MediaWiki Content Guide

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MediaWiki Content Guide

This page contains a MediaWiki Content Guide for help organising a Wiki.

Contents 1 Categories 1.1 Creating a Category 1.2 Adding Content to a Category 1.3 Category Links 1.4 Sub-Categories 1.5 Category Contents 1.6 Uncategorized 1.7 Categories See Also 2 Templates 2.1 Creating a Template Page 2.2 Showing a Template Page 2.3 Advanced Templates 2.4 Templates See Also 3 MediaWiki Resources 3.1 Official MediaWiki Resources 3.2 Unofficial MediaWiki Resources 3.3 Media Wiki Tools

Categories

Categories and sub-categories are used to organise content.

Creating a Category

Add a link to a category that doesn't yet exist. For instance, to create the "WikiMedia" category, you would edit an article and enter [[Category:WikiMedia]]. The Category:WikiMedia will automatically be created when the edit is saved.

Adding Content to a Category

tbd

Category Links

Create a link to a category page by using a colon before the word Category. Example: [[:Category:Media_Wiki]] appears as Category:Media_Wiki.

Sub-Categories

Add [[Category:parent_category_name]] onto the page that you would like to make into a subcategory.

To make the category Roses into a subcategory of the category called Flowers.

Step 1 - Go to the page called [[Category:Roses]], and click edit this page.

Step 2 - Place the text [[Category:Flowers]] within the body of the [[Category:Roses]] article, and save.

Finished! Roses is now a subcategory of Flowers, and [[Category:Roses]] will be visible on [[Category:Flowers]].

Category Contents

Only 200 entries are displayed on the screen for any given Category. To add a TOC (table of contents) input:

{{tl|CategoryTOC}} - adds a complete TOC (Top, 0 - 9, A-Z)

{{tl|CatAZ}} - adds a TOC without numbers, for categories with members that only start with letters.

Uncategorized

Use the {{uncategorized}} tag for everything that's not got a category.

Categories See Also

• wikipedia.org Categorization — guide to categories used by Wikipedia.
• wikipedia.org Subcategories — guide to subcategories used by Wikipedia.
• wikipedia.org Template: Uncategorized
• wikipedia.org Categorization FAQ
• wikipedia.org Help: Category
• askdrwiki.com Ask Dr Wiki — categories guide.

Templates

Templates are used to contain info which you want to display across multiple pages.

Creating a Template Page

Create a template page by adding Template: to the beginning of the namespace, i.e. [[Template:Example]].

Showing a Template Page

You can show the contents of a Template by inserting {{Example}} tag into a page.

Advanced Templates

You can also insert variables into template pages, such as a User's name, etc. More info see links below.

Templates See Also

• meta.wikimedia.org Help: Quick Guide to Templates — introduction to templates.
• meta.wikimedia.org Help: Template — good overview to using templates.
• meta.wikimedia.org Help: Advanced Templates — doing really scary things with templates.
• comcast.net MediaWiki Templates — good guide includes setting up template fields.

MediaWiki Resources

Official MediaWiki Resources

• mediawiki.org — official MediaWiki website.
• mediawiki.org Manual — contents page.
• mediawiki.org Help — contents page.
• mediawiki.org Help: FAQ — good place for quick answers.

• meta.wikimedia.org Help — User Guide

• wikimedia.org Mailing List — sign up for email updates.

Unofficial MediaWiki Resources

• askdrwiki.com Ask Dr Wiki — helpful advice about all things wiki.
• lifehacker.com How to Guide — excellent first start guide with Video Tutorial by Gina Trapani.
• mikeswikidev Mediawiki Dev Blog — by Mike Baynton.
• mwusers.com Media Wiki Users — forum and mailing lists for users and administrators.
• wikibooks.org Administrators Handbook — excellent admin guide.
• wikibooks.org How to Start a Wiki — excellent guide including a list of free and paid Wiki hosts.
• wikieducator.org Wiki Educator — community site with guides for education projects linked with the development of free content.

Media Wiki Tools

• HTML to Wiki Converter for HTML Tables — excellent tool which converts HTML table tags into their wiki equivalents.