Getting Started
From WolfWikis
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The Basics
The following are some basic steps for a successful wiki.
Decide where to create your page
Several broad categories have been set up to help organize WolfWikis content on the homepage. If your content is most relevant to a specific audience, you can select the appropriate category (For Faculty, For Students, or For Staff) and create your wiki page there. For example, if you'd like to make a page for your dorm or student association, you can use the For Students category. For course-related wiki pages, select the appropriate subject area under the Courses category and add a link to your wiki page from there. If your page doesn't seem to fit well in any of these categories, feel free to use the Wiki Commons category.
When adding a link to your new wiki page under one of these categories, please try to add it to the list in alphabetical order so that it will be easy to find in the future.
If your page is closely related to another wiki page, you don't need to use the category pages at all. You can simply create the link to your new page within the text of the existing page. For example, the course HIS 110 might have a main page linked under the Courses->Social Sciences category, with additional pages linked only from this main page. Or students could create a single Dorm Life page in the For Students category and then add links to all individual dorm pages from this Dorm Life page.
Create your new page
After selecting the most appropriate category for creating your wiki page, you'll see an alphabetical list of previously created pages. To create a new wiki page, you simply need to create a link to the page. Click on the [edit] link at the top of the page to the right of the word Index. If you have not already logged in, you will be asked to do so. In the text editor that opens, add the title of your wiki page to the list in alphabetical order . Make sure you use the same format as the other items in the list, using the asterisk and square brackets. For example, type * [[HIS 110]] to create a link to a wiki page called HIS 110. Click the 'Save page' button to save your changes.
The link to your new page should appear in red in the list on the index page.
Naming your page properly
Please name your page properly. If you wish to add a page of, say, readings for course HIS 110 then call it HIS 110\Readings, not just Readings because other courses may have their readings too. Notice that the system automatically capitalizes the first character only. This means that [[this]] and [[This]] produce the same page but [[THIS]] does not.
Add content to your page
Once you've created a link to your new page, it should appear in red. That means the page doesn't have any content yet. By clicking on the red link, you'll see the text editor where you can add content to your new page. Make sure you click 'Save page' when you're done editing so you don't lose your changes.
If you create a link to a new page and it shows up in blue, that probably means that someone has already created a page with that title. You can check out the existing content - you may want to collaborate with the person who created it. If you still want to create a new page, just pick a slightly different title for your link.
Pictures can be uploaded to the WolfWikis space and linked in wiki pages. In the "toolbox" section on the left sidebar, select "Upload file". Once the file is uploaded, you can link to it using the [[Image:filename]] tag. You may also link to external images.
Edit your page
You can always go back and edit the content on your wiki pages. Make sure that you login first, though.
Once you're viewing the page you want to edit, you can click the edit tab at the top of the page to make changes anywhere on that page. If you don't see an edit tab, you're probably not logged in. If you only want to edit a section of the page, use the [edit] links down the right side of the page. They'll appear for each section heading you add to your page.
View past changes to your page
Although other WolfWikis contributors can make changes to your page, you can always use the page history to see what has been changed and undo those changes. At the top of the page next to the edit tab, there should be a tab labelled history. Click on this tab to view the history of page changes. To see the differences between 2 versions of a page, select the radio button next to the versions you want to compare and click 'Compare selected versions'. Each column will show a single version of the page, with differences highlighted.
To view an older version of a page, click on the date/timestamp for the older version. In order to undo changes and go back to a previous version of a page, you need to select the desired version by clicking on its date/timestamp and then edit and resave that page . For more information on how to revert a page to an older version, see the Reverting section of the MediaWiki Handbook.
Link to your page
Every page in the wiki has a bookmarkable URL. The easiest way to share your wiki page with others is to simply copy the URL from your web browser when you are viewing your page and send the URL to the people you'd like to see your page.
Rename your page
Page names are important in WolfWikis because the page name becomes the link used to access the page. If you change the text of a link to another wiki page, you will break the link and 'lose' the page you were linking to. If you would like to simply change the text that describes the link, you can use this syntax for the link [[original link text|text to appear on page]].
For example, you might create a page with the original title 'Dormitory Life'. After adding some content, you may decide you'd rather have the link read 'Dorm Life'. To change the way the text of the link reads, you would make this change to the link in the wiki page: [[Dormitory Life|Dorm Life]]. The first part is the actual link, the second part is that text that actually displays.
At times, you may really want to change the actual location of your page by moving it to a new name. You can use the move tab at the top of the page you want to move. You can enter a new title for your page, and this will create a new URL based on that title. Existing links to the old page title in WolfWikis will redirect to the new title. It is not recommended to use this feature unless absolutely necessary as it could result in broken links.
Deleting your page
Only site administrators can truly delete a page. As an author, you can change or remove the contents of a page, but the page will still exist. In addition, all previous content will still be recorded in that page's history. So, please think carefully before creating a new page. If you really do need a page to be deleted, send an e-mail to lib_webteam@ncsu.edu (the "Contact Us" link below) and include the exact page name to be deleted and a reason for deletion.