How do I create a page?

From WikiAmerica

Creating the Page

• We would recommend opening a new window for editing the Wiki, while keeping the instructions below open in this one. The instructions below may contain a number of steps but are not complicated. Generally, creating a page and categorising it should take no more than about five minutes of your time.

• Check a link to the page you want to create doesn't already exist. One way you can do this is to search for a keyword in the search box on the left of the screen. If you have found a site on the Civil Rights movement in Alabama, for example, you could search for civil rights alabama to see if anything comes up. If not, you can proceed with creating a new page.
• In the address bar of your internet browser, delete all the text that follows index.php/.
• After the forward slash, enter a title for your new page. Ideally this should correspond as closely as possible to either the internet resource or group of resources you are linking to. Use the underscore symbol instead of the space bar. For the example given above, if the website was called Civil Righs in Alabama you would enter Civil_Rights_in_Alabama. If however you were setting up a page to collect links to a series of video clips of Martin Luther King from different websites (Youtube, Google Video etc.) a plausible title might be Martin_Luther_King_On_Video.
• You should now find yourself on a blank page, where you will see the words 'There is currently no text on this page'. Click the 'edit this page' hyperlink.
• The next stage is to make the new page look like others on the site.
• To do this, click on the Source Template (also available from the Help:contents menu or the navigation bar on the left of this page.
• Copy the text (select then control+C).
• Click the back button on your browser to return to the editing window of the new page.
• Paste the source template into the new page.
• Now fill in the fields (i.e URL, name, description, access, and categories - please see below for guidelines on this last, crucial field) for the new link by typing over the template text. Leave formatting marks (the square brackets etc.) in place. Under description, write a short analysis of what is on the site, how it is used, how reliable the information there might be, and how useful it is to historians. You could also consider what kind of projects the site or source could be used for and put it in its historical context. This only needs to be brief: other users can always add more detail.
• Make sure you click 'Save Page'.

Categorising It

• Once an page for a source/sources has been created then it should be categorised so another user can find it by clicking on the links that lead to it. Everything is classified by era (such as Post-Civil War or Early Republic), topic (slavery or Labour History), type (Travel Literature or Film) and region (i.e. Florida or The South as a whole). One source can and should be categorised more than once - it should be in an era category AND a topic category, for example. This may sound complicated, but once you've done it once it will seem quite straightforward.

• Things are put in a category by putting [[Category:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP]] in the edit box, where ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP is the name of that category - but it must be spelled EXACTLY as it appears! You do need to be careful as [[Category:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP]] is different to [[Category:abcdefghijklmnop]] - they are case sensitive. Also African-American with the hyphen is different to African American without the hyphen, so make sure you use the correct one when adding a category. Same goes for Washington vs. Washington State and new York vs. new York State. In these cases use the hyphen and 'state' but there are other examples so do check before adding a category.

• First everything must be categorised by era. A master list is avaliable here. Sources that span more than one should be put in all eras, rather than none, otherwise nobody will be able to find them!

• Second everything should be categorised by topic. A master list is avaliable here. More may become necessary, in which case create one, but do be as conservative as possible, otherwise it could become difficult to use. Be very careful with spelling and grammar, as African-American and African American are different as are Womens and Women's. Copy and paste from the master list, with the [[Category:ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP]] formatting to make it work.

• Third everything should be categorised by region. Something applying to the entire United States doesn't however. If it applies to one state use [[Category:NAMEOFSTATE]], but categories are also avaliable for The North, The South and The West. Note that New York State and Washington State have State at the end - to distinguish them from the cities - and the 'The' in The North etc needs to be be capitalised. Otherwise it won't work.

• Fourth, if it is a specific type of media, such as film, travel writing, or a sheffield e-resourse, do categorise it as such. A master list is avaliable here. The same spelling rules apply.