collablandwiki:Help
Contents |
Quick start
Create account
- Select login/create an account on any page in the top right hand corner of the page.
- Select Create an account.
- Enter a username and password (email and real name are optional but will enable you to receive site updates and retrieve forgotten passwords).
- Select Create account. Your account has been created. You can now login and edit pages. You now also have your own page listed under your username that you can add information to and edit. You can view your page by clicking on your username in this list.
Students: you should now add your userpage to your course by entering [[User:username]] under the Participants heading within that course, replacing username with your own username.
Templates
To use a template simply navigate to the page of the template you would like to use, select edit from the top of the page, copy the entire page from the editable area and paste it into the editable area of the new page you have created.
Useful tools
html2wiki
Convert your HTML docs or pages to wiki text with html2wiki.
Word2MediaWikiPlus
Have word documents that you would like to add to the Collaborative Landscape Wiki? Try Word2MediaWikiPlus, a macro for word that will convert the document, including images and tables, into wikitext that can be copied and pasted into a wiki page.
Editing pages
For a detailed explanation of editing go to
Editing basics
- Start editing
- To start editing a page, click the Edit this page (or just edit) link at one of its edges. This brings you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext: the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox, not here.
- Type your changes
- You can just type your text. However, also using basic wiki markup to make links and do simple formatting adds to the value of your contribution.
- Summarize your changes
- Write a short Edit summary in the small field below the edit-box.
- Preview before saving
- When you have finished, click Show preview to see how your changes will look -- before you make them permanent. Repeat the edit/preview process until you are satisfied, then click Save page and your changes will be immediately applied to the article.
New page
The easiest way to create a new page is to enter the page name in the search box and select Go to see if the page exists. If it exists then edit that page; if it doesn't you can create the page and start adding content! To include your new page in a category simply include the following at the bottom of the page when editing:
[[Category:Some category]]
Where 'Some category' is the name of the category to include the page in.
Namespace
New pages should be started in the correct namespace. Any pages about using or contributing to CollabLandWiki -- like help pages, page templates, and articles explaining the project -- should go in the CollabLandWiki: namespace. You just need to put CollabLandWiki: at the beginning, [[CollabLandWiki:example page]] to create a page in the CollabLandWiki namespace.
Starting with anything is better than nothing - it will give others the opportunity to add to an existing page and update or modify information.
New category
Think the Collaborative Landscape Wiki needs another category? Simply add a new page (as described above) and include the following at the bottom of the page:
[[Category:Some category]]
If the category does not exist then it will be created. Please check the current list of categories to ensure your page does not already fit within an existing category.
Images
Uploadable file types
Most files of any type can be uploaded. However, to be visible on a page, the file must be a jpg, png, or svg file. All other types will need to be downloaded to a local computer then viewed on that machine. If you are trying to upload a certain type of file and are encountering errors please use our contact page to inform us.
Naming
Please note when uploading images to use a unique naming convention as all images are stored in one database. Therefore if you use siteplan.jpg and another user uploads a file with the same name it will over right your file. Something that locates the file with the full name is also very useful for searching. Good examples include:
OwhiroBay siteplan 001.jpg
FreshKills site location 001.jpg
If you want to replace an existing file, give it the same name, and otherwise a name that does not exist yet.
(Below "image" can be read as "file", though some complications, like duplicate names blocking access, are specific for embedding images.)
When replacing or deleting an image, all projects that use the image are affected. Therefore it is important that the image pageis linked to the local image pages of that image on all projects that use it. On these, even if they have never been created explicitly and therefore have an empty editable part, the "image links" section shows the local pages that use the image.
Choose a name for an image as carefully as you would choose an article name, and use proper spacing and capitalization: the name may not be visible in a page that embeds the image, but it is, for example, on the page for a category that contains the image.
Embedding images in a page
Default settings
Once the image has been uploaded to the wiki a thumbnail can be inserted into any page which links to the larger uploaded image page by inserting
- [[Image: image name including extension |thumb|caption]]
into the page. This will insert a link with the default thumbnail size of 200 pixels wide, aligned to the right of the page, which should be the convention used for most pages. It will also provide a caption for the image that will be visible below the thumbnail and will also pop-up when the mouse is hovered over the thumbnail.
For example to insert a thumbnail image into a page that links to the uploaded image for Waitangi Park titled WaitangiPark001.jpg with the caption 'Waitangi park with dome in background' you would insert the following text
- [[Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg|thumb|Waitangi park with dome in background]] which will give you the example to the right.
Specifying image alignment and pixel width
The default thumbnail size of 200 pixels wide, aligned to the right of the page, should be the convention used for most pages. If for some reason you need to alter the thumbnail size or alignment this can be achieved through the linking text:
- [[Image: image name including extension |orientation|thumb|width in pixels px|caption]]
The conventions for alignment of the image on the page are left,center and right.
For example to insert a thumbnail image into a page, aligned to the left, and 300 pixels wide, that links to the uploaded image for Waitangi Park titled WaitangiPark001.jpg with the caption 'Waitangi park with dome in background' you would insert the following text
- [[Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg||left|thumb|400 px|Waitangi park with dome in background]] which will give you the example to the left.
For a detailed explanatin of image naming, uploading and linking go to
Image gallery
An effective method for adding multiple thumbnails to a page in a grid is the gallery function. Simply use the following text
<gallery> Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg|Captions can be added below images Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg|Captions can have [[Fresh Kills|links]] to wiki pages Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg Image:WaitangiPark001.jpg </gallery>
Which will result in the gallery below
Captions can be added below images
Captions can have links to wiki pages
Smooth Gallery
The Collaborative Landscape Wiki supports Smooth Gallery, embedded dynamic slideshows on any page. Here are a few ways of using the extension:
To make a basic gallery, put image names one per line within <sgallery></sgallery> tags like so:
<sgallery> WaitangiPark001.jpg Farmers Market Scene.JPG Doors closed 1.jpg </sgallery>
to get:
<sgallery> WaitangiPark001.jpg Farmers Market Scene.JPG Doors closed 1.jpg </sgallery>
To make a timed slideshow without the carousel, arrow buttons, and infopane; and with a width of 600px, a height of 500px, and a delay of 4000ms; you would do the following:
<sgallery width="600" height="500" showarrows="false" showcarousel="false" showinfopane="false" timed="true" delay="4000"> WaitangiPark001.jpg Farmers Market Scene.JPG Doors closed 1.jpg </sgallery>
to get:
<sgallery width="600" height="500" showarrows="false" showcarousel="false" showinfopane="false" timed="true" delay="4000"> WaitangiPark001.jpg Farmers Market Scene.JPG Doors closed 1.jpg </sgallery>
Copyright
Copyright resources
If in doubt you can use this copyright slider to determine if permission is needed for works in the USA. Further information is available at the US based website Copyright advisory network.
Image copyright
Images to be uploaded to this site should be licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License or be in the public domain. Users can also specify their own type of license for content from Creative Commons. Flickr supports creative commons licensing so some images may be used from the photo sharing service. Check this page on the Flickr site for Creative Commons licensed images.
The safest way to ensure compliance is to use your own photographs, that by uploading to this site you submit them under the GNU Free Documentation License. If you would like to submit work under a different license then please see the Wikipedia copyright tags page for information, which CollabLandWiki will follow.
Some sources for GFD and public domain images to use on the site:
- Creative Commons licensed image search engine
- Wikimedia commons
- Wikipedia public domain image sources
- Flickr Creative Commons licensed images (ensure you adhere to the license type specified for the image)
- Everystockphoto.com is a searchable index of Creative Commons licensed photos.
Media
Embedding youtube and google video into pages
You can upload many types of video files to youtube and google video with a google account. The CollabLandWiki supports embedding video that has been uploaded to various hosting sites, below are a few examples. For a complete list of supported video hosts see the following website.
Youtube
Original url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EszBH3cQqI
Wiki code:
<videoflash>3EszBH3cQqI</videoflash>
or (with width and height):
<videoflash>3EszBH3cQqI|200|100</videoflash>
GoogleVideo
Original url: http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=1811233136844420765
Wiki code:
<videoflash type="googlevideo">1811233136844420765</videoflash>
or (with width and height):
<videoflash type="googlevideo">1811233136844420765|200|150</videoflash>
Vimeo
Original url: http://vimeo.com/9394817
Wiki code:
<videoflash type="vimeo">9394817</videoflash>
or (with width and height):
<videoflash type="vimeo">9394817|640|480</videoflash>
Audio
Direct download
Audio files (ogg, mp3) can be inserted into a page to be directly downloaded using the 'media' syntax:
[[Media:Accordian chords-01.ogg]]
resulting in:
Embedded mp3 player
To embed an mp3 file and player into to a page use the following syntax:
<flashmp3>filename.mp3</flashmp3>
For detailed information on different parameters please see the Flashmp3 extension page at Mediawiki.org.
Integrating google maps in pages
The CollabLandWiki supports embedding Google Maps into any page. This support owes much to the Google Maps extension.
Quick method
To insert a map into a page you need the latitude and longitude from Google Maps. The easiest way to insert a map within a page is to select the link titled show map that is visible when editing any page. Clicking this will open a google maps window. A user can pan and zoom within the window as normal. Sinlge clicking on the map will place a marker - clicking on that marker will bring up a balloon with two options:
- "insert map centered here"
- "add a point here"
The first link will insert a the proper syntax for that geographic location within the page wherever the user's cursor is. This tag will take on the latitude and longitude of the current marker, and the zoom level and type that the editor's map currently has.
The link to "add a point here" will insert the syntax necessary to create a point, e.g.
42.711618,-73.205112,label goes here
and will highlight the phrase "label goes here" (at least in Firefox). Be sure to put your cursor inside your <googlemap></googlemap> tags before clicking "add a point here".
When you're done using the editor's map, just click "hide map" above the toolbar buttons.
Manual method
Locating latitude and longitude
The easiest way to get this is to search or browse to your desired location. Then right click on the Link to this page option in the top right-hand corner of the google maps interface and copy that link location. If you paste the copied text into a wiki page it will look like this:
- http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=wellington&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=-41.284514,174.779949&spn=0.090425,0.22007
The latitude is listed in the link here:
- http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=wellington&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=-41.284514,174.779949&spn=0.090425,0.22007
The longitude is listed in the link here:
- http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=wellington&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=-41.284514,174.779949&spn=0.090425,0.22007
Ensure you include any minus signs as this will influence location greatly!
Linking to a map within a page
To link to a map from within any page you need to insert those numbers into the following syntax:
<googlemap lat="-41.284514" lon="174.779949" </googlemap>
To give the following map:
UNIQ3c66ebc343135f8c-googlemap-0000001E-QINU
