Help:Contents

Home

I-Vision

II-Preliminary Design

III-Final Design

IV-Pre-Construction

V-Construction

VI-Retrospect

Using MediaWiki

MediaWiki provides a web space where registered editors can share information and create documents collaboratively. MediaWiki is the wiki engine that supports Wikipedia. The following provides basic editing techniques for the Project Procedures Manual wiki. Additional editing techniques can be found by searching the internet. Be sure to include "MediaWiki" in your search as there are a number of wiki programs. MediaWiki is the open-source wiki software used by http://wikipedia.org, which is perhaps the largest single website on the earth, and certainly the largest encyclopedia.

Note: In order for file links to work, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer, other browsers display content, but won't open Windows Explorer windows to file links, and won't run executable programs from the Wiki pages.

Note: You will need to be a registered user to edit content on this Wiki. See this page for more information

Searching PPM

The PPM utilizes the Sphinx Search engine. This operates similar to Google, and has advanced query syntax documented here.

Accessing your MediaWiki site

Note: You must have cookies enabled to log in to a MediaWiki site.

Setting up your userpage

As a wiki user you have your own page where you can add content such as a profile and picture so other users can find out more about you.

1. Click on your username at the top-right of the browser window to access your userpage.
2. Click on the create or edit tab that appears near the top of the browser window.
   The page will now appear in edit mode with an editing toolbar at the top.
3. Type a message into the edit area.
   See Adding or changing content (editing) in this guide for further information and editing tips.
4. Click the Save page button at the bottom of the page, below the text area.

Note: You can also add a link to an image, file or website. See Adding an image, Uploading and adding a link to a document and Adding a link to another websitein this guide for how to perform these actions.

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Customizing your signature

MediaWiki contains a signature tool that allows you to mark your contributions on the wiki. By default this signature tool, uses your username. Since your username may not be meaningful to other users, it can be changed to your real name.

1. Click on the my preferences link that appears at the top-right of the browser window.
2. Type your preferred name into the Signature field on the preferences page.
3. Click the Save button.

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Adding or changing content (editing)

Create an account by clicking on the Login/Create Account link (top right) Go to the page you wish to edit (using the links in the navigation menu to the left of the window). You can edit either a whole page or just a section of a page.

To edit a whole page:

1. Click on the edit tab at the top of the window. The page will now appear in edit mode with an editing toolbar at the top.
2. Make your additions or changes in the text area.
3. Click the "Show preview" button to verify your changes without saving.
4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

To edit a section of a page:

1. Click the [edit] link that appears to the right of the window, in line with the heading of the section you wish to edit. The page will now appear in edit mode with an editing toolbar at the top.
2. Make your additions or changes in the text area.
3. Click the "Show preview" button to verify your changes without saving.
4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Note: You must place a blank line between sections of text to force a new paragraph.

You can also use the following when formatting:

• To create a bulleted list, start the line with a asterisk character *.
  
• If your list is non-contiguous, you can also use the html tags <ol><li></li></ol> to generate numbered lists.
• To create a numbered list, start the line with a hash character #.
  
• To highlight important facts or quotes by indenting them, use ':'s.
  
• To enclose text within a box, start each of the relevant text with a blank space.
  

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Adding a page header

Add the template reference {{Navbar}} to transclude the standard page header to your page.

Home

I-Vision

II-Prelim. Design

III-Final Design

IV-Pre-Const.

V-Construction

VI-Retrospect

The {{Navbar}} template also places a table of contents below the navbar whose numbering is suppressed.

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Changing the color of text

1. Go to the page or section you wish to edit (using the links in the navigation menu to the left of the window).
2. Click on either the edit tab at the top of the window to edit the whole page or the [edit] link that appears at the right side of the window next to the heading of the section you wish to edit.
3. To change the color of text, you need to use HTML font color tags. The following example shows how to add green text to your page.
<font color=green>An example of green text</font>

Note: The spelling of color is in American Language.

4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

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Changing text to computer code (courier)

1. Surround the text with <code> and </code>.

<code> An example using code tags</code> appears like this:An example using code tags.

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Adding a table

1. Go to the page or section you wish to edit (using the links in the navigation menu to the left of the window).
2. Click on either the edit tab at the top of the window to edit the whole page or the [edit] link that appears at the right side of the window next to the heading of the section you wish to edit.
3. To add a table, you need to use HTML coding. The following example shows how to add a table of 3 columns and 3 rows with a column width of 150.
   Copy and paste the following to produce a table with 3 columns and 3 rows.

{| border="2" cellpadding="2"


|-


|width="150pt"|Column 1 Heading


|width="150pt"|Column 2 Heading


|width="150pt"|Column 3 Heading


|-


|column 1 row 2 info ||column 2 row 2 info|| column 3 row 2 info


|-


|column 1 row 3 info ||column 2 row 3 info|| column 3 row 3 info


|}

4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

This is how the above coding will appear when you preview or save the page or section:

Column 1 Heading	Column 2 Heading	Column 3 Heading
column 1 row 2 info	column 2 row 2 info	column 3 row 2 info
column 1 row 3 info	column 2 row 3 info	column 3 row 3 info

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Signing your posts

Follow the steps in Adding or changing content (editing) in this guide to edit either a page or a section, but stop before you click the Save page button.
Then, either:

1. Click on the signature tool icon in the editing toolbar. A combination of lines and squiggles will appear in the editing area i.e. --~~~~

--WikiSysop 11:08, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

or

1. Type in two hyphens followed immediately by four tildes and a HTML line break tag i.e.--~~~~<br>
   
2. Click the Save page button below the text area.
   

Your username and the date and time will appear in place of the lines and squiggles.

The username will now appear as a highlighted link.

Clicking on this link will take you to the userpage of that person, or your own userpage. See Setting up your userpage in this guide.
Also see Customizing your signature in this guide for how to change your signature from your username to a preferred name.

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Uploading and adding an image

Adding an image is a two-step process.

You first need to upload your file then add a link to it from a page.

Note: If you have uploaded an image to the wiki previously, you only need to add a link to it from a page -remember though, that you will need to know the exact file name of the image. If you have forgotten the exact name of the file, you can click on Upload File in the toolbox menu to the left of the window (under the navigation menu) and then click on list of uploaded files to view the names of all uploaded files.

Note: It is best to upload only small images, as large images take a long time to load and can be difficult to view. As a rule of thumb, they should be no larger in file size than 100 Kb and no larger in physical size than 640x480 pixels.

Upload the image:

1. Click on Upload file in the toolbox menu to the left of the window (under the navigation menu).

1. Alternatively, you can click on Upload Multiple Files which allows you to select, name, and describe multiple files on one form.
2. Click on the Browse… button next to the Source filename: text box and locate the file you wish to upload and add to a page.
3. Once you have selected the file you need and clicked Open, the file name should appear in the Destination filename: text box.
4. Highlight and copy this field (Ctrl+C) so you can paste the exact name of the uploaded file into the page.
5. If you wish, type a description of the image in the Summary field.
6. Click the Upload file button. You will be redirected to the Image homepage for your newly uploaded image.

Add a link to the image:

1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add the image and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
2. Place the cursor where you would like the image to appear.
3. Click on the Embedded image icon in the middle of the editing tool bar.
4. Change the file name in the file tag to reflect the exact name of the image you just uploaded (you can paste the name over the top of the current text Example.jpg by using Ctrl+V).

Note: In addition to the filename you can specify the desired location of the image on the page, the image width and a caption that describes the image.


The basic syntax is:

[[File:filename|image type|image location|image width|Caption]]


e.g [[File:Pwlogo_150px.png|thumb|right|50px|PW Logo]]



PW Logo

• image type can be thumb or frame
• image location can be left, right, center (note American spelling) or none
• image width: e.g. 250px or you can specify size instead 100x200px

5. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Uploading and adding a link to a document

Adding a document such as a PDF, Word document or Excel spreadsheet is a two-step process.

You first need to upload your file then add a link to it from a page.

Note: If you have uploaded a document to the wiki previously, you only need to add a link to it from a page -remember though, that you will need to know the exact file name of the document. If you have forgotten the exact name of the file, you can click on Upload file in the toolbox menu to the left of the window (under the navigation menu) and then click on list of uploaded files to view the names of all uploaded files.

Upload the document:

1. Click on Upload file in the toolbox menu to the left of the window (under the navigation menu).
2. Click on the Browse… button next to the Source filename: text box and locate the file you wish to upload and add to a page. Once you have selected the file you need and clicked Open, the file name should appear in the Destination filename: field.
3. Copy this field (Ctrl+C) so you can paste the exact name of the uploaded file into the page.
4. If you wish, type a description of the image in the Summary field.
5. Click the Upload file button.

Add a link to the document:

1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add a link to the document and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
2. Place the cursor where you would like the link to the document to appear.
3. Click on the Media file icon in the middle of the editing tool bar.
4. Change the file name in the media tag to reflect the name of the file you just uploaded (you can paste the name over the top of the current text Example.ogg using Ctrl+V).

You can customise this link so that a more meaningful name appears as the link to the file. To do this insert a pipe symbol i.e. | after the file name e.g. qg_mediawiki_users.pdf and type in the preferred file name e.g. Quick guide for MediaWiki users e.g: [[Media:qg_mediawi_users.pdf|Quick guide for MediaWiki users]]

Click the Save page button below the text area.

Adding a link to another website

1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add a link to an external site and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
2. Place the cursor in the location where you would like the link to appear.
3. Click on the External link icon in the editing toolbar, or type the URL directly into the page.
Note that if you surround the URL with single square brackets, you can add alternative text, without the square brackets, the link appears as typed.
4. A URL tag e.g. link title will have been inserted into the text area where you placed your cursor.
5. Replace the web address e.g. http://www.example.com with your link's URL e.g. http://www.stormwatch.com
6. Replace the words link title with the link description you wish to appear on the page
   e.g.Stormwatch i.e: [http://www.stormwatch.com Stormwatch]
7. Click the Save page button below the text area.

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Adding a new page

1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add a link to a new page and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
   
   Then either:
   
2. Select and highlight a word or collection of words that represents the title of your new page and click on the Internal link icon in the editing toolbar.
The words you selected will appear surrounded by two sets of square brackets and will have been formatted as a link to your new page,

or

2. Click on the Internal link icon in the editing toolbar.
3. Between the two sets of square brackets replace the words link title with the title of your new page e.g.[[FAQs]]
4. Click the Save page button below the text area.
5. Click on the hyperlink you have created in the text, which will be in a different coloured type. This will take you to a new blank page with the same name as the hyperlink.
6. Type into the text box and format as required.
7. Click the Save page button below the text area.

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Dividing a page into sections

1. Go to the page or section you would like to divide and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
2. Place the cursor where you would like to divide the text and type in your heading e.g. Topic 1
3. Select and highlight the heading text, then click the Level 2 headline icon in the middle of the editing toolbar. Two 'equals' characters will appear around the text you selected as your heading
   e.g. == Topic 1 ==
4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Note: If you add four or more headings to a page, a table of contents will automatically appear at the top.

• The ='s must be the first characters in the line.
• By clicking the [edit] link at the side of each section, you can edit just that section.

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Restoring previous content

1. Go to the page or section where you wish to restore previous content.
2. Click the history tab at the top of the window.
3. You will see a chronological list of all the changes that have been made to that page.
4. Click on the date and time link of the version you wish to restore. You will see the old version of the page with links at the top to take you to an even older version or to a newer version.
5. If you are sure this is the version you wish to restore, click on the edit tab at the top of the window.
6. You will see a warning at the top of the page that you are editing an out-of-date revision. Click on Save page.

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Finding out who edited the page

To identify who made which contributions to a particular page:

1. Go to the relevant page.
2. Click the history tab at the top of the window.
3. A chronological list of all the changes to the page will appear, with the editors' usernames next to their changes.
4. Click on the circle next to a particular version and click Compare selected versions.

You will see the changes made in that version in yellow to the left of the window, and later changes to those sections in green to the right.

To see a particular user's contributions to the whole site:

1. Click on Special pages in the toolbox menu (under the navigation menu to the left of the window).
2. Click on User contributions under the heading of Users and rights.
3. Enter the relevant username and click Search.
4. You will see a chronological list of all of the changes that person has made.
5. Click on diff next to a particular version to see the changes made to that version.

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Creating a category

Categories are groups of wiki pages that share a common theme.

Category pages list all wiki pages that are included in that category.

For example a category page entitled Big Cats might contain a link to a page called Lions and another called Tigers.

Categories allow users to browse content on a wiki using themes rather than searching for keywords or navigating links via the menu.

1. Go to the page or section you would like to add the new category and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window).
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and type in [[Category:Your category name]] in the last new line.
3. Click the Save page button. Your page will now have a blue box at the bottom containing the category details.
4. Click on the link to your new category to access the category page.

Once you have created a category and accessed your category page, instead of having an article tab, the content of the page is displayed on a Category tab. This tab is a place for you to define your Category.

1. Click the edit tab (at the top of the window).
2. Type in the description of the category.
3. Click the Save page button below the text area.

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Reviewing all of the categories

To view all categories,

1. click on Special pages in the toolbox menu (under the navigation menu to the left of the window).
2. Click on Categories in the list under the heading of List of pages.

A list of categories will appear.

Inserting Templates

Templates are special wiki pages that can be used to highlight information

Insert a {{Exhibit|FileName|Exhibit Number|Description}} to insert a formatted link to an exhibit.

For example: inserting {{Exhibit|II-3-4b.dot|No. II-3-4b|City’s standard Engineering / Architectural services agreement for design projects.}} produces:

Exhibit No. II-3-4b City’s standard Engineering / Architectural services agreement for design projects.

Insert a {{update}} to add This page is in need of updating. to any wiki page

Insert a {{brokenlinks}} to add This page has broken links. and be sure to remove this code after the page has been fixed.

Insert a {{Note|This is an example note}} to add a highlighted note to any wiki page.

Note: This is an example note

To create text that appears if you hover the mousepointer over a word use Template:H:texttip

Another tooltip type template that uses the ParserExtensions extension is Template:H:title - it allows links and turning the dotted line off.

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Web Help

Help:Wiki markup