Quick Start

For a short crib sheet for formatting text, adding links etc, see Help:Editing.

Please read our content guidelines before editing the wiki.

A quick guide to adding information to the FIBIWiki.

Creating an account

To edit the FIBIwiki you need to contact the FIBIS Webmaster for a free account.

Editing

Have a play and try adding some content. It's really easy, all you do is click on the edit tab at the top of the article you want to edit, or click on one of the red coloured links on any of the pages (this means that article doesn't exist yet). Then just type what you want to appear on the web page. You can practice editing using the FIBIwiki:Sandbox.

Before you click 'Save page' you can 'preview' how your changes will appear. This helps to eliminate unnecessary mistakes. You can also leave a brief edit summary to explain what changes you have made and can check the 'minor edit' box if applicable (if you have only made minor changes that do not affect content, such as changing spelling or formatting).

Spacing

Spacing can make a difference. Make sure you start typing at the very edge of the page, so that there is no empty space, otherwise the layout will be changed. Spacing may also be significant to the layout when you are adding a website link (URL), refer below. You may need to click on the backspace button on your keyboard, in front of the enclosed website link, if the layout when you view the preview is not satisfactory.

Paragraphs

To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can also start a new line by typing <br> at the start of the new line, or the end of the previous line.

To indent a paragraph

To indent a paragraph use <blockquote> at the beginning of the wording and </blockquote> at the end of the wording. For an example, look at the structure in 'view source' mode for the page British Model Soldier Society.

Toolbar on a page being edited

A toolbar appears on every page being edited which includes functions such as ‘bold text’, ‘italic text’, ‘internal link’ etc. This is an alternative to typing the required symbols yourself.

Headings

There is some specialist syntax for formatting the text, for example to create the following 3rd level heading

Regiments

you simply type ===Regiments===.

Links

Internal links

To create a link to another article you just surround the word with [[ ]]. For example to link to the Indian Navy page you type [[Indian Navy]].

External links

To create a link to an external website, use single square brackets around the full link. At the end of the link you can include a space and then some text that will appear as the link's name. So, typing [http://en.wikipedia.org English Wikipedia Homepage] will produce English Wikipedia Homepage.

Lists

To create a bulleted list just precede every item by an asterisk. For example type:

*first
*second
*third

and it will appear on the web page as:

• first
• second
• third

See, I told you it was easy.

Create a new page

• Type the name of the new page in the search box on the left hand side of the page and click 'Go.' Under "Search results" wording will appear in the form "Create the page 'New Page' on this wiki", with the wording 'New Page' appearing in red. Click on the red wording, which will take you to your newly created page
• Add the content wording. Click on 'Show preview' to preview your changes at regular intervals to prevent your edit being terminated due to a 'time out' procedure.
• Add categories eg for the page Royal Tank Corps, the categories are [[Category:British Army]] [[Category:Regiments]]

For a list of Categories see Category:Top level. There are a number of subcategories. If there is a similar page to the newly created page, you can look and see what categories have been previously used. If you are a "beginner" and confused about the category to add, type [[Category:Help required]] and a moderator will add the correct category later.

• Complete the edit by clicking on 'Show preview' to preview your changes, and then 'Save page'. The procedure is now completed.

See also

For more detailed help see:

• Citing sources This sets out how to add footnotes.
• Help:Editing pages
• Help:Formatting
• Help:Links
• Help:Images
• Help:Tables. For examples of tables, look at the structure in 'view source' mode of the tables in Newspapers and journals online and for a similar table with a heading on top, Stations of British Troops in India. For a different style of table with multiple categories per line , see Bengal Ecclesiastical Returns Index - the wording 'class="wikitable sortable"' produces a sortable heading and should be deleted if not required. The number in 'cell padding' determines the width of the space between lines. The higher the number, the wider the space.