Help:Editing Tips

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The text section of every person profile should have these two sections:

== Biography ==
== Sources ==
<references />

Click here for an example.

Editing the text in these sections is easier than it may seem at first. Most common formatting — such as italics, bold, and subheadings — can be done through the toolbar at the top of the editing box.

The toolbar is a short-cut for creating what is called "wiki markup". This page has tips on doing wiki markup by hand.

It is strongly recommended that you don't try to be creative with formatting. Plain text is almost always best.

Contents

Italics

This is useful for denoting, for example, the text of a birth, death or marriage notice. It can also be used to italicize the name of a book, journal or ship. To italicize a word or phrase, place two single apostrophes around the word or phrase, like this:

''National Genealogy Society Quarterly''

The results will look like this:

National Genealogy Society Quarterly

Note that this is two apostrophes, not a quotation mark.


Bold Text

To make a word or phrase bold, place the word or phrase inside of three single apostrophes like this:

'''Be Bold!'''

The results will look like this:

Be Bold!

Please don't use bold formatting for headers and subheaders; those are explained below.


Bold and Italics

You can combine both bold and italics by using five single apostrophes before and after the desired text. For example:

'''''This is bold and italicized'''''

will produce

This is bold and italicized


Line Breaks

In wiki markup, one line break (i.e. clicking Enter/Return) will be ignored. The line will wrap in the output. If you need to create a single line break, enter <br> at the end of the line.

Two line breaks (clicking Enter/Return twice) creates a new paragraph.


Horizontal Rule

You can break up the page into sections with a horizontal rule. Just type four minus (-) signs on a line by themselves.

For example, ---- will produce this:


Horizontal rules should be used sparingly. Subheadings are preferable. There should be no horizontal rules above the Biography.


Subheadings

Subheadings are a way to improve the organization of a profile's sections.

Every profile should have two headlines. One for Biography and one for Sources . These have "==" before and after the headline.

Subheadings can make the biography more readable. Creating them is easy. Simply add "===" before and after the line.

What you type:
== Biography ==

=== Subheading ===

What it looks like:

Biography

Subheading


Lists

There are four types of lists:

  • bulleted lists
  • numbered lists
  • mixed lists and
  • indentations.

Bulleted lists

Simply add a " * " before a line of text to give it a bullet, like this:


What you type:

* Example 1
* Example 2
* Example 3

What it looks like:
  • Example 1
  • Example 2
  • Example 3

Add an extra '*' to go a level deeper, like this:


What you type:

* Example 1
** Example 1a
** Example 1b
*** Example 1c

What it looks like:
  • Example 1
    • Example 1a
    • Example 1b
      • Example 1c


Numbered lists

Instead of bullets you can also have a numbered list. This is just as easy. Just start with a "#" instead of a "*", the list will number it self.


What you type:

# List item 1
# List item 2
# List item 3

What it looks like:
  1. List item 1
  2. List item 2
  3. List item 3


Again, you can create different levels by adding an extra "#":

What you type:

# List item 1
## List item 1.1
## List item 1.2
### List item 1.2.1

What it looks like:
  1. List item 1
    1. List item 1.1
    2. List item 1.2
      1. List item 1.2.1


Mixed lists

Or you can create mixed lists:

What you type:

# Wife A
#* Child 1
#* Child 2
# Wife B
#* Child 3

What it looks like:
  1. Wife A
    • Child 1
    • Child 2
  2. Wife B
    • Child 3


Indentations

You can create an indentation by adding a colon (:) at the start of a line of text. The text will keep on indenting until you start a new line:

Note: Indentation should not be used to start paragraphs or for extended quotations. It should only be used for spacing other special elements that need to be set apart from the text.

What you type:
Normal text
: Indented text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
What it looks like:
Normal text

Indented text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.


If you want to start a new line of text, but keep the indentation, simply add the colon again to the start of the new line:

What you type:

Normal text
: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
: Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
: Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

What it looks like:

Normal text

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.


By adding an extra colon to the start of the line, you get a bigger indent:

What you type:

Normal text
: One indentation
:: Two colons for extra indentation
::: Adding an other colon will indent ever further

What it looks like:

Normal text

One indentation
Two colons for extra indentation
Adding an other colon will indent even further

Here's an example how you can use this:

Death Certificate

  • Source: some-url-with-the-data
  • Date: 01-01-2000
  • Type of source: Death certificate
Name: John Doe
Sex: male
TOD: 13:13
DOD: 01/13/1913

Family:

Father: John Doe Sr.
Mother: Jane Doe
Spouse: Mary Doe
Children: None

Further information:

Occupation: Pirate
Characteristics: Wooden leg, glass eye
Means of transportation: Ship


Indentation should not be used to start paragraphs or for extended quotations. It should only be used for spacing other special elements that need to be set apart from the text.

Tables

If you have data in a spreadsheet you can easily create a table by using this web site to convert it to a Wiki Table ready for insertion in your page. Just copy and paste all the cells from your spreadsheet into the text entry box and process it. If you deselect the format header it will not provide a header for the table.

For tables already in a HTML format.

Tables are created by using the 'pipe-syntax' developed by Magnus Manske, and substitutes pipes (|) for HTML. The pipe-symbol is usually found above the 'Enter'-key (shift + \). Here is an on-line script which converts html tables to pipe syntax tables.

  • Start your table with "{|"
  • To start a new row add "|-" at the beginning of a line of text.
  • To separate cells on a single line use "||".
  • End your table with "|}"


What you type:

{|
| Row 1, cell 1 || Row 1, cell 2 || Row 1, cell 3
|-
| Row 2, cell 1 || Row 2, cell 2 || Row 2, cell 3
|}

What it looks like:
Row 1, cell 1 Row 1, cell 2 Row 1, cell 3
Row 2, cell 1 Row 2, cell 2 Row 2, cell 3

It can also be sortable:

What you type:

{| border="1" class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Column A !! Column B
|-
| Bananas || $1.20
|-
| Apples || $0.80
|-
| Grapefruit || $2.00
|-
| Strawberries || $0.50
|}

What it looks like:
Column A Column B
Bananas $1.20
Apples $0.80
Grapefruit $2.00
Strawberries $0.50

Superscript and Subscript

In some cases, such as when you want to render a transcription from an old document correctly, you may need to use superscript or subscript. You can do this by surrounding the text to be superscripted or subscripted with <sup></sup> or <sub></sub>. For example:

What you type:

Y<sup>e</sup> olde supply of O<sub>2</sub>.

What it looks like:

Ye olde supply of O2.

Note that this should not be used for any extended length of text, and it is not for footnote numbers. See Sources.


Centering

You can center text or other elements using <center>...</center>. For example:

What you type:

<center>This is centered.</center>

What it looks like:
This is centered.

Centering is not recommended for styling purposes, e.g. it shouldn't be used just because you like the look of centered headlines. It can be used when you want to properly transcribe the original appearance of something like a headstone.


Advanced Styling

Some members with advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS want to apply their skills inside profiles. This is not recommended. See HTML and Inline CSS.


More Help

See more tips in these pages:

If you have a problem, feel free to ask the community for help in G2G.



This page was last modified 21:44, 5 February 2024. This page has been accessed 68,524 times.