New to wiki

Wiki.gis.com was founded with the purpose of establishing a GIS-specific wiki for professionals, students and anyone interested in GIS and related topics. Participating in a wiki community can be a daunting experience to new users, but a rewarding experience to those who learn a few basics to participate and contribute subject-matter expertise to the community.

The sections below outline the basics of Wiki.GIS.com.

What is Wiki.GIS?
Learn more about the philosphy behind the wiki on the What is Wiki.GIS? page.

Registration
Registration is not required to view pages on Wiki.GIS.com. However, unlike Wikipedia.com, registration is required to perform on-site editing. Create a Wiki.GIS Account to start contributing!

Editing an Existing Article vs. Creating a New Article
Before adding a new article, it is important to ascertain whether the article already exists. If an article exists, it can be edited by logged-in users.



It is easy to edit the contents of a wiki page.


 * 1) Click the "edit" tab at the top of the wiki page.
 * 2) Make any necessary edits or additions to the text.
 * 3) Click the "Save page" button.

Note: It is highly recommended to click the "Preview page" button to preview the wiki page with your edits or additions prior to clicking the "Save page" button to save the wiki page with the current edits.

For more on editing wiki pages, look at the How to edit page.

Once you are comfortable with editing an article, you can begin experimenting with creating articles, adding images, links, tables and other functions. The wiki markup language offers a wealth of automated rendering functions to format and display text and links with a few simple keystrokes. Users will find they can learn the basics of creating and displaying articles and content with a few simple minutes of instruction.

Creating a Page
The instructions provided describe the basics of how to create a new page on the wiki. To learn more, please visit Creating a New Page.
 * 1) Make sure the page does not already exist by performing a search for it by key term or topic. If the page exists, you will be given the option to edit the existing page.
 * 2) If the page does not exist, you will be given the option of creating a new page.
 * 3) Select a boilerplate template from the drop-down list and click the "Load" button.
 * 4) Add the content into the Wikitext editor. Images can be added to an article by uploading and referencing from within an article.
 * 5) Once the content is complete, select a category. (A category groups related content in a hierarchical tree.)
 * 6) Click the "Save page" button to publish the page to the wiki.

Adding Images
Images help make pages more engaging and can be used to explain complex concepts. The instructions provided describe how to add images to a wiki page.

How to Upload a File
 * 1) Click the "Upload file" link in the left naviagtion.
 * 2) In the Source file box, click Browse.
 * 3) In the Choose File to Upload window, navigate to the file you want to upload and click Open.
 * 4) In the File description box, enter the destination filename.
 * 5) Enter a description of the image in the Summary text box.
 * 6) Check any of the Upload options if desired.
 * 7) Click "Upload File."

How to Add an Image to a Page
 * 1) Open the desired page and click the "edit" tab.
 * 2) In the edit window, type: [[File:Example.ex]] Where "Example" is the destination file name and ".ex" is the file's format extension.
 * 3) Click "Save page".

There are many ways to format images on the wiki. To learn more about captions, alignment, galleries, and other options, visit the Adding images page.

Content Basics
The default WikiMedia engine is designed to display content in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom fashion. At the top of the article is the title, followed by a table of contents--if there are four or more headings--and the body copy. By default images are displayed on the right.

Headings and Subheadings


Headings and subheading are used to break up content into navigable pieces.

Headings
To define a heading, bracket the word or phrase with two equal signs.
 * For example, if you type:
 * == Introduction ==
 * a main heading titled "Introduction" is created. This main heading is entered into the table of contents and divides the content from the heading with a hard return.

Subheadings
A subheading displays a smaller heading in large, bold format. A subheading is created by using three equal signs to bracket the word or phrase.
 * For example, if you type:
 * === Beginning ===
 * a subheading titled "Beginning" is created.

More information about headings can be found at Wikipedia - Formatting

Font Formatting
Fonts are easily formatted using a few keystrokes. Below are some commonly-used basic font-formatting options that can be used in the Wikitext entry form.