View source for Help:Editing

==general help==

For general help in editing please read [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:How to edit a page | Wikipedias "How to edit a page" page]].

==ThinkWiki editing policies==

===write with other users in your mind===
When you write an article, keep the following things in mind...
*Respect others. Try sticking to a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npov neutral point of view]. Respect the work of other writers. Respect your (potential) readers.
*ThinkWiki is not only about the newest models. Try to write in a way that is open for older, newer and future models. This especially regards the structuring of the information you provide.
*ThinkWiki is not only about your Distro. Try to make clear if something you write is valid only for your specific linux distribution.
*Even though the article is written by you, it is a piece of information others might work on later. Try to avoid personal remarks in your articles.

===naming policies for new pages===
If you create a new page, please consider the following page naming policies. This is important to keep a persistent page naming scheme and hence to ensure that ThinkWiki still works well when it has grown more complex.

Page names (the links you create to point to the page) are used as the page Title. Considering these policies has the following advantages:
*the pages will have self-explaining titles
*in Category views like the Model view the links to the pages are expressively labeled and similar pages are sorted together
*the pages are more easily found in search engines like google

====general policies====
*It is allowed and in fact wanted that you use spaces within your page titles.
*The name you choose for the page should be as specific as its content will be. In other words...it should not be possible to write another page with more general content about the topic that your page title indicates.

====specific kinds of pages====
To sort similar pages together in the Model views, we start specific pages in defined ways.
The following table shows the naming schemes for several kinds of pages...
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|+page naming schemes
! page type !! naming scheme !! example
|-
| Installation instructions overview for a model || Installation instructions for the <model> || Installation instructions for the ThinkPad T41p
|-
| Installation instructions for a specific distro on a model || Installing <distro> on a <model> || Installing Gentoo on a ThinkPad T41p
|-
| other HowTos || How to ... || How to get special keys to work
|-
| Problem descriptions || Problem with ... || Problem with lm-sensors
|-
| Drivers and Tools pages || <name of driver/tool> || ibm-acpi
|-
| Patches || Patch ... || Patch disabling ACPI C3
|-
| Components || <name of component as used by IBM> || IBM 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II
|-
| Distro pages || Category:<distro> || Category:SUSE
|-
| ThinkPad Models || Category:<Model without "ThinkPad"> || Category:T41p
|-
| Specifications || <type number-model number> || 2373-GHG
|-
|}

=== use semantic formatting ===
Please prefer semantic formatting over beauty. To help maintaining a formatting standard, you can use the following templates.
{{NOTE|
Unfortunately, nesting templates is not possible. I.e. you can't put a cmd template inside a NOTE template.
}}
<br />
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! syntax !! resulting output
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{cmduser|command}}</nowiki> || {{cmduser|command}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{cmdroot|command}}</nowiki> || {{cmdroot|command}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{cmdgrub|command}}</nowiki> || {{cmdgrub|command}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{cmdresult|shell output}}</nowiki> || {{cmdresult|shell output}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{cmd|command|prefix>}}</nowiki> || {{cmd|command|prefix>}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{bootparm|parameter|value}}</nowiki> || {{bootparm|parameter|value}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{path|/etc/config.cfg}}</nowiki> || {{path|/etc/config.cfg}}
|-
| 
#<nowiki>{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI|[M]|SCSI device support|SCSI device support|Device Drivers||}}</nowiki>
#<nowiki>{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI|[M]|SCSI device support||||}}</nowiki>
#<nowiki>{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI|[M]|||||}}</nowiki>
#<nowiki>{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI||||||}}</nowiki>
#<nowiki>{{kernelconf||[M]|SCSI device support||||}}</nowiki>

''specify the menuconfig path in reverse order and fill with empty parameters to at least a total of seven''
|
#{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI|[M]|SCSI device support|SCSI device support|Device Drivers||}}
#{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI|[M]|SCSI device support||||}}
#{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI|[M]|||||}}
#{{kernelconf|CONFIG_SCSI||||||}}
#{{kernelconf||[M]|SCSI device support||||}}
|-
| <nowiki>{{HINT|A suggestion.}}</nowiki> || {{HINT|A suggestion.}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{NOTE|Take notice!}}</nowiki> || {{NOTE|Take notice!}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{WARN|Be careful!}}</nowiki> || {{WARN|Be careful!}}
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| <nowiki>{{HELP|Request for help}}</nowiki> || {{HELP|Request for help}}
|-
| <nowiki>{{QUOTE|Master Foo|zen-devel|Your theories on the sound of one hand clapping are quite interesting.}}</nowiki> || {{QUOTE|Master Foo|zen-devel|Your theories on the sound of one hand clapping are quite interesting.}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{key|Fn}}{{key|F4}}</nowiki> || {{key|Fn}}{{key|F4}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} = {{ibmkey|ThinkPad|#494949}}</nowiki> || {{ibmkey|Access IBM|#495988}} = {{ibmkey|ThinkPad|#494949}}
|-
|<nowiki>to be commented{{footnote|1}}</nowiki> || to be commented{{footnote|1}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{footnotes|</nowiki><br />
<nowiki>#first footnote</nowiki><br />
<nowiki>#second footnote</nowiki><br />
<nowiki>}}</nowiki>
|| {{footnotes|
#first footnote
#second footnote
}}
|}

=== use our Link&Categorization Templates===
To ease editing and to provide a standardized way of linking to a category and categorizing the page at the same time in that category, we introduced the following Templates. So far there are two types of these:
*Model Templates. Just write the model number surrounded by winged brackets, like i.e. <nowiki>{{T40}}</nowiki>. This will be equivalent to <nowiki>[[:Category:T40|T40]] [[Category:T40]]</nowiki>. Hence the result will be a link like this: [[:Category:T40|T40]], but at the same time, the page will be categorized under that category.
*Distribution Templates. They work the same way as Model Templates, except that for them you need to specify the Distribution name (simplest, shortest variant of it). It will create a link to that distributions category page and also categorize the page you used the template on under that category.

=== use our Editorial Templates===
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! syntax !! resulting output
|-
|<nowiki>{{Stub}}</nowiki><br />(Use only at the beginning of pages!)||{{Stub}} 
|-
|<nowiki>{{Todo|needs editing}}</nowiki>||{{Todo|needs editing}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{Fixme|preliminary information}}</nowiki>||{{Fixme|preliminary information}}
|-
|<nowiki>{{Usage|do this and that}}</nowiki><br />(Use only at the beginning of pages!)||{{Usage|Do this and that}}
|}
'''Have fun editing!'''