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We put together some tips and tricks to facilitate the process of creating an article for WikiFin. Of course we are always here to help you, so if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to Contact us but our Help Manuals for Writers and Editors and this "Tips and Tricks" page are created to give you all the tools you need to write an informative, clean looking article with an organized feel. If you are an experienced author already, feel free to pass on your knowledge by editing this article. All of us, no matter if we are a freshman or an old hand at writing, will profit from it.
Useful tools
These tools will help you to create interesting articles with an organized, uncluttered feel to it. They also make your articles fit seamlessly into the overall theme of WikiFin. Make use of them regularly!
Links
Links are what makes not only a wiki, but the whole Internet such a fantastic source of information. The ability to connect different data and resources is unique to this digital medium. Make plenty of use of links in your articles, but please follow the guidelines!
Internal Links
Links inside WikiFin are a wonderful way to guide the reader towards other information that might interest him in the wiki. The more links to other articles you add to your own one, the easier you make it for your reader to find relevant information. Internal links are easily created. Find out more about Links!
External Links
Inside the article proper, external links are NOT allowed. That doesn't mean though, that you can't include them. Whether it is for recognizing the work of authors of resource material in a Resource paragraph or the need to link to other websites related to the topic of the article in a External links paragraph, there are very good reasons for adding external links to an article. One guideline though you'll have to heed! External links ALWAYS have to be set to open in a new window! Find out How to force a link to open in a new window!
Images
Pictures make an article more interesting. They make it easier for your reader to visualize what you are writing about and liven up the layout. Images can quickly get out of control though and become hard to find. Use folders to organize workspace images and then give pictures relevant names to be quickly found once again. Try not to upload pictures with generic names like Photo1.jpg, because they can be easily replaced by another user uploading that same file name. Unique, identifiable names will ensure success on document collaboration. You can rename images after uploading them, but take care to do it straight after the uploading process, because renaming a picture means that all the links to it become invalid. Find out how to Embed Images Into a WikiFin Page! (Note: The maximum file size per file upload is one gigabyte.)
Tables
Tables are very important parts of online article creation but often overlooked. They are one of the primary design tools for HTML documents. Tables serve several functions. They allow for greater control over page layout, allowing creation of more visually interesting pages. Tables are also used to frame images and their titles and captions. Find out how to Add a Table in a WikiFin Page!
Horizontal Rule
Another fine tool to add some structure to your article is the "Horizontal rule" you can add anywhere in your article through the "Insert" tool in the toolbar. The Horizontal rule tool allows you to make clear separations between different sections of content on your page. Click on "Insert", than on "Horizontal Line"!
Table of Contents
The perfect tool to organize your article, the TOC (table of contents) plugin allows you to display a linked list at the top of the page which lists every heading in the page below. Clicking on these links in the table of contents takes you to that precise heading in the workspace page. If you have a page with lots of different headings, a table of contents can help your users find the exact information they need in the page. An example of a Table of Contents is found at the top of this page. Find out how to -! (Note: This is a tool that only makes sense in longer articles.)
Templates
Templates are a great way to reduce repetitive actions and save time when working with WikiFin. We already have created several templates for you to use for your article to give you a head start in creating your wiki pages and to give WikiFin a uniform, easy to use look. To use one of the pre-created templates:
Click "Create a page" in the top right corner of your workspace.
In the form, type the name of the new page you want to create and click the "Use a template" option.
A dropdown box will appear, allowing you to pick the template you want to use. Select the appropriate template.
Click the "Create Page" button.
If you plan to write several articles for WikiFin, maybe as part of a series, you can also create your own template. Under "Edit tags" in the bottom right of your workspace just tag any page as a template and it will appear in the list of templates the next time you create a page. Make sure to use a lowercase "t" for "template".
Useful tips and tricks
These tips are supposed to give you a head start, creating your article. Of course, basically it is entirely up to you how you write or structure your pieces, but there is no sense in re-inventing the wheel. Some practices have been proven successful and you should feel free to copy them at leisure. The more of the advise given to you here you heed, the more uniform looking the articles are going to be. This is a good thing! Similar structures throughout the wiki articles will make it easier for your reader to find his way around and quickly get to the information he wants, so make plenty of use of the guidelines presented here!
If you have your own little tricks for writing successful, informative, streamlined articles, please don't hesitate to share them here! Edit this article, if you have something interesting to add! Like this we can all help each other, but please heed the guidelines in the Help Manuals for Writers and Editors!
Resources
Use plenty of references to resources. The best practice is, to create a paragraph towards the end of your articles where you can collect all your resources. That has the advantage, that you can link to an external website if the resource is web based. External links inside the article proper are not allowed, but you have the alternative to create special paragraphs like "External Links" or "Resources" at the bottom of the page. There you can link to any website outside of WikiFin, if an important piece of information stems from there. Actually we encourage you to make a habit of it, since it is only fair, that an external source should be recognized, if they provide you with important information. After all, we'd like other sites to treat data gathered from our wiki the same way.
Anchor
A good way to refer to a particular resource are anchors inside the article. Anchors or bookmarks are a special type of link that points to within a page, rather than the very top. Creating bookmarks are a little bit more work than plain links, because you have to mark the location of the anchor as well as the link itself. But once you understand that, you'll know it's easy to add internal links.
You can mark any part of your article with a number referring to a particular resource in your "Resource" paragraph. Let's say for example, that you are creating an article about your favorite athlete. You added one of his PBs (Personal bests) to the article. You might have found that piece of information in a book, some competition result leaflets or even found it on the Internet. You can now add a "reference number" to the piece of information in your article. At WikiFin this is usually done in brackets [..]. Now add your resource to your "Resources" paragraph and attach an anchor to it. If you now use your "reference number" as a link to this anchor, you can attach a link to the resource, e.g. a PDF-File of competition results that contains the PB you stated in your article.
Example:
The text you wrote in your article reads as follows:
"Finswimmer Stefano Figgini heads the current world ranking (2010) in the discipline of 400m sf with a time of 03:01:31"
You found this piece of information in a PDF-File. Its is only fair that the owner of the file, in this case "All-Finswimming.com" gets the recognition for providing you with this information. You therefore add the resource to your "Resource" paragraph like this
Resources
1. PDF-File: Finswimming World Rankings 2010, p. 52
2. (More resources)
3. (More resources)
Make sure that you add the page inside the PDF-File where you found your information (in this case p. 52), so the reader won't have to search for it! You can now add a link to "PDF-File: Finswimming World Rankings 2010" pointing to the PDF-File. Now you attach an anchor to your resource. The next step would be to mark the appropiate text in the article with a [1] like this: "Finswimmer Stefano Figgini heads the current world ranking (2010) in the discipline of 400m sf with a time of 03:01:31 [1]" and add a link to the number 1 pointing to your anchor. Find out how to Add a manual anchor! If your reader now would like to see the resource document, he only has to click on your marker which will take him to the referrer in your "Resource" paragraph. From there (if he so desires and if you provided him with the appropriate link) he can go straight to the original document. (Note: Don't use the resource system to promote commercial websites! If you'd like to promote your website, please feel free to use the Link Directory.)
Related Articles paragraph
Create a "Related Article" paragraph toward the bottom of your article page, if you think, that other articles inside WikiFin have a similar subject and/or might interest the reader of your article. This paragraph should be located above the "Resource" paragraph right after the article proper. When a reader finishes reading your article, the next thing he does, is looking for more information. With a "Related Articles" paragraph directly under your article you aid him in his search. Find out more about Internal Links!
External Links paragraph
Sometimes you as an an author know of other websites that have a direct connection to the subject of your article. They might not contain information, you used as a resource for your article, but they might still interest your reader, because they can provide him with additional information about your topic. In this case it makes sense to create an "External Links" paragraph. There you can add any link you think might interest the reader of your article. The "External links" paragraph should be the last paragraph of your article! (Note: Don't use the "External Links" paragraph to promote commercial websites! If you'd like to promote your website, please feel free to use the Link Directory.)
Legal issues
Copyright
These days, almost all things are copyrighted the moment they are written, and no copyright notice is required. Basically, the only one who has the right to copy and/or distribute his work is the author or creator of an original work. It is therefore always better, to ask permission if the work of another person is used in an article, no matter if written for WikiFin or npublished somewhere else. Displaying, reproducing, copying and/or distributing copyrighted works without the permission of the author is copyright infringement []. Most of the time an original creator won't mind if part of his work is used, as long as he has no commercial interests and as long as he is mentioned as the author. It is always better to ask though.
As stated in the Disclaimer, WikiFin is not responsible for the content of the wiki. The responsibility for heeding the copyright laws is up to the author. WikiFin will remove copyrighted material though, if so requested by the original creator/author!
For more detail on our copyright policies, please visit Contributors' rights and obligations!
External links
WikiFin or its authors can't be made responsible for the content of website we (or the authors) link to. This is also made perfectly clear in our Disclaimer. Nevertheless, we will spot check the articles and will ask the respective author to remove all links to websites with disputable content.
Related Articles
Resources
[]. 10 Big Myths about copyright explained by Brad Templeton.
[]. Copyright Law Explained by "The V7 Network"
External Links
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