Format Guidelines for PSUGCAL

These are guidelines to making PSUGCal.org pages look consistent and to help with Wiki formatting in general. For more complete WikiMedia formatting help, visit https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting

Creating a new page

A page (also known in Wikimedia as an "article") is very easy to create.

Using Wikilinks

MediaWiki makes it very easy to link wiki pages using a standard syntax (see Links section below). Example: [[Hobbies]]

If you (or anyone else) create a link to an article that doesn't exist yet, the link will be colored red, like this.

Clicking a red link will take you to the edit page for the new article.

Simply type your text, click save and the new page will be created.

Once the page has been created, the link will change from red to blue (purple for pages you've visited) indicating that the article now exists.

Usually this is the best way to create a new page, because it means that right from the start, the page will be linked from at least one other place on the wiki.

For many wikis, normally there is no reason to create a page without first creating a red link to it. However, for PSUGCal, if you add [[Category:Contents]] anywhere on your new page, it WILL be automatically listed in the "Content Directory" we feature as the 2nd link in the left navigation menu.

From the search box

If you search for a page that doesn't exist (using the search box at the top) then you will be provided with a link to create the new page.

Using the URL

You can use the wiki's URL for creating a new page.

The URL to an article of the PSUGCal.org wiki is usually something like this:

• https://www.psugcal.org/index.php?title=GPA

If you replace GPA with the name of the page you wish to create, you will be taken to a blank page which indicates that no article of that name exists yet.

Clicking the "edit" tab at the top of the page will take you to the edit page for that article, where you can create the new page by typing your text, and clicking submit.

Page Names and Titles

Pages will automatically inherit the page name as their title and main heading at the top of the page. If you're creating a new page, choose a name with that in mind. The pages will automatically alphabetize in the Content Directory, so choose names that users would logically expect to find in an alphabetical sort. Bad=Examples of sqlReports. Good=sqlReports.
Examples:

• Customization
• Health
• GPA

Adding pages to the Content Directory

To automatically have a page be listed in the Content Directory, add this code to any part of your page:

[[Category:Contents]]

Basic Formatting

Code	Result
''italic''	italic
'''bold'''	bold
'''''bold and italic'''''	bold and italic
<nowiki>no ''markup''</nowiki>	no ''markup''
Single line breaks are ignored. Use the html tag <br /> for single line breaks.	Single line breaks are ignored. Use the html tag for single line breaks.
Use a blank line for a new paragraph. Here is a 2nd paragraph.	Use a blank line for a new paragraph. Here is a 2nd paragraph.

Headings

Wiki pages look best when organized with headings, like the one above this line. Use at most Level 2 and Level 3 headers. (Consider the Title of the Page Level 1). Here is the wiki code for creating the headings:

Code	Result
== Heading Level 2 == Some text here === Heading Level 3 === Some more text here	Heading Level 2 Some text here Heading Level 3 Some more text here

A page with 4 or more headings will automatically create a table of contents

Bullets and Numbering

Code	Result
* For bullets start each line * with an asterisk (*). ** More asterisks give deeper *** and deeper levels.	For bullets start each line with an (*). More asterisks give deeper and deeper levels.
# Start each line # with a number sign (#). ## More number signs give deeper ### and deeper ### levels.	Start each line with a number sign (#). More number signs give deeper and deeper levels.

Links

Description	Code	Result
Internal Link	[[Main Page]] [[Main Page|Alternate Link Text]]	Main Page Alternate Link Text
Bare External Link	http://www.psugcal.org	http://www.psugcal.org
External Link with Link Text Note the single bracket and the space between the link and the link text	[http://www.psugcal.org PSUGCal.org]	PSUGCal.org

For consistency, most links will display best as a bullet item, with the link followed by a description. So for this:

• PSUGCal.org - Home of the California PowerSchool User Groups.

Type this:

* [http://www.psugcal.org PSUGCal.org] - Home of the California PowerSchool User Groups.

Posting Code

Use <pre>Insert Code here</pre> to post code. Example:

<script>
$j(function() {
    /* place the family id row at the beginning of the table */
    $j("table:first").prepend($j("#familyidrow"));
....

Tables

The "Advanced" toolbar in the editor can help with table formatting. But here is an example:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Column 1 !! Column 2 !! Column 3
|-
| Example || Example || Example
|-
|
A table row doesn't have to be one line of code
||
You can use line breaks for easier coding
||
It doesn't make a difference
|}

Will produce this:

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Example	Example	Example
A table row doesn't have to be one line of code	You can use line breaks for easier coding	It doesn't make a difference

Files

More content coming soon.