Wiki Help

A wiki page has an Edit tab at it's top (assuming you're logged in). Clicking on it will bring you to an editable, text version of the page. When you are done editing, click the Save button and you will see the results of your changes. It's almost that simple! "Almost" because there are a few special rules to handle links and formatting. (Note: if you see an Add Comment box at the bottom of a wiki page, it is best to disregard it. In a wiki, where everything is editable, it is perfectly redundant.)

To create a link to another wiki page (whether it exists yet or not), all you need to do is type a "WikiWord?," i.e. any word with the sort of unusual pattern of upper and lower case letters beloved to programmers and known as CamelCase?. The WikiWord? will automatically become a link. If the page with that name doesn't yet exist, a question mark will appear right after the word. When you click on the question mark, the missing page will be created and you will be in editing mode to enter its contents. And that's all it takes to create links to other wiki pages! Creating links off-site is discussed under structured text, below. Note that good wiki style requires that each concept get its own page and that pages stay fairly short.

Invented by Ward Cunningham, wikis have been around for over 15 years. "Wiki" is short for wiki wiki web, and wiki wiki is Hawaiin for quick.

Here are some top level wiki concepts.

A wiki site contains a set of wiki pages.

Each wiki page typically represents a concept or a topic.

Each wiki page contains some text and several wiki words.

Each wiki word is written in camel case, a mix of upper and lower case letters with multiple words squished together. An example of a wiki word is WikiWord?.

Wiki editing rules are very simple. Here are the top 7 rules.

1. A blank line separates paragraphs
2. If you start a line with a - it becomes a bullet
3. If you start a line with 0. it becomes a numbered bullet
4. A term or phrase surrounded by ** on both sides is automatically displayed in bold
5. A term or pharase surrounded by * on both side is displayed in italics.
6. You can use html code in a wiki page.
7. For a quick lesson in formatting rules see the StructuredTextCheatSheet.

See Zwiki Help for additional information.