Help:A Guide to Adding Content
From UCSB English Department Knowledge Base
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[edit] Overview
In order to add content to the EDKB Wiki, you will need to create an article and place the article into categories.
An "article" is the page which contains the content. A "category" is the tag that is added to the article in order to organize the content on the site.
For example, the syllabus for Elizabeth Freudenthal's Fall 2005 English 10 LC can be found in the article entitled "English 10LC Syllabus - E. Freudenthal Fall 2005." This article as been placed in the categories category:Teaching Resources, category:Syllabi, category:English 10, category:LCI, category:English 10 Syllabi, category:Elizabeth Freudenthal, and category:Fall 2005.
You might consider printing these instructions before getting started. Use the "Printable Version" link in the toolbox (at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar) for a printer-friendly version.
[edit] Step by Step Guide to Creating and Formatting an Article
[edit] Getting Started - Creating the Article and Adding Categories
- On the main page of the EDKB Wiki, type the name of the new article into the text input box. Press the "Create Article" button.
- You will now see the wiki editing interface. The editing interface consists of three main parts.
- The formatting buttons. If you are a Mac user, you will need to use Firefox in order to see these buttons. If you prefer Safari, you can format the text manually.
- The text editing box. You can type your content here directly, although you may want to cut and paste it from sort of word processing document which has been spell-checked.
- The save and preview buttons.
- Before copying your content into the text editing box, you'll want to add a few preliminary items that belong on every page. The first of these is the code to create the information box at the top of each page. To add this, place the following in the text editing box: {{About}}. If you click the "Preview" button, you will see that your article now contains the welcome message that is displayed on each page.
- The next preliminary items to add are the categories. For help on determining which categories to add, see A Word About Categories. Category names should be capitalized according to MLA Titling conventions.
- To add a category, type the following anywhere in the text editing box: [[category:NAMEOFTHECATEGORY]].
- If you save the page, you will now see the categories displayed at the bottom of the page:
[edit] Adding and Formatting Content
[edit] Adding Content and Creating Sections
- Now you are ready to copy your content into the text editing box. Here the content has been copied into the text editing box and saved without any additional formatting.
- Although a straight "cut and paste" will get the job done, it does not take advantage of the unique qualities of the wiki medium. The navigability of this page will be enhanced by adding section headings. To add a section heading, add the following to the text editing box: ==TITLEOFYOURSECTION==.
- To add sub-sections, add additional sets of equal signs surrounding the section title. For example, to add a sub-section to this article, the following will be added in the text editing box: ===Required Texts===. Once you add four or more sections (including sub-sections), the wiki software will automatically create a table of contents for the article.
[edit] Formatting Text
[edit] Centering, Bold, Italics, Etc.
- Although the wiki software does not include a shortcut button for centering text, you can use html code to do so. Insert the following code in the text editing box: <center>CENTEREDTEXT</center>.
- To bold or italicize text, select the text to be formatted and click the "B" or "I" button.
- On occasion, when you cut and paste content into the text editing box, the wiki does not pick up on the line breaks from your original text:
- To fix this, add the html code for a line break, <br>, at the end of the lines that are not formatting properly:
- Other html codes can be used to format text in the wiki. Given the choice, the wiki's native formatting functions should be utilized whenever possible.
- If you are ever curious how to accomplish formatting that you don't see described here, feel free to click on the "edit" tab of the article that contains the formatting you would like to use. Scan the article to find the code the author used to create the effect.
[edit] Links
- The EDKB Wiki utilizes two different types of links:
- Internal Links - Internal links are one of the features that make the wiki format unique. You are encouraged to build internal links into your articles whenever possible. The two main types of internal link are:
- Article Link - links to other articles in the wiki. There are a few ways to format your internal links (please note that links are case sensitive):
- [[TITLEOFLINKEDARTICLE]] - Placing the name of the linked article within double brackets will link directly to the article. The text displayed in your article is the title of the article to which you are linking.
- Article Link - links to other articles in the wiki. There are a few ways to format your internal links (please note that links are case sensitive):
- Internal Links - Internal links are one of the features that make the wiki format unique. You are encouraged to build internal links into your articles whenever possible. The two main types of internal link are:
- [[TITLEOFLINKEDARTICLE | my latest article]] - This link would point to the same article as the example above. The difference, however, is that the text embedded in the link after the pipe (|) will be the text displayed in your article.
- Note: For any link, blue text indicates that the link points to an already existing page or category. Red text indicates the page or category has not yet been created. If you are getting red text on an article that you know exists, double check the title for accuracy.
- Category Links - links to categories in the wiki. For instance, you may want to turn the text titles in your syllabus into links to the categories that contain resources for those texts. Category links are formatted as follows:
- [[:category:Frankenstein]] - will link to the Frankenstein category. The text will display exactly as it is typed within the double brackets.
- [[:category:Frankenstein | Frankenstein]] - This also links to the Frankenstein category, however the link will be embedded in the text after the pipe (|).
- External Links - External links direct the browser to a website outside of the EDKB Wiki. There are a few options for formatting external links:
- http://english.ucsb.edu - Typing the URL, complete with "http://" will display the entire URL within your article.
- External Links - External links direct the browser to a website outside of the EDKB Wiki. There are a few options for formatting external links:
- [http://english.ucsb.edu] - Typing the URL within single brackets will number the link and display the external link symbol within your article. (Note: the numbers are formatted sequentially throughout the article, regardless of how much content intervenes between two links)
- [http://english.ucsb.edu UCSB English Department] - You can embed the link within text in your article by typing the link within single brackets, adding a space, and then typing the name of the text you would like displayed. The external link symbol is displayed next to the text in order to differentiate this from an internal link.
[edit] Mathematical Formulas & Code
Please visit the Mediawiki help guide [1]
[edit] Signature Stamps and Horizontal Lines
Please visit the Mediawiki help guide [2]
[edit] Images & Other Media
Please visit the Mediawiki help guide [3]
[edit] Tables
Please visit the Mediawiki help guide [4]
[edit] Templates
Please visit the Mediawiki help guide [5]
[edit] A Word About Categories
[edit] Knowing Which Categories to Use
There really is no right or wrong way to approach categories. You should feel free to create categories that you will find useful.
If one were to describe the EDKB Wiki's development team's approach to adding categories, three adjectives would likely emerge: 1) Comprehensive, 2) Broad and 3) Narrow.
To achieve comprehensive category coverage, we've placed articles in as many categories as possible. For instance, a syllabus might be placed in as many as six or more categories. We have attempted to achieve a useful mix of broad, or high level, categories and more narrow categories or sub-categories.
Examples of broad, or high level, categories might include "Teaching Resources," "Syllabi," "English 15," "Assignments," etc. These are categories that will encompass a large amount of material and are likely to contain sub-categories.
In addition to broad categories, we've also used a fair amount of more narrow categories. These might include categories that are more specific to a course, such as "English 15 Syllabus" or "English 102 Assignments." Or they might include categories related to the English Department Centers. Additional narrow categories include the names of the people who have contributed all of this great material - Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students, etc.
[edit] Examples of Categories Applied to Articles
- Syllabus - Teaching Resources, Syllabi, English ###, Quarter Year, English ### Syllabi, Instructor Name, LCI/EC/AC.
- Assignment - Teaching Resources, Assignments, English ###, Quarter Year, English ### Assignments, Instructor Name, LCI/EC/AC.
- Handout - Teaching Resources, Handouts, English ###, Quarter Year, English ### Handouts, Instructor Name, LCI/EC/AC.
[edit] Further Resources
The links in this section all point to the online Mediawiki help files. Mediawiki is the software that powers the EDKB Wiki.
