Help:Contributions-Getting Started

This page can help new editors/contributors get started using Antwiki. There are some step-by-step guides to help you learn some basic editing tasks and a general overview of how Antwiki is organized. Click on any heading in the Table of Contents to jump directly to any section of this page.

Never Used Wiki Software?
You will not be able to make any edits unless you are signed in using your editor login information. See Becoming an editor for details of how to obtain an editor profile.

You can learn the most basic editor tasks - editing a page, uploading a file, and searching - by editing your user profile page. The next few sections will step you through this process but before you get started you should know:
 * Anyone that visits Antwiki will be able to see your profile.
 * Your profile page is different from most Antwiki pages. Only you can edit this page. Other pages can be changed by any editor.
 * If you do not like any changes you have made you can go back and edit your work.

"Search" for your Profile Page
There is a search box on the upper right side of every Antwiki page. You will see a box for entering text and two buttons - "Go" and "Search". If you enter the name of a page and click Go you will be taken directly to the page you named. If you enter a word or a few words and click search you will see a list of pages that include your search terms in their title or in their page content.

The name of your profile page is User:username. Type this in the search box (replace username with your profile name) and click on Go to be taken to your page.

Add Contact Information to your Profile
Name Address email
 * Go to your profile page (see above for instructions on how to get there).
 * On your profile page click on the "Edit" tab found on the upper right of the page.
 * Type in the following contact information:
 * Click the “Save page” button found on the bottom right of the page, just under the editing window.
 * You will now see the information you added on your profile page.

Add an Image to your Profile
Prepare a suitable jpg image file on your computer. A good photo size is ~ 300 pixels high and/or wide. Once this is ready.....

Upload the image
 * Click on the "Upload file" link, on the left side of any page, under the heading Toolbox.
 * Click on the "browse" button and select the image you have prepared as your source file.
 * Type your username in the "destination filename" box
 * In the summary field type in the following information:

your name


 * Click on the "Upload file" button on the bottom left side of the page.
 * A new page - File:yourname.jpg - is created. You should see this name at the top left side of the page in a large bold font. You should also see your picture on this page.

Insert the image into your profile page.
 * Click on your username, shown on the top right of any Antwiki page, to go to your user profile page.
 * On your profile page click on the "Edit" tab found on the upper right of the page.
 * You should see a framed window in the center of the page. Add the following in this edit window [[File:yourname.jpg]], replacing "yourname" with your username.
 * Click on the “Save page” button found on the bottom right of the page, just under the editing window.

You should now see your picture on your profile page.

Add Text to a Species Page
Go to the page for an ant species that you know well. Find this page by entering the binomial name in the search box on the top right side of any page and clicking on Go.

To add text click on the "Edit" tab found on the upper right hand side of the page. You will then see text contained in a boxed window in the center of the page. Don't worry about any strangely formatted text you see. Page headings are surrounded by "=" and look like this ==Biology== and ===Taxonomy===. Enter some new text under an appropriate heading and then click on the “Save page” or “Show preview” button (these are found on the bottom right of the page, just under the editing window).


 * "Show preview" will show you what the page will look like if you save the page. The preview is shown on the top of the page and the edit window is at the bottom of the page.


 * "Save page" does just what you expect. The page will now show the species page with your newly added changes.

What Next?
You now know enough to get started editing pages. You can learn more about specific editing tasks by looking at Help or by looking at what has already been entered on existing pages (if you click edit on any existing page you will see how the page content is formatted).

There are many ways you can contribute to Antwiki. You can create new pages, edit named pages, add images to taxaboxes, contribute images, work on regional projects or start a new project.