Help:Contents
From Regional Knowledge Resource Kit
Contents |
What is a wiki?
The Regional Knowledge Resource Kit has been developed as a 'wiki'. A wiki is a collaborative website that can be edited by anyone who has access to it. If you're new to wikis, here's a fun 4-minute explanation of how a Wiki is a better way to plan a camping trip by Commoncraft Paperworks.
How to use the wiki
It's quite simple really - just browse the information contained here. As on any website, click the links to find information which interests you. Have a look around! Once you have an account and are logged in you can also edit the information!. Click 'Edit' at the top of any page, to edit the contents. That's about it really. Simple hey?
Actually there are few other tricks to learn ...
General guidelines
Be aware that anyone can edit anything on the RKRK Wiki. This means anything you contribute may get changed by others.
In general be bold, go forth and do it!
Everyone should encourage others to make changes at the source from which they originate. This will ensure content is 'accurate' and not subject to misinterpretation.
For really big changes which might upset someone, it's best to hold a discussion about it first (using the discussion page functionality). Propose the change, discuss it, and reach agreement on the best way forward.
There is adequate revision control built into the wiki software -- unwanted content can be selectively removed. Any content that is clearly not acceptable is rolled back or reverted to the previously edited version.
Wholesale deletions or large-scale rearrangements may be necessary to achieve a reasonable organisation of the information as a whole. Anyone can undertake such re-organisations but for any change which might be viewed as destructive, you should leave a trail of comments on the associated discussion pages, to explain what you are doing and why. (See Wikipedia:Talk Page).
Please try not to be too precious about "your" pages. Nobody owns the pages of a wiki. When adding to the wiki, you should seek to find the correct place within the current structure, to build upon the information we already have. This is better than creating a new page as your page where things a written your way.
As with any kind of internet community discussion, if you find yourself passionately defending your way of doing things, try to take a step back and stay open-minded.
Editing
Be bold in updating articles. If you see a mistake, content, spelling or grammar, please edit the page and correct it immediately. But don't be reckless. Don't make the contributer angry. Stay at a neutral point of view.
Perfection is not required. This is a community and incomplete articles or random collection of facts. Save them for others to add their knowledge and edit your article. Avoid duplication, irrelevancy, nonsense and inaccuracy. For an idea on wiki ettiquette see Wikipedia wikiquette
You may wish to visit Wikipedia's help. Wikipedia has detailed articles covering almost every imaginable aspect of editing pages on a Wiki. Wikipedia also has a group of volunteers who answer questions and provide help with editing. The Regional Knowledge Resource Kit runs on Mediawiki software, as does Wikipedia, so much of what you see here works similarly.
To grasp the basics of editing wiki pages, the following resources are recommended:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing - A breakdown of wiki editing basics and syntax
- http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Wikitext_reference - MediaWiki Wikitext Reference
- http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Reference_card - Wiki Reference Card or wall chart for quick reference
- http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cheatsheet - This cheatsheet is aimed at newbies to help them learn the basic formatting rules.
Profile/User Page
When you sign up, you can edit any page on this site (you won't be added to any mailing lists, your email is hidden from other users). You can also create a profile for yourself. It's a great way to get involved with RKRK, and if you're new to wiki, it's a good way to try your hand at editing.
- Create an account, if you haven't done so already.
- Click on your username in the top right-hand corner. This should open your user page.
- Click on the edit tab to edit the page
- Copy the following template and replace the 'dummy' arguments with your information.
|{{profile
| name= Your Name
| image=[[Image:Pretty.jpg|noframe|250px]]
| title= Your Position Title
| organisation= Your organisation
| website=http://yourorg.com
| email=mailto:youremail.com
}}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet (i.e. write a concise biography about yourself)
This template is used to create a profile box for User pages (and should not be used anywhere else). All arguments to the command are optional. For the image argument, please make sure the width is exactly 250px (the width of the quickbar) and that the "noframe" option is specified.
- Add whatever else you would like to your new profile page!
Uploading Files
Templates have been created for uploading files which show links to the file and appropriate icons.
To use these templates, which enable files to be shown as links with relevant icons, as well as a link to the file's wiki page, see here.
Here is an example of how the template appears: 
Example File 
Working with images and other uploaded files
Uploading images is a little bit more complicated than other files because of the number of options available for layout formatting, such a alignment, adding thumbnails etc.
The Wikipedia help has a great summary of how to work with images.
What if I am trying to upload an image or file and all I get is this error messege
"." is not a recommended image file format.
You need to specify the file extension in the "Destination Filename" field. i.e. don't specify "MyImage", use "MyImage.JPG"
Helpfulness
As you author new pages or edit existing pages, please add a category at the bottom of the page. Review the existing category list on the Categories page. Adding categories to a page allows the wiki engine to organize the content automatically. If a category does not exist and you think a new one is required then use the category sytazx to create a new one.
[[Category:My new category]]
This example shows how both an existing category named My new category or a new category called My new category would be created. If you are creating a new category, then be sure to click on the new page like and define what you were thinking should go in this page.
[[:Category:My new category | My new category]]
Moreover, this example shows how you can use a category page as an actual wiki page. Yes you will have to type a few more characters, but your readers will link to an actual page of information with all the other related pages at the bottom!. Here again we are using the wiki engine to perform our indexing and linking for us.
For more help on categories, please see MediaWiki's 'Categories' help page.
Naming articles
The name of the article is at the same time the article headline as well as the link for the article. The first character is always automatically capitalized. Lowercase second and subsequent words, except if it's a name. Prefer singular nouns. Use spelled-out phrase and use redirect for acronyms and abbreviations.
The following characters are not allowed in page titles: \# + $<$ $>$ [ ] $\vert$ $\{$ $\}$ /. The first character is automatically capitalized. The maximum length is 255 characters.
For more information see Wikipedia naming conventions
Templates
The MediaWiki software used behind the Regional Knowledge Resource Kit offers the capability to automatically generate sophisticated HTML using templates. Templates should be discussed before being created or modified. The list below shows most of the templates that are currently available, alongside brief explanations of how and where to use them. You may prefer a straightforward list of all pages in the 'Template' namespace.
| Wiki Markup | Purpose | Template Display | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
{{pdf|filename|link text}}
| Displays a pdf icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading pdf files. | Sample File
| ||||||
{{doc|filename|link text}}
| Displays a doc icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading doc files. |  Sample File
| ||||||
{{ppt|filename|link text}}
| Displays a ppt icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading ppt files. |  Sample File
| ||||||
{{xls|filename|link text}}
| Displays an xls icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading xls files. |  Sample File
| ||||||
{{audio|filename|link text}}
| Displays an audio icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading audio files. |  Sample File
| ||||||
{{txt|filename|link text}}
| Displays a text icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading text files. |  Sample File
| ||||||
{{mov|filename|link text}}
| Displays a movie icon, and a link to information about the uploaded file. You should use this template when uploading .mov files. |  Sample File
| ||||||
{{subst:howto}}
| Boilerplate for creating a new howto article in a standard format. The substitution text can be used to quickly insert the article template into newly created articles. When the article is saved the shortcut is replaced with the text. This is a one-off substitution and can only be undone by deleting the inserted text - use with care. | See the Howto template | ||||||
{{infobox|title|description}}
| Used to create an infobox to display an interesting fact or notable piece of information within an article. Infoboxes should be used sparingly. |
| ||||||
{{newsitem|title|date|description}}
| Used to create a news item in the "News" box on the home page. | title
date description (more...) | ||||||
|{{profile
| name= Your Name
| image=[[Image:Pretty.jpg|noframe|250px]]
| title= Your Position Title
| organisation=Your organisation
| website=http://yourorg.com
| email=mailto:youremail.com
}}
| Used to create the profile box for User pages (and should not be used anywhere else). All arguments to the command are optional. For the image argument, please make sure the width is exactly 250px (the width of the quickbar) and that the "noframe" option is specified. |
| ||||||
Citing References
Usage
The basic concept of the <ref> tag is that it inserts the text enclosed by the ref tags as a footnote in a designated section, which you indicate with the placeholder tag <references />.
If you forget to include <references /> at the end of the article, none of the footnotes will appear.
This page itself uses footnotes, such as the one at the end of this sentence.[1]
Example
According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big.<ref>E. Miller, The Sun, (New York: Academic Press, 2005), 23-5.</ref>
The Moon, however, is not so big.<ref>R. Smith, "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 46 (April 1978): 44-6.</ref>
==Notes==
<references/>
Notes
- ↑ This footnote is used as an example in the "How to use" section.
