Difference between revisions of "Help:Create new article"

Latest revision as of 07:21, 11 April 2015

First steps

When you are registered and logged in, click on "Edit" to view the source code of a page. Click through a few pages to get a sense of the structure of pages. In text formatting you will see later, how you can change the raw Wiki code with Wiki syntax. But this can wait!

TangoWiki is based on the same software (MediaWiki) as the big Wikipedia, many rules that apply there, apply also here.

Create a new page

• Before you create a new page, always check if the page already exists, maybe under another name. The simplest way to do so is in the list of all pages.

There are a few ways to create a new page:

Use Wikilinks

If links to another page are placed on a Wiki page (via [[Article name]]), then these links will show in red color, as there is no such page yet. With a click on this red link you will be directed to the empty page in editor mode. You can add text, save the page and the article is created.

• Not yet created articles will show in the color red.
• Created articles have links in the color blue.
• (Created pages you have already visited, will show links in the color purple.)

Create a wanted page

The list of all wanted pages shows all articles that have been linked to but haven't yet been created.

Use a URL

Every article has a unique URL. Therefore, you can also directly type in a URL into your browser bar to create a new article. The URLs look like this:

• http://tangowiki.org/wiki/ARTICLE

For "ARTICLE" you write the desired article name. With a click onto "Create" (or "Edit") you change into editing mode. Write your text, save. Important hints:

• Use underscores _ instead of spaces in the URL.
• Type letters you want to be created as capitals also as capitals in the URL. (URLs in TangoWiki are case-sensitive!)

Use the search results to create an article

If you are searching for an article and it does not exist yet, TangoWiki will offer you to create it.

Use a form

There are many forms in the TangoWiki, which help with creating and editing articles. See the category "forms" for all forms existing.

See also how to use forms here in the user manual.

Choose a name for the article

When choosing a page name, i.e. a working URL for the page, make sure to not include the following characters: # < > [ ] | { } _ + : and no HTML characters.

Avoid full stop . and slashes / . Slashes can be used in page names, but separate the page into subpages.

Also avoid tildes ~ and the percentage sign %.

Do not use underscores. Spaces will get substituted by underscore (and therefore an underscore means a space – there is no underscore in the URL).

All page titles will get capitalized. The first letter is always big.

For example: The website "tango.info" is written on TangoWiki Tango.info.

Write the article

In editing mode you can change the text of a page.

Use headings, links and formatting to design the article. Formatting can also be done later or be left to other TangoWiki users.

Finish the page: Preview and save

1. Use the Preview ("Preview" at the top" or "Show preview" at the bottom), to check the article before you save it.
2. Write a short summary of the content.
3. Save the page via "Save page" or "Publish".

Watch the article

Mark "Watch this page" when saving the page. Watching a page helps with staying informed about changes on a page. You will receive a short email (only once per page until you have visited the page again), which allows you to keep better track of changes.

If you forgot to tick the box and want to watch a page, you can click on the arrow next to the version history and choose "Watch this page" anytime. This also works for pages that you haven't created yourself.

You find all changes of pages you watch under "Watchlist" in the top menu.

For a different default setting for watching pages change your settings in your user account:

• Preferences > Watchlist > "Add pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist"

Mark an article as "In process"

If you need a bit longer for the creation of an article, you can mark it to prevent other users from changing it.

Add the following code at the beginning of the source code of the article:

{{In process}}

This code creates a message box with the message box template "In process" at the beginning of the article and sorts the article into the Category:In process. Once you are done with the first version of the article and you want to send it out for reading and possible changes through other users, you can take away the code snipplet from the source code and the box will disappear.

Read on

• Text formatting
• Use templates
• Use forms
• Template:In process
• Special:WantedPages

Weblinks

• Wikipedia: Starting an article
• MediaWiki: Starting a new page
• MediaWiki: Manual:Page title – about the naming of pages