Help:Using the Wiki

You do not need to 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.

How to Edit

Note: A more complete and professional set of instructions may be found at the Wikipedia Tutorial. Since Project: Redcap and Wikipedia use the same engine, their documentation is fully applicable here.

Project: Redcap uses the popular MediaWiki engine -- the same software that powers Wikipedia. So, 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.

• At the top of this window is a toolbar with various icons; these enable you to easily perform basic formatting and to create links to other Wiki pages or external Web sites.
• 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.
• 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.

If you want to create links to other pages, there are two slightly different methods:

1. If the destination is another page in Project: Redcap, type the name of the page surrounded by two sets of square brackets. For example, [[Order of Hermes]] would create this link: Order of Hermes.
2. 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 http://), one space, and a text name for the site.
   For example, [http://www.atlas-games.com/arm5 Ars Magica Fifth Edition] would create this link: Ars Magica Fifth Edition

For more information on formatting text and links, see Help:Basic formatting.

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

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.

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 Challenge Question

If you have not registered and logged in, the Wiki will present you with a challenge question to ensure you are a human who knows something about Ars Magica. This is necessary to prevent spam and vandalism. You can re-try if you get the answer wrong, but your changes will not be saved until you correctly answer one of the questions.

Important: If you do not answer the challenge question, your changes will be discarded!

To avoid having to answer the challenge question, please register and log in.

Editing Is Safe and Reversible

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.

The 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

Because MediaWiki is widely used and well-documented, there is a lot of information on the Web about how to do specific things. We at Project: Redcap have not invested time in copying or creating links to the existing MediaWiki documentation; we prefer to spend our time developing content for Ars Magica

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

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