"Wiki wiki" means "quick" in Hawai'ian. A wiki is a kind of collaborative web page. Wikis try to make it as simple as possible to write and share useful content, using intuitive page naming and text formatting conventions. Wikis are usually (but not always) wide open and assume a cooperating community. Anyone can edit, add comments, and make new pages on the spot. It is often possible to upload files and pictures and get email notifications as well.

Getting Started

There are two ways to contribute to the wiki.

1.   You can add comments and  reply to comments, using the form at the bottom of each page.
2. You can add to and edit pages by clicking the "edit" tab. We trust that no member will overwrite anyone else's words. But this does allow us to collaborate on text when appropriate, condense or edit our own input, and add links to new pages that extend the discussion. Here's how to add a link to create a new page:

In a Wiki page, you use [square brackets] to create links. When you save the page, the contents of the square brackets will have a small ? link next to it, which you click to create a new page with that name.

Important: You must click the "Save" button at the bottom of a wiki page to save your input before you click on "view" or any other tab. Otherwise --your input is gone. Please make sure, before you save  that the page type is "structured text." That allows you to add simple formatting. 

• To Edit a Wiki page you click on the "edit" button in the green navigation bar. If you just begin to type in the comment box, you will create a comment to the page but you will not actually edit the page content.
• You can Add a Wiki page by using WikiWords or square brackets or the "add new item" button.
• You can Delete Pages intentionally or accidently.
• Page Hierarchy is important to keeping wikis useful and organized. If you add a page, make sure it has a link from a useful place and also the FrontPage.
  

Editing a wiki page

Some basic guidelines

• Do not delete a link to a wiki page. This makes it very difficult to use the Full History function. And may cause the page to be lost.
• Do not rename a wiki page unless you want to lose the page history
• To create a new wiki page or to link to an existing wiki page see the information about adding pages below.
• Formatting:
  
• • non-HTML formats (structured and restructured text):
    
  • • use {*} to create bullet points in structured text. If you have the wysiwig editor enabled for editing, you will need to highlight the elements of the list and click on the button for list (numbered or bullets). (Note: if you are using the visual editor/wysiwyg and html format for wiki page, you will simply use the buttons for formatting the page)
  • Use two carriage returns to separate lines. One is not enough.
  • Use *italic* to create italics, *bold* for bold and _underlined_ to underline.
  • "Structured Text link":http://some/where
  • A one-line paragraph becomes a heading when followed by a more-indented paragraph (all indented, or just the first line). A more-indented heading becomes a subheading.
  • A paragraph beginning with "-" or "*" (without the quote marks) or a number followed by a space makes a bullet or numbered list item. A more-indented list item starts a sub-list.
  • HTML:
    
  • • Save a wiki page in html and the page will edit with the formatting buttons of the visual (wysiwyg) editor. Warning! Changing the format of a page that already has content in another format may mess up the display of that page. If this happens, you can use the "undo" button to revert to the previous version.
      

Adding wiki pages

To add a new page to Wiki, all you have to do is come up with a meaningful title, capitalize all the words and StringThemTogetherLikeThis. Wiki automagically recognizes it as a hyperlink. You only need two capital letters (including the first). Alternatively, you can put anything into [square brackets].

Once you save the page, the wiki will recognize the wiki words and put a linked question mark next to the word. Then you can go ahead and ClickTheQuestionMark? , and the Wiki will give you a window for making the new page. 

If you wish to add documents with complex markup to the Wiki, you might be better off providing a URL to it than trying to add the text of the document here.

To link a new wiki page to an existing wiki page just include the exact text of the name of the wiki page like FullHistory and you will create the link. 

Note for site managers: it is best to store wiki pages in their own folder, since they tend to lead to many many pages.  In a folder with wiki pages a page called FrontPage functions like the index_html page, becoming the 'landing page' for that folder. You can use FrontPage to index what the content of the wiki folder is and also provide that content some organization.