A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Pages

• How To Create A Page from Scratch
• How to link from an existing article

How To Create A Page from Scratch

First, let's define some terms to avoid confusion. Any time you're seeing text on the screen in the Wiki, it's called a "page." When you clicked on NARGS Wiki you were taken to the Wiki Home Page. And on that page, you clicked on the Section How To Do It to get to this page. If you click on the Section Rock Garden Encyclopedia, you'll go to the Encyclopedia Home Page, where, under the Section Rock Garden Plants by Genus, you can click on Generic Articles and look at their "pages." To differentiate, we'll always refer to the page you are creating as a "new page."

Before you create a new page, you need to make a pathway, a link, to get there. In our Wiki, a link is created by enclosing the name of the new page in double parentheses ((   )). Later, clicking on that name will take people to your new page.

(If you don't know how to edit a page, refer to the section To Begin above.)

So you start by going to the page where you want to add the link to your new page (see screenshot below). Click on the Edit button or appropriate pencil box. And then, anywhere on the page in the Edit Box, type the name of your new page enclosed in double parentheses ((   )). (You can move it later if you want.)

Next, Preview it. You'll notice that it's in small type. The Wiki has codes that automatically tell it how text should appear. If you want your text to look like certain other pre-existing page titles, just replicate their codes as they appear in the Edit Box , which will consist of unconventional uses of exclamation points, underlines, colons, etc., on either side of the page titles.

Use Preview to see if you got it right, and if not, go back and try again. It's easy to miss something, like putting quotes outside instead of inside parentheses, and the code is very particular and has its quirks (EG, it will not accept apostrophes or slashes in titles).

When it looks right, cut and paste it to the location on the page you want, Preview, and Save it.

You'll notice that there is a blue question mark after your title. The question mark indicates that there is no content yet in your new page, and also acts as a link to the empty page. Click on it and you'll see this. XXX Add your words and/or images, Preview and Save.

Return to the previous page using Backlinks ?? in the upper right corner.You'll see that now the question mark is gone and the new page title is in blue hypertext, so people will know that it is a link to your new page.

How to link from an existing article

In the Edit Box, simply highlight the word or words that describe your new page and click on the icon that looks like a sheet of paper with two chain links at the bottom (if you mouseover it, a tooltip will popup to tell you it's a wiki link). The double parentheses will then automatically appear around your highlighted text. (You could also type-in the parentheses yourself, if you wanted.)

For example, if the text read, "this plant demands a high pH to do well," and you wanted to write a short article explaining "pH," you'd highlight the "pH" and click the wiki link icon. In the Edit Box the highlighted text would show the pH with double parentheses on either side of it. Scroll down, click Preview, and on the new screen you'll see that in the regular text the "pH" now looks like this pH?. The question mark indicates that a link has been made, but the page it leads to is empty.

If you're happy with it, Save it, then click on the question mark and your new page will open, titled "pH" and with an Edit Box waiting to be filled with what you have to say. When you're done, Preview and Save.

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