
When you post a new comment, put it at the bottom of the talk page. The exception is that if you are responding to someone else's remarks, put your comment below theirs. You can indent your comment by typing a colon (:) at the beginning of a line. You should sign your comments by typing [[User:Msleasman|msleasman]] for just your username, or [[User:Msleasman|msleasman]] 11:47, 21 December 2011 (CST) for your username and a time signature (see the example discussion below). This way, when you save the page, your signature will be inserted automatically. Otherwise your comments, etc., will still appear but without your name. Most of us use time signatures because it makes following discussions much easier. For your convenience, there is a button at the top of the edit box with a signature icon which automatically inserts "-[[User:Msleasman|msleasman]] 11:47, 21 December 2011 (CST)".
The talk page is a good place to describe your own expertise regarding the page.
User Talk Pages
Every contributor has a user talk page, on which other contributors can leave messages. If someone has left you a message, you will see a note saying "You have new messages", with a link to your user talk page. You can reply in either of two ways. One is to put a message on the user talk page of the person you are replying to. The other is to put your reply on your own talk page beneath the original message. Both are common on Wikipedia; however, be aware that replying on your own talk page runs the risk that your reply won't be seen, if the user does not look at your talk page again. If you choose this approach, it is a good idea to post a notice at the top of your talk page so people know they have to keep an eye on it.
