User:Angela/Tutorial

This was for a wiki tutorial given y Angela at Wikia's office in January 2006. It is aimed at people fairly new to wikis, but also covers briefly some advanced topics. Note: it was way too long. It could easily take 3 hours to cover all of this.

There are online tutorials at Wikipedia and Wikicities.
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial - a 10 step tutorial with areas you can practice your new skills
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial - a single page summary of basic wiki editing

Getting started

 * 1) Log in
 * 2) Learn the jargon
 * 3) Look at the interface
 * 4) Edit a page
 * 5) Format your page
 * 6) Add some links
 * 7) Start a new page
 * 8) Advanced features

Jargon
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Glossary for an ever-growing list of wiki (esp. Wikipedia) jargon. Useful if you don't know your RFAr from your AfD or need to know the difference between a rouge admin and a meatpuppet. The following are commonly confused, though hopefully less so here... wiki, wikia, mediawiki, wikipedia, wikimedia, wikicities, and anything else with the prefix or suffix "wiki".

Here is a small selection:


 * Block
 * Action by a sysop, removing from a certain IP-number, range of IPs, or username the ability to edit a wiki. Usually done against addresses that have done vandalism or against users who have been banned.


 * Bot
 * A program that automatically or semi-automatically adds or edits Wikipedia-pages.


 * Category
 * A category is a collection of pages automatically formed by the Wikipedia servers by analyzing category tags in articles. Category tags are in the form  .  The part after the ":" is the name of the Category.    Adding a category tag causes a link to the category and any super-categories to go to the bottom of the page.  As stated, it also results in the page being added to the category listing.


 * Diff
 * The difference between two versions of page, as displayed using the Page history feature, or from Recent Changes. The versions to compare are encoded in the URL, so you can make a link by copying and pasting it - for instance when discussing a change on an article's talk page.


 * Disambiguation
 * Also used: dab, disambig.
 * The process of resolving the conflict that occurs when articles about two or more different topics have the same natural title.


 * Double redirect
 * A redirect which leads to another redirect. Counter-intuitively, this will not bring one to the final destination, so it needs to be eliminated by linking directly to the target redirect.


 * Edit conflict
 * Two or more parties both attempt to save different edits to the same page at the same time. The later edit doesn't take effect, but the editor is prompted to merge their edit with the earlier one.


 * Interwiki
 * A link to a another wiki. This can be an interlanguage link to a corresponding article in a different language version of the same wiki, or a link to a Wikicity or external wiki.


 * Namespace
 * A way to classify pages. Each wiki has namespaces for the main content (articles), pages about the project, user pages, special pages, template pages, and talk pages.


 * Recent changes
 * A dynamically generated page (found at Special:Recentchanges) that lists all edits in descending chronological order.


 * Redirect
 * Also used: redir.
 * A page title which, when requested, merely sends the reader to another page. This is used for synonyms and ease of linking. For example, impressionist might redirect to impressionism.


 * Red link
 * An internal link to a page that has not yet been created.


 * Revert
 * An edit that reverses changes made by someone else.


 * Rollback
 * To change a page back to the version before the last edit. Sysops have special tools to do this more easily.


 * Section editing
 * Using one of the '[edit]' links to the right of each section's title, one can get an edit window containing only the section of the page that's below the [edit] link. This makes it (hopefully) easier to find the exact spot where one wants to edit, and helps you avoiding an edit conflict. You can turn section editing off in your preferences under the "Enable section editing via [edit] links" option.


 * Template
 * A way of automatically including the contents of one page within another page, used for boilerplate text, navigational aids, etc.


 * The above definitions are from Wikipedia. See http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Glossary&action=history for author attributions.

Access levels
What each access level can do is changeable. These are just the defaults.
 * 1) Unregistered user (often misnamed an 'anonymous user'). Can read and edit.
 * 2) User. Can move pages. Has a watchlist.
 * 3) Admin. Can delete and protect pages. Can block users.
 * 4) Bureaucrat. Can make other users into admins.
 * 5) Developer. Can remove access levels from other users on their own wiki. Can assign bot flags
 * 6) Steward. A developer who can change levels across a number of wikis.
 * 7) Bots. Edits are hidden from default recent changes.
 * 8) CheckUser. Can look up the IP of another user, and find out which users have edited from a particular IP.

Interface

 * Logo: where's it from and how can you change it?
 * Navigation bar:
 * Main Page
 * Community Portal
 * Current events
 * Recent changes: what options are available?
 * Random article: how to find a random page in another namespace
 * Help
 * Contact us
 * Site support
 * Search
 * Toolbox
 * What links here
 * Related changes: using related changes to create a wiki within a wiki
 * Upload file: what can be uploaded? Image copyright tags.
 * Special pages (see later)
 * Printable version
 * Permanent link
 * Cite this article
 * Tabs
 * Article/Meta page/User page/etc
 * Discussion
 * Edit
 * History
 * Protect: for locking pages. Available to admins only. The protection will be logged at Special:Log/protect. Click the 'unprotect' tab to unlock the page. The MediaWiki namespace is always protected. It can not be unprotected by admins.
 * Delete
 * Move: for renaming pages)
 * Watch
 * User
 * User page
 * My talk
 * Preferences
 * My watchlist
 * My contributions
 * Log out

Special pages
Basic info
 * All pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Allpages
 * Prefix index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Prefixindex
 * Categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Categories
 * File list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Imagelist
 * Statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics
 * User (and admin) list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Listusers
 * System messages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Allmessages

Additional info
 * Articles with the most categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Mostcategories
 * Articles with the most revisions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Mostrevisions
 * Disambiguation pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Disambiguations
 * File path http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Filepath
 * List redirects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Listredirects
 * Long pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Longpages
 * Short pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Shortpages
 * Most linked to categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Mostlinkedcategories
 * Most linked to images http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Mostimages
 * Most linked to pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Mostlinked
 * Oldest articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Ancientpages
 * Version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Version
 * Site matrix http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:SiteMatrix

Wiki maintenance
 * Broken redirects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BrokenRedirects
 * Cross-namespace links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CrossNamespaceLinks
 * Dead-end pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Deadendpages
 * Double redirects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:DoubleRedirects
 * Orphaned pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Lonelypages
 * Uncategorized categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Uncategorizedcategories
 * Uncategorized pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Uncategorizedpages
 * Unused categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Unusedcategories
 * Unused files http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Unusedimages
 * Wanted categories http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Wantedcategories
 * Wanted pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Wantedpages
 * Unwatched pages (sysop only) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Unwatchedpages

Task based Logs
 * Sign in / create account http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Userlogin
 * Cite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Cite
 * Export pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Export
 * Search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search
 * MIME search http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MIMEsearch
 * Upload file http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Upload
 * Block user (admin only) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Blockip
 * Import pages (admin only) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Import
 * Make a user into a sysop (bureaucrat only) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Makesysop
 * Rename user (bureaucrat only) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Renameuser
 * Contact http://www.wikicities.com/wiki/Special:Contact
 * Logs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Log
 * List of currently blocked IP addresses and usernames http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Ipblocklist
 * New pages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Newpages
 * Gallery of new files http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Newimages
 * Recent changes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Recentchanges

Other
 * Book sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Booksources
 * My preferences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences
 * My watchlist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Watchlist
 * Random article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Editing basics

 * Just click the 'edit' tab
 * No edit tab? Check you're on an article. You can't edit "special" pages. If you see "view source" instead of "edit", the page is protected - only admins can edit it.
 * Show preview - avoid multiple saves by checking your work before saving
 * Edit summary - save people checking your edit - tell them what you've done in the edit summary
 * Minor edits - marking an edit as minor (no content change) means people can hide it in recent changes
 * Watch this page - add this page to your watchlist. This lets you see a list of changes to just the pages you're interested in. You can get email notification on these pages (see later).
 * Special characters
 * Copyright warning (this is editable by admins)

Formatting
--> Practice area

Wikitext

 Bold 

 Italics 

 ==Heading==

 ===Sub heading===


 * * Bullet


 * ** Points


 * : Indetations


 * :: Further indentations


 * 1) # Numbering


 * :# Indented


 * :# numbering

Linking
Linking to a page on the same wiki
 * Internal link

Linking to a section of another page on the same wiki
 * Page

Linking to a section on the current page
 * 

Linking to another wiki
 * Article name
 * Starwars:Page
 * Wikicities:c:creatures

Piped links
 * Home displays as Home

Link suffixes
 * Cats displays as Cats
 * Wikipedians displays as Wikipedians

Piped namespace links
 * Project:Community portal displays as Community portal

Piped bracketted links
 * Pipe (computing) is converted to Pipe which is displayed as Pipe


 * Self links appear bold
 * displays as

Linking to categories
 * Category:Creatures

Linking to an external website
 * Google displays as Google
 * displays as

Discussion pages

 * Click the 'discussion' tab
 * Sign your posts with ~ (3 for a sig, 4 for a sig with timestamp, 5 for just the timestamp)
 * Indent each message with a colon

Uploading files

 * Images
 * Audio and video files

Templates

 * Image copyright tags
 * Stubs
 * Cross-wiki templates

Monitoring pages

 * Related changes
 * Noticeboards
 * Watchlist
 * Wiki page based watchlist
 * Own contributions list

Extensions
These features are not in MediaWiki by default, so you won't be able to use them on every wiki.

Enotif

 * Optional email notification of messages and changes to watched pages.

Spam Blacklist
http://www.wikicities.com/wiki/Spam_Blacklist

Timelines

 * Examples
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Jimbo_Wales&oldid=249639
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Timeline_History_of_Computing
 * Help
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EasyTimeline
 * http://infodisiac.com/Wikipedia/EasyTimeline/Introduction.htm

WikiTeX

 * Help and examples: http://wikisophia.org/wiki/Wikitex
 * Math: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E%3Dmc%C2%B2&action=edit&section=5

Makesysop
For assigning user rights.

CheckUser
For checking IPs.

Inputbox

 * Help: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Inputbox
 * Example: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page

DynamicPageList
Examples
 * http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Template:Developing_stories
 * http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:2006/January/11