Contributor guide
From Elfi
Great! You decided you want to help out with Elfi, the Elfpath Wiki! First, if you don't already have one, you need an Elfpath account. Then, click the log in link in the top right corner of this page. You're all set to contribute, whether it's editing an existing page, or adding a new one.
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Writing new Elfi pages
If you want to add a new Elfi page, first think of a title for your page. Then navigate to:
http://elfpath.com/elfi/Your_page_name - replace any spaces in the name with underscores _
For example, to create a page called "Energy sources" you would go to:
http://elfpath.com/elfi/Energy_sources
To start writing your new page, click the "create" tab at the top of the page.
Page names should always start with a capital letter on the first word of the name. Subsequent words should not start with a capital letter unless they are proper nouns.
Giving your page a category
To make it easier to find your article, you may want to give it a category. This could be a category that already exists on Elfi, or it could be a new category. For a list of current categories, check the category list.
Let's say you want to add your page to a category called "Energy". It doesn't matter if the category is already on the list or not, you simply add the following to the bottom of your page:
[[Category: Energy]]
If the category you choose already exists, your page will now be listed on the category list under that category. If the category didn't exist before, then it will automatically be created on the category list, and your new page will be added to it.
Category tips
Categories should always start with a capital letter on the first word of the category. Subsequent words should not start with a capital letter unless they are proper nouns.
Your page can have more than one category! In fact it can have as many categories as you like. Simply write multiple categories on more than one line, like this:
[[Category: Energy]] [[Category: Techniques]]
Always check the list of categories before you choose one for your page, even if you already had an existing or new category in mind. To make things easier for readers of Elfi, it's very important that categories are consistent. For example, if you wanted to write an article about grounding and put it in a new category called "Methods", but somebody else had already written an article on shielding and used the category "Techniques", it would make much more sense to use their category.
If you don't like the way someone named a category and think it should be renamed, you should still use their category for now, but do discuss the matter with the person who named the category and others, and suggest your new name for the category.
Elfi markup
When adding or editing pages on Elfi, you can use a special "markup" to format text.
Bold and italics
To create bold text, put three apostrophes each side of the text:
'''bold text'''
This gives the following effect:
- bold text
To create italic text, use two apostrophes each side of the text:
''italic text''
This gives the following effect:
- italic text
To create bold and italic text, use five apostrophes each side of the text:
'''''bold italic text'''''
This gives the following effect:
- bold italic text
Links
Linking to another page on Elfi
Sometimes you'll want to link to another page on Elfi to allow users to explore a particular subject some more. For example you might write:
Before you begin the following exercise you should [[shield]] and [[ground]].
This turns the words "shield" and "ground" into links, which link to the pages called, you guessed it, "Shield", and "Ground". If the page exists the link will be shown in blue, and if it doesn't it will be shown in red. These colours are generated automatically by Elfi. So the above text would be displayed as:
The first letter will automatically be capitalised on the page that is linked to, but it won't appear with a capital letter in your text. That's great, but what if the pages weren't called "Shield" and "Ground", but rather "Shielding" and "Grounding"? You don't want to write "you should shielding and grounding" because obviously that makes no sense! However, you can write the links like this:
Before you begin the following exercise you should [[Shielding|shield]] and [[Grounding|ground]].
On the left side of the | symbol, you write the proper name of the page. If it has spaces that's fine, you just write those spaces in there. On the right side of the | symbol, you write the text that you want to appear for the link. Again, you can put in any spaces you like. So the above text would again display like this:
Linking to a page outside of Elfi
Sometimes you will want to link to an external URL, for example, http://www.google.com. External links are written with single square brackets, and they use a space after the URL instead of a | symbol. For example:
[http://www.google.com Google search engine]
This appears on the page as:
Email links
If you want to add an email address to a page, you would write the following:
[mailto:blackgarden@elfpath.com email BlackGarden]
This would appear on the page like this:
Linking to a category
Sometimes you want to link to a category, but without making the page you are editing a part of that category. To do this, you put a colon in the square brackets before the word "Category". For example, your link might look like one of these two:
[[:Category:NAME]] [[:Category:NAME|TEXT]]
Simply replace "NAME" by the name of the page, and if you are using the second example you can replace "TEXT" by the text that you want to appear for the link.
Lists, bullets, and numbering
Bullet points
Sometimes you need to write a short list with bullet points. This is very simple, and is done like this:
*A basic list *One item per line *An asterisk before each item **Two asterisks makes it go in a level ***In another level *Back **And in again ***An asterisk followed by a colon *:makes the previous item continue *:on the next line. A new line without any asterisks ends the list. *But you can start a new one
This would appear on the page like this:
- A basic list
- One item per line
- An asterisk before each item
- Two asterisks makes it go in a level
- In another level
- Two asterisks makes it go in a level
- Back
- And in again
- An asterisk followed by a colon
- makes the previous item continue
- on the next line.
- And in again
- A new line without any asterisks ends the list.
- But you can start a new one
Numbered lists
Sometimes you want to write a list that is numbered. This is very similar to writing a bulleted list but instead of asterisks, you use hashes (#).
#Numbered lists are: ##Organised ##Easy to follow #You can wrap the line #:using a hash followed by a colon #:just like on a bulleted list A new line without a hash ends the list #Then the next list starts with 1 again.
Displays as:
- Numbered lists are:
- Organised
- Easy to follow
- You can wrap the line
- using a hash followed by a colon
- just like on a bulleted list
- Numbered lists are:
- A new line without a hash ends the list
- Then the next list starts with 1 again.
Definition lists
Sometimes you want to define a word in your page, and Elfi has a really neat way of displaying this built in. You use a semi-colon (;) at the start of the line before the word or term to be defined. Then, on the next line, you start the line with a colon (:) and write the definition after it. If you want to write more than one definition for the word or phrase, just keep starting the lines with a colon. Starting a line without a colon ends the list.
Here's a ''definition list'': ; A phrase : Definition of the phrase ; A word : Which has a definition : Also a second one : And even a third
Displays like this:
- Here's a definition list:
- A phrase
- Definition of the phrase
- A word
- Which has a definition
- Also a second one
- And even a third
Mixed lists
You can mix up different kinds of lists just by changing the symbol that starts each line. Here is an example:
* You can even do mixed lists *# and nest them *# inside each other *#* or break lines<br>in lists. *#; definition lists *#: can be *#:; nested *#:: too
This displays like this:
- You can even do mixed lists
- and nest them
- inside each other
- or break lines
in lists.
- definition lists
- can be
- nested
- too
- or break lines
- You can even do mixed lists
Indentation
You can indent a line by using a : symbol at the start of it. Each : symbol acts like pressing the tab key in a word processor once.
:Indentation is useful for clarity ::Bigger indent :::::Really big indent
Displays like this:
- Indentation is useful for clarity
- Bigger indent
- Really big indent
- Bigger indent
Section headings
If you want to create a section heading or subheading on your page, use two equals signs each side of the heading:
==Major section heading==
If you want to create a subheading underneath your heading, use three equals signs each side of the heading:
===Minor section heading===
Elfi will automatically generate the table of contents at the top of the page based on the headings you have written with equals signs around them. You can use as many or as few subheadings as you need to, just add more equals signs each side for a more minor heading.
Why doesn't my page have a Table of Contents?
If a page is very short, Elfi will not generate a table of contents by default. However, if you want to force a table of contents to be displayed anyway, place the following anywhere in the page's text:
__TOC__
Headings and subheadings example
Here is a short example of how to use headings.
Introduction text - you write this before anything else, and you don't give it a heading. It's displayed before the table of contents, and it should the user a feel for what the page is about. ==Major section 1== The text "Major section 1" is displayed in big header text, and underlined, like "Elfi markup" is on this page. It's also automatically added into the table of contents. The table of contents will be displayed above this header because it is the first header you have made. ===Minor section heading 1.a=== The text "Minor section heading 1.a" is displayed in large bold text, and added to the table of contents under "Major section 1". Like "Section headings" on this page. ===Minor section heading 1.b=== The text "Minor section heading 1.b" is displayed in large bold text, and added to the table of contents under "Major section 1". Like "Section headings" on this page. ====Really minor section heading==== The text "Really minor section heading" is displayed in slightly smaller bold text, and added to the table of contents under "Minor section heading 1.b". This is similar to "Headings and subheadings example" on this page. ==Major section 2== We've moved on to another subject now, so we start again with a new major heading.
Images
You can link directly to any image on Elfpath, Photobucket, or Imageshack. You can also upload an image to Elfi to use it on a page.
Just display the image
To simply display the image without any formatting or resizing, just paste the URL of the image onto the page:
http://www.elfpath.com/forum/images/ranks/5intermediateblue.png
This would display:
Formatted image
In order to display a formatted image, you must first upload the image to Elfi servers. You can do this on the Special:Upload page. On the image upload page, there will be a box which says "destination filename". Make a note of the filename, because you will need it to display your image. Mine is called "green_belt.png".
Now you will need to use a special code to display the image. The recommended code for most images is:
[[File:green_belt.png|thumb|A short caption for the image]]
This would display the image shown to the right here.
For advanced image formatting, please refer to MediaWiki image help.
Redirect pages
Once you've created your page, have a little think and decide whether someone who wanted to find out about that particular subject might write something slightly different in their address bar. For example, maybe you've decided to combine an article about shielding on the same page as an article about grounding, on a page called "Shielding and grounding". What if a user or contributor goes to a page called "Shielding" or a page called "Grounding", and doesn't realise there is already an article to cover that subject?
This is actually really easy to solve. Go to the page you want to redirect from, in the above example, "Shielding". Edit or create the page so that the only thing inside that page is:
#REDIRECT [[Shielding and grounding]]
Now go to the page again, and you should be redirected to the correct page. If it's not working, enter the URL in your address bar manually. You may have a special URL that says "redirect=no" in it, which would stop you from being automatically redirected. Repeat this for any other pages you think should redirect to your page - in the above example you'd also want to do it on the page called "Grounding".
What I wanted to know isn't covered here
Please get in touch BlackGarden via email, on the forums, or add blackgarden666 to Skype for help!
