Help:Contents

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[edit] Getting Started

We are using MediaWiki software, the same used by Wikipedia. Wikipedia is, in fact, a good place to practice editing a wiki.

Before you do any editing, you must create an account in this wiki. Please use only your real name and your Otis email. All other contributors will probably be deleted.

See also: Otis Wiki Guide


[edit] How do I create a new page?

  • 1. Go to the page you want the new page to be linked from.
  • 2. Click on the edit tab to edit the page. Add a link to the page you wish to create.
  • 3. The way to create a link is to place the new page's title in brackets: [[title]]. If you highlight the word and click on the AB button at to top of the editing box, the brackets will be inserted for you.
  • 4. Save the page. Your link will show up as a red link which, when clicked, will bring you to an edit page foryour new page.
  • 5. Edit and save your new page.

[edit] How do I upload and embed an image?

To upload an image to the wiki, click on the Special pages link in the footer. Then click on the link for Upload File. Follow the directions for uploading the image.

Please do not upload full-size images from your camera. They should be sized to no larger than about 650 pixels wide.

To see a list of the images uploaded to a wiki, go to the List of files special page.

Go to the page where you want to put it and use the embed image button at the top of the edit box. The page code inside the brackets looks like this:

[[Image:Filename.jpg|left|size|caption|]]

That code will embed the image on the left.

To embed on the right, put a |right after the jpeg. Example:

[[Image:Filename.jpg|right]]

Size for wiki background images: 1200 pixels wide x 1300 pixels tall by 72 dpi, black and white.

For more detailed image formatting information, please refer to these pages in the MediaWiki Handbook and Wikipedia.


[edit] How do I add video?

You cannot upload a video to the wiki, but you can embed videos from different sites, including YouTube. To embed a video, use the Flash Video Extension.

Here is an example of an embedded video.

[edit] How do I spell check my work?

Sorry - that is not available in Media Wiki. Firefox 2.0 has a built-in spell check that works well with Media Wiki

[edit] How do I revert a page to an earlier version?

  • 1. Go to the page you wish to revert, click on the History tab at the top of the page, then click on the time and date of the earlier version you want to revert to. It will not work if you click on 'cur', 'last', or "Compare selected versions".
  • 2. When the page displays, text similar to this: (Revision as of 23:19 Jul 15, 2003), will display. It appears below the page's title, in place of the From {project name}, usually seen.
  • 3. Verify that you've selected the correct version, then click a link to edit the page as you would normally.
  • 4. You'll get a warning, above the edit box, about editing an out-of-date revision.
  • 5. Ignore the warning and save the page.

[edit] How do I create a "block quote?"

In case you were wondering - this is what a blockquote looks like: 

When editing the page, simply leave one blank space at the beginning of the line.

[edit] How do I change the text color?

You use the Span Style tags to mark the color of text 

This is <span style="color:red">red</span> text.
This is <span style="color:orange">orange</span> text.
This is <span style="color:blue">blue</span> text.
This is <span style="color:green">green</span> text.

That produces this look: 

This is red text. This is orange text. This is blue text. This is green text text.

[edit] How Do I Add a Username / Date / Timestamp to my post?

To add your wiki username along with a date and timestamp to the end of your post, simply add 4 tilde symbols (~~~~) at the end of your post.

Enter the code like this: 

This is my post.  ~~~~

And it publishes like this: 

This is my post.  Maberry 10:40, 29 July 2007 (PDT)

Thanks to bavatuesdays.com for many of the above FAQs.

[edit] Other Guides

[edit] For Wiki Admins ONLY

Changing Sidebars

To format the sidebar in a wiki, you have to be logged on a WikiSysOp. Then go to this page on your wiki:

index.php?title=MediaWiki:Sidebar&action=edit


Use this fomatting:

asterisk Page|Name asterisk Category:Page|Name

Examples: 

* navigation
** mainpage|mainpage
** YouTube|YouTube
** Category:Blogs|Blogs

Changing Main Page

To change the default front page of a wiki from Main Page to something else, you have to edit the Mediawiki:mainpage file.

  • Create the page that you want to be front page of the wiki, e.g. Welcome_to_the_San_Joaquin_Valley_Project_Community_Workspace
  • Go to the WIKITITLE/index.php/MediaWiki:Mainpage. The page only contains the text Main Page.
  • Edit the text to name of the page you want to be home page, e.g. Welcome to the San Joaquin Valley Project Community Workspace.
  • Save the page.
  • Edit the sidebar selection for mainpage to something like: 
** Welcome to the San Joaquin Valley Project Community Workspace|Home

You may have to clear your browser's cache for the changes to display.

CSS Modifications

To view the default CSS of your wiki, go to this page on your wiki:

  • /skins/monobook/main.css

If you use a different skin, put its name in the SKIN part of the URL:

  • /skins/SKIN/main.css

Log into the wiki as the WikiSysop user Then go to this page on your wiki:

  • index.php/MediaWiki:Monobook.css
  • index.php/MediaWiki:SKIN.css

Edit that page. If it isn’t already there, add: 

body {background: #EEEEEE 0 0 no-repeat;}
Setting the color in place of the EEEEEE.

Save, and then reload the page.

Copy the sections you want to modify into index.php/MediaWiki:SKIN.css. Please use /* comments */ to explain your changes.

For a detailed list of common CSS classes in most Mediawiki skins, refer to the Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes.


Header Sizes

  • For GUMAX 798 x 148 px Background 1200x 1100 px.
  • For MistyLook 806 x 190 px.


Setting up a New Wiki

To set up new wiki with the gumax skin:

  1. Matt or Sean creates a folder for the new wiki (if new wiki is needed).
  2. Put backgroundcopy.jpg and any named logo images in the root of that wiki folder.
  3. Change localsettings.php logo variable (wglogo) to absolute logo path.
  4. Change skin variable in localsettings.php to "gumax".
  5. Change sitename variable in localsettings.php to the wiki's name.

Enable file uploads:

  • In LocalSettings.php, change $wgEnableUploads = true;
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