Help:Editing

You need HELP.

So you want to edit the wiki but don't know how! Starting a new page can be a hard task if you don't know what you're doing. So within this page, we attempt to teach you the basics of making, editing, and all the such. We're going to take baby steps so you don't get lost. AND in case you do get lost along the way, please see one of the web-masters so they can slap you with their uber-expensive laptops. Now without a further ado... How to edit the Wiki!

Basic Editing

Creating a New Page

You can create a new page by searching for whatever article name (e.g Peanuts) in the search field and hitting Go. If there is no such page already, you can click the red 'Peanuts' link, and it will take you to the edit page for a new article called Peanuts. Another way of creating a new article is bouncing off of an existing page by creating a link to an article that does not exist yet, and clicking the resulting red link. For a demonstration, see the create page link section below.

Now that you have opened up the edit page for your new article, start typing your new article for everyone to enjoy!

Titling Your Article

The Wiki's article titles are case-sensitive, so capitalization matters. It's helpful to have a conventional method of titling articles for consistency, so title your article as you would title a real article, or an essay. Start words with capital letters, and use lowercase for short prepositions like "to" or "of".

• Good Title: How to Edit a Page
• Bad Title: How to edit a page (this title would serve better as a redirect page to the above title)

Before Making a New Page

Before making a new page, make sure you do the following:

• Check to see if the article you want to create does not already exist. You can search for it or look through existing categories.
• Check to see if the page you want to make fits in one of the categories on this page: Special:Categories
• If you believe it fits into a category, put it into the category as explained below
• If an article has little content, seems incomplete, or is formatted inconsistently to similar articles, mark it as a stub.

Using Images

If you want to use an image, please upload it to the Wiki by clicking "Upload file" on the toolbox to the left. This is better than linking directly from Facebook, Photobucket, or other external sites because those links can stop working. Uploaded files can also be put into thumbnails, which will make your page look much nicer! While the Upload file link provides a simple, clear explanation for how to put your image onto a page, you can find a more thorough explanation of the different options available to you in the images section below.

Edit Summary

Before you save your changes, you can write a short summary of what you have changed in the Summary box. While it isn't required to type out a summary, it's a good habit because it allows people to track what you change more quickly and easily.

Preview

You should always preview whatever changes you make to a page before saving them. It's like revising your rough draft essays before submitting the final draft. If you choose not to preview your work and save after each minor change, every edit you save will appear on the Special:RecentChanges link. It would be much cleaner not to have ten or fifteen edits to the same page appear all at once!

Wiki markup

Like HTML, a Wiki has a syntax system you can use to format a wiki page called wiki markup.

Links and URLs

Unlike in HTML, the element <a>, is not allowed for links. The following are used instead: [[ ]], [ ], ~~~~, ~~~ & {{ }}. See the table below.

Article link Renamed link Blend link Other page link Section link Create page link Signing comments Redirects Categorize Category page link External links

What it looks like	What you type
(Article link) Iota Phi has an interesting Chapter History. A link to another Wiki article. As a URL, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented by underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended). Thus the link above is to the URL iotaphi.org/wiki/Chapter_History, which is the article with the name "Chapter History".	Iota Phi has an interesting [[Chapter History]].
Iota Phi has an interesting chapter history. (Renamed link) Same target, different name. The target ("piped") text must be placed first, then the text to be displayed, second.	Iota Phi has an interesting [[Chapter History|chapter history]].
(Blend link) Many members of Iota Phi have received Distinguished Service Keys. Examples include Presidents, Fellowships, and Banquets. Endings are blended into the link. Exception: a trailing apostrophe (') and any characters following the apostrophe are not blended. Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible. Blending can be suppressed by using <nowiki></nowiki> tags, which may be desirable in some instances. Example: an Alumni-only event.	Many members of Iota Phi have received [[Distinguished Service Key]]s. Examples include [[President]]s, [[Fellowship]]s, and [[Banquet]]s. an [[Alumni]]<nowiki>-only event</nowiki>
(Other page link) See Portal:Leadership. A link to another namespace. Examples of common namespaces include User:, Category:, and Portal:.	See [[Portal:Leadership]].
(Section link) Risk Management#A Summary is a link to a section within another page. #Links and URLs is a link to another section on the current page. A Summary is a piped link to a section within another page. The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case, and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections are not broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page. Include "| link title" to create a stylish (piped) link title.	[[Risk Management#A Summary]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Links and URLs]] is a link to another section on the current page. [[Risk Management#A Summary|A Summary]] is a piped link to a section within another page.
(Create page link) Links to pages that don’t exist yet look red: The Bestest Day Ever You can create it by clicking on the link. To create a new page: Create a link to it on some other (related) page. Save that page. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing. For more information, see Making a NEW page. Avoid creating a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.	[[Name of page that does not exist yet]] is a red link.
(Signing comments) The character tilde (~) is used when adding a comment to a Talk page. You should sign your comment by adding four tildes (~~~~) to the comment so as to add your user name plus date/time: Aaron Lipton 13:40, Jan 14, 2007 (UTC) Adding three tildes (~~~) will add just your user name: Aaron and adding five tildes (~~~~~) gives the date/time alone: 13:40, Jan 14, 2007 (UTC) The first two both provide a link to your user page.	The character '''tilde''' (~) is used when adding a comment to a Talk page. You should sign your comment by appending four tildes (~~~~) to the comment so as to add your user name plus date/time: :~~~~ Adding three tildes (~~~) will add just your user name: : ~~~ and adding five tildes (~~~~~) gives the date/time alone: : ~~~~~
(Redirects) Redirect one article title to another by placing a directive like the one shown to the right on the first line of the article (such as at a page titled "DSK"). It is possible to redirect to a section. For example, a redirect to Distinguished Service Key#Past DSK Recipients will redirect to the Past DSK Recipients section of the Distinguished Service Key page, if it exists.	#REDIRECT [[Distinguished Service Key]] #REDIRECT [[Distinguished Service Key#Past DSK Recipients]] ill redirect to the Past DSK Recipients section of the [[Distinguished Service Key]] page, if it exists.
(Categorize) To put an article in a category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. As with interlanguage links, it does not matter where you put these links while editing as they will always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended.	[[Category:Awards]]
(Category page link) To link to a category page without putting the article into the category, use a colon prefix (":Category") in the link. The formatted text link will appear as: Category:Awards.	[[:Category:Awards]]
(External links) Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: Bare URL: http://www.iotaphi.org/ (bad style) Unnamed link: [1] (only used within article body for footnotes) Named link: Iota Phi Square brackets indicate an external link. Note the use of a space (not a pipe) to separate the URL from the link text in the "named" version.	Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: # Bare URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/ (bad style) # Unnamed link: [http://en.wikipedia.org/] (only used within article body for footnotes) # Named link: [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]

Images

Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.

What it looks like	What you type
A picture:	A picture: [[Image:Pin.gif]]
With alternative text:	With alternative text: [[Image:Pin.gif|Alpha Phi Omega Service Pin]] Alternative text, used when the image is unavailable or when the image is loaded in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged.
Floating to the right side of the page using the frame attribute and a caption: Service Pin	Floating to the right side of the page using the ''frame'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:Pin.gif|frame|Service Pin]] The frame tag automatically floats the image right. The caption is also used as alternate text.
Floating to the right side of the page using the thumb attribute and a caption: Service Pin	Floating to the right side of the page using the ''thumb'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:Pin.gif|thumb|Service Pin]] The thumb tag automatically floats the image right. The caption is also used as alternate text. An enlarge icon is placed in the lower right corner.
Floating to the right side of the page without a caption:	Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption: [[Image:Pin.gif|right|Service Pin]] The help topic on extended image syntax explains more options.
A picture resized to 30 pixels...	A picture resized to 30 pixels... [[Image:Pin.gif|30 px]] The help topic on extended image syntax explains more options.
Linking directly to the description page of an image: Image:Pin.gif	Linking directly to the description page of an image: [[:Image:Pin.gif]] Clicking on an image displayed on a page (such as any of the ones above) also leads to the description page
Linking directly to an image without displaying it: Image of the Alpha Phi Omega Service Pin	Linking directly to an image without displaying it: [[:media:Pin.gif|Image of the Alpha Phi Omega Service Pin]] To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
Using the span and div tag to separate images from text (note that this may allow images to cover text):	Example: <div style="display:inline; width:220px; float:right;"> Place images here </div>
Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers):	Example: {| align=right |- | Place images here |}

Headings

For a top-level heading, put it on a separate line surrounded by '=='. For example:

  == Introduction ==

Subheadings use '===', '====', and so on.

Character formatting

What it looks like	What you type
Italicized text Bold text Italicized & Bold text	''Italicized text'' '''Bold text''' '''''Italicized & Bold text'''''
You can use small text for captions.	You can use <small>small text</small> for captions.
Better stay away from big text, unless it's within small text.	Better stay away from <big>big text</big>, unless <small> it's <big>within</big> small</small> text.
You can strike out deleted material and underline new material. You can also mark deleted material and inserted material using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new logical with the old physical markup. When editing regular Wikipedia articles, just make your changes and do not mark them up in any special way. When editing your own previous remarks in talk pages, it is sometimes appropriate to mark up deleted or inserted material.	You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new <del>logical</del> with the old <s><del>physical</del></s> markup.
Suppressing interpretation of markup: Link → (''to'') the [[Wikipedia FAQ]] Used to show literal data that would otherwise have special meaning. Escape all wiki markup, including that which looks like HTML tags. Does not escape HTML character references. To escape HTML character references such as &rarr; use &amp;rarr;	<nowiki>Link &rarr; (''to'') the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]</nowiki>
Commenting page source: not shown when viewing page Used to leave comments in a page for future editors. Note that most comments should go on the appropriate Talk page.	<!-- comment here -->
Diacritical marks: À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ	&Agrave; &Aacute; &Acirc; &Atilde; &Auml; &Aring; &AElig; &Ccedil; &Egrave; &Eacute; &Ecirc; &Euml; &Igrave; &Iacute; &Icirc; &Iuml; &Ntilde; &Ograve; &Oacute; &Ocirc; &Otilde; &Ouml; &Oslash; &Ugrave; &Uacute; &Ucirc; &Uuml; &szlig; &agrave; &aacute; &acirc; &atilde; &auml; &aring; &aelig; &ccedil; &egrave; &eacute; &ecirc; &euml; &igrave; &iacute; &icirc; &iuml; &ntilde; &ograve; &oacute; &ocirc; &oelig; &otilde; &ouml; &oslash; &ugrave; &uacute; &ucirc; &uuml; &yuml;
Punctuation: ¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ”	&iquest; &iexcl; &sect; &para; &dagger; &Dagger; &bull; &ndash; &mdash; &lsaquo; &rsaquo; &laquo; &raquo; &lsquo; &rsquo; &ldquo; &rdquo;
Commercial symbols: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤	&trade; &copy; &reg; &cent; &euro; &yen; &pound; &curren;
Subscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ Superscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ Combined: ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m. 1 hectare = 1 E4 m² The Manual of Style prefers the x<sub>1</sub> format. The latter methods of sub/superscripting cannot be used in the most general context, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. For the 1-2-3 superscripts, it is nevertheless preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.	x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or x&#8320; x&#8321; x&#8322; x&#8323; x&#8324; x&#8325; x&#8326; x&#8327; x&#8328; x&#8329; x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or x&#8304; x&sup1; x&sup2; x&sup3; x&#8308; x&#8309; x&#8310; x&#8311; x&#8312; x&#8313; &epsilon;<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 &times; 10<sup>&minus;12</sup> C&sup2; / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m&sup2;]]
Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω	&alpha; &beta; &gamma; &delta; &epsilon; &zeta; &eta; &theta; &iota; &kappa; &lambda; &mu; &nu; &xi; &omicron; &pi; &rho; &sigma; &sigmaf; &tau; &upsilon; &phi; &chi; &psi; &omega; &Gamma; &Delta; &Theta; &Lambda; &Xi; &Pi; &Sigma; &Phi; &Psi; &Omega;

No or limited formatting—showing exactly what is being typed

A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them—what you see, is what you get!

What it looks like	What you type
<nowiki> tag: The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: →	<nowiki> The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: &rarr; </nowiki>
<pre> tag: The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: →	<pre> The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: &rarr; </pre>
Leading space: Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets Wiki markup and special characters: →	Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets [[Wiki]] ''markup'' and special characters: &rarr;

Invisible text (comments)

It's uncommon, but on occasion acceptable, to add a hidden comment within the text of an article. The format is this:

<!-- This is an example of text that won't normally be visible except in "edit" mode. -->

Table of contents

At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the table of contents (TOC) to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also Compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.

Tables

There are two ways to build tables:

• in special Wiki-markup (see Table)
• with the usual HTML elements: <table>, <tr>, <td> or <th>.

Variables

Code	Effect
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	22
{{CURRENTDOW}}	1
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	05
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	May
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	May
{{CURRENTDAY}}	25
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Monday
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2026
{{CURRENTTIME}}	19:59
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	3,655
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}	1,721
{{PAGENAME}}	Editing
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help
{{REVISIONID}}	15522
{{SERVER}}	https://wiki.iotaphi.org
{{ns:1}}	Talk
{{ns:2}}	User
{{ns:3}}	User talk
{{ns:4}}	Iota Phi Wiki
{{ns:5}}	Iota Phi Wiki talk
{{ns:6}}	File
{{ns:7}}	File talk
{{ns:8}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}}	Template
{{ns:11}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}}	Help
{{ns:13}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}}	Category
{{ns:15}}	Category talk
{{SITENAME}}	Iota Phi Wiki

NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.

CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.

In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like {{grammar:case|word}} to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, {{grammar:genitive|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}} means the same as {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}.

This page was derived from Wikipedia.