Help:Wiki Basics

Wiki Help Wiki Basics



Welcome to the Wiki community. Whether you are here for the first time, a regular researcher or wanting to learn how to contribute, the items below will help you understand various elements of the wiki, including how to navigate and contribute to it. The wiki is a community project, and you are now part of that community. If you have knowledge about how or where to search for genealogy records that are not already here, please contribute. Don't know how? Keep reading.

Navigation Menu

 * On the top left of the page, there is a Contents box or the Table of Contents (TOC). It is a list of the major sections of the page. You can click any heading in that table and be taken to that heading on the page. Smaller articles with fewer than four page sections will not have a TOC.
 * Also see Navigation Basics for more information about fully utilizing this wiki.

Navigation Boxes (right side of page)

 * Search Learning How-to's is at the top and is the general purpose search box. You can enter search terms in the box and then click the magnifying glass to search the wiki. Or you can browse by clicking by country or by topic.
 * Future Changes to the Wiki links to a blog-like page that tells you about upcoming and recent changes to the Wiki community
 * Getting Started, Volunteer and Helper, Views, Toolbox and Personal tools are all in the last box and are separated by thin white lines. Each topic has its own links to additional subjects. Hover your mouse over the links and they turn darker purple. Click and a drop-down list of subjects appears. Explore each of the links under these five headings. Each one of these is described in greater detail below.

Getting Started



 * Wiki Home is the easy way to return to the Home Page and the various sections of the wiki that are listed there.
 * Wiki Tools will explain the different tools that are available to you to enhance your Wiki experience.
 * About the Wiki is the page that describes the ways that the Wiki can help you to find your ancestors and build your family tree.
 * Browse by Country is an alphabetic listing of countries, linked to that country page on the Wiki.
 * Browse all Wiki Content This link is being developed further. It contains subcategories on some subjects.
 * Resources for Individual Help An important and useful feature of the wiki is that we have volunteers available to answer your questions in a number of different ways: including email, instant message and phone. If you have questions,don't hesitate to contact the Wiki.

Volunteer and Helper

 * Submit Wiki Content  Will show you how easy it is to start contributing to the Wiki.
 * Family History Centers Will help you to find the physical locations of Family History Centers in your locale.
 * Personal Sandbox  takes you to your own sandbox. Your sandbox should be viewed as your own personal scratch pad. You can write in your sandbox and add to the Wiki when your work is finished.
 * Research Outlines  will introduce you to hard copies that you may wish to copy for your genealogy work.
 * Census Records contains links to various pages about census records.
 * Research Forms provides links to various research forms.
 * Manual of Style  will help you to understand the general principles of wiki contributions.
 * Guiding principles has links to pages that help explain these goals.
 * Societies and Libraries has instructions for creating pages for Societies and Libraries.
 * Adopt a Page describes page adoptions and instructions for requesting a page to adopt.
 * Community Meetings contains links for getting involved in the Wiki.
 * Wiki Support leads to the Wiki Support Center Toolbox.

Views

 * Help page describes the type of page that you are on. In this case, it is a "Help Page" designed to instruct, answer questions and help.
 * Edit If you click on the edit page, it will change screen and take you to a form of the page that can be edited.
 * Talk Each page has a talk page that facilitates communication between all of the people who wish to discuss this page.
 * History  shows all action on this page since its creation.
 * Watch  Clicking on 'watch' will allow you to watch the activities on the page. When any action happens on a watched page an email will be sent to you. If you have clicked 'watch' it appears as 'unwatch' for you to click when you no longer wish to watch the page.
 * Move describes the process for renaming a page, moving all of its history to the new name.

Toolbox

 * What links here show all the other Wiki pages linked to this page.
 * Related changes shows the changes made to this pages linked pages.
 * Special pages links to all the maintenance pages for the Wiki.
 * Permanent link links to this page
 * Upload file leads to a page where you can upload an image or file to be approved and put in the Wiki

Personal Tools

 * Username will be chosen by you.
 * My Talk will allow you to see your talk contributions.
 * My Preferences allows you to customize your Wiki experience using your personal tools.
 * My Watchlist will show you the pages that you are watching
 * My Contributions will pull up the list of contribution that you have made to the Wiki, including dates.
 * Signout will provide a quick way for you to log out of the Wiki. Remember that the Wiki will automatically log you off after two hours of idle time.

Registering on the Wiki
You do not need to be registered to look at the Wiki pages. If you want to add, edit, or ask a question, you must be registered. This allows other Wiki community members to communicate with you. How to Register with the Wiki

Detailed Help
If you are ready to begin, and would like detailed instructions on adding or editing wiki content, choose one of the following links:


 * Contributing to the Wiki
 * Tour The Wiki


 * If you need a Help article that doesn't currently exist, you may request one here.

Mentoring

 * If you find that you need additional assistance once you have begun adding or editing Wiki content, you may request a Mentor. Mentors are also helpful in getting you started on a specific project.