Help:Editing and creating pages
It's very easy to edit the contents of a wiki. It only takes a few clicks.
Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting
The number one rule of wiki editing is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There are all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophies for the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!
An edit can contribute whole new paragraphs or pages of information, or it can be as simple as fixing a typo or a spelling mistake. In general, try to add or edit text so that it is clear and concise. Most importantly, make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the contents of the wiki.
When you need to use some type of formatting, such as for a new headings or bolding of text, you do this using wiki syntax or the buttons in the edit toolbar above. See Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.
- Click "Edit" from the page menu in the top right corner of the page.
- Make changes to the text.
- Click the "Save page" button.
Creating a new page
There are several ways to start a new page. These can vary based on the type of page started.
MediaWiki makes it very easy to link wiki pages using a standard syntax. If you (or anyone else) create a link to an article that doesn't exist yet, the link will be coloured red, like this.
Clicking a red link will take you to the edit page for the new article. Select the Topic Template from the drop down box, click LOAD, add any additional headings you might like, type or cut and paste your text, click save and the new page will be created.
Once the page has been created, the link will change from red to blue indicating that the article now exists.
Usually this is the best way to create a new page, because it means that right from the start, the page will be linked from at least one other place on the wiki (and typically you will want to mesh it into other related pages later). If you are creating a new page without creating any link to it, you may need to ask yourself: Does this page really fit in with the topics already covered in the wiki? Also, how are you expecting visitors to find this page? Normally there is no reason to create a page without first creating a red link to it.
From the search page
If you search for a page that doesn't exist (using the search box from the top of the page) you will be provided with a red link to create the new page.
Using the URL
You can use the wiki's URL for creating a new page. The URL to an article of the wiki is usually something like this:
If you replace
ARTICLE with the name of the page you wish to create, you will be taken to a blank page which indicates that no article of that name exists yet. Clicking the "Edit" option from the page menu in the top right corner of the page will take you to the edit page for that article, where you can create the new page by typing your text, and clicking submit.