Epistemowikia Revista «Hiperenciclopédica» de Divulgación del Saber Segunda Época, Año VII Vol. 6, Núm. 4: de octubre a diciembre de 2012 (en curso)	Epistemowikia es parte de CALA → ALA | Communitas | Evolvere Editio | Epistemowikia | Exercitatio | Fictor | Flor

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Introduction

This page is intended as a small guide with basic recommendations for the editing of articles on Epistemowikia. Editing a wiki page is anything but complex: it is as simple as clicking the edit tab. Once done, you will be shown a page-editing box, a kind of word processor, easy to use, that includes a number of icons allowing for the creation of both internal and external links, selection of font type and size, insertion of a picture, and so on.

Before actually starting any writing, you can read cómo titular artículos, so that you can begin doing things right from the outset. Start writing without hesitation and when you think things are the way you like them, click on the show preview button to see the final look of the page you have just edited. If you like it, click on the save button, otherwise go back to edit the article and change things you are not fully happy with.

Once you are familiar with the Media Wiki interface and aware of the functionality of the totality of the icons and some of the more basic wiki commands, the next step for you would be practising, doing and undoing, once and again, whatever you want in a page, trying out functionalities and practicing without fear so that you eventually get a good command of the Media Wiki software. For practising we have set out a testing area where you can start using the wiki commands.

Internal links

Internal links allow to hyperlink an article to another one, i.e., if for instance you are writing an article where you mention the French Revolution, most problably there will exist another article call the French Revolution, with an internal link we can directly access that article to read it, complete the information and getting new one so that the article can improve. Once we create the internal link, if in the preview mode the link is shown in blue, it means that the linked article already exists in Epistemowikia, otherwise it will be shown in red, meaning that the article is blank and needs editing.

To create a internal link, simply add square brackets before and after the linked word, .... You can also select the word or words in question and press the button on the edit bar.

External links

To create an external link or a web link we have two choices: either by directly writing the url address - the media wiki software will automatically interpret as web links those links starting by http://, for example, a link to web: http://www.campusvirtual.unex.es, or using square brackets before and after the link with this result [1]. If you want a title to show, write it after the link, with a space between them . the effect of the following example Universirty of Extremadura Virtual Campus has been created by typing the following: [http://www.campusvirtual.unex.es Campus Virtual de la UEX].

Yet another way to link to a web site is by clicking on the Mediawiki editing bar icon once you have written and selected the url address. Do not worry if the address does not show. By clicking on the resulting active link the url in question will be opened.

How to create a new page

We have two choices to do this:

• As mentioned above, if we make an internal link by writing a word between square brackets, a new link will be created automátically. Once you save the page, click on the new link to start editing the new page.
• Another possibility is to create a new page by writing the intended title into the Epistemowikia internal search box, then press the Go button to open the article editor: the page open with have the title originally written in the search box.

Subpages

What is a subpage?

A subpage is a wiki page subordinated to parent one. If we could talk of a page as a book, then a subpage would be a chapter. Using subpages brings in advantages among which we can point out the following:

• Simple structuring and organization of articles and books.
• Easy structuring and organization of distintos puntos de vista around the same topic.
• A much easier linking of sections between subpages of the same article.
• It only shows the topic, section or specific subsection, so that the user is not overwhelmed by receiving too much information at once. In this way, attention is focused on the intended information.
• Web browsers will work faster since the amount of information to show at every moment will be small. This would not happen if the entire article were shown at once.

How to create a subpage

To write an article with subpages, we will have to adapt to the following structure using the wiki commands:

• the general struture

[[Main Page/Subpage n/|Subpage n.n]]

• If we follow the naming logic, we can write an sizeable artible with the help of concurring subpages with the added value of a good structure.

[[Article Title/Section Title/|Subsection Title]]

• For a book, we would proceed differently:

[[Book Title/Chapter Title/Section Title/Subsection Title]]

• And for opinion articles and their respective points of view - SPOV (Sympathetic Points Of View), we would use

[[SPOV 1/SPOV 1.1/|SPOV Title 1.1]]

How to link subpages

As described above, internal links within an article, book or the different points of view are much easier to write if the are organized with subpages. Link types:

• Linking to a subpage hanging from the current page:

[[/Subpage]]

• If we want to link the main page to subpage 2 when writing on the former, we have three options:
  • write the link in full

[[Main Page/Subpage 2/Subpage 2]]

• • Omit the reference to current page (main page):

[[/Subpage 2/|Subpage 2]]

• • Omit the current, main page as well as the section reference

[[/Subpage 2/]]

• Link current page to parent page

[[../]] The two dots '..' implicitly point to the parent page's, or main page's, name.

• If we want to explicitly write the higher, parent or main page's name, we can do so.

[[Main Page/]]

• Link to a sister page, i.e., to a page on the same level of the hierachical structure.

[[../Sister]]

• To make a link from subpage 1 to subpage 2, we would use

[[../Subpage 2]]

or by indicating the full route, i.e., from main page onwards:

[[Página Principal/Subpágina 2]]

Warning: Special care should be taken not to include spaces before or after the slashes separating parts. Link recognition problems might arise on the MediaWiki software part.

[[Main Page / Subpage 1|Subpage 1]]

How to categorize a group of pages

To categorize, we need to proceed from the higher page, i.e., the system asumes that the main page includes a series of subpages on the same topic. If we have a subpage 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, ... up to 1.n, 'about a same topic', which in turn match a particular category, we should categorize those pages from the one conaining them:

[[Category:Main Page|Subpage 1]]

Images

In order to use images for their inclusion in articles, we will have to upload the image file onto the Epistemowikia archive gallery. This is done from here, once the image has been uploaded. Then we need to use the following wiki command [[image:image title(same name as the uploaded image file)]]

Indenting paragraphs

To indent a line we use the [:] command at the beginning of it. If we want it double, make the command double [::] and so on to the intended indenting depth.

Sections

We can add divisions and subdivisions of an article by using a wiki command, making the explanation in question clearer and better structured. Do it by adding an equal sympol = before and after the section name: (= thus =).

The number of = define the section or subsection hierarchal level, as in the example:

=Section 1= 
==Section 1.1== 
=Section 2=
==Section 2.1==
===Section 2.1.1===
===Section 2.1.2===
==Section 2.2==
=Section 3=

The number of = also affects the format of the section title. For example, one = affects the font size.

Changing font size can also be done automatically by selecting the section title we want to create and clicking on the icon showing on the edit bar .

Creating different sections enables the direct edition of that particular section, avoiding having to edit the entire page. When a section is created a right top corner edit tab will show. Clicking on it will open the editing box of that particular section. This facilitates access if we want to edit a sole section for there will be a direct link to its edition.

Content tables

On the same article, the creation of three or more sections will automatically generate a table of content, which is equivalent to the indexation of the article section names. The automatically generated index keeps the order of the article and differenciates between section names depending on the hierarchy level where they were included. Content tables can present a problem by being automatically generated if we do not wish it to show or to show at a different point. In order to avoid it, we can use a series of wiki commands:

__ FORCETOC__ (Force Table Of Contents) forces the table to show, even without the sufficient number of sections. It should go either at the start or at the end of the article.

__ TOC__ (Table Of Contents) forces the table of contents show wherever you insert this command.

__ NOTOC__ (No Table Of Contents) forces the omission of the table, no matter how many sections the article has. It should go either at the start or at the end of the artcile.

Font types

• For the text to show in italics, select the stretch of text and click on the icon showing on the edit bar. Alternatively, write the word or stretch of text between two simple inverted commas, for example ' 'word or text' '.
• For the text to show in bold, select the stretch of text and click on the icon showing on the edit bar. Alternatively, write the word or stretch of text between three inverted commas.

Lists

Media Wiki also allows to create numbered lists by using the "#text" synthax, with the number sign # right on the left hand margin. For instance:

 1. Item 1
 2. Item 2
       1. You can also embed by using two “#" together ("##").
 3. Item 3

We can also create not numbered list replacing a number sign, #, for an asterisk, * with the same synthax "*text". For example:

  * one item
  * another item
        o sublists are also easy only by using several asterisks written together (for example ***)
              + and so on...

Tables

• The entire table needs begin withe the "{| wiki command and end with the "|}". Whatever we want the table to show must be included inside that sequence of commands.
• If we need a title or caption for the table the wiki commands are "|+ caption ", right after "{|".
• Those for rows are: "|- table optional parametres" and beginning a new row. Codes for different cells within a row should be separated by a new line or "|" command.
• Table data are the codes for the cells; the cell code is made of " |value " or " cell parameters | value ".
• A row of column headings or header row is identified by the use of "!" instead of "|", except for the separation between a cell paragraph and a value; its difference from a regular row depends on the browser used. Column headings are usually in bold type.
• The first cell of a row is idendified as a title row if it starts with a "!" instead of "|", and the data or values of the ensuing cells start in a new line.

All rows must contain the same number of cells, thus keeping consistency in the number of columns.

example - simple

both this

{| 
| Cell 1, row 1 
| Cell 2, row 1 
|- 
| Cell 1, row 2 
| Cell 2, row 2 
|}

and this

{| 
| Cell 1, row 1 || Cell 2, row 1 
|- 
| Cell 1, row 2 || Cell 2, row 2 
|}

will generate

Example - advanced

{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|+ Multiplication table
|-
! × !! align="right" | 1 !! align="right" | 2 !! align="right" | 3
|-
! align="right" | 1
| align="right" | 1 || align="right" | 2 || align="right" | 3
|- align="right"
! 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|- align="right"
! 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|- align="right"
! 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|- align="right"
! 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}

Horizontal lines

To insert a horizontal line in a page, click on the icon. Alternatively, use a row of hyphens (-----).

These are the basic guidelines to get you started writing/ editing an article. Obviously you can always check any of the internet free Wiki manuals to learn more and also help in the extension or improvement of the present article.

External links

• Convert tables from html to Wiki
• Convert from HTML to Wiki

Licensing