Editing Guide

From Beaulieu College

Wait, what? Editing wikis is not as straightforward as you'd perhaps like. So it's not Word, but you'll soon find it's not rocket science either. The basics of editing a wiki are easy enough for anyone to pick up. In fact, most people can work out what is going on when they look at the text behind a wiki. To see what we mean, just click on the edit or view source link above and see if you can work out what is happening.

You will see that the text looks remarkably boring.

In fact, it looks a lot like this! In order to get the '''bold''' formatting, 
or perhaps ''italic'' you need to put special formatting. One of the really 
powerful uses is to be able to link to other pages easily. So it would be 
easy to link to this page using this link: [[Editing Guide]]

If we look at this in the proper view, we see this:

In fact, it looks a lot like this! In order to get the bold formatting, or perhaps italic. One of the really powerful uses is to be able to link to other pages. So it would be easy to link to this page using this link: Editing Guide

Log In

You have to be logged in before you can edit. This is to prevent the documents being abused too much. You log in using the same login name and password as you normally do to use a computer.

Editing Text

Every page has an "Edit" link at the top. All you need to do to change a page is click on the "Edit" link. Once you do this, you will be shown a very spartan text representation of the page. Below, we explain what this all means and how it works. Changing the text, though, is very easy. Once you're done, you can "Preview" your changes (which we recommend -- self-editing is a valuable skill!) and finally "Save" your amendments to the document.

Editing Sections

Next to each heading you will see an "[edit]" link. This lets you edit just a single section. In longer documents this can be handy instead of having to find the text you want to change in the whole page. This is also important if many people are editing the document at the same time. If they all edit the whole document, then the person who saves last will replace all the other changes that were made. However, by editing sections, provided that two people aren't editing the very same section, then you can have many people working on exactly the same document at the same time. That is cool.

Basic Editing

Text editing is not complicated at all. You can even copy and paste things from a Word document if you'd like. The only problem here is that your tables and lists will be affected (see below!).

Because of the wild variations that can happen in text formatting, the Wiki will treat any text that appears on immediately following lines as a single paragraph:

One
word
per
line

This will be displayed as: One word per line.

To sparate paragraphs, you will need a blank line between them:

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2
still Paragraph 2

This displays as follows:

Paragraph 1

Paragraph 2 still Paragraph 2

Font Styles

One of the first things that you'll notice in the editing pages is that your text appears without any formatting.

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

An important concept of Wikis is that they are there to contain information and not necessarily make it look incredibly beautiful. The formatting that is available to us is limited. We have to indicate it using special sequences of characters (usually on either side of the text). For example.

Italic

Italics are indicated with two inverted commas:

This was decided by the Head ''et al.'' and will continue on an ''ad hoc'' basis, effectively maintaining the ''status quo''.

In this example, the Latin phrases et al., ad hoc and status quo have been italicised.

Bold

If I want to make something bold, we use three inveted commas:

'''NB:''' This is a '''very''' interesting concept.

In this example, NB and very are in bold text.

Bold Italic

This section might confuse a little, but it's unlikely that you will ever have to use both of these at the same time!

It is possible to combine bold and italic to get this. This often looks like five inverted commas in a row, but is actually two followed by three (or three followed by two?)

This is '''''very''''' interesting. 
This is '''''bold and italic'' and this is bold'''. 
But here, '''''this is bold and italic''' and this is italic''.

Here is the example for you to examine: This is very interesting. This is bold and italic and this is bold. But here, This is bold and italic and this is italic.

Notice, if you will, the order in which the inverted commas are paired off? In the first example, we get five inverted commas which could be two then three (italics then bold) or two then three (bold then italics). There is no way to tell. In the second and third, however, the Wiki can tell this because after the five inverted commas, it next comes across two, meaning that the italics part is over. Then the three at the end indicate that the bold is over. In the last example, the bold is over first.

Indenting

There might come a time when you'd like to indent something. This can be done by placing a ":" at the start of the paragraph.

:''Never, never give up! Never surrender!'' - Winston Churchill

Note the additional use of italics here?

Never, never give up! Never surrender! - Winston Churchill

Indented Indents

It is possible to indent text at different levels:

: Indent 1
:: Indent 2
:: Indent 2
::: Indent 3
: Indent 1

Indent 1

Indent 2

Indent 3

Indent 1

Lists

Bullets

There is no simple bulleted list button! In order to create a bulleted list, you need to use the * character to indicate a list item:

* Apples
* Bread
* Cheese

Produces this list:

Apples
Bread
Cheese

Simple?

Numbers

A numbered list is also easy: instead of a *, you need a # character.

# Mix ingredients
# Put in baking tray
# Bake at 180 deg C.

Produces, unsurprisingly, this list:

Mix ingredients
Put in baking tray
Bake at 180 deg C.

One word of caution: If you want consecutive numbering, the list items must be directly underneath each other. Leaving a line between them will do this:

# item 1
# item 2

# item 3

item 1
item 2

item 3

Item 3 reverts back to being numbered "1." -- this is because the empty line between the two sections forces the Wiki to treat them as separate lists.

Sublists

This is possibly easier than you expect: The same technique works for numbered lists, bulleted lists and even a combination of the two. See if you can work out how this list works!

* List
** Sub-list
** Sub-list
*** Sub-sub-list
*** Sub-sub-list

List
- Sub-list
- Sub-list
  - Sub-sub-list
  - Sub-sub-list

# One
# Two
## Two point one
## Two point two
### Two point two point one
## Two point three
# Three

One
Two
1. Two point one
2. Two point two
  1. Two point two point one
3. Two point three
Three

The next "advanced" matter is that you can combine these lists:

# One
# Two
#* Two bullet
#* Two bullet
# Three
## Three point one
## Three point two
##* Three point two bullet
##*# Three point two bullet point one

One
Two
- Two bullet
- Two bullet
Three
1. Three point one
2. Three point two
  - Three point two bullet
    1. Three point two bullet point one

Headings

You will have noticed the table of contents at the top of this page. The Wiki generates that list of contents automatically based on the headings that it finds in the document.

Headings are indicated with "=" signs.

== Section Heading ==
=== Subheading ===
==== Sub-subheading ====
===== Sub-sub-subheading =====

The number of equals signs on either side of your headings needs to match. We haven't included demonstrations of the headings, because there are plenty of headings about this page! Click on an [edit] link to see more!

Linking Text

Internal Links

Links are crucial to the good functioning and usefulness of a Wiki and largely is the entire reason for a Wiki! They allow you to jump to useful pages for more information. And creating a link is dead-easy. All you have to do is add [[ ]]'s around the text that you want made into a link.

Please make sure to read the [[Code of Conduct]] in conjunction with this document.

Gives: Code of Conduct.

If the link is red, then you have linked to a page that does not yet exist in the Wiki. If you think this is wrong, then do a search and see what the title of the page is actually. The spelling and capitalisation of the text in the words needs to be an exact match. Code of Conduct is not the same as Code Of Conduct or Code of conduct.

It is possible to change the text that is displayed and have it link to a different page:

Please make sure to read [[Code of Conduct|this important document]] before continuing.

The link above will direct the user to the Code of Conduct page, but will show this: Please make sure to read this important document before continuing.

External Links

Links to pages outside the site are a little different: they just need to be surrounded by [ ]'s.

Click here to visit the Beaulieu College website: [http://www.beaulieucollege.co.za]

Which will give you this: Click here to visit the Beaulieu College website: [1]

Sometimes it's nice to have text that is shown instead of the [1] placeholder. To do this, simply add the text you want to appear as a link after the address inside the brackets:

Click here to visit the [http://www.beaulieucollege.co.za Beaulieu College website].

This gives a prettier link: Click here to visit the Beaulieu College website.

Tables

Tables, sadly, are the least easy thing to draw up in a Wiki. However, they are not completely impossible if you can do some cut-and-paste.

The basic format for a table is this:

{| border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;" cellpadding=4
! Column A     !! Column B     !! Column C
|-
| Row 1A       || Row 1B       || Row 1C
|-
| Row 2A       || Row 2B       || Row 2C
|}

This gives the table this apparance:

Column A	Column B	Column C
Row 1A	Row 1B	Row 1C
Row 2A	Row 2B	Row 2C

Some points to note:

The first row: {| border=1 ... defines the start of the table and how the borders look. I could explain it more, but its easier just to cut-and-paste... I do...
Next we have a line starting with a !. This indicates a header row. You will notice that the headings are bold, and we didn't specifically ask for them to be?
Notice that the first column in a row begins with a single ! (for headers) or a | (for normal rows), but subsequent columns are indicated with a double !! or ||.
The spacing between the columns is there for aesthetic reasons only. It makes it easier to edit.
|- indicates a new row
|} indicates the end of a table.
You can have as many rows and columns as you'd like.

If you can, use a list rather than a table, especially for paragraphs of text.

Inclusions

It is also possible to include a page as part of another wiki page. This is not one particularly often (it makes editing the page a little confusing when you suddenly realise that you're editing another document completely) with whole pages, but it is done occasionally with templates.

To include a whole page, you would do this:

{{Code of Conduct}}

That would include the Code of Conduct into this document at that point. We won't show you that right now, however, because it's confusing to see that document inside this one!

Most commonly, you'll see the Document Revision Template. As you would expect, you include it by using the code:

{{DocumentReview}}

Document Review Information
Annual Review
Reviewed By:	{{{reviewer}}}
Review Month:	[[:Category:Policy Review: {{{review_date}}}\|{{{review_date}}}]]
Committee:	{{{committee}}}
Current Document
Updated By:	Philip
Last Update:	2 November 2009
This Version:	1525

[[Category:Policy Review: {{{review_date}}}]] And that includes the block on the right. Note, however, that it's missing a lot of details? These can be specified in the template by setting the values in {{{...}}}s to appropriate values:

{{DocumentReview
| reviewer      = [[Head of Admin and Planning]]
| review_date   = As needed
| committee     = N/A
| last_reviewer = [[PON]]
| approval_date = N/A
| version       = 123
}}

Document Versioning

Each time you save a document, it is possible to find that exact revision you made -- this is one of the core reasons why Wikipedia is not vandalised! Those changes can simply be undone to a previous version. In Wikipedia's case, they have every single revision ever made. To the entire encyclopaedia.

Because we have policies that need to be ratified and approved by various stakeholders, yet allow them to be available to constant change, the Document Review box allows us to record the version number of the last approved document. Then other changes can be made to the document and we simply need to click on the version number that is displayed to see the last approved document.

One can also see, at a glance, what changes have been made by clicking on the "differences" link at the bottom of the box. It shows you the changes that have been made between the version you are looking at and the last officially approved version.

How do you know what version a page is? The Document Review box lists this as This version:. Once you have approval for your document, make a note of the number, edit the page and change the version number on the line that says version = .... The rest is taken care for you.