NovaRoma:Wiki Editing for Romans

This is a quick guide for Romans who are new to wikis.

• If you just want to edit an existing article:
  • Please read section 1 "Editing: Basic steps" carefully.
  • Use section 2 "Wikitext markup..." as a reference for doing fancier things.
• If you want to create a new article, it is just the same, but please also read about how to name articles.

N.B.: This isn't everything that you can do, but it is probably enough for most articles.

Contents 1 Editing: Basic steps 1.1 Start editing 1.2 Editing is simple 1.3 Summarize your changes 1.4 Minor edits 1.5 Preview before saving 2 Wikitext markup: making the page look the way you want 2.1 Emphasis 2.2 New paragraph 2.3 Section headings and subsection headings 2.4 Lists 2.4.1 Unordered lists 2.4.2 Ordered lists 2.4.3 Definition lists 2.5 Links 2.5.1 Link to another article in the wiki 2.5.2 Link to things outside the wiki 2.5.3 Category links 2.5.4 Date Links 2.5.5 Redirection links 2.6 Images 2.6.1 An image, including alternate text 2.6.2 An image in a frame with a caption 2.6.3 Wrapping text around an image 2.7 Special characters 2.8 Templates

Editing: Basic steps

Start editing

To start editing a page, click on the "edit" link at the top of the page. This will bring 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 on your user page.)

Editing is simple

In most cases you will just type (or paste) words, sentences, paragraphs or whole articles. It is just like typing. You can read below about making headings, lists and other fancy things.

Summarize your changes

You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box.

Minor edits

There is a check box that marks an edit as "minor". Minor edits are generally spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearrangement of text. Other users may choose to hide minor edits when viewing Recent Changes.

Preview before saving

When you have finished, press 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.

Wikitext markup: making the page look the way you want

You don't have to read this section. Just use it as a reference to find out how to do things.

Emphasis

1. Emphasis: put two apostrophes around the bit you want to emphasize ''emphasis'' (usually italic)
2. More emphasis: put three apostrophes around the bit you want to emphasize '''More emphasis''' (usually bold)
3. Lots of emphasis: put five apostrophes around the bit you want to emphasize '''''Lots of emphasis''''' (usually bold italic)

New paragraph

Use an empty line to start a new paragraph. A simple return is ignored, but two returns (a blank line) starts a new paragraph.

Section headings and subsection headings

Divide your article into sections by putting your heading on a new line and surrounding it with double equals signs:

==Section heading==

Make subsection headings the same way, but use three equals signs:

===Sub-section heading===

• make smaller divisions with more equals signs.
• Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs.
• Start with two equals signs; don't use single equals signs.

Lists

Unordered lists

• Start every list item on a new line.
• Put an asterix in front of each item.
• This list looks like this:

*Start every list item on a new line.
*Put an asterix in front of each item.
*This list looks like this:

Ordered lists

1. Start every list item on a new line.
2. Put a number sign in front of each item.
3. This list looks like this:

#Start every list item on a new line.
#Put an asterix in front of each item.
#This list looks like this:

Definition lists

• Put each item to define on a new line
• Put a semicolon before each item
• Put a colon between each item and its definition

Item to define 

A nice definition that can be as long or as short as you want.

;Item to define : A nice definition that can be as long or as short as you want.

Links

You will often want to make clickable links to other pages.

Link to another article in the wiki

To link to another article in this wiki, just type the article title inside [[double brackets]].

To link to the article "Choosing a Roman name", you would enter

[[Choosing a Roman name]] 

and it would appear in your article like this: Choosing a Roman name.

To make it fit smoothly in a sentence, you can make the first letter (only) lower case. If you type:

We have an article about [[choosing a Roman name]]

It will look like this: "We have an article about choosing a Roman name".

If you want to link to an article but you don't want to use the article's title, you can use the pipe character |. Start your link the same way, with the article title in double brackets, but then add the pipe character and then the words that you want to appear as your link.

We have an article about [[choosing a Roman name | picking a name]].

Appears as: "We have an article about picking a name".

Many articles here have titles like "Coin (Nova Roma)". If you don't want the "(Nova Roma)" part to appear, just make a normal link, add a pipe character and then add nothing. If you type

[[Coin (Nova Roma)|]] 

you will get this: "Coin".

If you add any letters right against the end of your link, they will become part of the link.

 We have also minted several [[coin (Nova Roma)|]]s.

Looks like this: "We have also minted several coins."

Link to things outside the wiki

To link to something outside the wiki, just enter the URL. If you type

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newroman/ 

you get a link that looks like this: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newroman/

If you want to give that link a name you must put it in single square brackets and add the name after the address, just leaving a space. So if you type this:

[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newroman/ a group for new citizens]

it will look like this: "a group for new citizens".

If you use the single square brackets and no link name, you will get a number. If you type

[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newroman/]

you will see this "[1]".

Category links

You can add your article to a category by putting in a category link.

A category is a special kind of page. It will automatically show an alphabetical list of all the articles that have a link to that category. Look at Macellum for an example of a category. Every article in that category has a link like this inside it:

[[Category:Macellum (Nova Roma)]]

• Put a category link anywhere in the article, usually at the bottom or at the top.
• The link to the category automatically appears at the bottom of the article.
• An article can be in any number of categories.

To make a link to a category without adding the article to the category, just add a leading colon, like this:

[[:Category:Macellum (Nova Roma)]]

It will look like this: "Category:Macellum (Nova Roma)"

Of course, it now acts like a normal inside the wiki link, so all the other rules apply:

[[:Category:Macellum (Nova Roma)|]]

Appears as: "Macellum"

Date Links

Always put double brackets around dates.

The Wiki reformats linked dates to match the reader's date preferences. These three dates will show up the same if you choose a format in your Preferences:

• July 20, 1969
• 20 July 1969
• 1969-07-20

Always put double brackets around years AUC (in Roman numerals).

Redirection links

You can automatically forward readers from one article to another. For example, a reader who searches for "eagle" will be forwarded automatically to the article on Aquila heliaca.

The article "Eagle" contains just this:

#REDIRECT [[Aquila heliaca]]

The redirection happens automatically. If you add a redirect to an existing article, everything else in that article will be deleted, so use redirects carefully.

Images

An image, including alternate text

• Everything goes in [[double brackets]].
• Put Image: plus the image file name first.
• Put a pipe character | between the image file name and the alternate text.

[[Image:Nova_Roma_Flag.jpg|Nova Roma flag]]

Makes this:

An image in a frame with a caption

Just add the keyword frame and set it off with pipe characters |

[Image:Nova_Roma_Flag.jpg|frame|The Nova Roma flag]]

Makes this:

Wrapping text around an image

You can put the image in a frame with a caption and make text wrap around it. You can make the image move to the left or to the right.

• Add the keyword left or right and set it off with pipe characters |
• Put the image first and the surrounding text below it.

[[Image:Nova_Roma_Flag.jpg|frame|left|The Nova Roma flag]] You can 
put the image in a frame...

Special characters

Now that Mediawiki (the software that makes this wiki go) supports UTF-8, many of these can be entered directly into articles, without the HTML markup.

Umlauts and accents: À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ	À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ
Punctuation: ¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • - – —	¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • – —
Commercial symbols: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤	™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤
Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω	α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω

Templates

Templates let us put things onto pages automatically.

Some categories of articles use special templates.

You add them by putting the template's name in {{double braces}}.