Screenpedia:Help
Editing Screenpedia material
Screenpedia is a wiki, which means that users can edit any page and have those changes posted immediately to that page.
Editing a Screenpedia page is very easy. Simply click on the "edit" tab at the top of a wiki page. This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. You should write a short summary of your changes in the small field below the edit-box. When you have finished, press the Show preview button to see how your changes will look. If you're happy with what you see, be bold and press the Save page button. Your changes will immediately be visible to other Screenpedia users.
You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Screenpedia users. Click on the talk page's "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.
You should remember to sign your messages on talk pages, but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the MediaWiki software keeps track of which user makes each change.
How to format your text
Let's say you want to have italics or boldface or a Web link in your Screenpedia page. Well sir, you can use some funky punctuation to achieve that!
When you're entering stuff into Screenpedia, you are limited to just letters, numbers and punctuation marks; but Screenpedia understands certain use of punctuation to mean "format text this way." Thus, three apostrophes on either side of a word -- like
'''this'''
-- will boldface a word when it appears in Screenpedia. All manner of cool effects are possible through a bit of creative punctuation.
Fortunately, you don't even have to memorize the basic formatting, because just above the editing window is a set of buttons that'll automate it for you (see below). All you have to do is highlight the text you want to format in the editing window and then click one of them. Here are a few to get you going:
- bold
- italics
- link to something in Screenpedia
- link to something outside Screenpedia; this should be a Web address that begins with "http://".
- add your signature to a discussion/talk page; for this one you don't highlight text first. If you click it, it'll insert two hyphens and three tildes (--~~~~). When Screenpedia sees that, it transforms it into:
- --Jeremy Butler 16:06, 7 February 2006 (CST)
'Course, this just scratches the surface of the formatting you can do. There are a many more effects you can achieve with simple (and not so simple) punctuation. In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.
You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox. Try opening the Sandbox in a separate window or tab and keeping this page open for reference.
(This method of formatting or "marking" text is known as wiki mark-up and is closely related to HTML mark-up.)
Examples
What it looks like | What you type |
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Start your sections as follows: New section Subsection Sub-subsection
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==New section== ===Subsection=== ====Sub-subsection==== |
Starting a newline while editing generally has no effect on the layout. The lines will be merged together. But an empty line will start a new paragraph and create a blank line between paragraphs.
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Starting a newline while editing generally has no effect on the layout. The lines will be merged together. ''But'' an empty line will start a new paragraph and create a blank line between paragraphs. |
You can break lines
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You can break lines<br> without starting a new paragraph. |
marks the end of the list.
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* It's easy to create a list: ** Start every line with a star (i.e., asterisk). *** More stars means deeper levels. **** A newline in a list marks the end of the list. * An empty line (like above) starts a new list. |
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# Numbered lists are also good: ## Create them by putting a pound sign (#) ## at the start of a line. ## Very organized. ## Easy to follow. ### And it's easy to create lists within lists. ###Just increase the number of pound signs. |
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; Definition list : list of definitions ; item : the item's definition ; another item : the other item's definition |
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* You can even create mixed lists *# and nest them *#* like this *#*; can I mix definition list as well? *#*: yes *#*; how? *#*: it's easy as *#*:* a *#*:* b *#*:* c |
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.
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: A colon indents a line or paragraph. A manual newline starts a new paragraph. |
When there is a need for separating a block of text
This is useful for (as the name says) inserting blocks of quoted (and cited) text. |
<blockquote> The '''blockquote''' command will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does. </blockquote> |
(See formula on right):
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IF a line starts with a space THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a fixed-width font; lines will not wrap; ENDIF |
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<center>Centered text.</center> |
A horizontal dividing line: this is above it and this is below it.
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A [[horizontal dividing line]]: this is above it ---- and this is below it. |
Links and URLs
What it looks like | What you type |
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London has public transport.
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London has [[public transport]]. |
San Francisco also has public transportation.
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San Francisco also has [[public transport| public transportation]]. |
San Francisco also has public transportation. Examples include buses, taxis, and streetcars.
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San Francisco also has [[public transport]]ation. Examples include [[bus]]es, [[taxi]]s, and [[streetcar]]s. |
See the Screenpedia:Manual of Style.
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See the [[Screenpedia:Manual of Style]]. |
Economics#See also is a link to a section within another page. #Links and URLs is a link to a section on the current page. #example is a link to an anchor that was created using an id attribute
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[[Economics#See also]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Links and URLs]] is a link to a section on the current page. [[#example]] is a link to an anchor that was created using <div id="example">an id attribute </div> |
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom. Automatically hide namespace: Village Pump. Or both: Manual of Style But not: [[Screenpedia:Manual of Style#Links|]]
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Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[kingdom (biology)|]]. Automatically hide namespace: [[Screenpedia:Village Pump|]]. Or both: [[Screenpedia: Manual of Style (headings)|]] But not: [[Screenpedia: Manual of Style#Links|]] |
The weather in London is a page that does not exist yet.
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[[The weather in London]] is a page that does not exist yet. |
Screenpedia:Help is this page.
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[[Screenpedia:Help]] is this page. |
When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name: or four to add user name plus date/time:
Five tildes gives the date/time alone:
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When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name: : ~~~ or four for user name plus date/time: : ~~~~ Five tildes gives the date/time alone: : ~~~~~ |
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#REDIRECT [[United States]] |
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[[fr:Wikipédia:Aide]] |
What links here and Related changes pages can be linked as: Screenpedia:How to edit a page and Screenpedia:How to edit a page |
'''What links here''' and '''Related changes''' pages can be linked as: [[Special:Whatlinkshere| Screenpedia:How to edit a page]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked| Screenpedia:How to edit a page]] |
A user's Contributions page can be linked as: Special:Contributions/UserName or Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0 |
A user's '''Contributions''' page can be linked as: [[Special:Contributions/UserName]] or [[Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0]] |
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[[Category:Character sets]] |
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[[:Category:Character sets]] |
Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources:
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Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: # Bare URL: http://www.nupedia.com/ (bad style) # Unnamed link: [http://www.nupedia.com/] (only used within article body for footnotes) # Named link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia] |
Linking to other wikis:
for the list of shortcuts; if the site you want to link to is not on the list, use an external link (see above).
[[Screenpedia:How to link to Wikimedia projects]]. Linking to another language's wiktionary:
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Linking to other wikis: # [[Interwiki]] link: [[Wiktionary:Hello]] # Named interwiki link: [[Wiktionary:Hello|Hello]] # Interwiki link without prefix: [[Wiktionary:Hello|]] Linking to another language's wiktionary: # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour]] # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|bonjour]] # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|]] |
ISBN 012345678X ISBN 0-12-345678-X
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ISBN 012345678X ISBN 0-12-345678-X |
Date formats:
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Date formats: # [[July 20]], [[1969]] # [[20 July]] [[1969]] # [[1969]]-[[07-20]] # [[1969-07-20]] |
Some uploaded sounds are listed at Screenpedia:Sound. |
[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]] |
Character formatting
What it looks like | What you type |
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Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.
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''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''. |
A typewriter font for monospace text
or for computer code:
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A typewriter font for <tt>monospace text</tt> or for computer code: <code>int main()</code> |
You can use small text for captions. |
You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. |
You can You can also mark
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You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup rather than visual markup. |
Diacritical marks:
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À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ |
Punctuation:
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¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ” |
Commercial symbols:
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™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
Subscripts:
Superscripts:
ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m. |
x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or <br/> x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ <br/> x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or <br/> x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ <br/> x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]] |
Greek characters:
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α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω |
Suppressing interpretation of markup:
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<nowiki>Link → (''to'') the [[Screenpedia FAQ]]</nowiki> |
Commenting page source:
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<!-- comment here --> |
Using images
Getting an image on a Screenpedia page is a two-step process:
- Upload the image
- Place the image on a page
Uploading images to Screenpedia
Only images that have first been uploaded to Screenpedia can be placed on its pages. The process goes like this:
- Create or save an image file on your hard disk.
- Go to the upload page.
- The Source filename blank is for the name and location of your file on your hard disk. Click the Browse button next to it to search your hard disk for the file you created/saved.
- The Destination filename is for the name of the file as it will appear on Screenpedia. This defaults to the same name as the Source filename, but you can change it, if need be (if, for example, there is already a file on Screenpedia with that name).
- In the Summary blank, type a description of the file, including its original source.
- Click the Upload file button to complete this step and create a page associated with this file. The page will have a name like Image:goober.jpg (if your file's name were goober.jpg) and will contain basic information about the file and its upload.
Placing images on Screenpedia pages
Now that we've got a file-based page for our image, we can place it on another page by surround its name with square brackets [[]] and including it in the editing of a page. Using our example above, this would look like:
- [[Image:goober.jpg]].
But that's just the beginning. You can do all sorts of stuff with the alignment and the style of a placed image. Here are some options.
What it looks like | What you type |
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A picture: | A picture: [[Image:wiki.png]] |
A smaller, thumbnail of the image, with a caption beneath it: | A smaller, thumbnail of the image, with a caption beneath it: [[Image:wiki.png|thumb|100px|Screenpedia Encyclopedia as a globe.]]
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With alternative text: | With alternative text: [[Image:wiki.png|jigsaw globe]]
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Floating to the right side of the page without a caption: | Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|right|Screenpedia Encyclopedia]]
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Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers): | Example: {| align=right |- | Place images here |} |
More image info/help
See the Screenpedia's image use policy.
For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the topic on Extended image syntax.
Further info
Since Screenpedia runs on the same software as Wikipedia, the help material over there mostly applies over here. So, check out the following for further assistance.
- Table of Contents for Help stuff
- A tutorial to get you going
- How to edit a page -- the basis for what you see above