Willipedia:FAQ

How do I ask questions about Willipedia that aren't listed here?

Email <email>wiki@wso.williams.edu</email> to contact the Willipedia board, which will answer your question promptly and may place it here. Alternately, you may add your question to this page if you think seeing the answer is in the interest of the public, and the board or another user may answer it.

General questions

How do I add a page? There are two ways to add a page.

1. You can create a link to it from another page. Edit the page which will link to your new page, and put in something about the page you want to add, including its exact title enclosed in double square brackets, [[like this]]. Click "Save page" at the bottom, and you will see a link to your new page included on the existing page. This link will be red, since the new page does not yet exist. Clicking on it will allow you to create your new page.
2. Alternatively, put the title of the page you want to create in the text box on the left sidebar of every Willipedia page; then click on "Start this article."

Important: before creating a new page, you should search the wiki for the term you want to be the title of your page; if it already exists, there's no need to recreate it. (Be sure to check for the same title with different capitalization; this should happen automatically when you search.)

How do I delete a page?

You don't. You can edit a page, you can even delete all the text on a page, but normal users cannot actually delete a page. The reason for this restriction is that deleting a page removes all of that page's edit history, which makes reversion or further improvement of that page impossible. Where possible, you should try to improve pages rather than annihilate them in this way. Currently, only members of the Willipedia board have the power to delete, and use it sparingly. If you think a page should be deleted, you can delete all the text on the page and put the word delete within two sets of curly brackets, like this: {{delete}}.

How do I upload a file?

Log in, and then go to the file uploading page. (This page can be accessed by clicking on "Special pages" at the top right of any Willipedia page, and then selecting "Upload file.")

Formatting questions

For a more exhaustive list, see Editing help.

I left lines between paragraphs of text, but my text is showing up as one big block. How do I fix it?

To create a division between paragraphs skip a line (two carriage returns) in the edit box. To indent text, preface each paragraph (or each line, in a poem) with a colon. :Hi. produces

Hi.

How do I make something bold or italicized?

Italicized text has two single quotes (') on either side of it, ''like this''. Bold text has three quotes on each side.

How do I offset a block of text, like a long quotation from another source?

At the beginning of the text block, put <blockquote>. At the end, put </blockquote>. If the text block has multiple paragraphs, do this for each paragraph, or use colons as described above.

What if I want to format something and the answer isn't here?

Go to a page that has the formatting you want, click on "Edit page," and see how it works there. Then click "back" so you don't change anything about the page. If you think many people would like to know the answer, add it to this section.