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How to edit or create pages and comment on them


Musapedia is a collection of interlinked pages built with a wiki software, designed to make collaborative writing easy.

Editing an existing page

To edit a page, click on the Edit button at the bottom of the page or on the icon at the top right to open the drop-down menu and select Edit (if Edit is not listed, it is because the page is not open for editing by registered users). This will open the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Below the toolbar is the content of the page.

screen shot of editing interface

Formatting text

The WYSIWYG toolbar has a number of buttons that will help you format the text. A few examples are:

Bold makes text bold
Ital makes text italic
Underline underlines text

The format drop-down menu is used to style the text and the headings.  Select for the text. Heading 1 is for the page title; heading 2 for the first-level heading of a section, heading 3 for the second-level one, and so on.

Select the text on which you want to put a link. Click on the link icon . A popup window will open:
- If you want to link to another wiki page, select Wiki Page in the Link Type drop-down menu. Start typing the name of the page in the Wiki Page field, and select the page you're looking for among the suggestions. If it does not show up, it means the page does not exist or exists under another name. Check page names in English for a complete list of the pages.

- If you want to link to an outside url, select URL in the Link Type drop-down menu, and type the url.

Inserting a reference

If the Reference section has been created, position the cursor after the text that is being referenced and click on the first of the icons (Footnote on mouse-over). A pop-up window will open. In the box Footnote, enter the text of the reference and click Insert. If the reference is used more than once, copy and paste the text in the original reference. Do not put anything in the field Sameas.

If the Reference section has not been created, go to the bottom of the page, type in References and style it (Heading 2). Insert the footnote area underneath the heading by clicking on the second of the icons (Footnote Area on mouse-over) and click Insert.

Inserting a table

Click on the table icon . A popup window will open. Enter the table properties, such as number of rows and columns, and alignment.

Inserting an image

An image needs to be in one of the website's public file galleries before it can be inserted in a page.  Position the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph where you want the photo to appear and click on the image icon. The Image dialogue box will open. In the menu next to Image Source, select An image in a file gallery. A File ID field will appear below. Click on the image icon underneath. This will take you to the public file galleries. Under Image files select the Musapedia folder. To upload an image from your computer, click on Upload in the upper left corner and follow the instructions. Once the image is uploaded, click on it to get back to Image dialogue box. The width of a page is 800 pixels, so the width of a photo should be 800 or less. If the photo you uploaded is large, reduce its size by filling in the Image Width field. The caption goes in the Caption field. To position the image, click on Advanced Options at the bottom of the box and look for the Align Image drop-down menu. Select left or right.

To insert a link to a document, position your cursor where you want the link to appear and click on the icon to open the File dialogue box. In the Type drop-down menu, select File gallery File/Archive. A File ID field will appear below. Click on Pick a file to get to the public file galleries and click on Document files. To upload a document from your computer, click on Upload in the upper left corner and follow the instructions. Once the document is uploaded, click on it to get back to the File dialogue box. Insert the text to appear on the link in the Label for the link to the file field.

Saving your edits

After you have made your changes, click the Save button at the bottom of the page. When you have made only minor changes, such as correcting a typo, save these changes as Minor edits (only available to registered users).

Creating a new page

If you want to create a Musapedia page, find a page that mentions the topic you want to write about or add a mention to that topic in a related existing page. Let's say for example that you want to create a page on a banana cultivar mentioned in the page on Uganda. Go to the Uganda page, open the WYSIWYG editor (see Editing an existing page) and select the name of the cultivar for which you want to create a page. Click the Link button .  In the Link Type drop-down menu, select Wiki Page . In the Wiki Page field, type the name of the page you want to create. Click Ok. Exit the WYSIWYG editor by clicking on the Save button below the Edit page window.

To create the page, click on the link you just added. You will be informed that the page does not exist and you will be asked if you want to create the page. Click on Create that page and select the language of the page. The Edit page window will appear. It is empty. You can start writing. Before saving the page, click on the Categories tab at the top of the Edit page window and check the All pages category. 

Commenting on a page

If the comment box is not visible, click on the Add Comment button at the bottom of the page. Follow the instructions.

Editing etiquette

Musapedia is all about bananas. Make sure you limit your contributions to topics that are directly related to bananas.

When you add new information to the wiki pages, give the reference in a footnote whenever possible. Citations help readers verify the information. If the source is available online, type the URL in the footnote and a link will be created automatically.

If any websites and other resources would be of particular interest to a reader of an article, list them in the "Further reading" section.

Links are useful, but too many links can be distracting. To avoid excessive links, create a link to another page only where the first occurrence of a word or phrase occurs.

Do not add copyrighted materials to Musapedia without permission from the copyright owner. When adding information to pages, make sure it is written in your own words. Remember that all information found on the Internet is copyrighted unless the website specifically states otherwise.

Pages must be written in "neutral point of view". If more perspectives exist on a topic, we try to present all relevant viewpoints without judging them. Our aim is to be informative, not persuasive. It is okay to state opinions in articles, but they must be presented as opinions, not as fact, for example "Supporters say that..." or "Commentator X believes that..."

Musapedia encourages an atmosphere of friendliness and openness. Of course, disagreements are bound to arise, but everybody is expected to behave in a generally civil manner. Always assume good faith on the part of other editors. If someone does something that upsets you, leave a polite comment and ask why. This simple action may avoid heated arguments.

Contact us

If you have questions about how to use the wiki tool or experience any problems, do not hesitate to contact us.