Wiki Help

What is a wiki?

A wiki is a kind of collaborative website (wiki wiki means quick). Wikis try to make it as simple as possible to write and share useful content, using intuitive page naming and text formatting conventions. Wikis are usually (but not always) wide open and assume a cooperating community. Anyone can edit, add comments, and make new pages on the spot. It is often possible to upload files and pictures and get email notifications as well.

The most basic aspects of a Wiki are:

a. That new page can be created simply by typing a page title with spaced removed and capital letters (i.e. [Help]?). If the page doesn't exists a question mark (?) will appear after it.

b. Wikis content consists of plain text that is rendered into HTML. So you can creat and edit them with no knowledge of HTML. With a few "basic rules" (see Formatting rules below) on how to structure your text you can create quite advanced pages. See for yourself by pressing "Edit".

Navigation

Each page in a wiki has a unique name, most often a WikiName? - two or more capitalized words joined together. Free-form names, which can be any word or phrase, may also be used. A page name automatically links to that page. ZWiki:RemoteWikiLinks - two wikinames joined by a colon - are links to other sites. You'll also see standard HTML links and URL links.

Certain pages or links provide special functions such as an overview of the wiki ("contents") or list of recently-changed pages ("changes"). These links are visible when you are in "simple" or "full" mode. Or, you can use convenient access keys to navigate.

Click "backlinks" or the page title to see the list of pages which link to this one.

Page hierarchy

Wikis arrange pages in a hierarchy (outline), which helps to organize things when there are many pages. Some hierarchy features are hidden unless you are in full mode (and have reparent permission). You can always see the overall wiki outline by clicking "contents". In full mode, you can

• visit the backlinks screen to reparent the current page (place it in the hierarchy)
• after you have configured a user name, you may also use the page management form at the bottom of the screen to reparent, rename and delete pages.

If enabled by the site admin, you'll also see hierarchy navigation links (next/previous/up) and a list of subtopics on each page.

Editing

You have full editing rights to any page, unless restricted by the site admin. Note your comments may be received by many subscribers. To avoid this, please use AgendaWiki? for test comments. Tips:

• Add a comment using the form at the bottom of the page
• Click "edit" to change the page's text. You may also be able to rename the page, upload a file, or choose other options here.
• When you write a page name in wiki text, it automatically forms a link to that page (free-form names must be enclosed in square brackets). If that page does not yet exist, a ? link will appear; click that when you are ready to create it.
• There are best practices for wiki editing which you'll get to know over time.

Formatting rules

When you save a page, Zwiki formats and links your text according to some standard rules. Different rules are applied depending on the page type; they are described at ZWiki:TextFormattingRules. The default is ZWiki:StructuredText which works like this:

1. non-blank lines are run together to form a paragraph; paragraphs are separated by blank lines
   
2. a one-line "paragraph" followed by a more-indented paragraph makes a heading. Tip: you need only indent the first line.
   
3. a paragraph beginning with - or a number followed by a space makes a bullet or numbered list item; a more-indented list item starts a sub-list
   
4. short text enclosed in *...* , **...** , _..._ or '...' is italic, bold, underlined or monospaced respectively
   
5. WikiNames?, [Free-form name]?s enclosed in brackets, ZWiki:RemoteWikiLinks , http://bare/urls , and Structured Text links are made into hyperlinks
6. HTML tags may be added if necessary; on sites which permit it, DTML (server-side code) may also be used
   
7. short text enclosed in single quotes is quoted, ie displayed in monospace font and protected from some of the above formatting. For reliable quoting of a body of text, indent it after a paragraph ending with a double colon :

          Like this (edit this page to see source).
          This is the surest way to prevent WikiLinks, <HTML tags> and &dtml-tags;
           and preserve
            fixed-width formatting.
   

8. don't bother trying to learn all the text formatting rules and their interactions. Mimic the text around you; when it does something unexpected, tweak it until it looks right; go to the docs or ask for help when you get really stuck or curious.

Finding out more

More about Zwiki: http://zwiki.org