Help:Add new

From ClawsOrPaws

Please note that you have to be a registered user of the ClawsOrPaws Wiki in order to be able to add a new Wiki page.

Contents 1 Template for new pages 2 How to add a new page to the Wiki 2.1 Create a blank page 2.2 Use a template 2.3 Formatting your text 2.4 Special characters 2.5 Quotes 2.6 Add categories 2.7 Use "Show preview" first, and click "Save page" later 2.8 Changing the page title 2.9 Monitor changes to "your" page

Template for new pages

The template is placed first on this page for easy access. If adding Wiki pages is new to you, you may want to skip to the next section and read that first!

You can use the text below as a general template for when you add a page about a new application. (The equal signs are the wikitext markup for content headings which automatically adds the "Content [Show/Hide]" menu to the top.) This is only one possible template that could be used. You are free to design your page in your own way, and you can of course also create a template for the way you prefer to design Wiki pages. Keep in mind, though, that other contributors may change your design as they add more content to your page!

If you use this template, give a brief description under the main heading "Description". This description may include a url to the product homepage, and information about the OSes it runs on. Add more details about features, and/or how the application works, screenshots, etc, under "Product Description". Use "Benefits" for highlighting features that you think are especially good about the application. Provide as accurate information under "Licence" as you can, including (for example) if there is free trial for a commercial application, or if there is a freeware version that is limited in comparison to a commercial version of the same application. "Comments" may include anything that does not fit under the other headings, including reviews of the application. Reviews don't have to be very technical. You can for example simply tell others that an application is "Really easy to use!". Such comments are valuable when you try to decide which software to try. "Guides" may contain links to guides, manuals, FAQ pages and tutorials, but you are also free to write and provide a guide yourself. If you post a guide you have already posted, for example, at a forum, you are free to supply a link to that forum, too.

Use your mouse (or a key combination such as shift + arrow key) to select all of the text in the blue box below, then use ctrl + C to copy the text for your new page. Use ctrl + V to paste it into the blank text box, before you start adding content.

Please add a category name at the bottom of your new page, see below and Help:Categories

How to add a new page to the Wiki

Create a blank page

The Wiki contains a "safeguard" against duplicate pages by the way it works. You will find no button for adding new pages. Instead, you need to search for the item you want to write about. If there is already a page for it, you are welcome to edit that page. If there is no hit, you have the opportunity to add a new page.

Since our Wiki (at least for now) is all about software, the page you would want to make would have the name of an application. Let's say I want to add a page about CDBurnerXP Pro to the Wiki...

This is what the result looked like when I searched for "CDBurnerXP Pro":

The words "create this page" are a link - clicking it gave me a new page titled "CDBurnerXP Pro", where I could start adding the information I wanted to give about this application. Or, to be precise: I came to a page that said "You've followed a link to a page that doesn't exist yet. To create the page, start typing in the box below."

Use a template

This is when you should not start typing, though, if you want to use a template for your page. In that case, paste the template into the text box. After you have done that, you can start typing.

Formatting your text

At that new page, there is a link at the bottom to Editing help, that will open in a new window. It will tell you some basics about Wikitext markup, and contains links to more comprehensive information about editing, including such things as adding images and links. Note that your headings are already set by your use of the template.

Special characters

Below the buttons for "Save page" etc, there is a box for those special characters that you probably do not have on your keyboard, but might want to add to your text. Just click the character you want to use, and it will be added where you left the cursor in your text.

Quotes

Often you will find that your new page will need some quotes, usually from the homepage of the application. That is, for example, a good way to get a well-phrased and presumably correct description of the application. You need to make the difference between the quotes and your original Wiki text clear, though. You also need to tell where you have found the text that you quote. We have borrowed the WikiPedia way of formatting quotes in order to keep the uniform look, and provide the needful information. So, if you want to add a quote to your text, do it like this:

QUOTED TEXT HERE

Add categories

Adding a category to a page results in two things: the category will be shown in a box at the bottom of the page, and the application will be listed on the page for that category. On the category page you can easily find, for example, all Video Tools in the Wiki.

You add categories as internal links, using double square brackets, at the bottom of your page. Note that there is no space between the word "Category" and the name of the category. It looks like this when you write it:

You will usually need to add at least two categories for your application page: at least one Operating System Category (see below for clarification on that), and at least one Application Category. You can add more categories as needed. A page can belong to any number of categories. If you do not add any categories, one of the admins probably will, as we spot your new page.

If you write about an application that can run on more than one platform (operating system), you need to add more than one Operating System Category. There are only four such categories for this Wiki: Windows-Compatible Software, Linux Software, Mac Software and Other OS Software. In addition to those, there is the Web Applications category. You use that, instead of the Operating System Categories, for software that you can access and use (typically using your browser) without installing it on your computer.

There is a list of existing Application Categories at the Help:Categories page. Go there to check if there is a category that suits your application. If you find one, simply copy and paste it at the bottom of your page, after the Operating System Category. If you add a new category, please add it to that page, so that others can make use of the new category too! Note that you can always add your new page to the "Misc" category, if you do not find one that suits it, and you don't want to add a new one.

Use "Show preview" first, and click "Save page" later

Please use the "Show preview" button to check what your page looks like before you save it. That way, you can keep adding small changes, or correct mistakes, and stay in control of what you are doing. (You also make reading the page history a lot easier.)

Changing the page title

OH NO !!!

I SPEEEEELED THE TITLE WRONG !!!

So, what to do?

Well, you can't edit the title of a Wiki page. Once created and saved, it's there to stay. But, you can move the page you created to a new page, with the title you want for it.

Your old mistake will serve as a redirect to the new page - and this is actually a good thing. Anybody else who makes that same mistake will automatically be shown the right page!

Monitor changes to "your" page

Note the "Watch" button beside the "Move" button I circled in the image above. Click that to receive notification when the page you added is changed. Be prepared for changes to "your" pages - the very idea of a Wiki is that all the users keep editing each others pages, bringing the Wiki as a whole ever closer to perfection...