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 the User Accounts page 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.

"Search" for your Profile Page
There is a search box on the upper right side of every Antwiki page. Enter a term or terms then search by pressing enter on your keyboard or clicking the search icon on the right side of the search box. If the search criteria is exact match of an existing page title, e.g., Collecting Ants, your search will take you to that page. If the search criteria is not a page name, e.g., collecting, you will see a list of pages that include the search term(s).

Antwiki account holders all have a profile page. The title of this page is "User:" + "username" (the name you use to login to Antwiki). Searching for User:xxxx (replacing xxxx with your username) will take you to your profile page. Alternatively, you could search your username and you will see "User:xxxx" on the list of pages from your search.

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 that is found in the upper right of the page.
 * Type in the following contact information:
 * Click the “Save page” button found on the bottom left 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 Toolbox heading.
 * 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.
 * The dimensions of the image displayed can be set by adding a pixel width to the image information, e.g., yourname.jpg, with 000 being replaced by a number such as 250 or 300.
 * 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.

Linking your User Profile to your Taxonomist Profile
If you are an ant taxonomist and a page exists at the "Who's who list" you'll probably want your user profile linked with your ant specialist profile.

To do this
 * Visit this page and find yourself
 * Open your ant taxonomist page
 * At the page link, copy the name page of your ant taxonomist profile (the text after "wiki/"): for example at http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Emery,_Carlo_(1848-1925) copy "Emery,_Carlo_(1848-1925)"
 * Visit your user profile and replace your name ("Carlo Emery") with Carlo Emery
 * Save your user profile

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.