How to write in this Wiki

From Mandriva Community Wiki

First, create a user account and modify your personal page

To write in this Wiki, it is compulsory to create a user account, so we know who does the modifying of wiki articles.

Please note!
You must use your e-mail address and password from your Mandriva account on https://my.mandriva.com/ (so you can use the same username as on the forums for example, or the one on Bugzilla).

At the upper right hand corner of this screen, you have a link to log in to your account. Click on that part of the screen on the Create an account or connect link.

• If you do not have a Mandriva account, click on Create an account : you will be redirected to the Mandriva account registration page where you will be able to create an account for free.
• If you already have an account, it is useless to recreate one : enter your e-mail address and password (the same as your Mandriva account) to identify yourself on the Wiki.

When you are identified, other links appear on the upper right hand corner :

Among these links, you have your very own user page, accessible by clicking on your name, next to the little green guy that appears when you are identified.

The first time, your page is empty. You will be presented with the edition page. Fill it with, for example, your name and surname, your presentation, your contributions, etc... Then, click on the "Save page" button located down the screen. You have just edited your very 1st Wiki page!

When you are on your user page, have a look at the address in your web browser. It finishes with a long number, because the wiki identifies you as a number. For the Wiki to identify you through your name, read the page explaining how to use this Wiki.

How to create a new article?

Please note!
The structure of this wiki is plain, so there isn't a real hierarchy between articles. However, for people to find articles more easily, we place them in categories built like trees.

Before you create a page, it is highly recommended for you to check if there isn't an article already about what you are about to write.

To do this, use the text zone Go or eventually Search in the left panel.

1. With Go, you will try to look for the exact title of the future page to see if it already exists.
2. With Search you search the Google engine if similar pages talking about the same subject you would like to write exist in the wiki.

In the first situation, if the page does not exist, the Wiki offers you a link to create it (red link).

The other possibility is to create a link to the page to be created, for example, on your user page or on an existing article. A RED link is created, which means the page does not exist yet.
Example : APageThatDoesNotExist
When clicking on this link, you end up on the edition page of the new article. When the page is filled with information, the link will turn blue.

The syntax to create links will be explained in the next section.

Finally, one last possibility consists in using the following box to create a new article :

How to write an article : the basic Wiki syntax

The Mediawiki syntax does not require certain arguments. It is not necessary to include <br> code to skip a line simply. In the most common case, you just have to skip a line as usual.

• Mediawiki Syntax Help.

Choose the title of your article and plan your article

Caution !
The main title you will have to choose will become the title of your whole page, of the article. It cannot be corrected or adapted after validation (the only possibility is a redirection), this is why it is recommended to choose it carefully before you start writing your article. For more precise information about the title, read the Guidelines for article publication.

Page titles, renaming and redirecting : the good habits!

A frequently occurring bad habit involves creating a page and seeing that the title of the page is not adapted or contains a mistake (accent, etc.). In this case, the redirection is not adapted.

If you have made a mistake in your title :

• rename your page (or ask an administrator to do it - see the Wiki administrator list). The procedure to rename a wiki page is to move the content of the old page to the new page with the new title, and to do a redirection between those two pages.
• If your article is not too old in the wiki, go back to your old page (using the articles list in the navigation panel) and give it the category Category:Obsolete ; an administrator will come to delete it.
• If however, your wiki article is very old, external links (websites on the Web) may link up to it and in that case, the redirection must not be deleted, this could break the external link and be bad to the notoriety of the Mandriva Wiki.

Do not use redirections to list several orthographic ways of writing one word ; title your article using singular words (the rule that has been adopted here) and use mostly common sense. So, avoid naming articles such as "Repository" and creating lots of redirections, due to the possibility this name may be queried for as "Repos", "Reposit", "Repositories"... etc.

Use redirections when several common words mean the same thing : for example, the article Repository is redirected to the article Source. Create these redirections only if one word is frequently used for the other.

Create a redirection voluntarily

If you want the Repository page to take you directly to the Source page, you just need to add in the first mentioned page the following code :

#REDIRECT [[Source]]

Do not use these redirections too much and be sure to think more about your page's title before you create one. Unnecessary redirections can create problems later on.

Organising your page with titles and subtitles

To organise your page, you can create sections and subsections using titles and subtitles. For this, you must use the "=" character. The title label must be located in between the '=' characters in equal number on the left and right side (see following examples). the number of signs '=' correspond to the title level.

The wiki syntax allows us to use titles of H1 hierarchy, meaning the title is between one "=" on each side. But its use is forbidden, in order to preserve a clear difference between the page title and section titles and to avoid Google indexing H1 titles on the same page badly.

= Title H1 forbidden =

Read the Guidelines for article publication

Your first title must be using the H2 hierarchy :

== Title 1 (hierarchy H2) ==
=== Creating links ===

==== Internal links to the Wiki ====

===== Links to articles and subsections =====

The internal links are specified by '''two crochets'''. the pipe ( '''|''' ) allows you to display other text from the article's name.
<pre>[[Install Mandriva Linux]]

becomes : Installing Mandriva Linux

[[Install Mandriva Linux|How to install Mandriva ?]]

becomes : How to install Mandriva ? (it is the same link as the previous).

Using the "#" character, you can directly go to a section or subsection within a page (in this case, it is recommended to be precise in the link's text).

[[Using this wiki#Search|Using the search function of the wiki]]

becomes : Using the search function of the wiki

Please note!
When you refer to an article in the wiki, mention it with its real name as it is in the wiki (the article's title), without including the underscores (underlining character on the 8 button). Your web browser can include them automatically in the address. It is the same thing when you point to subsections using the # character.

Links for translations

When you translate articles, you can insert inter-wiki links linking to another language (perhaps, the initial language of the document you are translating). The syntax is the following :

[[:fr:Accueil]]

becomes : fr:Accueil

This is a link to a Mandriva wiki in another language (here, French). When you take the ":" off at the beginning ([[en:Home]]), the link is no longer visible in the text, but it created a link in the left sidebar in the "other language" section. This link type is recommended for the translations of articles to another language.

External links to the Wiki

A simple web address is automatically converted as a link :

http://www.mandriva.com/

becomes : http://www.mandriva.com/

To be more explicit on what link it is, you need to use the square brackets: first, type the web address, then leave one space and type the text for the link:

[http://www.mandriva.com/ Mandriva Website]

becomes: Mandriva Website

Formatting characters

Bold, italic, strikthrough... For a more complete help about character format, read the Mediawiki help.

''Highlight a word'', '''a bit more''', '''''much more'''''.
'''F''' = ''m'' '''a'''.

<span style="color:#FF0000;">Coloured text</span>

<small>small size</small>

<big>large size</big>

<strike>strike</strike>
<s>strike</s>
<u>underline others...</u>

À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ
Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í
Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Œ
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 õ œ
ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ

¿ ¡ « » § ¶
† ‡ •

™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤

Subscript : x<sub>2</sub> et
Superscript : x<sup>2</sup>

Including code

• The <pre>bla bla... </pre> tags allow you to insert code and displays it in a box as shown below.

bla bla...

• You can also insert this same code, without the <pre> </pre> tags by entering a space at the beginning of each code line.

bla bla...
this is code
written with a space inserted
at the beginning of each line.

Creating links

Internal links to the Wiki

Links to articles and subsections

The internal links are specified by two crochets. the pipe ( | ) allows to display another text than the article's name.

[[Install Mandriva Linux]]

becomes : Installing Mandriva Linux

[[Install Mandriva Linux|How to install Mandriva ?]]

becomes : How to install Mandriva ? (it is the same link as the previous).

Using the "#" character, you can directly go to a section or subsection within a page (in this case, it is recommended to be precise in the link's text).

[[Using this wiki#Search|Using the search function of the wiki]]

becomes : Using the search function of the wiki

Please note!
When you refer to an article in the wiki, mention it with its real name as it is in the wiki (the article's title), without including the underscores (underlining character on the 8 button), you web browser can include them automatically in the address. It is the same thing when you point to subsections using the # character.

Links for translations

When you translate articles, you can insert inter-wiki links linking to another language (perhaps, the initial language of the document you are translating). The syntax is the following :

[[:en:Home]]

becomes : en:Home

This is a link to a Mandriva wiki in another language (here, French). When you take of the ":" at the beginning ([[en:Home]]), the link is no longer visible in the text, but in created a link in the left sidebar in the "other language" section. This link type is recommended for the translation of articles to another language.

Empty or incomplete section

If in article, you know there is a specific section about one fact or one element, but you do not have the information to fill it, you can place the section, leave it empty and insert the following template :

This section is empty or not enough detailed, you can improve it by editing it !

This template appears when typing {{...}}, in hoping contributors will complete the empty section when they see this banner.

The lists

• Using lists with bullet points is usefull when writing documents online since it make quick reading easier.
• For the numbering to be effective, do not skip lines. Numbering works only when you go to the next line without space between lines.

* The lists are great :
** They keep documents organised
** They make documents more pleasant to read

# Numbered lists are also very useful
# Well organised
## Easy to read

# For the numbering to be followed :
#* to not insert spaces
#* between the lines
# For the numbering to be followed
#:- do not insert spaces 
#:- between the lines
# Easy, isn't it ? :-)

The lines
:can be
::indented
:::on several levels

*A numbered list :
:#First element
:#Second element
*other branches in the tree view

; Definitions lists : lists containing definitions
; Word explanation : explanation of the word

<ul>
  <li>A numbered list :
  <ol>
    <li>First element
    <li>Second element
  </ol>
  <li>other branches in the tree view
</ul>

Using templates

The Wiki allows us to include in your documents coloured templates to attract attention on some important points of your article, including a warning message for users, writing an introduction, inserting a tip, pointing out a bug...

the model's list is available in the Wiki and can be viewed through this page. While you are browsing, you can get there quickly by clicking on the "Page Index" link in the left sidebar. Then, select the "Template" option and apply.

The syntax for templates works this way : (Template:prog)

Syntax :

It opens with {{prog|Mozilla Firefox}}

shows :

It opens with Mozilla Firefox

Tip !

For more details about the templates, especially the complex use of them, read the following articles :

• Advanced wiki syntax
• Styles to be used in the Wiki

Editing an existing page

All you have to do is to click on the modify tab above the title of the page you wish to modify. this link brings you to the edition page and shows you the wiki code of the current page.

Do not hesitate to inspire yourself of existing wiki to learn the syntax. You can for example view the wiki code of this page to see how I put words in bold for example.

Down the page, there is a Summary space for you to comment about your changes. Please fill in this space, so that other contributors can understand easier what has been done when in the page's history.

You can also specify two options :

• This is a minor edit to activate if the changes are small
• Watch this page allows you to be informed by e-mail of modifications in this article (except minor modifications).

And finally 3 buttons :

• Save page to save your work (keyboard shortcut : Alt-Shift-S)
• Show preview to have an idea of how the page will look like before saving (Alt-Shift-P)
• Show changes to see clearly the differences between the saved page and the one your are editing.

It is highly recommended you preview your page BEFORE saving the modifications you just made, to avoid errors.

Empty or incomplete section

If in article, you know there is a specific section about one fact or one element, but you do not have the information to fill it, you can place the section, leave it empty and insert the following template :

This section is empty or not enough detailed, you can improve it by editing it !

This template appears when typing {{...}}, hoping contributors will complete the empty section when they see this banner.

If an article is incomplete

If you feel that an article is incomplete, do not hesitate to include at the top of the page the following banner : {{Draft}}

This banner will attract the visitors attention and encourages editing and improving.

When you put this model into a page, it automatically places it in the HouseKeeping category.

You will find all the banners for users by browsing the list by "Template", who should display you this list.

If you translate a page

If you are translating an article, please report yourself to the Translation Tasks article. Please include the {{Translation|User|Link to original page}} banner who will be displayed as following :

This template automatically adds the article in the incomplete translation category.

To create a link directly to the original page, who can be any link inside a wiki of another language or an external web page, please report yourself to the Creating links section.

You will find all the information banners for users by browsing in the Template list from the Page Index. you can directly access them from this list.

The subcategories

It is also possible to include categories into others. Since the categories page have a normal content like any wiki page, you just need to put the category code in the page to include it where you want.

Fro example, let's suppose there is a Contributor category and a WikiContributor category. What I want to do is to be inside (me, Skiper ) inside the WikiContributor category, that would be a subcategory of Contributor.

In this page ( Skiper ), I insert [[Category:WikiContributor|Skiper]] at the top of my page. I must include "|Skiper"to be triaged, otherwise my name would appear at U, for User:Skiper. In the WikiCotnributor category, I include [[Category:Contributors]].

To create a link to a category, but without including the page inside the category, you must put a : before the word Category in the link.

[[:Category:Page to revise (content)]] -> Category:Page to revise (content) (lists the wiki pages to update, fix, etc.)

I can I insert images ?

to use an image, you need to :

1. copy your image into the wiki's server (image per image)
2. use the image inside an article (as much as you need)

Uploading the image to the server

You need to :

1. Have the image in your computer (Desktop, Personal folder, etc.).
2. Go to the page Upload to the server (available in the toolbox, in the left panel).
3. Click on Browse and select the image to upload (we will call it, for example, mandriva.png).
4. Click on Copy a file. The image will appear in the Wiki, the title of the image is Image:Mandriva.png (remember it for future reference).

Using the image in the Wiki

To check if the image apprears correctly, you can view the uploaded images list.

To use the image, you just have to create a link to this image, using double crochets : [[Image:Mandriva.png]].

For example, [[Image:Mandriva.png]] becomes

Syntax for image placement inside a Wiki article

You may have to insert a series of images inside a same article (such as screen shots).

The basic syntax to include an image is :

[[Image:''Image name with its extension''|''option1''|''option2''|...|''Label'']]

Only the name is compulsory, you do not have necessarily to put the others. The options are used to control the image's position, its size and the image frame are detailed later. There is no precise order for each options, but if several contradictory options are placed, the last one placed will apply itself among the contradictory others.

Include a label

The label can contain some wiki code, links, etc. It must be inserted after the last "pipe" ('|'). If you do not want a label, then you can use the "nowiki" tag: [[Image:Name.png|option]].

The details of the label can vary :

• With a frame or a thumb, the label appears under the image.
• Without frame, the label appears in an info-bubble when the cursor rests over the image.
• In the last case, if no label is included, the info-bubble displays the file name.

External links are allowed in labels, but only when displayed as a link written as a normal sentence/word. Even if the link is incomplete or is badly displayed, the link still works.

Manage the size of the displayed image

If you don't specify the size, the image will appear in full size. You can however decide the size of an image inside an article, using one of the two techniques : either explicitly by entering an amount of pixels or using a thumb.

Pixel size

The size is chosen explicitly using the following syntax :

• [[Image:Mandriva.png|10px|]] shows :
  
• [[Image:Mandriva.png|50px|]] shows :
  
• [[Image:Mandriva.png|100px|]] shows :
  

The number before px is the width of the image. MediaWiki redimensions automatically the height in order to preserve the image's aspect.

Insert a thumb

To add a label, include the option thumb (or "thumbnail"). If no size is specified, the size will be the one chosen by the user in its preferences. It is advised to not alter the size but to retain the size chosen by the original author.

Example :

[[Image:Mandriva.png|left|thumb|Labeled with default size]]

Labeled with default size

The icon and the picture link to the page describing the picture.

Position in the page

By default, a picture is placed in the flow of the text, or to right if it includes a label. It is possible to check the position with the options left, right, center or none. These options also check the flow of the text around the picture.

Image to the left

• THE option left places the picture to the left. The text that follows floats to the right of the picture. If a second picture is placed immediately after, it will be placed just to right of the first picture. If there is text between the two pictures, then the second picture will appear below and to the right of the first one, under the text.

• THE option none places the picture to the left, but the text begins underneath the picture.

[[Image:Installation Mandriva One09.png|left|400px]] text that follows the picture

[[Image:Installation Mandriva One09.png|none|400px]] text that follows the picture 

Image to the right

• The option right places the picture to right. The text that follows floats to the left. If on the other hand, another picture follows it is placed to right under the first picture.

[[Image:Installation Mandriva One09.png|right|400px]] text that follows the picture 

Image to the Center

With the option center, the picture is centered and the text begins underneath the picture :

[[Image:Installation Mandriva One09.png|center|400px]] text that follows the picture 

Insert a border with a caption

The option 'frame' (or framed) allows adding a framework or border to the picture. In this case the caption posts itself underneath the picture. The border is automatically added by the option "thumb".

[[Image:Installation Mandriva One09.png|none|frame|text appearing as a caption]]

text appearing as a caption

Text line after the images

For the text to fill the available space normally after an image, it is necessary to insert the code <br style="clear:both;" />. This prevents the text that follows from floating.

How to insert a video

Video principles

The implemented extension is EmbedVidéo. It works with the following sites: Dailymotion, YouTube, Google Video, sevenload, Revver, FunnyOrDie.

These sites primarily use flash or quicktime for video broadcasting. An extension to handle the free ogg/theora formats is planned.

Caution !
Do not store your videos in the Wiki! The extension EmbedVideo is designed precisely to avoid storing any video in the Wiki. Video files must be hosted on an external server.

Syntax to insert a video

The syntax follows :

* {{#ev:service|id}} or
* {{#ev:service|id|width}}

Where :

• "Service" is the name of the site of storage of the videos (Youtube, Dailymotion. ..)
• "Id" is the video number to include (it appears in the address address bar of your browser when you view the video)
• "width" (option) this is the width in video pixels. Without this option, the default width is used.

Example :

{{#ev:youtube|Mx5BUcTmoU8|300}}

Without the option to set size :

{{#ev:youtube|Mx5BUcTmoU8}}

If you create a video, think about adding the category Category: portal: video to the item, in order to include your item in the thematic portal for Videos. This will help organize all the items including a video.

In Dailymotion, there is a small complication -- the video number does not properly appear in the address bar. On the page of the video, look for the field "reader exportable".

It is necessary to find the passage: <param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/1lxfNaCwoZ11Oqhxp">

It is sufficient to copy the number in the syntax:

{{#ev:dailymotion|1lxfNaCwoZ11Oqhxp}}

The discussion pages

Every page includes link to a discussion page, where the contributors can exchange points of view about the posted item.

Sign quickly

To sign a page quickly (it is necessary to be identified), it is sufficient to put 3 to 5~. This is equivalent to creating a link to your user page, followed by the running date if there is 4~, or only dates it with 5~.

~~~ produces Skiper

~~~~ produces Skiper 15 june 2009 at 18:25 (CEST)

~~~~~ produces 15 june 2009 at 18:25 (CEST)

Do indentations (gap, tabulate)

It is necessary to use of the ':', one for every gap.

I think that.... User1
:I do not agree!  User2
:: I don't either! User3

I think that.... User1

I do not agree! User2

I don't either! User3

To work more quickly: the tool bar

While editing an article, you had to notice the small toolbar just above the editing field. If you hover the mouse over an icon on this bar, you will see a description of the function of that icon.

Left to right, their function:

• Bold
• Italics
• Link to wiki
• Link to web
• Heading
• Embed a file
• Link a file
• Mathematical Formula
• Ignore wiki syntax
• Signature
• Horizontal Rules

Advanced Wiki syntax

For more of information on the syntax, you can read the page on advanced wiki syntax.

To find assistance

If you need a little help, do not hesitate to refer to the forum Documentation where you will be able to meet the users of the Wiki.