University of Minnesota Student Website
and Knowledge Co-op
15 June 2007
What is MediaWiki
Online, collaborative editing
Instantly available
Easy to place in many formats
Fairly simple editing
Version/revision management
Can view and approve changes
Ability to be concise, yet link to additional information
Link Colors in MediaWiki
Linking:
Shades of blue/purple mean a page exists
Red means that a page needs to be created
How to Begin
For a page that exists, click the “edit” button on the top
toolbar
If a page doesn’t exist, clicking the link will take you
immediately to the edit window
Basic Editing of a Page
To bold, use three single quotes
‘’’BOLD’’’
To italicize, use two single quotes
‘’ITALICS’’
To underline, use HTML tags
Underlined Text
To create a bulleted list, place an asterisk before each
item
* Item 1
* Item 2
Basic Editing - Headings
To make headings, subheadings, and a table of
contents, use the following syntax
A table of contents will automatically be generated when
at least three headings/subheadings are used in a
document
== Heading ==
=== Subheading ===
==== Subheading 2 ====
Linking in MediaWiki
To link within MediaWiki (Internal Link)
[[Anatomy Year 1]]
Text on page will be “Anatomy Year 1” and link to a page with that
name
[[Anatomy Year 1|Anatomy]]
Text on page will be “Anatomy” and link to a page called “Anatomy
Year 1”
To link outside of MediaWiki (External Link)
[http://www.google.com]
Text will be “http://www.google.com” and will link to Google
[http://www.google.com Google]
Text will be “Google” and will link to the same site
Adding Images to a Page
First, upload the image using the “Upload” link in the
toolbox
When you want to include the image, use the
following line in the document:
Assume our file is “Meiosis.jpg”
[[Image:Meiosis.jpg|format|Caption text here|align]]
Format = frame, thumbnail
Align = left, right, center
Any of the options can be left off to use the default
Linking to Downloadable Files
First, upload the file using the “Upload” link in the
toolbox
Place the link in the page:
Assume our file is called “Micro.ppt”
[[Media:Micro.ppt]]
Text will be “Micro.ppt” and will link to the file with that
name
[[Media:Micro.ppt|Micro Review]]
Text will be “Micro Review” and will link to the file named
Micro.ppt
Tables
To start a table:
{|class=table width=100% border=1
Width and border can be changed to what you want your table to
look like
Class can be “table” or “sortable” for a table with sort options
|-
! colspan=2 | Exclamation to make a header row, and colspan
= 2 to make it cross two columns
|-
| Use the bar to start a new row and || double bar to separate
cells
|-
| Separate rows with the |- seen above || Play with it to
practice!
|}
Where to Practice
https://www.student.med.umn.edu/mnmedwiki
Sandbox – On Help Page
https://www.student.med.umn.edu/mnmedwiki/index.
php/Sandbox
Contact Info
Technical Help: medstud@umn.edu
Knowledge Coop Coordinators: umkcoop@umn.edu