How to write wiki pages

Introduction:

IGoR has 3 main types of pages that users can edit: "Projects," "Articles," and "Sparks." "Project" pages are where users share ideas, data, models, and questions about their research projects. "Article" pages are where users share advice and information of various kinds. "Spark" pages provide a streamlined way to share interesting observations that might inspire an article or project page (not necessarily by the author of the Spark page). To edit either project or article pages, just click the "edit" tab at the top (Fig. 1, below) when you are signed in. To create a page in any of the three categories, just go to the page for that category, and enter a name in the text field and click the "Create New ___" button.

Spark pages

"Spark" pages are extremely easy to create, but rather limited. All you have to do is fill in a form and - if you like - upload an image or embed code for a YouTube video using the buttons and fields in the form. However, Spark pages can only have a single image and video, and are limited in format.

Registered users can create a Spark page and return to it and edit it later. Anonymous users (including Wikidot users who have not signed in) can create Spark pages, but cannot edit them afterwards. If you make a mistake in a Spark page as an anonymous user, and wish to delete it and redo it, please let us know.

New project and article pages

EditingExample.png

Fig. 1. Editing pages.

When you navigate to the projects or articles pages you'll see a text field and button that says "create new project" or "create new article". To start a new page, just enter a short page name (this becomes part of the URL; you can make a longer, more descriptive title that users will see later) in the text field, and click the "create new…" button. A new page with three text editing fields will appear (Fig. 1). In the title field, you can put a descriptive title that users will see in the project list. In the main text field, you can add your text, and include formatting and other elements with the buttons (above the text editing field), just like when writing an email, but see note below about inserting images. You can then flesh out the page by adding text, images, tables, bibliographies, code blocks, etc. You can use all of Wikidot's syntax and modules (see below). When done, click "save".

The third text field ("short description of changes") just provides a place where you can leave a comment that will show up on the list of page versions (visible by clicking the "history" link). This can be useful when you're editing pages.

Important note about images:

If you want to insert images, you can either use a link to an image on another page (e.g. http://igor.wdfiles.com/local--files/system%3Acurrent-projects/IgorProjectLogo.png ), or you can upload your own image. But, you can only upload an image when you are not in the editor view. So you have to save your page, and then upload your image to it. To upload an image, go to the "other tools" tab (upper right), then click "manage files".

Please also follow the memory limits for images and pages.

Basics of editing project and article pages pages.

Editing and creating pages in Wikidot is nearly as easy as writing an email. Once you have created a page, or clicked the "edit this page" tab at the top (see figure 1, at right), a text field will appear where you can change the title of the page, and below that will be a text field where you can type just as you would type in an email. If you wish to add formatting or other common elements (e.g. citations, footnotes, images, links, equations) use the buttons above the text field.

Helpful tricks

Copy code from other pages

It is easy to imitate a page that has a desired component (e.g. a bibliography, or a figure table): just go to the tab at the top which says "view source" (next to the "edit" tab). Then copy and paste the blocks of text containing the syntax for the feature you want. Finally, replace the text (including URLs, and image file names) with your own text, leaving the syntax elements (e.g. "[[=]]", "[[table...]]", "[[module...]]", etc. ). You can also see the history of revisions with the "history tab."If you don't like your changes, you can revert to a previous version using the history page.

Wikidot help pages:

Wikidot maintains very useful help pages and forums. Links appear at the bottom of every page (see figure at right).

Comments

You can leave hints for future users with comments by placing text between [!-- and --] like so1:

[!--Hi! I'm a comment. I would not normally be visible. The page author put me within a "code block" so you could see me. --]

Images:

You can insert images from files that you upload, or from files on other web pages.

To upload your own image file to the page, you will have to leave the page editor then go to the "other tools" tab, click "manage files" and then find and upload a file (please minimize file size due to memory limits on this site: see limits on the projects list page). Then you can go to "edit", and use the "insert image wizard" button to insert a code block that makes the program display the image.

To insert an image from another web page, find the URL of the image itself (not the page containing it) and paste the URL in the insert image wizard. Be sure to check copyright and permissions for external images, and be sure to provide proper attribution.

One trick that can be helpful is to insert the image within a table so that one can include a figure legend. You can do this by imitating the following code example:

[[table style="float: right; width: 45%; border: 1px solid grey; margin-left:6px"]]] [!-- Here I define 
where the table goes (floating on the right), and how large it is (40% of page width). I also gave it a
border and margin --]
[[row]]
[[cell]]
[[image EditingExample.png style="width: 100%"]] [!-- Rather than specifying the image size, I used 
a "style" option of "width: 100%" to scale the image to the size of the table (Controling image size 
using the size="medium", etc. method forces the image to have fixe pixel dimensions, so it does
not scale with the table).--]
[[=]]
Fig. 1. Editing pages.
[[/=]]
[!-- The [[=]] and [[/=]] just let me center this line of text. --]
[[/cell]]
[[/row]]
[[/table]]

Citations and bibliographies

An example of citation and bibliography is shown in Fig. 1. You need a label for each citation (e.g. AAardvark01) in the citation block that goes at the end of the page. The label allows the program to find the citation in the bibliography (be sure you have one and only one space before the label, and one and only one space after the label, in the bibliography, or else it will not recognize it).

Be careful with spaces

Syntax elements can be sensitive to spaces and new lines. Very often one problems with formatting elements such as citations, [[=]]...[[/=]], and modules are due to spaces or new line being in the wrong spot. Before tearing your hair out, check for extra spaces, and/or try putting the code elements inline with the text or - vice versa - on separate lines from the text.


Quick reference

This is a quick reference of the wiki syntax you can use in pages. Click on any item to see a more detailed explanation.

+ Level 1 Heading
++ Level 2 Heading
* Bullet items
# Numbered items
> Blockquoted text
//italic text//
**bold text**
##red|standard##
=Line is centered
[[<]] Lines are aligned left [[/<]]
[[>]] Lines are aligned right [[/>]]
[[=]] Lines are centered [[/=]]
[[==]] Lines are right-justified [[/==]]
[[size smaller]]smaller text[[/size]]
[[size larger]]larger text[[/size]]
[[code]] lines of source code [[/code]]
[http://www.wikidot.com Text link]
[/category:page Link to page]
[[name-of-page | Link to page]]
---- Horizontal line
[[image :first | attachment | uri ]]
[[image size="medium | small | thumbnail" ]]
[[image link="name-of-page OR url" ]]
[[f<image alt="Float left" ]]
|| Simple table || ~heading || cell ||
[[file attachment | link text]]

Useful links

If you need more help, there are several resources that you are able to use. Your biggest resource is the group of expert Wikidot users that can be found on the forums.

Wikidot Community

Visit the Wikidot Community
Ask for help on the Forum
Read the Community How-To's

Editing pages

Learn how to use the Wikidot editor
Read the Documentation
Read more about Wikidot Syntax
List of modules that you can use
Keyboard shortcuts


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