MediaWiki

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MediaWiki provides a web space where students can share information and create documents collaboratively. MediaWiki is the wiki engine that supports Wikipedia.


Note: Mac users will need to open Firefox as their browser when using MediaWiki.

Access a MediaWiki site

Note: You must have cookies enabled to log in to a MediaWiki site. To enable cookies on your computer, refer to the Recommended Browsers and Settings page.

  • To access a wiki that has been set-up in CloudDeakin:
    1. Open a new browser window.
    2. Type in the URL to login to CloudDeakin i.e. http://sync.deakin.edu.au/
    3. Type in your Deakin username and password and click the OK button. You will be logged into CloudDeakin. Click on the appropriate unit name in the My Sites widget.
    4. Navigate to and click on the link for the wiki.
  • To access a wiki that has been set-up independently of CloudDeakin:
    1. Open a new browser window.
    2. Type in or copy and paste the URL of the MediaWiki site.
    3. Login to the wiki. Depending on which access method you have been advised to use either:
      1. Type your Deakin username and password into the grey authentication box and click OK.
      2. Click on the Log in Wiki Logon icon link at the top-right corner of the main window. Type in the username and password you have been given and click on the Log in button.

Set up your userpage

As a wiki user you have your own page where you can add content such as a profile and picture so other users can find out more about you.

  1. Click on your Wiki Logon icon username at the top-right of the browser window to access your userpage.
  2. Click on the create or edit tab that appears near the top of the browser window. The page will now appear in edit mode with an editing toolbar at the top.
  3. Type a message into the edit area. See Adding or changing content (editing) in this guide for further information and editing tips.
  4. Click the Save page button at the bottom of the page, below the text area.

    Note: You can also add a link to an image, file or website. See Adding an image, Uploading and adding a link to a document and Adding a link to another site in this guide for how to perform these actions.


Customise your signature

MediaWiki contains a signature tool that allows you to mark your contributions on the wiki. By default this signature tool, uses your Deakin username. Whilst, your username may not be meaningful to other users, it can be changed to your real name.

  1. Click on the my preferences link that appears at the top-right of the browser window.
  2. Type your preferred name into the Signature field on the preferences page.
  3. Click the Save button.

Add or edit content

  1. Go to the page you wish to edit (using the links in the navigation menu to the left of the window).
  2. You can edit either a whole page or just a section of a page.
  • To edit a whole page:
    1. Click on the edit tab at the top of the window. The page will now appear in edit mode with an editing toolbar at the top.
    2. Make your additions or changes in the text area.
    3. Click the Save page button below the text area.
  • To edit a section of a page:
    1. Click the [edit] link that appears to the right of the window, in line with the heading of the section you wish to edit. The page will now appear in edit mode with an editing toolbar at the top.
    2. Make your additions or changes in the text area.
    3. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Note: You must place a blank line between sections of text to force a new paragraph. You can also use the following when formatting:

  • To create a bulleted list, start the line with an asterisk character *.
  • To create a numbered list, start the line with a hash character #.
  • To enclose text within a box, start each of the relevant text with a blank space.

Change the colour of text

  1. Go to the page or section you wish to edit (using the links in the navigation menu to the left of the window).
  2. Click on either the edit tab at the top of the window to edit the whole page or the [edit] link that appears at the right side of the window next to the heading of the section you wish to edit.
  3. To change the colour of text, you need to use HTML font colour tags. The following example shows how to add green text to your page.

    <font color="green">Green</font>
    An example of green text
    Note:
    The spelling of color is in American Language.

  4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Add a table

  1. Go to the page or section you wish to edit (using the links in the navigation menu to the left of the window).
  2. Click on either the edit tab at the top of the window to edit the whole page or the [edit] link that appears at the right side of the window next to the heading of the section you wish to edit.
  3. To add a table, you need to use HTML coding. The following example shows how to add a table of 3 columns and 3 rows with a column width of 150.

    {| border="2" cellpadding="2"
    |-
    |width="150pt"|Column 1 Heading
    |width="150pt"|Column 2 Heading
    |width="150pt"|Column 3 Heading
    |-
    |column 1 row 2 info ||column 2 row 2 info|| column 3 row 2 info
    |-
    |column 1 row 3 info ||column 2 row 3 info|| column 3 row 3 info
    |}

  4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

    This is how the above coding will appear when you preview or save the page or section:

    Column 1 HeadingColumn 2 HeadingColumn 3 Heading
    column 1 row 2 infocolumn 2 row 2 infocolumn 3 row 2 info
    column 1 row 3 infocolumn 2 row 3 infocolumn 3 row 3 info

Sign your posts

  1. Follow the steps in Adding or changing content (editing) in this guide to edit either a page or a section, but stop before you click the Save page button. Then, either:   
    • Click on the signature tool Signature Icon MediaWiki icon in the editing toolbar. A combination of lines and squiggles will appear in the editing area i.e. --~~~~

      or

    • Type in two hyphens followed immediately by four tildes and a HTML line break tag i.e.--~~~~
  2. Click the Save page button below the text area. Your username and the date and time will appear in place of the lines and squiggles.
  3. The username will now appear as a highlighted link. Clicking on this link will take you to the userpage of that person, or your own userpage. See Setting up your userpage in this guide. Also see Customising your signature in this guide for how to change your signature from your Deakin username to a preferred name.

Upload and add an image

Adding an image is a two-step process. You first need to upload your file then add a link to it from a page.

Note: If you have uploaded an image to the wiki previously, you only need to add a link to it from a page - remember though, that you will need to know the exact file name of the image. If you have forgotten the exact name of the file, you can click on Upload file in the toolbox menu to the left of the window (under the navigation menu) and then click on list of uploaded files to view the names of all uploaded files.

Note: It is best to upload only small images, as large images take a long time to load and can be difficult to view. As a rule of thumb, they should be no larger in file size than 100 Kb and no larger in physical size than 640x480 pixels.

  1. Upload the image:
    1. Click on Upload file in the toolbox menu to the left of the window (under the navigation menu).
    2. Click on the Browse button next to the Source filename: text box and locate the file you wish to upload and add to a page. Once you have selected the file you need and clicked Open, the file name should appear in the Destination filename: text box. Highlight and copy this field (Ctrl+C or Apple+C on a Mac) so you can paste the exact name of the uploaded file into the page.
    3. If you wish, type a description of the image in the Summary field.
    4. Click the Upload file button. You will be redirected to the Image homepage for your newly uploaded image.
  2. Add a link to the image:
    1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add the image and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
    2. Place the cursor where you would like the image to appear.
    3. Click on the Embedded image Image Icon MediaWiki icon in the middle of the editing tool bar.
    4. Change the file name in the file tag to reflect the exact name of the image you just uploaded (you can paste the name over the top of the current text Example.jpg by using Ctrl+V or Apple+V on a Mac).

      Note: In addition to the filename you can specify the desired location of the image on the page, the image width and a caption that describes the image. The basic syntax is: [[File:filename|image type|image location|image width|Caption]] e.g [[File:logo.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Deakin University Logo]]

      • image type can be thumb or frame
      • image location can be left, right, center (note American spelling) or none
      • image width: e.g. 250px or you can specify size instead 100x200px
    5. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Upload and add a link to a document


Add a link to another website


Reference in MediaWiki

  1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add a link to an external site and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
  2. Place the cursor in the location where you would like the link to appear.
  3. To add a reference to the body of a page, you need to use HTML tags. Simply add the following tags, enclosing the reference information immediately following the text that requires the citation e.g:

    Ref year, ref title, ref URL or publication details

  4. At the bottom of your page add a heading followed by the reference tag on a new line to create your hyperlinked reference list e.g:

    ==References==

Note: The numbered hyperlinks are linked to the reference list at the bottom of the page.


Add a new page

  1. Go to the page or section where you would like to add a link to a new page and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading). Then either:   
    • Select and highlight a word or collection of words that represents the title of your new page and click on the Internal link Internal Link Icon MediaWiki icon in the editing toolbar. The words you selected will appear surrounded by two sets of square brackets and will have been formatted as a link to your new page, or
    • Click on the Internal link Internal Link Icon MediaWiki icon in the editing toolbar. Between the two sets of square brackets replace the words link title with the title of your new page e.g. [[FAQs]]
  2. Click the Save page button below the text area.
  3. Click on the hyperlink you have created in the text, which will be in a different coloured type. This will take you to a new blank page with the same name as the hyperlink.
  4. Type into the text box and format as required.
  5. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Divide a page into sections

  1. Go to the page or section you would like to divide and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window) or the [edit] link (at the far right of the page near the section heading).
  2. Place the cursor where you would like to divide the text and type in your heading e.g. Topic 1
  3. Select and highlight the heading text, then click the Level 2 headline Level 2 Head Icon MediaWiki icon in the middle of the editing toolbar. Two 'equals' characters will appear around the text you selected as your heading e.g. == Topic 1 ==
  4. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Restore previous content

  1. Go to the page or section where you wish to restore previous content.
  2. Click the history tab at the top of the window. You will see a chronological list of all the changes that have been made to that page.
  3. Click on the date and time link of the version you wish to restore. You will see the old version of the page with links at the top to take you to an even older version or to a newer version.
  4. If you are sure this is the version you wish to restore, click on the edit tab at the top of the window.
  5. You will see a warning at the top of the page that you are editing an out-of-date revision. Click on Save page.

Find out who edited the page

  1. To identify who made which contributions to a particular page:
    1. Go to the relevant page.
    2. Click the history tab at the top of the window. A chronological list of all the changes to the page will appear, with the editors' usernames next to their changes.
    3. Click on the circle next to a particular version and click Compare selected versions.
    4. You will see the changes made in that version in yellow to the left of the window, and later changes to those sections in green to the right.
  2. To see a particular user's contributions to the whole site:
    1. Click on Special pages in the toolbox menu (under the navigation menu to the left of the window).
    2. Click on User contributions under the heading of Users and rights.
    3. Enter the relevant username and click Search.
    4. You will see a chronological list of all of the changes that person has made.
    5. Click on diff next to a particular version to see the changes made to that version.

Create a category

Categories are groups of wiki pages that share a common theme. Category pages list all wiki pages that are included in that category. For example a category page entitled Big Cats might contain a link to a page called Lions and another called Tigers. Categories allow users to browse content on a wiki using themes rather than searching for keywords or navigating links via the menu.

  1. Go to the page or section you would like to add the new category and click on the edit tab (at the top of the window).
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and type in [[Category:Your category name]] in the last new line.
  3. Click the Save page button. Your page will now have a blue box at the bottom containing the category details.
  4. Click on the link to your new category to access the category page.
  5. Once you have created a category and accessed your category page, instead of having an article tab, the content of the page is displayed on a Category tab. This tab is a place for you to define your Category.
  6. Click the edit tab (at the top of the window).
  7. Type in the description of the category.
  8. Click the Save page button below the text area.

Review all of the categories

  1. To view all categories, click on Special pages in the toolbox menu (under the navigation menu to the left of the window).
  2. Click on Categories under the heading of List of pages.
  3. A list of categories will appear.

Page custodian: Deakin Learning Futures
Last updated:
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