Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.

I will be adding more to the quickguide soon. So keep checking back here.

You can format your text using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, single quotes or equation marks which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two single quotes like ''this''

Starting a New Page

There are several ways to start a new page.

Using Wikilinks

MediaWiki makes it very easy to link wiki pages using a standard syntax (see Links). If you (or anyone else) creates a link to an article that doesn't exist yet, the link will be coloured red, like this.

Clicking a red link, will take you to the edit page for the new article. Simply type your text, click save and the new page will be created.

Once the page has been created, the link will change from red to blue (purple for pages you've visited) indicating that the article now exists.

Usually this is the best way to create a new page, because it means that right from the start, the page will be linked from at least one other place on the wiki (and typically you will want to mesh it into other related pages later) If you are creating a new page without creating any link to it, you may need to ask yourself: Does this page really fit in with the topics already covered in the wiki? Also, how are you expecting visitors to find this page? Normally there is no reason to create a page without first creating a red link to it.

Using the URL

You can use the wiki's URL for creating a new page. The URL to an article of the wiki is usually something like this:

http://www.example.net/index.php/ARTICLE or http://www.example.net/wiki/ARTICLE If you replace ARTICLE with the name of the page you wish to create, you will be taken to a blank page which indicates that no article of that name exists yet. Clicking the "edit" page tab at the top of the page will take you to the edit page for that article, where you can create the new page by typing your text, and clicking submit.

From the search page

If you search for a page that doesn't exist (using the search box and 'go' button on the left of the page) then you will be provided with a link to create the new page. (Note that this technique doesn't work if you use the 'search' button).

Tip for wiki admins: The "inputbox extension" allows you to provide an even easier way for your users to create new pages 

Adding Images to Your New Page

First simply upload an image using the Upload File link. Remember what you named your file.

To add an image, simply click the Embedded File button. This will insert the markup [[Image:Example.jpg]]. Simply remplace Example.jpg with the name of your file.

If you would like to make the image a thumbnail on the right, simply add "|thumb" without the quotation marks after the filename. If you wish to add text below the image, simply add | after the thumb tag or the file name and enter your text after it.

Example: [[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|Hello]]

Create redirects to your new page

Don't forget to setup redirects when you create a page. If you think another person may search for the page you've created by using a different name or spelling, please create the proper redirect(s). See Help:Redirects

Protecting your new page

Normally a new wiki page can be edited by other people (that is one of the main ideas of a wiki!) However, you could 'protect' the page, if desired, to prevent normal users from editing it. This requires sysop permissions.

Text formatting markup

preformatted text is done with
a space at the 
beginning of the line

some preformatted
text with no indentation

Notes: <references/>

Paragraphs

MediaWiki ignores normal line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can also start a new line with the HTML tags <br> or <br/>.

HTML

Some HTML tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example <code>, <div>, <span> and <font>.

Other formatting

• More Formatting from Wikipedia