AoPS Wiki:Tutorial

Shortcut: AoPS:T

This AoPSWiki tutorial will help guide you through the process of learning to contribute to the AoPSWiki. Also see the categories AoPSWiki and Tutorials for more information on certain topics.

In addition to the information below, there is a good Wikipedia editing page which contains most of the information below and will be incorporated into this tutorial over time.

Editing the AoPSWiki

The AoPSWiki is meant to be edited by you, the users. If you ever find yourself saying that you could have done a better job on an article, we encourage you to do so! Before you can edit the article, however, you should make sure you are familiar with how the AoPSWiki works.

Learning About AoPSWiki

All users are encouraged to read up on what a wiki is and look around AoPSWiki. Click the Random Page button on the navigation panel at right a few times to get a feel for the structure of content in the AoPSWiki. Try clicking through a few of the colored links on some of the pages. Some will take you to other parts of the AoPSWiki and some will take you out of the AoPSWiki to other websites.

Read about what makes AoPSWiki different.

Creating an Article

If you search a topic or click on a link to an article that is not yet written, you yourself can begin creating that article. It is preferred to make bold the name of the article when it first appears in the article, particularly for terms that are given definitions. Bolding is explained in the Wiki Syntax section below. Read Tips for Article Creation to better understand the AoPSWiki philosophy of article content.

If you can't think of a good topic to write about, look through the list of stubs for articles which already exist but have very little content.

Editing an Article

Click on the Edit button above an article while you are logged into the AoPSWiki. If the article is new, you can just start writing. If the article already exists, you will see the article text, MediaWiki syntax included. Write around or over the text to change the content of the article.

If you would like to experiment with the Wiki format, please use the Sandbox to play around with new features.

Wiki Syntax

First, while in edit mode, there is a control panel in the upper left of the text box. Hover your cursor over the buttons to get an idea as to what they do. Remember that you can test syntax on your own user page. You can also hunt for examples by going into edit mode while in any article. Next, you can practice using wiki syntax in the sandbox. Here are a few common ways to format content in your article:

• To create bullets link for this list, use the asterisk (*) at the beginning of each line.
• Use the colon (:) to indent.
• To italicize text, place two apostrophes both before and after the ''text''.
• To bold text, place three apostrophes both before and after the '''text'''.

Internal Links

Internal links are at the heart of what makes a wiki. Place two square brackets on each side of a word or phrase to link the text to the article of the same name. In order to create the link mathematics, you would type [[mathematics]]. Also, for the cases when it is necessary to make the link-forming part of the phrase different from the actual title of the article it refers to, you may use the piped link format like in [[real number|reals]], which will create a link to the article titled Real number but show and highlight the word reals instead.

External Links

When linking to information outside of the AoPSWiki, use external links. Begin with one open square bracket, type or paste the URL, add a space, then type the text that should appear naming the external link. For instance, to create a link to the Art of Problem Solving homepage (Art of Problem Solving), you should type [http://www.artofproblemsolving.com Art of Problem Solving]. When linking to any page on AoPS/MathLinks, please always use artofproblemsolving.com links instead of mathlinks.ro links.

If you plan to add book links, please read How to link books.

Redirects

If an article has several less standard names or acronyms, you can create a page (or pages) to direct users who find each one to the article name you chose. For instance, there is an article under ARML with the following text:
#REDIRECT[[American Regions Mathematics League]].
If you click on the ARML link, you will go directly to the American Regions Mathematics League page. Very convenient!

HTML

AoPSWiki supports a limited, but highly useful amount of HTML. Try it out and see.

Templates & Categories

See the article Templates & categories for a definitive guide on creating and using templates & categories, as well as a list of templates and categories currently in existence.

Finding articles to edit

Red Links

If, while reading through an article, you notice a red internal link, that represents an article that has not yet been written. Click on the red link to start writing that article. Remember, however, that the article on this subject may have already been written under a slightly different name, so it is always a good idea to make a little search first. If you find the relevant article under a different name, all you need to do is to create a simple REDIRECT page. You may also want to use this option if you feel that the right name for the topic should be somewhat different from the text in the red link. Also, don't forget to check the red link text for spelling and other errors before creating an article with the name from a red link.

Recently Changed Articles

At least while AoPSWiki is relatively young, recently changed articles are usually fairly new articles. You can find recently changed articles by clicking on the Special:Recentchanges (Recent Changes) link on the navigation tab at right. Go methodically through the articles, either contributing or adding broken links. Also see the AoPSWiki:Community_Portal (Community Portal).

Wanted Pages

The AoPSWiki automatically creates a list of wanted pages. These are pages to which there exist several links, but no actual page exists. This is a good place to look for articles which would contribute the most to the AoPSWiki's goodness.

Practice Good Netiquette

• Absolutely no spam is permitted in the AoPSWiki.
• Practice good Netiquette.
• Be aware of What AoPSWiki is not.

Where to Ask Questions

AoPSWiki Forum

The AoPSWiki Forum is a place to ask questions about AoPSWiki and its functionality when you cannot find the explanation in the AoPSWiki itself. Please read through the announcement and sticky threads to see if your questions are answered there. The forum also includes a search feature that might help you locate the answers to your questions.

Article Discussion

Click the Discussion tab at the top of an article to ask questions about an article or discuss its content.

Math Questions

The AoPS Forums are the appropriate places to ask questions about mathematics, concepts, specific math problems, and problem solving (not the article discussion area).

AoPSWiki Pages

Please read through the pages related to the AoPSWiki, linked through the category link below, in order to best understand how to use the AoPSWiki.