ADSIC:Editing Manual and Tutorial

Welcome!

Welcome to our Editing Manual and Tutorial. The purpose of this guide is to prepare any new editors that may be unfamiliar with MediaWiki editing or even HTML.

The Manual will start with absolute basic functions, and will work its way up to the more advanced functions.

Short Version: Editing cheat sheet.

Basic MediaWiki Functions

Talk Pages

If you have any further questions about editing the wiki, please ask us on this talk page.

Talk Pages allow discussions on many subjects, from help with editing the wiki to finding more scores, to random chat.

Some basic help:

1. To visit a page's talk page, simply click on the Discussion tab.
2. To edit a talk page, click the Edit tab when viewing a talk page.
3. You can create lists with the number sign (#) and the asterisk (*) (see below)
   • Nested lists help keep responses visually coordinated.
4. Don't be afraid to ask questions or request sources on questionable information
5. Please don't write anything hateful, regardless of the subject - person, team, school, etc.

Wikilinks

Wikilinks are the blue/purple links you see everywhere that link to pages within ADISC.

• Easy Way:
  1. In the Edit Window, click the blue and underlined Ab button.
  2. Replace Link title (but leave the brackets) with the text you desire to be the link.
• Manual:
  1. Type two left brackets: [[
  2. Type the text you desire to be the link
  3. Close the link with two right brackets: ]]
• For example, [[Daniel Berdichevsky]] becomes: Daniel Berdichevsky
• If you want to link to Dan's page but don't want the link to say Daniel Berdichevsky each time, use a pipe (|) after the link:
  • [[Daniel Berdichevsky|DemiDec Dan]] becomes DemiDec Dan.
  • This is useful for most score page links: Nebraska State 2004 instead of State/Nebraska/2004.

NOTE: If the link shows up as blue, that means the page has been established in our database. If the link is purple, you've already visited that page. If the link is red, the page does not exist (it may have been mis-typed). Click on a red link to create the page.

Formatting

Bold

There are two ways to bold text in MediaWiki:

• Easy Way:
  1. In the Edit Window, click the B button.
  2. Replace text in middle with the text you desire to be bolded.
• Manual:
  1. Type three apostrophes '''
  2. Type the text to be bolded
  3. Type three more apostrophes '''
• For example, '''DemiDec Dan Rules!''' will become: DemiDec Dan Rules!

Italics

Italics are created similarly to bold text, but use only two apostrophes ('') instead of three. You can use the I button in the edit toolbar or type the apostrophes manually.

• ''Ireland and Brazil have competed in USAD'' becomes Ireland and Brazil have competed in USAD.

Bold and Italics

To type both bold and italicized text, use five apostrophes.

• '''''Help us edit ADSIC''''' becomes: Help us edit ADSIC.

Lists

Lists can be created with numbers or bullets.

REMEMBER:DO NOT PLACE SPACES BETWEEN LINES UNLESS YOU INTEND TO CREATE A NEW LIST.

What to type	What it makes	S P L I T	What to type	What it makes
#This is a numbered list #Item 2 ##Item 2.1 #Item 3	This is a numbered list Item 2 Item 2.1 Item 3		*This is a bulleted list *Bullet 2 **Bullet 2.1 *Bullet 3	This is a bulleted list Bullet 2 Bullet 2.1 Bullet 3
#List start #*This is a nested bulleted list #Item 2 #Item 3	Numbered list This is a nested bulleted list Item 2 Item 3		#Numbered list *Nested bulleted list????? #Item 2? #Item 3?	Numbered list Nested bulleted list????? Item 2? Item 3?
#Broken numbered list #Item 2 ##Item 2.1????	Broken numbered list Item 2 Item 2.1????		*Broken nested bulleted list *Bullet 2 **Bullet 2.1????	This is a broken bulleted list Bullet 2 Bullet 2.1?

More Important MediaWiki Functions

Score Tables

We use wikitables (specifically javascript enhanced sortable tables: "wikitable sortable") to display scores. One can create them from scratch by using the following code:

What to type	What it makes
{| class = "wikitable sortable" |+Table Title !header1 !! header2 !! header3 |- | school1 info1 ||school1 info2 || school1 info3 |- |school2 info1 ||school2 info2 || school2 info3 |- | ... |- | school10 info1 || school10 info 2 ||school10 info 3 |}	Table Title header1 header2 header3 school1 info1 school1 info2 school1 info3 school2 info1 school2 info2 school2 info3 ... ... ... school10 info1 school10 info2 school10 info3

However, this is not advisable. Do not do work that is tedious and repetitive. That's what computers are for: to make our lives easier, not harder.

To easily create tables, go here. Follow these instructions (or those on the page):

Option A

1. Make/Put your table in Excel.
2. Copy and paste table into the text box on the web site and click Submit.
3. Copy and paste the resulting table into the page you want.

Option B

1. Put your table directly into the text box on the web site and use Tabs to separate the different bits of info.
   • TABS ARE NOT THE SAME AS JUST PUTTING FIVE SPACES - instead, use the Tab button on your keyboard.
2. Click Submit.
3. Copy and paste the resulting table into the page you want.

A note on colored tables

Please DON'T change the color of the table headers OR bold them OR try to center them yourself. That is, avoid the below practices:

 <center>'''2007 Nationals'''</center>
 {| class = "wikitable sortable" width="550"
 |----- bgcolor="#0099CC"
 | style="text-align:center" | '''School''' || style="text-align:center" | '''Division''' || style="text-align:center" | '''Score'''
 |-----

Instead, use an exclamation point (!) to denote the table headers as shown:

 {| class = "wikitable sortable" width="550"
 |+ 2007 Nationals
 ! School !! Division !! Score
 |-

The ! automatically creates colored, bolded, centered headers; its widespread usage makes the site (and code!) cleaner, and more manageable.

The other use of color in tables tends to come in the form of designating placing. e.g. using gold, silver and bronze to denote first, second and third place. When you choose to color ordinal lists, you MUST use the templates for consistency. We can't have 42 different colors for gold, silver, and bronze. If you would like to suggest a different hue for a relevant template, do so on its talk page: Gold, Silver, Bronze.

What to type	What it makes
{| class = "wikitable sortable" width="500"  ! Place !! School !! Score |- | {{Gold|1}} || Creighton Prep || 40,563 |- | {{Silver|2}} || Omaha Burke || 40,152 |- | {{Bronze|3}} || Omaha Central || 37,721 |}	Place School Score 1 Creighton Prep 40,563 2 Omaha Burke 40,152 3 Omaha Central 37,721

The aforementioned site can color tables this way.

Headers

MediaWiki makes those navigation tables you see at the beginning of articles for you. All you need to do is create the headers.

== Sample Header == on a new line will become the first level of links at the menu at the top of the page.

=== 2nd tier===

====3rd tier====

and so on.

It is pretty important that you create these headers. Not only do they lend consistency to page layouts but they help with navigation. For an example of what tables need headers and what tables don't, take a look at any of the Nationals pages.

Biographies and Schools: Categories

Let the magic of MediaWiki keep the biography and school pages together. At the bottom of the page (this includes user pages) the syntax goes like this:

[[Category:Schools]] to add the article to the Schools category.

Regarding HTML

Don't use it unless absolutely necessary. Most everything you want to do with HTML can be done with wiki syntax. Use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is fine assuming it doesn't conflict with ideas previously mentioned (for example, changing the color of table headers). In most cases, CSS will be confined to templates anyway.

Advanced Editing

List of highly-used templates.

Each Infobox has a setup similar to this that you can copy and paste from the template page:

{{Infobox School
| color1 =
| color2 =
| name =
...
| region_champs =
| highfin =
| regionloc =
}}

When the infobox code is properly install, it will show its interface on the page.

On every field, enter the appropriate info in the appropriate field after the = sign. Once saved, your data should show.