Wiki Help

Help Tips and Links

Help Links

• Wikidot.com's Wiki Syntax page
• How To Edit Pages - Quickstart
• Wikidot Documentation & Help pages lists all help files on wikidot.com.
• An article-to-come will eventually list help tips in alphabetical order.

Logging In

To log on to a wikidot.com Wiki:

• Type short-name-of-wiki.wikidot.com in your browser
• If you're not already logged in, go to the top right-hand corner and click on the login link
• A log-in window will come up
• If your screen name is already up, then type your password
• If it isn't, type your E-mail address and your password
• You may wish to make sure the Do not timeout my session and Bind session to my IP options are activated.

Questions

• If you don't see what you're looking for in the help, then post a comment by going to the end of most articles and choosing Add a new comment.
• If you're not sure which article to add your comment to, try Reader Comments.

On the Mac

• Recommended browser is Firefox
• Results on Safari are unpredictable.

Creating and Editing Articles

Creating

Use "Create Article" Box

• On the left-hand navigation bar there should be a text field that lets you name a new article, and a button that says something like "new article" or "create article."
• If the article already exists you'll be offered the option of going to that article.
• If the article doesn't exist you'll be taken to a page that offers you the option to create it. Click on it and you'll see a text window at the bottom of the screen.
• You should make sure the "Title of the page" above the edit window suits you. If not, change it.

Alternative method

• While editing an article add [[[Name of Article]]] to text
• Save the change, and click on the newly created link.
• The remaining steps are the same as in the first method.

Editing

• At the bottom of an article's page you should see an edit button.
• Click on it and an edit window appears at the bottom, and the article's preview will appear at the top.
• Make changes then click save or preview.
• If you preview you can either cancel or save later.
• To format (headings, bold, italic, etc.) you can either type in the code yourself or use the editing buttons above the edit window

Experimenting

• The Sandbox is a good place to experiment, and will likely contain useful code (either in the latest version or earlier drafts)
• You can add Sandbox 2, Sandbox for Images, etc., as needed.

Undoing

• If you're in the editing box and haven't saved what you've typed, then just choose cancel.
• If you made a mistake that got saved then just click edit again or click on history at the bottom of the page and revert to an earlier version.

Basic Editing

Headings

There are six heading levels, but you'll likely use the top three at most:

* Biggest Heading (H1)
** Medium Heading (H2)
*** Small Heading (H3)

The code should start at the left margin. You only add *, **, ***, etc. to the left of the words in the heading (with a space after the opening code). Do not put similar code at the end of the heading.

So, type * Introduction. Don't type * Introduction * or *Introduction.

Bold, etc.

The effect of the following coding lasts one paragraph at most. Make sure there are no spaces between the start and finish of the text and the adjacent code:

TYPING THIS	PRODUCES THIS
**bold**	bold
//italics//	italics
**//bold italics//**	bold italics
__underline__	underline
--strikethrough--	strikethrough
{{monospaced teletype}}	monospaced teletype

You can also use the formatting buttons.

Quotes

This is one case where using the edit buttons is much quicker.

The code for a quote is: > Now the text will appear indented and in a box.

Now the text will appear indented and in a box.

Make sure there's no space between the left margin and the >, and one space between the > and the start of the quoted line.

But to save such worry it's must easier to highlight the passage and let the |Q button do its trick, at least for multiple lines.

Lists

List with bullets

* First item
* Second item

produces

• First item
• Second item

Numbered list

# First numbered item
# Second numbered item

produces

1. First numbered item
2. Second numbered item

Raw Text

Method One
Formatting code will (unsurprisingly) produce formatting. To prevent this, surround your “raw” text with @@ characters on both sides. If you type @@This is **bold** text@@ you'll produce:

This is **bold** text

instead of

This is bold text.

You can also use the R (for raw) editing button.

Method Two
Surround your raw text by [[code]] and [[/code]] (against the left margin on separate lines):

[[code]]
This is **bold** text.
[[/code]]

The raw text in between will be automatically displayed in monotype and in a quoted format (with less indenting):

This is **bold** text.

Table of Contents

• You can place an automatically prepared table of contents anywhere in your article by typing [[toc]] or clicking on the toc edit button
• The table of contents will appear in a box and will reprint your headings, with lower-level headings getting more indentation
• Preferences will vary, but you could type an introductory sentence for your article, then insert the table of contents, then have your first headings.

Working with Files

Upload from Hard Drive

You may upload files up to 10MB per file. The wiki's quota is 300MB.

1. Click on the files button at the bottom of the article's page
2. Click on the upload new file link
3. Click on the browse button beside the File to upload text box
4. Choose a file you want and hit the return key or click the Open box
5. Optional: rename the file in the Destination file name are (and make sure you include the extension such as .jpg)
6. Click on the upload file! button
7. After a few moments you should see the new file in your list of files.

Insert Picture

1. Click the edit button (near the bottom of the wiki article's page)
2. Go to the Edit the page text box (beneath all the little icons)
3. Move and click your mouse where you want to insert the picture
4. Click on the Insert image wizard icon (second row, fifth from the right) and follow its instructions, or
5. Type [[image mypic.jpg]] (use appropriate file name)
6. Too big? Then use [[image mypic.jpg size="medium"]] (other options are discussed in the "resizing" tab below).

Use a Flickr Pic

1. Click the edit button (near the bottom of the page)
2. Go to the Edit the page text box (beneath all the little icons)
3. Move and click your mouse where you want to insert the picture
4. Click on the Insert image wizard icon (second row, fifth from the right) and follow its instructions, or
5. Look at the flickr page's Web address, such as http://flickr.com/photos/snorri/2244114035/
6. Copy just the series of numbers: http://flickr.com/photos/snorri/2244114035/
7. Type [[image flickr:2244114035]] (for instance)
8. Too big? Then use [[image flickr:2244114035 size="medium"]] (other options are discussed in the "resizing" tab below).

Use Other Web Pics

1. Find a Web page that has an interesting image, such as: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/iceland/
2. In this example there's a map, so right-click on the image and left-click on Copy Image Location (or choose View Image then copy the address)
3. In this example the image's address is http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/iceland/map-of-iceland.gif
4. Go to the wiki article that you want to use the picture in
5. Click the edit button (near the bottom of the article's page)
6. Go to the Edit the page text box (beneath all the little icons)
7. Move and click your mouse where you want to insert the picture
8. Click on the Insert image wizard icon (second row, fifth from the right) and follow its instructions, or
9. Type [[image http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/iceland/map-of-iceland.gif]]
10. Too big? Then use [[image http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/iceland/map-of-iceland.gif size="medium"]] (other options are discussed in the "resizing" tab below).

Videos/Docs

Upload and Link
Upload other kinds of files (maximum 10MB per file) just as you would upload images.

Instead of typing [[image image-name.jpg]] you would type something like the following:

• [[file file-name.avi]]
• [[file image-files/file-name.mpg]]
• [[file file-name.pdf]]

Link to Videos
There is also an embed video option. Click on the embed video button above the editing window, or type:

[[embedvideo]]
paste the HTML code for the video here (Google Video, YouTube, Revver, Dailymotion)
[[/embedvideo]]

More About Images

Resizing

Instead of typing just [[image mypic.jpg]] you can type [[image mypic.jpg size="medium"]] (for instance).

All your options are size=

• "square" - 75x75 pixels
• "thumbnail" - 100 on longest side
• "small" - 240 on longest side
• "medium" - 500 on longest side
• "large" - 1024 on longest side (only for Flickr large images)
• "original" - original image (Flickr only)

You can also specify width or height in pixels: [[image mypic.jpg width="300px"]] or [[image mypic.jpg height="150px"]]. The image will be adjusted proportionately.

These options work with files you uploaded and Flickr files, but not for images residing on other Web sites.

Aligning

By default an image is inserted against the left margin with no text flowing around the right.

You can specify alignment and text flow by adding some characters in front of image.

• [[=image… - centered image
• [[<image… - image on left
• [[>image… - image on right
• [[f<image… - image on left floating (surrounded by text)
• [[f>image… - image on right floating (surrounded by text)

For instance, [[f<image mypic.jpg]] puts the image against the left margin and lets text flow to the right of the picture.

Commands can be combined: [[f<image mypic.jpg size="medium"]].

Reusing

If you've uploaded a picture to one article but you want to use the picture in another article, you'll need to add the article name that originally had the picture.

Eventually many image files will be uploaded to the Image Files page. So if you're using that file for another article, instead of typing [[image tiny-cover.png]] you would type [[image image-files/tiny-cover.png]] (in that other article).

Similarly, you can reuse pictures from some other articles: [[image another-article-name/my-pic.jpg]]

Linking

Clicking on an image will link to another site if you add link=.

For instance: [[image image-files/mypic.jpg link="http://some.iceland.site.com"]] will link to the (imaginary) Web site some.iceland.site.com.

You can also link to another article: [[image image-files/mypic.jpg link="History of Iceland"]] will link to the (imaginary) article History of Iceland on this same wiki.

To open the link in a new page (or tab, depending on the browser's settings), put an asterisk right before the link name:

[[image image-files/tiny-cover.png link="*start"]] will open the welcome page in another window or tab:

Image Files page

To make it easier to upload a file to one place but use it in different articles, I've created the Image Files page.

To insert pictures uploaded there into another article, you need to type image-files/ along with the image name when you edit the other article: [[image image-files/mypic.jpg]] instead of just [[image mypic.jpg]] (for instance).

Insert Image Wizard

Many of the options mentioned here can be more quickly chosen through the Insert image wizard. It's located just above the edit window.

Place your cursor where you want to insert the image, then click on the icon and you'll be given a choice of inserting a flickr image, an image from your computer, or an image from a (non-flickr) Web site.

You can specify alignment and size as options.

Comments

Feel free to leave a comment. A general wikidot.com log-in will be required, but you don't have to be a member of the Echolocation wiki. You may wish to read recent comments too (two at this point, including one from me).