Beginner Guide
From Lehigh Engineering Heritage Initiative
This Beginner's Guide is intended for users with no knowledge of wiki's or HTML and who are looking for the minimum amount of information that will allow them to read and participate with the Lehigh Engineering Heritage Initiative (LEHI) wiki. If this is not you, please take a look at either the Intermediate Guide or Advanced Guide.
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Overview
As mentioned in the LEHI overview, a wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content. This ability for the user (you) to make changes that others will see is what differentiates a wiki from normal web pages that are only available for reading. Think of a wiki as a half-filled digital chalkboard that you are standing in front of with chalk and eraser in hand!
To keep this simple, there are three things you need to know about a wiki: how to read it, how to add or edit a page, and how to communicate with other Lehigh community members. Let's get started.
Reading
Even with all of its fancy editing tools, the LEHI wiki reads like any other web page available on the internet. You can visit the site to simply read and learn about your Lehigh Engineering heritage without attempting to add or change a page of your own. The site was launched with 65 individuals and is growing every day. You can browse through these pages just as you would a yearbook with any of the following links:
Using the search bar on the left hand side of the screen, you can also search for individuals by any criteria. Entering a name, graduation year, industry or major will return a list of individuals that match your search criteria.
Adding Pages
Now that you are comfortable with reading and browsing the pages on the LEHI wiki, we'll show you how creating or editing a page can be just as easy as typing a letter on your computer. To keep things simple, follow the 4 steps below:
Step 1: Search
Before creating a new wiki page, you should always run a search to make sure that the page does not already exist. It is important to note that the wiki software will not identify "John Doe" and "Doe, John" as the same entry, though they are obviously duplicates of the same subject. Be sure to look for any potential spelling of the individual you are searching for, such as "Bill" instead of "William" or "Hal" instead of "Harold." Also, some entries may include a subject's middle initial. Once you are satisfied that a certain page does not exist, move on to Step 2. If you do discover that your individual already has a biography posted that you would like to edit, move to Step 3.
Step 2: Add a page
If you do not find an entry for your person of interest, the top of your search page will say "There is no page exactly titled "<name of your search subject>"." Click on "create this page" to open up a new edit window. STOP! Before proceeding, we need to briefly discuss file names.
| File Names: You may have noticed that biographic entries on the LEHI wiki are labeled “LAST, FIRST”. If you want to search for the example page of “Doe, John”, and you type the word “John” into the search bar, you will be given a list of all pages containing the word "John." However, if no page specifically named "John" exists and you choose to “create this page”, the new entry will be named "John" and not "Doe, John" as you had intended.
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Click on “create this page” to open up a new edit window. You are finished the hard part and ready to move on to the next step.
Step 3: Edit Content
You are now ready to freely add or delete content to your subject's biography within the page's edit window.
Newly created pages will load with a template designed to format your information to match other pages on the LEHI site. The template contains (1) instructions on entering content for you to follow, and (2) examples of code that can be used to create infoboxes, images and links. The only lesson to be learned here is that any text listed between the dashed symbols <!-- and --> will NOT be displayed on your saved page. This is fine for the instructions (which you don't want anyone to see), but to use any of the code examples simply delete BOTH dashed symbols (<!-- and -->) and follow the instructions to use the particular code.
NOTE: Do not use the BACK button on your browser at any time during editing or your changes will be lost.
Step 4: Preview & Save
At any time while you are editing your page or when you are finished, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select “Show Preview”. This will display your page exactly as it will look to other users after it is saved. To continue making edits, scroll down until you see the edit window with all of the code you have been working on. Otherwise, scroll down to the very bottom of the page one last time and select “Save Page”. Congratulations! You have contributed your very first page to the LEHI wiki.
Last but not least, NO WORRIES! Anything and everything you do on the wiki is reversible by either yourself or someone else. It is not possible to permanently alter any part of the wiki that could not be corrected.
Practice: The “Sandbox”
I’m sure that many Lehigh structural engineers played in a sandbox as a child building, what they thought to be, monumental structures! The LEHI wiki also has a sandbox for you to practice/play in. Using the search bar on the left hand side of the screen, type in the word “Sandbox”. Use this space to try new tricks or to just practice what you’ve learned above.
Editing Current Pages
To edit a particular page on the LEHI wiki, select the "Edit" tab from the top of the page. Because you do not have to create an existing page from scratch, you will be presented with an edit box that contains all the text and code for the page you were viewing. Simply start with Step 3 (3.3) above to make any desired changes or additions to the text.
To quote the unofficial slogan of Wikipedia, "Be Bold" in updating articles. Wikis develop faster when people fix problems, correct grammar, add facts, make sure the wording is accurate, etc. For more direction, review the LEHI Policies and Guidelines.
Communicating
There are a few different ways to interact with the LEHI community:
- Join the Lehigh Engineering Heritage Initiative by creating an account.
- Edit your user page to facilitate interaction with other LEHI members.
- Contribute your personal thoughts of a page using the discussion tab.
- Contact a LEHI administrator via e-mail.
See Also
