Quick Reference

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This page has simple instruction for adding content. These same subjects are covered again in more detail and with explanations in the the Advanced Reference along with other more advanced topics.

You can always refer to Isle du Bois Unit and Hills and Hollows as examples of how destination pages would ideally be organized and appear.

1 General Guidelines

"You can learn a lot just by watching" – Yogi Berra – or by looking at what already exists on the editable version of a page.

The editing window can be resized in the bottom right corner to make it larger.

When editing, you can use the Preview button to refresh the page and see your edits without saving (creating a new stored version of the page) after every minor change.

Please be respectful of other contributors and of those who make facilities available for the rest of us to use.

Advanced Reference on General Guidelines

2 Characters

There is no content on this page under this heading.

Advanced Reference on Characters

3 Formatting Text

Bold. Three single quotes to both open and close: '''Bold.'''

Italics. Two single quotes: ''Italics can be hard to read on electronic screens and is usually avoided.''

Underline. Underline. This is HTML code, so the closing tag must begin with /.

Big. <big>Big</big>. Also requires / to close.

Big-Bold. '''<big>Big-Bold.</big>''' This looks like a level 3 heading to the reader, but not to the wiki software, so it functions as a level 3 heading that does not clog up the table of contents at the top of the page.

Bold-Italics. Five single quotes: '''''Bold-Italics.''''' Italics weakens the visual impact of bold, so bold-italics can work well in subheadings at level 4 or below. Or in the next line it makes the item jump out as being different.

Troubleshooting Tip. If you make what you thought was a simple change, and suddenly everything on the page below that point turns into a mess, there is a good chance that the culprit is just a piece of formatting code that you have failed to properly open or close. Proofread your work where the problem begins to ensure that all of these codes are properly opened and properly closed, and the problem will usually fix itself.

Advanced Reference on Formatting Text

4 Formatting Blocks of Text

New Paragraph. To start a new paragraph, hit the Return key twice to separate the two paragraphs with a line of white space. Without that line of white space, the wiki software will keep adding to the previous paragraph.

Bullets. To make a paragraph indent with a bullet at the beginning, use an asterisk (*) as the first character in the paragraph. It will help future editors if the asterisk is followed by a space. Bullets are frequently used on this wiki because they help the eye to quickly recognize the beginning of a new topic. This compensates for tools that are often implemented on paper but are hard to consistently implement as a wiki on multiple web browsers, such as indenting the first line or adding a small amount of vertical white space.

Indentation. To make a paragraph indent without a bullet, use one or more colons (: or :: or :::). This is often used for a second paragraph on the same topic. More colons mean more indentation. It will again help future editors if the string of colons is then followed by a space.

Indented Bullets. To indent a bullet, use one or more colons followed by an asterisk (:* or ::*).

Line Break. To make a line of text end for the reader without making the wiki software think that the paragraph has ended use . This is generally disfavored, and can make the page very dense for future editors, but it does have some specific useful purposes.

Numbered sequence. To get an indented and automatically numbered sequence of paragraphs, use the pound sign (#) instead of an asterisk. An empty line between paragraphs will break the sequence. To get a line of white space to display without breaking the sequence, use two line breaks ( ) at the end of the line, one to end that line, and another to end the line of white space. To get sublevels, use more pound symbols (##) rather than colons.

Advanced Reference on Formatting Blocks of Text

5 Headings

Real Headings. You will rarely need to add this type of heading. These headings begin and end with two to five equal signs (==Level 2 Heading==, ===Level 3 Heading===). They are interpreted by both the reader and the wiki software as headings, which means (among other things) that they automatically show up in the table of contents at the top of the page. But one of the design choices in implementing this wiki is to keep the table of contents relatively short and clean. So you will not generally need to add any real headings unless you are either making a lengthy contribution or reorganizing a page.

Level 2 Headings. These are the highest level heading it is possible to have on a page and will always be real headings in the form: ==Level 2 Heading==. These are the headings that automatically create a horizontal line.

Apparent Headings. This is the type of heading that you will typically add. These headings are interpreted by the reader as headings, but are interpreted by the wiki as regular text. This keeps the table of contents short and clean.

Level 3 Headings. These will usually be apparent headings using big-bold text in the form: '''<big>Level 3 Heading</big>'''.

Level 4 Headings. Except on very lengthy pages, these will be apparent headings using bold text in the form: '''Level 4 Heading'''.

Level 5 Headings. With rare exception, these will be apparent headings using bold-italics text in the form: '''''Level 5 Heading'''''.

Advanced Reference on Headings

6 Links

6.1. Internal Links to Wiki Pages

Page name within Double Brackets. Internal links are simple. Just put the name of a page within double square brackets. For example, the source code for this link Getting Started is:

[[Getting Started]]

Here the target or destination of the link (the webpage Getting Started) is the same as the trigger or displayed text that sends you to that link (the text Getting Started).

Customizing Triggers. You can use the vertical pipe character (|) to change the name of the trigger. For example, the source code for this link Getting Started Contributing to the Wiki is:

[[Getting Started|Getting Started Contributing to the Wiki]]

Here the same target (still the webpage Getting Started) is reached by clicking on a different and fancier trigger (now the text Getting Started Contributing to the Wiki).

These two links both go to the same target page because they both have the same webpage address at the beginning of the link. The difference is that the second example has employed the vertical pipe character to display a different trigger for activating the link.

The vertical pipe character (|) is located at the right end of the keyboard between the Backspace and Enter keys.

Only for Wiki Pages. These internal links only work for wiki pages on this website. These internal links do not work for other items hosted on this website, such as uploaded maps in PDF format or gallery pages written in HTML. Even though these resources are part of this website, they are external to the wiki software.

6.2. External Links

External links are formatted similarly to internal links, but with a few significant differences. Here is an example of an external link to this website's Welcome Page:

[http://www.campingdfw.wiki/ Welcome Page]

Page Name within Single Brackets. A link to an external webpage is placed within single brackets, not double brackets. The easiest way to do this is to open the target webpage and then cut and paste its URL or web address into the wiki page that you are working on.

Full Page Name. The web address must include "https://www." or "http://www." If this is left off, you can just add it manually. If appropriate, it should also end with .htm, .html, .pdf, etc.

Customizing Triggers. Triggers to external links work the same as to internal links – except that triggers to external links are separated by a blank space rather than a vertical pipe. Since URLs cannot contain blank spaces, the wiki software will recognize the first blank space as the end of the URL and the beginning of the trigger. (In contrast, the names of internal wiki pages can contain blank spaces, so the wiki software needs either a vertical pipe character | or a close bracket ] in order to recognize the end of the name for an internal wiki page).

6.3. Creating Anchors

What anchors do. An anchor or bookmark is a specific location on a page. Anchors make it possible to link not only to the top of a page, but to a specific location on the page.

Automatic anchors. The wiki software automatically recognizes the top of the page and all headings as anchors. The name for the anchor at the top of a page is #top. The name of the anchor for a heading is simply the text of the heading, preceded by a #. But if the name of a heading gets changed, the link to that heading will be broken. This potential problem does not exist with manual anchors, and - except for #top - manual anchors are therefore preferred.

Manual anchors. You can manually create an anchor anywhere on a page by using the following code. On this page there is an anchor named internal-anchors. This anchor was created with the text:

Placing the anchor at the very beginning of a paragraph means the wiki software will link to the top of that paragraph. These anchors can even be placed within headings (following the first set of ===).

Although not required by the wiki software, the convention on this wiki is to name all anchors in lower case letters and with hyphens between words instead of underscores or spaces. This ensures full compatibility with web browsers.

It is better to select an anchor name that is somewhat distinctive in order to reduce the chance that someone else will inadvertently put another anchor with the same name on the same page.

6.4. Linking to Anchors

Links to anchors work in exactly the same way, regardless of whether the link is to an automatic anchor or a manual anchor, and both types of anchors work in much the same as any other link. The name of the anchor is preceded by a hashtag #. When linking to an anchor on the same page, the name of the page can be left off.

[[#internal-links|Internal Links]] - link to the anchor 'internal-links' on this same wiki page

[[Every Destination on the Wiki#dallas-county|Dallas County]] - internal link to the anchor 'dallas-county' on that webpage

[http://Every_Destination_on_the_Wiki#dallas-county Dallas County] - external link to the anchor 'dallas-county' on that webpage

Linking to a bookmark or page number in a PDF document, if enabled in that document, also works in the same way with a # followed by a page number or bookmark name.

The wiki software cannot easily search for and find anchors. Thus, in order to use an anchor, you must already know its name.

Advanced Reference on Links

7 Pictures

7.1. Content that Should NOT Be Contributed

Copyright. Please do not contribute content that you did not create. If you created something, then you have the right to do whatever you want with it, including uploading it to the wiki. But if someone else created the content, then you do not have that right, and we ask that you not upload it to the wiki.

Except that all materials created by the federal government and its agencies are in the public domain, and these materials can be freely used and uploaded to the wiki without violating copyright.

Much of the content on this Wiki actually consists of links to other sites, which neatly avoids the question of ownership.

Privacy. Please do not contribute pictures in which individuals can be recognized – especially minors. Facebook and other places exist to post pictures in which you and your friends can be recognized. But the purpose of this wiki is not share your memory of what your trip was, but rather to share with others what their trip would likely be. Watch the pictures on the Welcome Page for examples of an appropriate balance that shows unrecognizable people enjoying the outdoors.

Remember that your friends will not have consented to have their pictures posted on this wiki. And if those friends are under age 18, they do not have the legal capacity to consent to having their pictures posted on this wiki. But even if you do have effective consent, the wiki administrators have no way of knowing this, have no interest in keeping written records somehow tied to specific uploaded pictures, and have no desire to become embroiled in arguments about these issues.

7.2. How to Contribute Pictures and PDFs

In addition to text, the Wiki also hosts PDF documents and photographic images. These items can be contributed in either of two ways:

You can upload those items to a webpage that you control, and you can then create a link on the wiki to that webpage; or
You can send an email to the Wiki Administrator. You will receive a reply email that includes a link for uploading the pictures to Dropbox.

If you are interested in the reasons for this procedure, see Advanced Reference#photo-policy-reasons

Advanced Reference on Pictures

8 Videos

Videos Are Discouraged. There are two problems with videos as they relate to this wiki.

First, it will take a user of the wiki much longer to watch a video than to quickly glance through a large number of still images. Since the wiki is a reference, and the point is to learn what you need as as quickly as possible, this is counterproductive.

Second, it is time-consuming for the wiki administrators to watch and figure out if the content of a video file is either beneficial or consistent with the purpose and rules of the Wiki. Even if your video is wonderful, enough other videos will be of an uninteresting home-movie quality, and/or will violate the rule against pictures of recognizable individuals, that neither users nor administrators should be asked to go through them.

Advanced Reference on Videos

To sign up to contribute to the wiki or to report any broken links or other issues to the Wiki Administrator.

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