Help:Contents
From Patterns
I have created The Sandbox where you can try out Wiki commands. You may want to right-click on The Sandbox link and open it in a new window, so that you can read and try out the commands below.
Contents |
Basic Wiki Navigation
Basic Wiki Editing
See Editing help for basic editing commands. You can also access this information from any page in Edit mode using the a link at the bottom (to the right of the Save page' ... Show changes buttons).
How Do I Get Back to The Beginning?
You can use the Back buttons in your browser (refreshing content as required), click on the 'Main Page' link in the left navigator, or the icon at the upper left of each page.
What Do the Left Navigator Links Do?
Most of the links are self-explanatory. Some of the pages have yet to be created. The 'search' box Go button can be used to search for a named page and take you there, while the Search button displays search results (both will display the same output if the named page does not exist). toolbox displays a variety of links, such as What links here if you want to figure out what pages refer to the current page.
How Can I Figure Out What Has Changed?
There are three main ways to track changes:
- The Update Log, a manually maintained page listing key changes.
- The Recent changes link in the left navigator, showing you all changes by date.
- my watchlist, that tracks changes to pages you are particularly interested in.
To add a page to my watchlist, either check the Watch this page box during editing (just above the Show preview button at the bottom), or use the watch tab at the top of each page. At any time, you can click on the my watchlist link in the upper right to see changes to these specific pages. If you have configured e-mail notification in my preferences, MediaWiki will send out an e-mail on each change.
Unfortunately, MediaWiki does not 'batch' e-mail notifications, which can be an issue if a page is undergoing constant updates. My suggestion is to add Update Log and pages that you are particularly interested in following to my watchlist, and either check my watchlist regularly or enable e-mail notification. To determine exactly what changes were made, you can click on the page's history tab and select which versions to compare - MediaWiki will show a side-by-side comparision of the selected versions, flagging differences. Recent changes can also be used - it has dif links that compare the selected and previous versions, and a hist link that brings up the page history.
For more information, see MediaWiki Tracking Changes
What Is the 'Discussion' Tab Used For?
The process of developing an article can often be associated with an extended period of discussion. The discussion tab can be used to capture this debate in a chronological sequence. Check the color of the discussion tab - blue indicates that the page has been created, red that it does not yet exist.
Like the primary page, you can enter Edit mode on a discussion page by making the page active and clicking on the edit tab (or double-clicking the page). There is also a '+' sign to the right of the edit tab - this opens up a special Comments window where you can enter a Subject/headline (creates a Heading 2) and text (full MediaWiki formatting available). This material is added to the page below any existing content.
Why Am I Asked to Login While Trying to Save a Page?
For reasons that are not clear, MediaWiki intermittently 'forgets' that you have logged in. It may be that you have exceeded some sort of session timeout value, or the browser is confused and presenting the wrong credentials to MediaWiki. In any case, if you login as requested, you will be presented a link back to the page you have been editing, but your recent changes will be lost. I have had success with:
- right clicking on the login link
- opening a new tab and completing the login in the new window
- returning to the original window and using the browser Back button
I have not tested opening a new browser window - it should work, but your mileage may vary.
Additional Help
Please see MediaWiki Help for additional information.
