Wiki is supposed to be easy to use, but the very first steps may not be obvious, especially on a busy web page layout such as ours.

Before we start, if you haven't already received the orientation spiel about wiki and the purpose of KPLUG's wiki, go have a look at WikiIntro, then come back here.

So here is the formula for becoming a wiki contributor.

There's just a few important things to know:

Only registered website users (members) can edit

Be aware that the use of the term member within this website refers to registered website users. That use of the term has no connection to a KPLUG Member. We will try to use the fully qualified term KPLUG Member when we talk about membership in Kernel-Panic Linux User Group (see http://www.kernel-panic.org/wiki/KplugMembership/). There are some pages on this wiki that confuse the two terms, but we'll try to get that fixed.

So to become a registered website member (anybody can) ..

• You can click either on the New user? button in the log in panel below the leftside menu, or on the join link on right side of the shaded bar under the topmost navigation tabs.
• Then in the Registration Form, you choose your username and password, and provide your email address. After successfully joining you may click a login now button on the registration confirmation page (otherwise you will need to login as in the next paragraph).

In general (eg, when you return in another browser session) if you wish to be able to edit wiki pages, you have to login, by either the log in button on the left menu or the log in link on the topmost shaded bar.

When you have successfully logged in, you will see a user icon and your username on the topmost shaded bar. You may wish to explore the my folder and my preferences links that also appear after your username. You can create content of various types in your folder area, but for now let's move on to contributing to the main wiki.

Also note that when you are logged in, the wiki navigation bar (the inner green bar that shows only for wiki pages) gets an extra tab (edit) sticking up, and an extra dropdown link (add new item) on the greenbar itself. Those are not shown until you log in.

If you have used the browser's back arrow, you may need to refresh or re-click on the wiki tab to get those extra indications that you are logged in.

For completeness, note that you may run across wiki pages that have been protected (set non-editable), but they are currently uncommon.

How to edit an existing wiki page

Note: Many new wikizens (wiki citizens) are reluctant first-time editors, so just about every wiki provides a SandBox, where people are encouraged to experiment .. nothing done there will cause anybody any harm or annoyance.

Let's suppose something trivial, like you notice a typo or grammatical error. Generally, in the wiki world everyone is more than welcome to click on the edit tab and fix such a problem. Clicking on edit gives a big text box labeled Body text which can be edited right in your browser. Be sure to click on the save button (a few inches) below the edit box before navigating away. There is a preview button, which may be useful or reassuring. But remember to save.

In general, you are expected to use some judgement in deciding whether it is appropriate to revise/correct text or append commentary. Nevertheless, the general idea of wiki is to encourage participation. Even in the worst case, changes can be easily undone. You may wish to refer to WikiRules for additional information on local practice.

People sometimes ask why wiki administrators don't worry about vandalism. Well, the ease of repair minimizes the cost. And it seems, for the most part, that vandals lose interest when their efforts produce little bragging-value and little annoyance-value.

How to create a new wiki page

The most common first step is to notice that an existing page might benefit from a link to a related subject. Then you edit that existing page, and add a page name link to a not-yet-existing page (that you intend to create). The idea is that you invent a NewWikiName? that will become the title of your new page. That new name will show slightly different than links to existing pages; it will have a trailing question mark colored like a link. If you click on that question mark, it brings up a page creation form, and when you perform a save from that form, the link becomes a fully colored link line, say, WikiWord, ie, a camel-case word that references an existing page.

The recipe above will cause an end-section to tbe added to the original page (showing subtopics). This way of creating a page makes a parent-child (ie, subtopic) relationship, which may not always make contextual sense. Or the end-section may be undesirable: the page's author just may not like the looks of a long subtopic section at the end of his page. See the tips section below for other alternatives.

When you edit, you may notice the Upload file or image feature. This is not for uploading a wiki page. I don't remember if/how to upload a file into the content box. What I usually do is choose "select all" in my local editor, then choose paste from the browser right-mouse context menu in the page-edit form.

Also note that pages can be linked-to from any page, whether they have a parent or not. And, pages may be renamed (links automatically get updated), and pages may also be re-parented (or un-parented).

What's all this structured text and wiki markup stuff?

The first thing to know is that you can get along with almost no concern for wiki markup. Just pay a little attention to the indentation and asterisks and quotes and brackets in existing pages that you edit. In new pages, just ignore markup altogether and see what happens.

You may want to remember one simple starting-rule about the structured text markup language used on this wiki: you should (must) separate paragraphs, and various other markup objects with a blank line.

For more than that, see the tips, below, and remember to go play around on the SandBox page. Plain text in paragraphs separated by one blank line is a good start.

Tips and more information

Other links on the WikiEditing page may also provide some tutorial help.

In the meantime, some specific pages on markup below may be helpful

• Help on Structured Text
• An Introduction to Structured Text
• http://plone.org/documentation/how-to/structured-text-cheatsheet/

For just a taste of using structured text markup, consider these additional tips

• Avoid using double-dashes; that is actually interpreted as a markup recipe for definition list
• Simple emphasis can be obtained by surrounding things with * or ** or _ to give italics, bold, or underline.
• Preformatting (which ignores all markup) can be done inline, as here (using single quote delimiters), or blocked by an indented section following ::, as:

    This is a preformatted-block. It could be a paragraph
      with embedded line endings (which are preserved). 
     Even 
      short
       lines
                   and varying indents.
  
     It could be multiple paragraphs (same indent).
  
    If you write a really wide line of text, the preformat will probably introduce a horizontal scrollbar when displayed.
  
     The preformat block will end on the first new para 
       or other object (eg, list item)that starts with a 
          lower indentation level.
  

.

This ends the preformat. That's probably more than you wanted to know about that, eh? The dot above is an attempt to cope with bugs in the markup interpreter (or in my knowledge).

• You can create a page without a parent by choosing wiki page from the add new item dropdown. Note that when you do that, wiki presets the page name to something based on the date. You should immediately overwrite that with your intended name, save immmediately, and then re-edit to starting adding content. The immediate save is necessary to ensure having your name get saved before some automatic background magic subverts your chosen name!
• You can make a page name other than in WikiWord style, by enclosing any name in brackets .. see wiki page names.
• Headings are a headache! See the structured text references above, and/or (then) edit this page to find some examples.
• You can use other than structured text (eg html, etc), but that makes it harder for others. It's better if most everything uses the same convention, even if there are some awkward spots.
• It's too easy to navigate away from an unfinished wiki editing session, so it's worth emphasizing: remember to save!
• When you save, leave the Page Type selection button at the existing setting unless you have some reason to change the format. In general, the existing setting will be Structured Text.