Library:Learn to Use the Wiki

From UBC Wiki

Welcome to the Basic Wiki Tutorial! Below is an outline of what we'll be covering.

For information on using wiki embed for putting wiki pages into WordPress pages, refer to the Wiki to WordPress Help article.

What's your Purpose?

Why are you using the wiki? What kind of pages or information are you using the wiki for?

The wiki is a great collaboration tool and with wordpress, makes it easy to publish the same content in different sites.

Check out Library:When to Use the Wiki for more details and ideas on when you might want to use the wiki for library pages.

Step 1: Create a Page

Help:Create_New_Page tells you all the ways to create a new page, and points 1-3 of Library:Home#Wiki_Guidelines discuss best practices when creating a new page.

Namespace

Library pages should always have the format "Library:Page name" format. Library pages are restricted to library staff. If you are a Library staff requiring access, please locate your wiki Username at http://wiki.ubc.ca/Special:Preferences and then send a Web Services request at http://helpdesk.library.ubc.ca/ to be added to the Library namespace. If you do not prefix your page to put it into the Library's namespace (like a directory or folder), it will be editable by anyone with a CWL.

Subpages

You can create subpages for articles related to your page using a forward slash. For example, if your main page is Library:My_Branch then you can have Library:My_Branch/More_Info_Page.

Import Content

If someone has created a (sub)page that you want to use, then please make use of transclusion or importing of content. More on that through Help:Templates.

Step 2: Formatting & Headings

Basic formatting is quite simple, especially with the use of the tool bar.

  1. Type your text.
  2. Italicize or bold by highlighting the text and clicking on the appropriate button, which will put two and three apostrophes respectively around the appropriate text. You can even combine them to make bold and italicized text.

For more options and tips on formatting, check out Help:Formatting.

Headings

You want to organize your text using different levels of headings like any other document. On a new line, select the appropriate heading level (it's under Advanced on the toolbar) and fill in your text. The more equal signs, the lower level the heading. For example, "Headings" has 3 = signs on either side on a line of its own.

Notice that by the time you get to 5 equal signs it look more or less just like bold. The difference is that headers will automatically show up in the table of contents.

For more on headers, take a look at Help:Formatting#Headers_.26_Lines.

Step 3: Links & Images

Links

Links can be either internal (to another wiki page) or external (to another webpage). If you use the toolbar, place your cursor where you want the link inserted and type all appropriate text in the box (as opposed to highlighting it).

  • Internal Links: uses the format [[wiki page name|optional display name]] (capitalization sensitive).
  • External Links: links will automatically link to the page, but if you want it to link some words use the format [link description], for example[http://www.ubc.ca UBC Homepage], which gives UBC Hompage.

For more on links, see Help:Links

Images

To add an image, click on the "embed file" or use [[Image:image name.ext]]. To resize, you can add "|200px" (for example to change the width to 200 pixels) after the image name to resize the image. You can also center the image by adding "|center" before the close bracket.

For more options and information, read over Help:Adding_Media, which includes adding other types of media.

Step 4: Categorize

Add your page to one or more appropriate categories. At the bottom of your page, add your page to a category using the format [[Category:category name]]. Each category will be listed at the bottom of the page.

For example, you should see "UBC Wiki" at the bottom of this page. You can also view the category page which shows you all the pages in that category. Categories help you organize and pool your pages together without having to keeping a list.

You can also make subcategories! See Help:Categories for more on categories.

Step 5: Save!

Finally, add a quick note in the "Summary:" box to let people know what you did, and save!

At any time, if you just want a preview, you can use the preview button instead. You can also undo your change, by going to the "history" tab and clicking on "undo" to undo all the revisions up to that point.

Rename/Move/Delete a Page

You can also rename a page by moving it (using the move tab at the top). If you would like to delete a page, you may mark it for deletion by putting {{Delete}} at the top of the wiki page and the Wiki Administrator will delete it for you.

Best Practices

We touched on wiki guidelines already, but here is the full set.

Here are some basic guidelines to follow in order to help keep the UBC Wiki organized and well maintained.

  1. Consider about Privacy
    • Everything on UBC Wiki is public. Take a look at Help:Privacy to consider and make decisions about what you are putting online
  2. Search first before creating.
    • Always search for a page or category which may already exist that is similar to what you want to create. In particular, it can save you time to import the content rather than recreate any content you need.
  3. Give your page a concise and descriptive name.
    • For example, you want to create a tutorial on searching for information on statistics. However, if you name your page "Statistics" or "Statistics Tutorial", people will generally think it is a page which describes statistics. A better name might be "Searching for Statistics Tutorial".
  4. Organize.
    • Make sure that any pages you create are in the right space of the wiki. Any pages created for library staff use should be in the Library namespace. Make sure your page is prefixed with "Library:", such as wiki.ubc.ca/Library:Example_page.
  5. Categorize.
    • In order to help organize the wiki and for others to find things, categorize pages into existing or new categories. Just be sure new categories have a good name as well. Categories cannot be renamed.
  6. Leave notes.
    • Pages in the Library namespace can be edited by any library staff. Everyone is encouraged to help keep content up to date and organized, but it would be helpful (particularly with large edits) to fill in the "Summary" box with what you changed. If you are uncertain about something, you can leave comments in the edit box itself or make use of the "discussion" tab at the top of the page.
  7. Enjoy!
    • The wiki is a great collaborative, organization, and creativity tool!

Other Resources