Help:Editing

Editing As stated on the help content page, a wiki is created by the same people that use it, which means that you can have a part in improving this resource. Many people think of writing articles for a wiki as a rather daunting task. However, it is easier than you might think. If you would like to find out just how easy, continue reading below.

Registration
To be able to edit content in the wiki, you must first sign up for an account. This is so the website can keep track of who has edited what, and when. If you have not registered yet, please take the time to do so now.


 * 1) Click on the button that says "Login/Register" in the upper-right corner of the page.
 * 2) On the login page, click the link that says "register."
 * 3) On the account creation page, fill in your desired user name, password and email address in the appropriate fields.

The last field in the form is titled "Real Name." Though it is an optional field, it is recommended that you tell us your real name, as it adds a touch of familiarity to your interactions with the community. However, if you are concerned about potential security risks with posting your real name on a YWAM related website, don't let that stop you! This field is optional, after all.

My first edit

 * Go to the page that you want to edit (e.g. you could go to the Sandbox to try out editing...).
 * Click on the Edit button at the top, or right of the section heading of the section that you want to change.
 * You will find an edit view of the page. Try changing some text, then click on the preview pane to see how it has changed.
 * Finally, write something in the summary. This text line will be shown on the Recent Changes-Page as well as the article's change history, so you note which kind of modification it was, where the text comes from if there are sources, and/or why you did this modification.
 * Then click on "Save Page" and you will see the modified page.

Graphical (WYSIWYG) editing
For most wiki software currently in existence, there exists no way to simply edit content as one would do with an email or office document. Instead, people would use what is known as wiki syntax. The syntax is not nearly as dreadful as many people made it out to be, but it was still an obstacle to many people who would have otherwise contributed to the site. However, as you will see below, the use of wiki syntax is completely optional. In fact, this entire article was written inside the graphical editor.

Basic formatting[[Image:Editor tour.png|thumb|right|400px]]
To the right is an image of the graphical editor, with numbers attached to lines pointing to the most commonly used editing tools. Here is a summary of what each tool does:


 * 1) This button lets you turn off the graphical editing mode, and edit the content via wiki syntax. If you have already mastered the graphical editor, and want to get a feel for the syntax, write something, and then switch to syntax to see what it looks like.
 * 2) This drop-down menu lets you select various heading sizes and styles. Something of note is the fact that when you use these headings in your articles, the wiki software automatically creates a table of contents for you. To see what this table looks like, just scroll to the top of this article.
 * 3) These three buttons let you embolden, underline and italicize your text.
 * 4) These three tools are used to create and modify links in your content. More on that shortly.
 * 5) These buttons let you make two types of lists: ordered (numbered) lists, and unordered (bulleted) lists.

Linking[[Image:Linking window.png|thumb|right|300px]]
One of the most important features of a wiki is it's ability to link to other articles in the wiki, as well as outside websites. With the graphical editor, linking is very simple.


 * 1) Select the text that you intend to turn into a link.
 * 2) Click on link button (see image)
 * 3) When the Insert/Edit Link button has been pressed, a new window will appear. Start typing the name of the article you want to link to, and a selection of possible choices will appear below. If you want to link to an outside website, just paste the full URL into the link text box.

Categorizing pages
As I stated in the browsing by category section, articles do not exist in categories, but instead one or more categories are attached to articles. What I did not tell you is that all an editor needs to do to "put" an article into a category is to simply link to it. Here is an overview of the process:


 * 1) Go to the very end of the page, and click in a blank space where you want the category link to be. It is not strictly necessary for this link to be at the bottom of the page, but this is a good convention to follow.
 * 2) Click on the same Insert/Edit Link button used earlier.
 * 3) Instead of typing the name of an article, begin by typing "Category:" followed by the name of the category. For example, if you were writing an article about DTS, you would type "Category:DTS."
 * 4) Click the OK button, and repeat this process for any other categories you want to link to.

Non-graphical (syntax) editing
Though not strictly necessary, it is possible to edit the original syntax of a page. In fact, when editing in graphical mode, you are actually just using a visual tool that generates the code for you. Using wiki syntax is beyond the scope of this article, but if you want to learn more, read the article How To Write in Wiki code.