User:Pluma/adoption/wikimarkups 101


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Wikimarkups 101

Hi! I'm happy to adopt you! Here is your first task. If you think this assignment looks big, don't worry. It's smaller than it looks. If there is anything you want to know in particular, or if you have questions, please ask me on my talk page whenever.

Introduction to markups

The most important element of Wikipedia (in my opinion) are wikimarkups, so we will start there. To create your sand box page, click User:1966batfan/sandbox, where you can make test edits. Please complete the task there. When you have completed the task, I will give you another one.

You already know how to edit pages. The interesting bit, however, is getting things to look, well, interesting. There are a number of different bits of code that you can use in your editing to create different effects when the page is saved - they can be as simple as bold text or italics, but different bits of code can be combined to make a very appealing layout.

I should warn you that in most cases, special formatting is frowned upon in articles. It should only be used in certain situations, and when it is necessary to illustrate a particular point. Aside from those cases, text in articles should be just as you see it in this sentence - plain black, with only the occasional wikilink to spice things up.

What I'm going to do first is to show you where you can go to test all this out while you're reading. There are a few places: you can go to the main sandbox that everyone uses at Wikipedia:Sandbox. This is a special page that is cleaned out every hour automatically, that gives editors a place to play with new code and vandals a place to vandalize other than our articles. The only problem with the sandbox is this: Whatever you save there isn't likely to stay for long, and there is a high chance of you getting hit with a few edit conflicts. So, to avoid that, you can create your own sandbox! On Wikipedia, you are able to tack "subpages" onto your main user page to use for testing things out, writing new articles, or other projects like what we're doing here. Your sandbox page is a subpage of your userpage. You can create user subpages by searching for the page you want to create in the search box. It won't find it, of course, however a red link will appear at the top of the page. Click on that, and edit away! For example, try searching for User:Geis0099/sandbox and creating it. Another place you can make test edits is in my sandbox in the guest area.

Markups

Here we go! These are the basic wikimarkups. You may know how to use some, but others you may not know.

This section is very basic. For more detailed information, see Help:Wiki markup

In order to make an internal link, type the page you want to link to and place two brackets on either side of the text. Example: for a link to the page dog, type "[[dog]]. If you wish to make a link to one page where you wish to type something other than the page name, write

 [[The page you want to link to|desired text]]

The pipe character (|) can be typed with shift+\. Internal links are generally only used to link to pages that could be confused with the pages subject, or pages that explain parts of the text without having to duplicate the material. However, no one will get mad at you if you use links for any other reason. If you make a link to a page that doesn't exist, the link will appear in red. If you click on the red link, it will give you the opportunity to create that page.

This isn't really a wikimarkup, but in order to make a carriage return, you must type enter twice for it to work. There are some exceptions to this, though.
The main exceptions for the above are bullets and numbering. To place a bullet, type an asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line. An indented bullet is two asterisks. You will not have to press enter twice to make a carriage return. To place numbering, type an octothorpe (#) at the beginning of a line. An indented number is two octothorpe. You will not have to press enter twice to make a carriage return while using numbering, either.
To indent, use the colon (:) at the beginning of the line. A double indent is two colons. When responding to something on a talk page, indent your response; if you are responding to a response, indent twice, and so on.
To place bold text, type

'''text you want in bold'''.

Bold is generally only used when you are repeating the page's title in the first sentence of an article or section. For example, in the page dog, the first sentence is, The dog is the domesticated form of a grey wolf (notice what is in bold). Bold text is not used for emphasis.

- To place italicised text, type

''text you want in italics''.

Note that there are three apostrophes for bold text and two for italics. Italics are usually used for emphasis, in stead of bold.

- To place Bold and italicised text, use five apostrophes on either side of the desired text. Type

'''''Bold and italicised text'''''

Bold and italicised text is only used for emphasis on the title.

To insert an image type:

[[File:Example.png|thumb|Caption text]].

To search for pictures, click the magnifying glass in the search bar to enter the search bar. Uncheck all of the boxes in the "Search in namespaces:" section other than the one for file. Then search for what you want a picture of. To upload your own picture to the wiki, click on the "upload file" link in the toolbox section on the right side of the window under the Wikipedia logo. Once you have clicked the link, just follow the instructions they give you.

References! To cite your source, type

<ref>your source</ref>.

- If you think there is text somewhere that needs a source, type

{{citation needed}}

- When you make a citation, your citation will show up not where you cited it, but at the bottom of the page in the references section. If you are the first to cite a source on a page, make a references section at the bottom of the page (==References==), then below the heading, type

"<references />".

External links: To use external links, type:

[Page'sURL desired text]

Internal links are generally used only in the

Last one: If you are wondering why the above examples have the text for markups, but aren't doing anything, it is because I placed nowiki markups around them. Nowiki markups, when placed around a markup, make the markup not work. To place Nowiki markups, type

<nowiki>Markup you don't want to work</nowiki>.

Nowiki markups will be rarely used, just because they aren't very useful.

Assignment

Use all of those wikimarkups at least once on your sandbox page (it doesn't have to be remotely coherent) or my sandbox page in the guest sandbox. I will check on the page and give you another task. If any part of my instructions don't make sense, or if you have any questions, please tell me on my talk page. Happy editing!