Help:Using the Wiki: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:50, 20 January 2024

Project: Redcap runs on MediaWiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia. The best source of tutorials and documentation is the MediaWiki website [1].

If you know how to edit Wikipedia, you should be right at home on Project: Redcap. Let's suppose you don't know how to edit Wikipedia.

How to Navigate
How to Edit Pages
Help:Getting Started is our orientation to the content of the Wiki

Editing Is Safe and Reversible

You must register in order to edit to Project: Redcap.

You can't do permanent damage to the Wiki by editing a page, even if you make a mistake. In simple terms, every page comes with a sophisticated "undo" function that allows the maintainers (or advanced users) to revert that page's content to what it was at any point in time. So, in the worst case, all you would have to do is contact us to tell us what page you goofed on, and we could fix it in seconds. Don't be anxious about editing!

Also, don't worry about changing content that is already there. The point of a Wiki like Project: Redcap for many authors to write articles collaboratively. If you think you can improve a page in any way, from fixing a single spelling mistake to editing for clarity and conciseness to rewriting the page completely, please jump in and do it.

Saving, Previewing, and Cancelling

While you are editing a page, you are actually editing a temporary copy of the page. No one will see your changes until you save them.

You must save the page before your changes will take effect. If you do not click the "Save page" button before leaving the editing window, your changes will be irrevocably discarded.

Before you save, it's a good idea to click the "Show preview" button at the bottom of the page. Check the page for major formatting errors, which will happen more frequently than you might expect. If everything looks sane, then go ahead and click the "Save page" button.

If it happens that you decide not to save your changes, you can cancel your edits by clicking the "Cancel" link just to the right of the "Show changes" button. Clicking "cancel" when you want to cancel is good practice because the Wiki software keeps track of what pages are currently open for editing. Canceling lets the Wiki engine perform bookkeeping tasks in a timely manner.

The Editing Sandbox

Our Sandbox page is especially created so newcomers can try out the editing functions and see what their text looks like. The Sandbox page has no useful content: feel free to experiment with adding, editing, and deleting content, without regard to what happens to already be there.

Intermediate and Advanced Editing

One of the most useful sources of technical help is the MediaWiki handbook.

Another good approach is to use a Web search engine such as Google or Bing. For example, if you want to find out how to quote a section of non-copyrighted material (such as a medieval text) and have it appear nicely formatted, try searching for terms such as

MediaWiki formatting
MediaWiki format block quote

Requests for Features

If you want to use a feature of MediaWiki and find that it does not work on this site, the most likely cause is that feature is not installed. Our currently installed extensions can be viewed at Special:Version, and our installed templates can be found from Special:Categories.

See the Special:Contact page to contact the maintainers and we will do what we can to install it.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Category:Help]]
-''Note: A more complete and professional set of instructions may be found at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial Wikipedia Tutorial]. Since Project: Redcap and Wikipedia use the same engine, their documentation is fully applicable here.''
+{{Note|text=info|Project: Redcap runs on MediaWiki, the same software that powers Wikipedia. The best source of tutorials and documentation is the MediaWiki website [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki]. }}
-You do '''not''' need to [[Help:Registration|register]] in order to contribute to Project: Redcap. Every page has an "Edit" link at the top and any visitor can click on that link to edit the page's text.
+If you know how to edit Wikipedia, you should be right at home on Project: Redcap. Let's suppose you ''don't'' know how to edit Wikipedia.
-When you start to edit a page, the page will reload and the '''editing window''' will appear.
+* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Navigation| How to Navigate]
-* At the top of this window is a [https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Edit_toolbar toolbar] with various icons; these enable you to easily perform basic formatting and to create links to other Wiki pages or external Web sites.
+* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages| How to Edit Pages]
-* In the middle of the editing window is the current text of the page. This will be blank if you are creating a page for the first time. The content of the page should look primarily like plain text, with some special symbols called '''markup'' that control links and formatting. You can generally use the icons at the top of the window instead of having to type these symbols manually.
+* [[Help:Getting Started]] is our orientation to the ''content'' of the Wiki
-* At the bottom of the window are three buttons, "Save page", "Show preview", and "Show changes".
-For the most part, you can type and edit paragraphs of plain text just as you would in a word processor. Use the buttons in the icon bar to add formatting such as bold face and italics.
+== Editing Is Safe and Reversible ==
+{{Note|type=warn|You '''must''' [[Help:Registration|register]] in order to edit to Project: Redcap.}}
-If you want to create links to other pages, there are two slightly different methods:
+You can't do permanent damage to the Wiki by editing a page, even if you make a mistake. In simple terms, every page comes with a sophisticated "undo" function that allows the maintainers (or advanced users) to revert that page's content to what it was at ''any point in time''. So, in the worst case, all you would have to do is [[contact]] us to tell us what page you goofed on, and we could fix it in seconds. Don't be anxious about editing!
-# If the destination is another page in Project: Redcap, type the name of the page surrounded by two sets of square brackets. For example, <nowiki>[[Order of Hermes]]</nowiki> would create this link: [[Order of Hermes]].
+Also, don't worry about changing content that is already there. The point of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Wiki] like Project: Redcap for many authors to write articles ''collaboratively.'' If you think you can improve a page in any way, from fixing a single spelling mistake to editing for clarity and conciseness to rewriting the page completely, please jump in and do it.
-# If the destination is some external Web site outside of Project: Redcap, type a single square bracket, the ''full'' URL of the site (including the <nowiki>http://</nowiki>), one space, and a text name for the site.<br />For example, <nowiki>[http://www.atlas-games.com/arm5 Ars Magica Fifth Edition]</nowiki> would create this link: [http://www.atlas-games.com/arm5 Ars Magica Fifth Edition]
-For more information on formatting text and links, see [[Help:Basic formatting]].
+== Saving, Previewing, and Cancelling ==
+While you are editing a page, you are actually editing a temporary copy of the page. No one will see your changes until you save them.
-'''Important''': You must save the page before your changes will take effect. (See the next section.) If you do not click the "Save page" button before leaving the editing window, your changes will be irrevocably discarded.
-=== Saving, Previewing, and Cancelling ===
+{{Note|type=warn|You must save the page before your changes will take effect. If you do not click the "Save page" button before leaving the editing window, your changes will be irrevocably discarded.}}
-While you are editing a page, you are actually editing a temporary copy of the page. No one will see your changes until you save them.
 Before you save, it's a good idea to click the "Show preview" button at the bottom of the page. Check the page for major formatting errors, which will happen more frequently than you might expect. If everything looks sane, then go ahead and click the "Save page" button.
@@ Line 27: / Line 24: @@
 If it happens that you decide not to save your changes, you can cancel your edits by clicking the "Cancel" link just to the right of the "Show changes" button. Clicking "cancel" when you want to cancel is good practice because the Wiki software keeps track of what pages are currently open for editing. Canceling lets the Wiki engine perform bookkeeping tasks in a timely manner.
-=== Editing Is Safe and Reversible ===
+== The Editing Sandbox ==
-You can't do permanent damage to the Wiki by editing a page, even if you make a mistake. In simple terms, every page comes with a sophisticated "undo" function that allows the maintainers (or advanced users) to revert that page's content to what it was at ''any point in time''. So, in the worst case, all you would have to do is [[contact]] us to tell us what page you goofed on, and we could fix it in seconds. Don't be anxious about editing!
+Our [[Sandbox]] page is especially created so newcomers can try out the editing functions and see what their text looks like. The Sandbox page has no useful content: feel free to experiment with adding, editing, and deleting content, without regard to what happens to already be there.
+== Intermediate and Advanced Editing ==
+One of the most useful sources of technical help is the [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MediaWiki_handbook MediaWiki handbook].
+Another good approach is to use a Web search engine such as [http://www.google.com Google] or [http://www.bing.com Bing]. For example, if you want to find out how to quote a section of non-copyrighted material (such as a medieval text) and have it appear nicely formatted, try searching for terms such as
+<pre>
+MediaWiki formatting
+MediaWiki format block quote
+</pre>
-Also, don't worry about changing content that is already there. The point of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Wiki] like Project: Redcap for many authors to write articles ''collaboratively.'' If you think you can improve a page in any way, from fixing a single spelling mistake to editing for clarity and conciseness to rewriting the page completely, please jump in and do it.
+== Requests for Features ==
+If you want to use a feature of MediaWiki and find that it does not work on this site, the most likely cause is that feature is not installed. Our currently installed extensions can be viewed at [[Special:Version]], and our installed templates can be found from [[Special:Categories]].
-== The Sandbox ==
+See the [[Special:Contact]] page to contact the maintainers and we will do what we can to install it.
-Our [[Sandbox]] page is especially created so newcomers can try out the editing functions and see what their text looks like. The Sandbox page has no useful content: feel free to experiment with adding, editing, and deleting content, without regard to what happens to already be there.