Some Basics on How Wiki Software Works
The current version of Media Center Master is 2.14.
Version 1.32 has been used for many the examples in the wiki, so beware that some of the options may be expanded or look different than various screen shots.
Official/Unofficial Wiki Pages Most of the content on the wiki was written by fans and users like yourself. If a page is marked as Official, then the content was written with official information (usually by the software author).
 |
Media Center Master |
| A Free Meta-Data and Media Organization Solution |
| Navigation | |
| (Red text indicates your location.) |
| Wiki Editing Links | |
|---|---|
| WikiMedia: Help | Editing |
| Starting a New Page | Editing FAQ |
| Links | Wikitext Examples |
| Show Preview | Reverting an Edit |
| Talk Page | Sandbox |
| <<< edit this side bar >>> |
This Wiki uses MediaWiki Software for it's operating platform. Individuals wishing to contribute are encouraged to consult the WikiMedia Help: Contents page for information on using the MediaWiki Software. It contains several helpful guides with examples for readers, editors, moderators, and system admins.
Additional Information
|
The terms and definitions listed below will apply for the purposes in this guide.
- editor
- a person who is registered in the Wiki, allowed to edit; it is not necessary for a person to be a user of Media Center Master to edit, make revisions to, the Wiki, e.g., a person/reader wishing to make corrections on spelling, punctuation, and/or grammar.
- individual
- a person who is new to a wiki environment, and/or new to the Media Center Master Community.
- markup
- specific, code, syntax, keyboard characters, used for formatting text and structuring the outline of the document as a complete package.
- reader
- a person who primarily reads Wikis is unregistered in the Wiki, not allowed to edit the Wiki; it is not necessary for a person to be a user of Media Center Master to read the Wiki (e.g., a person doing research)
- user
- a person who uses Media Center Master.
- wikitext
- what an editor enters in the wiki, markup/s with text that produces the viewable page layouts with formatted text for reading.
Unlike word processing programs (e.g., MicroSoft Office Word, OpenOffice.org Writer...), wiki software requires editors to use wikitext, to create a wished for representation of the submitted material for the viewer to read.
The best way to learn is to hop right in and get started. There are a lot of pages already created with section headings, just needing some simple information entered. The information can be self written, or taken word for word from the forums. Find an area and start typing, preview it, revise it, and then save it. Anyone can become a contributor. Contact Pete through a PM in the forums and let him know you would like to set-up an account.
The Wiki cannot be broken, messed up, beyond repair. Each edit is monitored by the software (down to the simple changes of single letters, a space, a period...), and the editor's user name is attached to the history record of the page's edit. Each time a revision to a page is saved the editor's keystrokes are recorded and are available for undoing an edit. The revisions can be seen on each page's "history" tab, located on the top of each page.
There is no specific area for an editor to practice editing with wikitext (i.e., a "Sandbox," an area to play in).
Minor editing, such as: spelling, punctuation, grammar and linking should be made directly to the page containing the errors in the "Media Center Master Reference Guide."
Major Edits require a more thought out process involving several edits, saves, and previews before a revision is complete. The Wiki is a real time, available now, source, and all edits to the "Media Center Master Reference Guide" affect current on line readers. Major editing in the "Media Center Master Reference Guide" can confuse reader's, turn them around, get them of track in their reading journey. In order to reduce the chaos, reading madness, caused by saving several edits in short periods of time, an editor should make major revisions outside of the "Media Center Master Reference Guide."
Another idea to keep in mind when starting out is all contributions should be web friendly. The Wiki falls in the public domain and should be kept accessible to all individuals using the internet. This does not mean, if you use two different browsers (e.g., MS Internet Explorer, and/or Google Chrome, and/or Opera, Safari, and/or Mozilla Firefox...) to view your edit/s and the text is read able, that it is web friendly.(1) Viewable with Any Browser also considers other issues, such as: page size, loading time, image size.... For the most part, MediaWiki Software will take care of a lot of the minor issues with basic text formatting, as long as the editor uses WikiText,(2) examples from MediaWiki Help:Contents. As a rule of thumb, any character other than a letter, number, or any of the characters $-_.+!*'(), should be encoded to their hexadecimal equivalents.
There are several sites on the internet with additional information on the subjects of MediaWiki, wiki, markup, and wikitext.
- that it is web friendly(1)
- The thought process to use two browsers is a beginning to bringing a conscience awareness to incompatibilities by using different methods to view the same material (i.e., putting yourself in another person's shoes, looking at it through another persons eyes).
- WikiText(2)
- This link is listed in the MediaWiki Handbook link under, Section 2 Handbook parts, 2.2 For editors, Formatting.