Help:Contents
From UN-INSTRAW Wiki
Here's a quick look at the simple features of the site
Contents |
Basic Structure
In a Wiki, information is organized into "articles". These can be edited or new articles added by people using the Wiki, without going through an editor or facilitator. The Wiki supports collaborative knowledge generation as well as updating.
Top row
- Log in
- At the top right of the page, you'll see a link to the log in page. Login is not required to read or to edit documents, but if you are a frequent user please create an account.
- The links beside the "log-in/log-out" bring you to your watchlist and a list of your edits.
Tabs
At the top of every article/page in the Gender Training Wiki are three tabs:
- The article-tab is selected by default; it displays a particular/page article in regular "read-mode".
- the edit-tab brings up the editing-window (see below)
- the history-tab lists the past versions of this article/page; you can compare and display the changes made, or even restore an earlier version
- the watch-tab marks this article to be displayed bold in the "Recent changes" list
Breadcrumbs
Below the article tabs is a list of the last five pages you've visited in the Wiki. This is useful to find your way back to an article while browsing.
Left Column
Links to useful pages are always available on the left side column of every page.
- Navigation
- Recent changes is a list of pages that have been recently edited on the Wiki; it is a good tool to get a sense of what's been happening lately.
- Go/Search
- Search within article titles and article text for keywords. The "Go" button brings you directly to the article/page with the exact name entered in the search window. If irt doesn't exist yet, search results are displayed (and the option to start a new article with this title - see below).
- Toolbox
- "What links here" displays a list of pages with links to the article you're viewing.
Editing
How to open the Editing Box
Click the "Edit"-tag on top of any article page and you will be presented with an text editing box. You'll also notice [Edit]-links next to individual sections of an article. Within the edit box, you'll see the plain text of the article, but with a bit of special styling instructions for the formatting of the page. Don't be afraid, or put off by these instructions. You're already familiar with the functions, and the Wiki supports rapid access and use..
Don't forget to Save Changes when you have finished editing; click the Save page button below the text editing box. If you wish, enter some text in the Summary describing what you've changed before saving.
Show preview will do just that, without saving the changes, yet. And Cancel if you want to disregard your changes.
- -> To play around and get a feel for writing in the wiki, visit the Sandbox. And of course, you are free to edit any article as needed on the system!
Basic text styles (Bold, Italic, Small Font Big Font)
The toolbar at the top of the edit box provide easy access to the most common styling instructions. You can either use the buttons in the toolbar or type the commands in yourself.
<b>Bold text</b>
- Text contained within <b> and </b> (or alternatively within three apostrophes each ('''TEXT''') is displayed in Bold.
<i>Italic text</i>
- Text contained within <i> and </i> (or alternatively within two apostrophes each (''TEXT'') is displayed in Italic.
- <small>Small text</small>
- Text contained within <small> and </small> appears in smaller font.
- <big>Big text</big>
- Text contained within <big> and </big> appears in bigger font.
- Indent paragraph with a bold header
- The code for a paragraph that looks in its style like this one here - bold header and indent paragraph text starting on the next line - is written as follows:
; HEADING TEXT
: PARAGRAPH TEXT
Linking to other pages (internal/external)
- [[Page Title]] or [[Page Title|LINK TITLE TO APPEAR]]
-
Use [[ and ]] to link to other pages in the the Gender Training Wiki. More info in the section "Create a New Page/Article" below.
- [http://www.example.com LINK TITLE]
-
Use [ and ] to link to webpages outside the the Gender Training Wiki, on the WorldWideWeb.
Headings
== Headline text ==
- Use == and == to create a new section in the page.
- Use === and === to create a subsection to that section.
These are the basic formatting rules to know. You'll notice a few other styling instructions within the system; these are explained in the advanced section. But remember, the important thing is the text -- mostly the formatting is taken care of for you.
Create a New Page/Article
Creating a new page is simple. You may want to add a Resource or Report to an exisiting page. Or start an entirely new article. It's up to you:
- 1. Create a new page/article by starting with a link to it from an existing page
- Edit an article and insert the following in the text:
- [[The Title of Your New Page]]
- "The Title of Your New Page" is just that -- set it to whatever you want to name the page (please try to be specific; e.g. "Gender Toolkit for Humanitarian Interventions", not just "Gender Toolkit"). Save the edit, view the article, and you'll see a link to your page in red. Click it...
- 2. Start a new page/article without linking
- Alternately, if you want to create an article/page without linking to it from another page, type the "The Title of Your New Page" into the Search box and click "Go". Choose "create an article with this title"...
- ... you'll now come to a dialog, asking what type of page you'd like to create. There are several preset Templates you can use for your new page/article; or if no template seems appropriate choose "Blank Page" which will simply open an empty new page.
- When you have finished writing the first version of your new article, don't forget to click "Save page". Your new page/article has been created and is available real-time!
Inter-link your new (or changed) article/page
- PLEASE Link your new page to existing articles
One of the main strengths of a Wiki is that information is inter-linked. After creating (or adding to) a (new) page/article, we strongly encourage you to create links to it from pages where you would expect other users searching for information you just entered.
To do so, just open those pages in edit-mode and add [[TITLE OF YOUR NEW PAGE]] at the appropriate place(s).
For example, UNIFEM would deserve a link from the Gender-aware Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration page, since it is produced by UNIFEM...
Templates
If you choose a template for your new article, you'll see a suggested page/article structure with chapters and styling instructions. The portions to pay attention to are the instructions in ALL CAPS. (e.g. TYPE AUTHOR HERE)
Replace the entire line with the appropriate text. Edit as much or as little of the template as you like .. don't feel compelled to write something if it's not appropriate and feel free to add additional headings, or even delete headings you don't require (or leave them blank for others to complete).
The last field in the template contains instructions for entering a link for e-mailing the organisation [mailto:name@institution.com name@institution.com] enter the desired e-mail address twice with a space in between as shown.
- When editing template headings please be careful to change the "Category" entries at the beginning of articles/page (e.g. [[Category:Institution]]).
Questions and Comments
Have any queries, problems, suggestions, feedback .. anything on how to use the wiki or thoughts about how it's working, please add that to Suggestion Box and we'll try to answer asap. Alternatively you can e-mail any of us at instraw. See Contacts
Advanced Topics
Want to go in deeper?! Check out the Advanced Help.
Or take a look at the MediaWiki Documentation.
UN-INSTRAW Gender Based Traing Guide, a how to manule for facilitators and new beginners A HOW TO FACILITATORS TRAINING GUIDE