Difference between revisions of "Wiki howto"

Revision as of 22:47, 1 March 2011

What's all this wiki lark?

Background

The idea of a wiki is that it's a community effort. One person may create the page but the whole World can change, correct and improve the articles. Wikipedia - the famous online encylopedia - is the best known example of this. If you prefer people to leave your stuff alone and not mess with what you've written then maybe a wiki isn't for you.

How to start

The easiest way to start a wiki article is just stick the proposed article title in the address bar of your browser.

Like this:

https://www.fordwiki.co.uk/index.php?title=Wiki_howto

This started a page called Wiki howto and said:

There is currently no text in this page, you can search for this page title in other pages or edit this page.

So you can click on the edit bit and start typing.

Is that it?

Well it can be. But a wiki has more to offer. To format the wiki there are numerous tools at our disposal. For headings and sub-headings you use the equals sign.

== main heading ==
 === sub-heading === 

To get the box (like above) you just space the text off the margin by one space.

Hit the edit tab on this page to see how it was built. Start simple and add the fancy stuff afterwards. Save your work as you go!

Categories

You can really help the wiki by sticking your article in a category. You do this by adding a bit of code at the bottom

[[Category:Mondeo_Mk1]]

Replace Electrical with the category name. Use an existing one where possible and use a new one if you feel it is needed. If you want an article to be in multiple categories then just repeat the code with the other category names. The wiki will handle it.

A full list of categories used on this site is available here:

http://www.talkford.com/topic/152960-submit-an-article-to-fordwikicouk-and-earn-one-months-free-gold-membership/

What next?

Get started and then refine your skills. Play about on test pages. Add new tips here and help others.