WikiGuide

Revision 24 as of 2006-03-08 19:44:00

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This page contains some guidelines and help for how to post and work on the documentation in the Ubuntu wiki (UserDocumentation). Our aim is to make consistent, integrated and reliable documentation that users can access simply and quickly.

Contents of this page:

TableOfContents(2)

Style and Guidelines

Our aim is to make documentation which a new computer user can understand and which teaches the user what they are doing. With that in mind, please take into account the following guidelines:

  • Always search for existing guides when inserting material. Adding new pages where there is already a document in existence causes immense confusion for users who don't know what to trust! This will mean that your work will cause more harm than good. If the existing document is very bad, out of date, or missing something, improve it!!
  • Please read AND understand the [http://doc.ubuntu.com/styleguide/styleguide.html Documentation Team Styleguide] before posting.

  • Always leave a comment when saving your edits so others can see what you are doing easily when reviewing RecentChanges.

  • Use the ["forum"] page when adding material from the forum that is not fully formatted or has not been reviewed.
  • If you create a new page, please use as descriptive a name as possible - the default search in this wiki is by page title, not full text.
    • If you create a page with "Howto" in the title, please put it at the end of the title, for example PocketPCHowto rather than HowtoPocketPC. Not only is this the existing style used, the Category pages sort alphabetically, so putting it at the end means more sensible sorting.
  • Put pages into CategoryCleanup when they have not been reviewed and be encouraged to discuss your contributions on the [http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc docteam mailing list]. If you let us know about it, it can be reviewed more quickly and taken out of CategoryCleanup.

  • Don't link pages in UserDocumentation until they have been reviewed and are out of CategoryCleanup

Deleting and Renaming

Deleting and/or renaming pages causes major problems: it breaks links within the wiki itself and also on the internet and people's bookmarks. So the number one rule is don't delete or rename pages unless you really know what you're doing. Having said that, here are a couple of guides to help:

  • A good alternative to renaming is to insert a redirect from the target page to the original page. See HelpOnProcessingInstructions

  • You can search for all of the pages which contain a link to a specific page by clicking on the title of the specific page. If you rename or delete a page, you MUST fix all these links.

  • If you are thinking about renaming a well-known or useful page, please raise it on the DocumentationTeam [http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc mailing list].

Help on Editing

The wiki can often seem like a scary thing to start editing, but this is in fact NOT the case! It is easy to start editing and contribute. The best way to start is to look at the formatting which is employed on various pages (for example, you can see the code of this page [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WikiGuide?action=raw here].)

The basic rules are:

  • To create a page, type the address for the new page into the address bar of your browser and then select "Create new page". Alternatively, make a link for your page in an existing page, save it, click on the new link, and select "Create new page".
  • Paragraphs should be separated by a blank line.
  • To make a list you use a white space at the beginning of a line, followed by either an asterisk (for bullet points), a number, letter etc.
  • To make a heading you use = Title = for a level one heading, == Title == for a level 2 heading, and so on.

  • Placing '' around words or phrases will make them italics, and ''' will make them bold.

  • To quote a block of code, wrap paragraphs in  {{{  }}}.

An Example Page:

= Title of Page =
== Subtitle ==
This page is going to explain how to write a guide on the wiki. The following things are important:
 * Read the docteam Styleguide
 * Make sure you are not reproducing material already on the wiki
 * ask the Documentation Team to check the guide afterwards and place it in CategoryCleanup

The following paragraph is a lettered list:
 a. this is the ''first'' item
 a. this is the ''second'' item
 a. this is the ''third'' item
{{{
this is a block of code
} }} (the space should not be in your version)

It is that easy!

For more help about this wiki, see the page HelpContents

Clever Things

As you edit the wiki you will learn how to use the power of the wiki software to do even more clever things! Here are some examples:

  • To see almost all the wiki's formatting in action, have a look at the SyntaxReference page.

  • Inserting Icons - see IconsPage

  • Inserting a table of contents - use: [[TableOfContents]])

    • To get the right-hand floating ToC like UserDocumentation (and other pages) have, use:

||<tablestyle="float:right; font-size: 0.9em; width:40%; background:#F1F1ED; margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" style="padding:0.5em;">'''Contents'''[[BR]][[TableOfContents]]||

Please feel free to discuss the contents of this page on the DocumentationTeam [http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc mailing list].


CategoryDocumentation