ArchWiki Tutorial (English)
From ArchWiki
Article summary |
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A short tutorial on editing the ArchWiki. Outlines both widely-known MediaWiki markup and ArchWiki-specific guidelines. A must-read for any would-be contributors. |
Available in languages |
Deutsch |
English |
Italiano |
Polish |
Česky |
Français |
Português do Brasil |
Español |
简体中文 |
正體中文 |
Српски |
Русский |
Related articles |
Help:Editing |
Help:Reading |
Help:Templates |
Sandbox |
This is a short tutorial on editing the ArchWiki. For more detail, please see Help:Editing. If you want to try out the editing information which is explained here, please use the Sandbox to play.
Contents |
Registration
You can read pages without creating an account or logging in. To create an account (which is free), just click the "create an account or log in" link at the top right corner of any page. You only need a single login for all wiki documents.
Editing
Like all wikis, you can edit any non-protected page. Your changes will be visible immediately. Just click the "edit" link that appears at the top of every page.
Explain your edit in the "Summary" box between the edit window and the save and preview buttons (e.g. "typo" or "added info on xyz").
Use the "Show preview" button to check your edit and get the formatting right before saving. Remember to save your preview before moving on.
If you are logged in, you can mark an edit as "minor" by checking the This is a minor edit box to let people know your edit is not something substantive.
To try editing, open a new window and go to the Sandbox (which is an editing test area), and then click the "edit" link. Add something and click save.
Reverting edits
If a page was edited incorrectly, the following procedure describes how to revert an article to a previous version.
- In order to edit a wiki page, you must be logged in to your account on the Arch Wiki main page.
- Navigate to the page you want to edit.
- Click the history tab in towards the top of the page among the other tabs labeled article, discussion, edit, history, move, and watch.
- By default, the current version of the wiki and the second most recent version are selected. Click the button labeled Compare selected versions.
- Click the undo button under the title of the column on the right.
- Click the save button at the bottom of the page.
The wiki page should now be back in its original state.
Adding a new page
Please read Article naming guideline (English) and Short article names HOWTO (English) for more information.
To add a new page to some category (say "My New Page" to "Some Category") you need to:
- "Edit" a page with your new title by going to "http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/My_New_Page"
- Add [[Category:Some Category]] to the top of your page
When naming page titles:
- Titles should be capitalized appropriately: Title for New Page; not "Title for new page".
- Do not include "Arch Linux" or variations in page titles. This is the Arch Linux wiki - it is assumed that articles will be related to Arch Linux. (e.g., "Installing Openbox"; not "Installing Openbox in Arch Linux").
Check out the ArchWiki Category Tree to help choose a new category.
Layout
Although the contents of wikis vary from topic to topic, a general outline is recommended to maintain consistency across all articles. The following is a good example of how to organize your articles:
- Introduction -- A summary of what the article is to cover
- Installation -- If applicable, the instructions on how to install the software
- Configuration -- If applicable, how the software is configured once installed
- Troubleshooting -- Frequently asked questions regarding the software
- Tips and tricks -- If applicable, advanced tips or examples of using the software
- More resources -- A good place to list additional references
Of course, individual subheadings can and should be used under each of these main headings. See #Headings and subheadings below.
Formatting
Most text formatting is usually done with wiki markup, so learning HTML is not necessary. Various templates are also available for common formatting tasks; see Help:Template for information about templates.
Bold and italics
Bold and italics are added by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):
- ''italics'' is rendered as italics (2 apostrophes on either side)
- '''bold''' is rendered as bold (3 apostrophes on either side)
- '''''bolded italics''''' is rendered as bolded italics (2 + 3 = 5 apostrophes on either side)
Headings and subheadings
Please read Effective use of headers HOWTO (English) for more information.
Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up your article by inserting a heading for each section.
Headings can be created like this:
- =Top level heading= (1 equal sign)
- ==Subheading== (2 equals signs)
- ===Another level down=== (3 equals signs)
- ====Another level down==== (4 equals signs)
- =====Another level down===== (5 equals signs)
If an article has at least three headings, a table of contents (TOC) will be automatically generated. If this is not desired, place __NOTOC__ in the article.
Try creating some headings in the Sandbox and see the effect on the TOC.
Indenting
To indent text, place a colon (:) at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.
For example:
This is aligned all the way to the left. :This is indented slightly. ::This is indented more.
...is shown as:
This is aligned all the way to the left.
- This is indented slightly.
- This is indented more.
Bullet points
To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (*). Similar to indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.
For example:
*First list item *Second list item **Sub-list item under second *Isn't this fun?
...is shown as:
- First list item
- Second list item
- Sub-list item under second
- Isn't this fun?
Numbered lists
You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). Using more #s will affect the level of indenting.
For example:
#First item #Second item ##Sub-item under second item #Third item
...is shown as:
- First item
- Second item
- Sub-item under second item
- Third item
Code
To add code to the wiki, simply start each line with a single whitespace character.
Alternatively, use <pre> tags, or one of the available code formatting templates.
For example:
<pre> #!/bin/bash # sample code </pre>
...is shown as:
#!/bin/bash # sample code
Links
Links are important on wikis to help readers navigate your site.
Internal links
You can extensively cross-reference wiki pages using internal links. You can add links to existing titles, and also to titles you think ought to exist in future.
To make a link to another page on the same wiki, just put the title in double square brackets.
For example, if you want to make a link to, say, the Wikia page, use:
[[Wikia]]
If you want to use words other than the article title as the text of the link, you can add an alternative name after the pipe "|" divider (Shift + \ on English-layout and similar keyboards).
For example:
View the [[Arch Linux|home page]]...
is shown as:
- View the home page...
When you want to use the plural of an article title (or add any other suffix) for your link, you can add the extra letters directly outside the double square brackets.
For example:
Add questions to the Arch Linux for [[quiz]]zes.
is shown as:
- Add questions to the Arch Linux for quizzes.
Links to sections of a document
To create a link to a section of a document is simply to add a # followed by the section's heading.
For example:
[[ArchWiki Tutorial#Links to sections of a document]]
is shown as:
Interlanguage links
The ArchWiki allows you to write articles in multiple languages. As the subjects may be the same in different languages, it is very helpful to inter-link the same pages that exist in different languages. If an article exists in more than one language, the ArchWiki has a "i18n box" that may be added to the article that contains the links to the same article but in other languages.
To add this i18n-box to an article, type at the beginning of the article:
{{i18n_links_start}} {{i18n_entry|Deutsch|German Title of the Article}} {{i18n_entry|Français|French Title of the Article}} {{i18n_links_end}}
If the non-english Title is the same as the english one, then the non-english title is:
Title (Language)
For example:
Gnome Gnome (Deutsch) Gnome (Français)
Interwiki links
So-called interwiki links can be used to easily link to articles in other external Wikis, like Wikipedia for example. The syntax for for this link type is the wiki name followed by a colon and the article you want to link to enclosed in double square brackets.
If you want to link to the Wikipedia:Arch Linux article you can use the following:
[[Wikipedia:Arch Linux]]
Or you can create a piped link with an alternate link label to the Arch Linux Wikipedia article:
[[Wikipedia:Arch Linux|Arch Linux Wikipedia article]]
See: Wikipedia:InterWikimedia links
External links
If you want to link to a site outside of Wikicities, just type the full URL for the page you want to link to.
http://www.google.com/
It is often more useful to make the link display something other than the URL, so use one square bracket at each end, with the alternative title after the address separated by a space (not a pipe). So if you want the link to appear as Google search engine, just type:
[http://www.google.com/ Google search engine]
Redirects
To redirect automatically from one page to another, type #REDIRECT and then put in brackets the name of the page to be redirected to.
For example, you could redirect from "Cats" to "Cat":
#REDIRECT [[Cat]]
That way, anyone typing either version in the search box will automatically go to "Cat".
Requests
Want a HOWTO for something? Want to know something? Put up an request for it on the Requests wiki page.
Wiki variables and templates
Use {{SITENAME}} to see the current wiki document. For instance, {{SITENAME}} on this site prints out as ArchWiki.
You can also create your own templates. After you create the page Template:XXX, using the command {{XXX}} will include that content in your current page. So, if you have something that needs to be included on many other pages, you might want to use a template.
See Help:Template for more information.
Discussion pages
Discussion or "talk" pages are for communicating with other ArchWiki users.
To discuss any page, go to that page and then click the "discussion" tab at the top of the page. Add a new comment at the end of the page or reply below an existing comment. Use indenting to format your discussion. Standard practice is to indent your reply one more level deep than the person to whom you are replying. Further, you should insert your comment beneath the one to which you are replying, but below others who are doing the same.
Sign comments by typing ~~~~ to insert your username and a timestamp. Avoid editing another user's commments.
Experiment by editing the talk page of the Sandbox.
User talk pages
Note the difference between a user page, and a user talk page. Everyone may have a user talk page on which other people can leave public messages. If one does not exist for a particular user, you may create it so that you can leave a comment. If someone has left you a message on yours, you will see a note saying "You have new messages" with a link to your own user talk page.
You can add comments on the user talk page of the person you're replying to or on your own talk page beneath the original message with appropriate indentation. If you reply on their talk page, they will receive notification of it.
Do not edit a user's own page without permission (i.e. [[User:Name]]); these serve as personal user spaces. The "user talk page" is the correct place for communicating (other than sending private email if the address is published).
Special Categories
There exist special Categories to help working with the ArchWiki.
Article not yet finished to be usable
The Category:Stub contains all articles that are marked with the {{Stub}} flag. The reasons an article may be in this special category are:
- it is too short
- it does not explain enough
- it contains unfinished parts
Article not yet translated
The Category:Request:Translation contains all articles that are marked with the {{Translateme}} flag. The reasons an article may be in this special category are:
- parts of it does not yet exist in the language it should be
- the contents are not at all translated but simply copied from English/other language
- the original language article was updated and some parts are missing in the translated page
Article contains potentially wrong or confusing information
The Category:Request:Correction contains all articles that are marked with the {{Accuracy}} flag. The reasons an article may be in this special category are:
- users observed potentially wrong or confusing informations and are discussing in the Talk on the related page how to fix it
- page contains deprecated/outdated information that needs to be updated
This flag is explained in detail in the Accuracy dispute article.