DPCWiki:Editing

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You can edit nearly every page on the DP wiki, including this one!


Contents

Starting to edit

Before you edit an article, you might like to practice these techniques in the Sandbox

In the grey bar at the top of the screen, click the Edit button. You'll then see the "source" of the page presented to you in an editable text-box, just like the proofreading interface.

Text you type will appear mostly as-is when you save the page, with paragraph breaks wherever you've left a blank line.

You will need to login to make a change in the wiki; your regular proofing ID and password can - and should - be used for that.

Note: if your regular proofing ID has an underscore "_" in it, send a message to mikeyc21 and he will help you log in.

Before you click on the Save Page button, you can Show preview to make sure the page looks like you'd like. Also, before you save the page, please enter in a brief summary of what you changed!

Accessing a more comprehensive editing manual

For the most comprehensive information on all the innumerable ways you can edit text in a MediaWiki like this one, check out the WikiMedia editing page (this link will take you off the DP site. You may want to open the link in a new window, or a new browser tab).

Bear in mind that some of the things described at the MediaWIki site are not enabled here, and some of the things we have here are not available there. We are already customizing our wiki to fit our needs, and that includes the editing syntax!

Formatting and organizing text

Bold and italic text

To make text bold or italic, you can use the buttons on the toolbar above the text-box, which will insert some single quotes around the text that you've selected. Surrounding text with ''two single quotes'' makes italic text, while '''three quotes''' make bold text ('''''five''''' make bold italics!).

Sections and their headings

To divide a page into sections, you can use subheadings like this page does. Surround a word with equals signs (=) to make a heading. The greater the number of equals signs, the smaller the heading. E.g. this heading is produced by ===Sections and their headings===.

In general, you should use Level 2 headings ==Like This== for main structural categories, and more equals signs for smaller subdivisions of those pieces. (The number of equals signs present is equivalent to the number in a HTML heading. E.g., ==This== is <h2>This</h2> and ===This=== is <h3>This</h3>.)

If there are four or more headings on a page, and unless the TOC handling is specified explicitly, a Table of Contents will automagically appear on the page before the first heading.

Tables of Contents

A full description of how TOCs are handled can be found here (this link will take you off the DP site. You may want to open the link in a new window, or a new browser tab), but here's a summary.

  • Put __NOTOC__ at the top of the page to stop a default-type TOC being added
  • Put __FORCETOC__ at the top of the page to force a TOC just before the first section heading, even if there are fewer than four headings on the page
  • Put __TOC__ in the page to force a TOC at that position, even if there are fewer than four headings on the page

We also have some special templates, which can be used instead of any of these.

  • {{TOC Compact A-Z}} will give you a one-line TOC for subsections named A, B, C, ... Z
  • {{TOC Compact Month28}} will give you a TOC for subsections named 1st, 2nd, ... 28th
  • {{TOC Compact Month29}} will give you a TOC for subsections named 1st, 2nd, ... 29th
  • {{TOC Compact Month30}} will give you a TOC for subsections named 1st, 2nd, ... 30th
  • {{TOC Compact Month31}} will give you a TOC for subsections named 1st, 2nd, ... 31st

These are useful because the standard TOC has one line per entry, which is somewhat unwieldy in these cases.

Lists

An unordered list (bullets) is made with asterisks: 

* Spoon
* Spork
* Brainz

becomes

  • Spoon
  • Spork
  • Brainz

An ordered list is made with hashes (or number signs): 

# Scoop out brainz with spoon
# Bake 'til golden-brown
# Enjoy your zombie-feast

becomes

  1. Scoop out brainz with spoon
  2. Bake 'til golden-brown
  3. Enjoy your zombie-feast

You can nest lists: 

* unordered 1
*# ordered 1a
*# ordered 2a
* unordered 2
*# ordered 1b
*#* unordered again!
*# ordered 2b

becomes

  • unordered 1
    1. ordered 1a
    2. ordered 2a
  • unordered 2
    1. ordered 1b
      • unordered again!
    2. ordered 2b

Definition lists are a little more complex, involving semi-colons and colons: 

;spork: a spoon with tines on the end like a fork.

becomes

spork
a spoon with tines on the end like a fork.


[edit this page to understand how this works]

Hint: Don't leave blank lines separating items in ordered lists! The blank line signifies a new block: a new paragraph, or a new list. When you leave a blank, you're saying, "This is new; start numbering over!"

Creating links

External links

A single set of [square brackets] is used to make a link to a resource outside DPC Wiki. Inside the brackets, put the URL of the destination, a space, and the text you want the link to display as, e.g. [http://www.pgdpcanada.net DPC] would become DPC.

Linking to PG etexts

To link to an etext at Project Gutenburg, use this shortcut: [[etext:12345]], which becomes etext:12345. To make it prettier, you can use the | character and add the title like this: [[etext:12345|My Book!]], which becomes My Book!.

You can also use <pg_formats etext="12345">My Book!, by Author</pg_formats>, which becomes "[Error: getPgFormats: invalid etext number; possibly not yet posted]". Note that the link surrounds only the text before the first comma. To get only the formats, use a self-closed tag: <pg_formats etext="12345" /> gives "[Error: getPgFormats: invalid etext number; possibly not yet posted]".

Internal links

Two pairs of [[square brackets]] make a link to another page in this wiki. So, [[Main Page]] creates a link to the DP Wiki Main Page.

To make a link to a particular section on a wiki page, follow the page name with a '#' and the exact section name. For example, [[Main Page#Useful Special Wiki Pages]] would create the link Main Page#Useful Special Wiki Pages. Since that link appears in a somewhat less than attractive manner, you will likely want to specify that the link display with alternative text. To change the link text of an internal link, insert a pipe, '|' (the pipe may appear as a one- or two-piece vertical line on your keyboard), and the desired text after the internal link address. For example, [[Main Page#Useful Special Wiki Pages|Handy Special Wiki Pages]] would make the link appear as Handy Special Wiki Pages.

If you are linking to a section or subsection on the same page, you may omit the main page name, thus: [[#Internal links|Internal links]] would produce Internal links.

Special links to DPC content

Because it will be quite common that someone would want to link to something that is outside the DPC Wiki but still within the larger DPC information system, scripting shortcuts have been developed to allow the use of special internal (instead of external) links to many of those types of items. You can find instructions and examples for these types of links at Linking to DPC content housed outside DPC Wiki.

Some examples here:(note - at the moment, these examp[lers, use DP-INT addresses)

  • To make an easy link to Private Message a DPCer, use this format: [[pm:useridnumber|username]]. For example, logista's useridnumber is 23148, so a link to PM her is [[pm:23148|logista]], which looks like logista
  • To make an easy link to the Formatting Guidelines, use this format: [[dp:any_foldername_within_c_root/filename|desired link label]]. For example, [[dp:faq/document.php|Formatting Guidelines]], will produce Formatting Guidelines.
  • Some local extensions have been defined which can be used to display information about projects.

Transcluding information

Transclusion is a method of building documents by using a call to pull information into the current document from some other document or template. This technique promotes efficiency and consistency since the information in question will not be entered (and need to be updated) separately in multiple places.

To see an example of transclusion used in DP Wiki, view the Edit window of any of the Jargon Guides or the LaTeX article.

Form more details on transclusion in general, see Wikipedia's transclusion entry.

To see a detailed, and fully explained, illustration of transclusion, see Help:Jargon. While this example relates to the transclusion of jargon templates and definitions here in DPC Wiki, the same process can be applied to any concept and set of Wiki pages.

Creating a page

Suppose you'd like to add some content, but none of the existing pages seems a good fit. The best way to create a page is first create a link to it on a pre-existing page (as discussed above), and then follow the link. You will be taken to the edit screen (or, to another page with the same name, if one existed already).

Another trick for creating pages is to type the URL for the new page in your browser's URL address box, e.g., http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/New_Page and click the 'edit this page' link.

Creating a sub-page

Some topics lend themselves to a natural structure, like the Periodicals or the Series By Multiple Authors. In order to make this structure happen automatically, start the new subpage link (from the topic page) with a /. So, if the main page is Series By Multiple Authors, by creating a link to, say, English Men of Letters as [[/English Men of Letters]], the English Men of Letters page has an automatic link to the Series By Multiple Authors page. Sometimes these are called breadcrumbs so you can find your way home again.

To avoid confusing us all about stray slashes, make the link pretty. This you do by adding a bit more information, like this: [[/English Men of Letters|English Men of Letters]]. This formatting, while I don't do it here, can make links to long-titled pages a little more appropriate to the page you're on. It could have been something like [[/English Men of Letters|That Series by John Morley, Viscount]], but would have still had the true title.

Deleting a page

See: DPCWiki:Deleting and Merging.

Asking for and receiving Help!

If you get stuck, edit this page and leave a question below. You can sign any text you insert by typing 4 tildes (~~~~), which will be replaced with your username and a timestamp when you save the page.

Questions and Answers

What the heck is this "talk" stuff?

Every page in the wiki has an associated "Talk" page, which is meant to be used for discussing the content and/or layout of the page. You can access the talk page for the page you are currently viewing by following the Discussion link in the grey bar.

(Read "What are namespaces below", then come back here.) The name of the discussion page depends on what namespace the page is in. For pages in the main page namespace, the talk page is Talk:Name_of_page, for example you could discuss the Post-Processing FAQ at Talk:Post-Processing FAQ. For pages in other namespaces, the talk page namespace is "Namespace_talk", so you would discuss this page, DPCWiki:Editing, at DPCWiki_talk:Editing.

How do I reply to someone elses comment on a talk page?

What I've seen most people doing is to indent their reply, by putting a colon at the beginning.

like this
each extra colon increases the indent level Acunning40 15:52, 23 May 2006 (PDT)


Can other people edit what I said while it still looking like I said it?  :-O

Well, sorta. But remember that the history shows differences between versions. You'll see that I edited your question (slightly) and my name is automatically attached to the change, even if I hadn't've signed my name here. Finding out who asked the question was a matter of paging through the diffs for this section to see when it appeared. Logista 16:44, 23 May 2006 (PDT)

To sign your comment, use ~~~ e.g. Logista. You can add the date and time by using ~~~~ Logista 06:46, 26 May 2006 (PDT)

How do I link to (and from?) the DPC forums

There are a number of ways of Linking to DPC content housed outside DPC Wiki you can use in your wiki posts.

How do I find or go to different namespaces? What are namespaces?

Namespaces are a way to categorise pages on a very high level. Current namespaces on the DPC Wiki are the main page namespace, "DPCWiki", and "User" (plus a few other technical ones). You'll notice that the title of this page is shown as "DPCWiki:Editing", which really means "the page 'Editing' in the namespace 'DPCWiki'". Your user page is in the "User" namespace, so looks something like User:Mikeyc21. If a page has no explicit namespace, e.g. Post-Processing FAQ, it's in the main namespace. Each namespace has its own "Talk" namespace, see above question.

What do the various link colours and icons mean?

A blue or purple link (e.g., Overviews/Workflow) is a regular link to a wiki article. (Whether it's blue or purple depends on whether you've visited that article recently.)

A red link (e.g., Nonexistent Article) is to a wiki article that doesn't yet exist. If you click on it, you'll be presented with the opportunity to create it. (But please don't create Nonexistent Article, or it won't be a good example any more!)

A link with a little arrow beside it (e.g., Project Gutenberg Canada) will take you outside the wiki.

"I think I saw one with a lock sign beside it somewhere... - " - a link beginning "https:" that goes to a secure site. Like this one on the page about the Plustek OpticBook.

What do the links at the top right, like "my talk", do?

From the left, they are (if you are logged in):

  • Your user page. If the link is in red, you haven't created the page yet. To create it, just follow the link.
  • My talk. A page where other people can leave you messages, you can reply to them, and so on.
  • Preferences. Some choices you can make as to how you see the Wiki. If you set your email address you can get automatic email notification whenever a page on your watchlist changes. You can also set your time zone, search preferences, and other useful stuff.
  • My watchlist. Show the pages that you are watching.
  • Log out. Guess what this does?

What is a "minor edit"? When should I tick that box?

If you're fixing a typo or cleaning up a small bit of formatting, that's a minor edit. Even for minor edits you should use the Summary box to say what you did (e.g. fixed typo).

If you find that you are most often making such minor edits, you can change your Preferences to have that box automatically ticked.

The main significance of marking a change as a minor edit is that the Special:Recentchanges page (and some other change-reporting pages?) let the user hide minor edits.

Can pages be renamed?

If I create a new link - to create a new page - can the name of the page be changed later? & is the way I added this question okay?? Sihaya 13:45, 1 June 2006 (PDT)

Yes, pages can be renamed via the 'Move' button in the top-bar.

How bold can one be? How get consensus?

I'm looking at the structure of the wiki and see places where the structure isn't optimal, e.g. Post-processing tools really should be a page per tool, etc. (I'm looking at making my Guiguts manual a wiki page, but it would totally overwhelm the PP-tools page and make it unusable for the other tools.)

But how bold dare one be in moving stuff around? Shouldn't one get consensus or at least ask for opinions first? And if so, where? Is there a talking-about-the-wiki wiki page? Or is it in the forums? Dcortesi 12:13, 17 July 2006 (PDT)

Jmdyck 13:55, 17 July 2006 (PDT): If you go to the affected page and click 'Discussion' in the grey bar near the top, you get the 'Talk' page corresponding to the affected page, where it's appropriate to discuss possible changes to the page.
Guiguts definitely needs its own page, and your manual, particularly the PP workflow checklist, would also be good to have. I'd think PPing Tools ought to be basically a list, with links to articles on the various programs.
— WWoods 19:14, 17 July 2006 (PDT)

Other useful (maybe necessary) stuff to add to this page

Vaguery 05:41, 6 November 2005 (PST) I'd swear there was a little markup for inserting a "fix this" image inline. Also, can we get the information on list markup back on the list? Actually, it may be expedient to just lift some or all of the editing rules help text from the MediaWiki site. Maybe take out information on Transclusion and stuff.

Kraester 23:03, 21 May 2006 (PDT) Does anyone know an easier/more efficient way to find someone's user-ID# than going to their user-page, pointing to the PM button, and reading their user-ID# that displays as part of the link info shown in the browser Status bar? I was thinking that might be nice to add to either the "pm logista" example on this page, or the link to pm example on the "Shortcuts for linking to DP" page.

Well, if you paste their user name into a browser after "http://www.pgdpcanada.net/c/stats/members/mbr_list.php?uname=", the site itself will look up their number for you, as it takes you to their user page. The number will then be at the end of the URL when the page loads. I used this fact to set up a "quick lookup" in Konqueror (using Web Shortcuts). (Feel free to delete or move this, as I don't know how actually relevant it is to Editing!) rassilon 09:23, 18 July 2006 (PDT)
Actually, the number at the end of the URL that loads in the Location bar is their DP user# for tracking page stats. That is a different number from their forums ID# which is used to create a link to start a PM to that user. For more details on these two different types of ID#'s, see Linking to DPC content housed outside DPC Wiki#Private Messages. kraester 22:52, 19 July 2006 (PDT)

See also...

Retrieved from "http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/DPCWiki:Editing"
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