Help:Contents

The wiki help pages Gentoo wiki]] (as opposed to documentation for Gentoo itself, which the Wiki contains).

These pages are resources for both readers, on wiki usage and on finding relevant information, and for contributors, with explanations of how to add content correctly.

Check out the contributor's guide: making quick changes to the wiki is easy, even for a newcomer!

The Wiki project page has information about how the Wiki is run, it has FAQs and more information about the wiki project. See also the Gentoo wiki FAQ.

Gentoo developers can check out Developer Central for help on procedures involved in working as a Gentoo dev.

Reading and browsing the wiki
Reading the Wiki should be somewhat self-evident, it works much like most standard websites. More detailed information is provided here for more advanced use:


 * Navigation - explanation of site layout and functionality when reading pages
 * Searching - about the search functionality
 * Tracking changes - see the history of how articles were written
 * Watchlist - get informed of changes to articles of interest

Editing
For small corrections, such as typos, fixing or adding links, etc., please just create an account and make the change! See the article on what to do when noticing an error on the wiki‎.

Once logged in, it only takes a few clicks to make a change: click the "Edit source" (or "'") button at the top of a page, make changes (edits) to the text, add a brief summary of the edit, and click the "'" button! Don't worry too much about making mistakes: everything is backed up, and changes will be checked by an editor soon after they are made.

The contributor's guide is invaluable when getting into editing wiki pages, for anything more than a simple correction. It explains wiki fundamentals, goals and general workings - all the basic information to start editing articles. At the very least, check out the getting started section.

Please read the official Gentoo wiki guidelines before making anything more than the most basic changes. The guidelines explain how to properly write and lay out pages, to create well formed articles, while maintaining a coherent style across the wiki.

Essential editing topics
These pages are essential reading for anyone getting into editing the wiki:


 * Code of Conduct - participants are asked to abide by these rules
 * Contributor's guide - complete primer on wiki editing
 * Official Gentoo wiki guidelines - how articles should be laid out

Basic editing topics
These topics are important to know when making any substantial edits:


 * Editing pages - basic article editing procedure
 * Formatting - how to use wiki markup
 * Links - how to link between articles
 * Starting a new page - how to go about creating a new page for the wiki
 * Talk pages - how to communicate with other users, suggest corrections, or additions
 * Wiki FAQ - frequently asked questions about wiki usage
 * Wiki project page - editor-community page, with information on using the wiki, renaming, deleting accounts, etc.

Further editing topics

 * Blueprints - use these examples as guides for article layout
 * Categories - about categories and how to categorize pages
 * Deleting a page - procedures for removing a page
 * Images - how to integrate images into articles
 * Managing files - how to upload and manage files and images
 * Moving (renaming) a page - procedures for moving a page from one name to another
 * Namespaces - about the different wiki "sections" called namespaces
 * Redirects - redirect pages to other pages
 * Protected pages - about pages that don't allow all users to change them
 * Tables - how to format content in tabular form
 * Translating - how to translate articles

Advanced editing topics

 * Bots - about programs to perform automatic actions on the wiki
 * External searches - linking to search engine queries
 * Magic words - tags associated with a return value or function
 * Patrolled edits - marking edits as reviewed, not really used on this wiki
 * Special pages - pages generated by the wiki
 * Subpages - how to hierarchically organize pages
 * Transclusion - including contents from one page to another

Templates
Templates help layout standard or repetitive elements. See the help page on Templates about what templates are and how to use them on the wiki.

The Template sandbox and test cases page provides information on the various subsidiary pages that must be created to support any new template.

List of templates on the wiki: All templates.

Template categories:


 * Embedded Pages - templates that add blocks of text to a page
 * Formatting templates - used in article's body to format information in a standard way
 * InfoBox templates - generally used in InfoBox stack to provide specific information about an article
 * License templates - mark uploaded files with the appropriate licence
 * Maintenance templates - provide information on the status or quality of articles, etc.
 * Templates for templates - generally only used when creating templates

User pages and preferences
Create a wiki user account to edit pages or communicate with other wiki users. A user account has a preferences page that can change the parameters of how the site is shown and behaves for that user. Each account has a user page to communicate to other wiki users, with a talk page. User subpages can be used as a staging area for wiki work.


 * Preferences - personalize elements of the wiki
 * Signatures - signing comments on talk pages
 * User page - pages about wiki users
 * Special account modifications - moving, deleting, renaming accounts, etc.

External resources

 * Help:Contents at meta.wikimedia.org