@Tips for Use

Registering

In order to contribute to the site you must register as a user and then be logged in as that user.  PLEASE use your full name when registering (e.g. James Judd).

Editing content

• To begin editing simply select the 'Edit Page' icon at the top of the page.
• If the 'Edit Page' icon is greyed out you do not have access rights to edit.
• If you cannot view a page someone directed you to you may not have access to view. 
• While you can copy and paste text from other programs (Word, email, etc.) this can result in undesired formatting which may be difficult to change and nearly impossible to match with existing formatting.  Fortunately removing formatting is not difficult and can be accomplished by using the "Remove Format" button on the toolbar which is in the top row on the far right and looks like an eraser.  Just highlight the section of interest and then click the button.  Another way is to copy your text to a basic text editor (e.g. NotePad++) prior to copying to the wiki.
• When you create a new page, think about the Title very carefully before you save for the first time.  The reason is that the original Title will be used for the URL (e.g. http://wiki.ashevillecan.org/Tips_for_Use).  An example would be if you wanted URL and page to eventually be called "CAN Minutes 2010-05-10" but in the interim wanted the title to also include the word "Draft"...then you should save first as the title you want and then change to the interim title.
• The recommended method for getting a new URL if the present one is unacceptable is to create a new page and copy the content to this new page and then delete the old page.  The downside of this method is that the history of changes to the page is lost.
• The order of the menu on the left side of the screen is based upon alphabetical order of the original title (i.e. the Title the first time you saved it).  Currently researching other options to change the order of the menu.
• To get a new line without a space in between use <Shift>+<Enter>.
• Use Header formats.  If you do then the Table of Contents feature (open book in upper right menu when not editing) will be available.  Consider starting at Header 3 to get smaller size headers.

Great Features

You really owe it to yourself to check out the following features

• Notifications (select from top right of page) - notifies you by email whenever a page or sub-pages are modified.
• Revision Tracking (select time stamp at top right of page following "Page Last Modified") -
• Revision Comparison (once in the revision page, choose two different revision in the left column and select "Compare Revisions"...really cool)
• The icon which looks like an open book displays a TOC which is based upon using Headers in the text.

   

Security and Access

If you are concerned with others seeing or changing content or having trouble doing so yourself, consider the following:

• With an administrators help you can define what people / groups can see and edit content.  You can also be given rights to administer your content as well.  Examples of when you might want to restrict access is when a page is private to a group, provides no benefit to anyone other than a specific group, is not ready for a larger audience, etc.
• Err on the side of more access if in doubt because: reverting to a prior revision is easy and the history of revisions is always retrievable...even if someone deletes a page, and administrator can get it back....there is also an option to ban or remove user rights due to abuse.
• If the 'Edit Page' icon is greyed out you do not have access rights to edit.
• If you cannot view a page someone directed you to you may not have access to view.