Help:Contents





Editing an IAE-pedia Page
There are two things to learn and do in order to edit an existing IAE-pedia page.(Note that a few of the IAE-pedia pages are protected so that they can only be edited by the Website administrators.)
 * 1) Create your personal IAE-pedia account. This consists of a User Name and a User Password. Details of how to do this are given below.
 * 2) Learn some of the details of using the MediaWiki editor to edit an existing page. The MediaWiki editor is quite a bit like a word processor. However, it is like a very primitive word processor, and it has some special codes that are used to make section headings, bold face, and so on. Details are given below.

Creating a Personal Account

 * 1) Go to this page: http://iae-pedia.org/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&type=signup.
 * 2) Fill-in the information in the text fields. Where it says Username, make up a user name you want to use for yourself.  Where is says Password, make up a password for yourself. Make sure the e-mail address you specify is valid.
 * 3) Click the "Create account" button.

After a few minutes you should see a confirmation e-mail in your "in" box, for whatever e-mail system you're using. Follow the instructions in the e-mail and click the link to confirm your account.

Once that's done you should be able to Log In with your user name and password into the IAE-Pedia site. Each IAE-pedia page has a Log In button near the top right corner of the page.

Editing a Page Using the MediaWiki Editor
Go to a page that you want to edit. Log in if you are not already logged in. Click on the “edit” button that is in the list of menu items near the top of the page. Five things to look for and learn about:


 * 1) Near the very top of the page you are editing is a menu of buttons. The first one is a dark letter B. This button is used to make text Bold faced. When you select some text (just as you do when using a word processor) and click on this button, it causes three apostrophes to be put on each side of the selected text. That is the special code for Bold. Similarly, when you select text and lick on the I button, the editor inserts double apostrophes around the selected text. This is the code for Italics. These are the only editing buttons you need to initially learn about.
 * 2) The text you are editing is in a box. At the top of the text there are two lines of MediaWikia code. They produce the heading and Table of Contents on a page, and you don’t need to make any changes to them.
 * 3) Next, you will likely see an occasional line of text with two or more equal signs around the text. There are the heading (two equals on each end), subheadings (three equals on each end), and so on. The editor keeps track of these headings and subheadings, and automatically creates the Table of Contents from them.
 * 4) Text that is the content of the page. Notice that there is blank line after each paragraph. Enter and edit text just like you are using a word processor. You can also copy text from other documents and paste into the IAE-pedia page you are editing. The text can contain numbered lists, bulleted list, indented blocks of text, and so on. As a beginner, just imitate the MediaWiki coding you see on the page you are editing or on another page that has the features you want to use. If you are more venturesome, go to http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing_pages. Certain topics, such as inserting diagrams, pictures, and tables, are definitely more of a challenge.
 * 5) Near the bottom of the page is another line of menu buttons. “Save Page” is used to save the editing work you have done and exit from the editor. If you fail to Save Page, your edits will be lost. The other button of immediate interest is the “Cancel” button. This exits the editor without saving the changes you have made.

Creating a New Page from Scratch

 * Start by creating a name for the Page. Keep it short. Thus, for example, John Quincy Adams is a much better name for a Page than The Life And Times Of President John Quincy Adams.
 * Key the Page title into the search box in the left sidebar of an existing Page, and click on the Go button.
 * If the Page name has already been taken, the computer system will tell you so. If the Page name has not been used, the computer system will ask you if you want to create a Page by that name. If you do want to create a Page, click on create this page.
 * You can then begin entering text on the page, using the same techniques as used in editing an existing page. Be sure to save the Page when you are done entering and editing your text. (It is a good idea to do a Save every once in a while, just as when you are writing using a word processor.)
 * To conform to the style of previously created pages,you need to put in the codes that create the heading and the table of contents for a page. Go to any existing content page except the Main Page or a Discussion Page. Go into Edit mode for the Page and copy the first two lines of text. (Notice that there are about two blank lines after each of these two lines of text.) Copy the two lines and the blank lines, and paste them into your newly created Page, at the top of the Page.