Help:Wiki Editing

Wiki Editing

The definitive reference on wiki editing is of course MediaWiki's own site, in particular the MediaWiki Help Pages.

The below gives an overview of the wiki functionality that is most frequently used on $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$.

Text styles

Text you would like to be bold should be enclosed in three single quotes. For example:

 '''Bold text''' 

creates: Bold text.

Italic font is produced with two single quotes, for example:

 ''Italic text'' 

creates: Italic text

To produce bold, italicised writing, use five consecutive single quotes:

 '''''Bold and italic text''''' 

creates: Bold and italic text.

Fixed width text:

 <code> Fixed width text</code> 

creates: Fixed width text

Note that while:

 <tt> Fixed width text </tt> 

produces the same result, the tt tag is known to be badly behaved in combination with MediaWiki, creating rendering issues.

Therefore, the code tag is to be used universally on $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$ to generate fixed width text.

Line breaking

Breaking a line in the editor does not break a line in the displayed text. For example:

''I will continue this''
''on the next line''

displays as:

I will continue this on the next line.

To break a line, space the text with a single blank line:

''I will continue this''

''on the next line''

Sections and subsections

A section heading is produced by enclosing the desired title between two equals (=) signs. For example:

 == Definition == 

will produce a section entitled "Definition".

A subsection should be enclosed between three equals signs, for example:

 === Subsection === 

will produce a subsection within the section that it is located.

One can continue making sub-subsections etc. with four or more equals signs.

For documentation of the accepted house style regarding sections, see Help:House Style.

Inclined to move the below to referenced Help:House Style.

As a general rule on spacing, each section or subsection heading should be preceded by two blank lines and followed by a single blank line.

Each sentence should appear on a separate line, with a single blank line above and below. For example:

This line precedes the section.


== Section heading ==

Line one of the section.

Line two of the section.

Indenting and bullet points

To indent a sentence or equation, add a colon (:) at the start of the line. For example:

 :Indented material 

will produce:

Indented material

For a larger indent use two or more colons.

For example, it is required by house style that each displayed equation be preceded with a single colon.

To produce a list of bullet points, write each point on a line beginning with an asterisk (*). For example:

* Bullet point 1
* Bullet point 2

produces:

• Bullet point 1
• Bullet point 2

As a notable discrepancy in house style, the empty lines guideline does not apply to successive items of lists.

This is because doing so results in a slight spacing issue, as seen in:

* Bullet point 1
* Bullet point 2

* Bullet point 3

which renders as:

• Bullet point 1
• Bullet point 2

• Bullet point 3

On $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$, these lists are mainly used in the Also see and Sources sections.

Link to internal page

To link to another page on $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$, you must enclose the page name in double square brackets.

For example, to link to Pythagoras's Theorem, you would type:

 [[Pythagoras's Theorem]] 

To change the text to say something different and still link to that page you need to use a pipe character (|).

For example to link here you would type:

 [[Pythagoras's Theorem|here]] 

To link to a particular section on a page, append a octothorpe (#) to the page name followed by the subsection.

For example, to link here you would type:

 [[Pythagoras's Theorem#The Classic Proof|here]] 

This means of reference is generally going out of fashion on $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$ due to the advent of the transclusion method.

In the above example, it would be more correct to refer to the subpage containing the "Classic Proof", viz here:

 [[Pythagoras's Theorem/Classic Proof|here]] 

There may be instances though where its use will be continued, for example to link to particular sections of the main wiki talk page in discussions.

For more information on the house style stipulations regarding internal reference, see Help:House Style.

Redirecting a page

See also Help:Redirects

If a theorem or definition is commonly known by more than one name, rather than create two separate pages just one page should be created, and the second redirected to the first.

This should be done with the command:

 #Redirect [[Page Name]] 

For example, to redirect a page to Pythagoras's Theorem enter:

 #Redirect [[Pythagoras's Theorem]] 

See Help:Redirects for more information on redirecting pages and the associated house style.

Link to external page

Linking to an external page is almost the same as linking to an internal page.

You need to enclose the page name in square brackets, [].

To add text the link, you just have to add what you want to name the link inside the brackets.

For example:

 [http://www.google.com Google] 

would create a link that looked like this: Google

References

See also Help:Citations

References can easily be created by enclose the reference inside a <ref></ref> tag in the area you would like referenced. Then near the end of your article include this: <references/> . This will be where the references are actually listed. For an example see the below:

According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big. The Moon, however, is not so big.

Notes

The code for this:

According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big.<ref>E. Miller, The Sun, (New York: Academic Press, 2005), 23-5.</ref>
The Moon, however, is not so big.<ref>R. Smith, "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 46 (April 1978): 44-6.</ref>

'''Notes'''
<references/>

Typically, it is desirable to collect the references under a designated 'type-2' header named 'References', whose code is:

== References ==

This section is best placed directly above the "Sources" section. For more information on page structuring, see Help:Page Editing.

Transclusion

Transclusion is a MediaWiki feature that allows (part of) a page to be displayed verbatim on another.

Since the construct is rather involved, it is explained on its own page, Help:Transclusion.

The $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$ extension

The $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$ extension is an amendment of MediaWiki's code that enables certain site-specific constructs.

See Help:ProofWiki Extension for documentation on this feature.