Help:Contents

''Need a quick cheat sheet for writing Wiki pages? Use the Help:CheatSheet!''

A "Wiki" (originally short for Quickie) is a web site where the web pages can be edited directly in a web browser by a larger community. In some scenarios, Wikis have a few advantage over traditional web sites:


 * Because the site is edited directly, there is less risk of two users trying to edit the same page. With traditional HTML-based websites, the process of managing changes requires specialized tools.
 * Because the web page is edited in a web browser, it is faster to add new content.
 * Because the web page is edited directly in a web browser, the whole community can participate without giving third parties FTP access to servers.
 * The mark-up language for Wiki is simpler than HTML, making it easy for people to edit the page without expensive programs like FrontPage or DreamWeaver.

The X-Plane Wiki is a standard "MediaWiki" based Wiki - that is, it uses the same engine as Wikipedia and a number of other prominent Wikis. Thus if you know how to edit Wikipedia, you already know how to edit this site.

= Who Should Edit This Wiki =

You should! You can edit this Wiki if:


 * You see a mistake and would like to correct it.
 * You have information about X-Plane that you would like to share and it is not already on the site.
 * You can help organize the Wiki to be more useful to other users.

= How Do You Edit This Wiki =

Here is a step by step guide to editing this Wiki.

Getting an Account
Before you can change the contents of the X-Plane Wiki, you must get an account! This procedure is necessary to prevent bots (automated programs) from adding spam to the site.

Click on the "log-in/create account" link in the upper right corner and follow the prompts to make a new account. Once you've made your account and verified it, you'll need to sign in each time you want to edit the contents of the site.

Editing Existing Pages
To edit an existing page, simply click the "edit" tab at the top of the page. You will be presented with a text editor where you can alter the contents of the page. When done click "Save Page" to save your changes or "Show Preview" to see what the Wiki page will look like and continue editing.

Note that you can edit just one sub-section of a page by clicking the "edit" button next to the section heading, or you can edit the entire page at once by clicking the "edit" tab.

Adding New Pages
Any time you are presented with a page that doesn't exist, you can click the "edit this page" link to edit it.

There are two ways to add a new page:


 * 1) Create a link from an existing page to the page you want to create. Save the changes to the existing link, and click the link. You will be taken to the "page doesn't exist" screen and can then pick "edit this page".
 * 2) Simply type the URL http://wiki.x-plane.com/pagename (where pagename is the name of your page). You will be taken to the "page doesn't exist screen" and can then pick "edit this page."

Sections and Pages
You will see that some pages are made up of headings and subheadings, with an "Edit" button next to each section.

You can create a section by putting one or more = signs on each side of a page, like this: = Major heading 1 = some text

Sub Heading 2
Some text = Major Heading 2 = == Sub Heading 2.1 = Hint: if you click "edit" you will see the layout for this page.

Note that the "map" of the layout of your page will only appear if the length of your page is long enough to require scrolling.

Categories
A wiki page can belong to a category, and a category in turn can belong to another category. Categories are a good way of organizing the website, because the wiki engine automatically maintains the links within categories. (E.g. if this page is in the "help" category, then the "help" page lists this page and all other help pages automatically.)

To put a page into a category, use syntax like this: You can put a page into more than one category:

Wiki Markup and Formatting
Wiki text uses some simple conventions to appy formatting. You can find a lot more information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page

Some browsers may also show a toolbar on top of the editor that will help create some of the more common formatting elements.

Linking
The following "external wiki" prefixes are defined:


 * xpsdk - X-Plane plugin SDK Wiki
 * xpscenery - pages on the scenery website.

Templates
Templates are bits of pre-made wiki that you can use in your page - typically they make it easy to create wiki text that would otherwise be annoying.


 * Example: Template:Dref is a template that turns dtaref names into URLs. You would use it like this:
 * and the result looks like this:
 * and the result looks like this:

Typically the syntax of a template is either: or By clicking on the template page, you can see documentation about what the template does.

Typical uses for templates are:


 * Creating common user interface elements -see Template:BigTextButton
 * Creating repeated notices (such as a page being an RFC - see Template:RFC
 * Simplifying syntax - see Template:Dref

To see all templates, go to Special:Allpages and set the namespace popup menu to "templates".

Tables
Total table reference here.

This example tries to show a lot of table features in one place. Looks like:

Structuring and Images
The TOC (table of contents) is automatically added to pages beyond a certain size. A series of equal signs creates the level of nested headers. See the source to this page for an example.

The category system defines the "bread crumbs" (navigation links) at the bottom of the page. A page can be in one or more category, and a category can be within another category.

Images are added inline using You can also use the ImageLink extension to create clickable images, like this: This wiki has the NiceCategoryList2 extension installed, so you can make category trees like this: &lt;ncl maxdepth=2 style=compact headings=bullet&gt;Category:Third Party Development&lt;/ncl&gt;

Formatting Examples
Two Quotes Make Italics Two Quotes Make Italics. Three quotes make bold Three quotes make bold. Five Quotes make bold and italic Five Quotes make bold and italic :A colon before a paragraph indents it.
 * Two colons indents even more.
 * A colon before a paragraph indents it.
 * Two colons indents even more.

Advanced, crazy stuff.
External links to complex idaes:


 * - fill-in the blank to make repeated gak easier.


 * for more formatting options like DIV, etc.
 * CSS and Style Sheets - customize the look of specific wiki gak.
 * There are a few ways to get preformatted text:


 * 1) Put a space before each line.
 * 2) Use the  and   tags.

Putting a # before a line makes a list. Putting a * before a line makes a bullet.

Learning By Example
You can view the Wiki markup for any page by clicking "edit". One quick way to learn the syntax is to look at existing pages that have the syntax you want.

= Getting More Help =

Here are some more links to help pages for WikiMedia, the engine that powers this Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet