Help:Step-by-step guide

The steps below are intended to guide you through the process of creating an article. The page Basic set-up, rules and guidelines provides a more detailed explanation how things work at the Coastal Wiki. More information on editing an article is provided in How to edit an article.

Basic setup

Step	Instructions
a) Register.	To edit at the Coastal Wiki, you need an account with an editing authorisation, this is so other users can see who made the edits. If you already have an account, just click log in/create an account at the right-hand side of this page, just below the main toolbar. For obtaining an editing authorisation you may contact your national coordination office or you may simply send an email to info@encora.eu. You will receive a request to provide contact information for the Wiki Contact Database. Anonymous contributions to the Coastal Wiki are precluded. Authors, co-authors and editors of articles are explicitly acknowledged. Your contribution will be reviewed by the coordinator of the theme where your article best fits. The theme coordinators also check that your contribution is adequately linked to existing articles on similar or related topics. Your account is linked with your personal record in the ENCORA Contact Database.
b) Start new article	Before starting an article, check if an article on the same of a very similar topic exists already (by using the search window). In that case, instead of adding your article, it might be better to complement or revise this existing article (see edit other articles). If you want to start a new article, enter the title in the search window and click on Go. If an article with this title does not yet exist you may start editing your article by clicking on create this page. Make sure that your article fits the fabric of articles dealing with related topics, especially articles with a more general scope. Refer to these articles by introducing links; you should also consider re-editing related articles to introduce appropriate links to your article (but not more often than strictly necessary). Submit your article for peer review to expert colleagues before entering it in the Coastal Wiki. See also Rules and guidelines .
c) Edit other articles	To start editing this or any other page either click the edit link at the top of the page or use the edit button at the beginning of each section. This takes you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext: the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage. We recommend to contact the author; you will find contact details by clicking on history. In the case of conflicting evidence use the discussion page.
d) Editing and saving	Have an article prepared in a word document or work as you go. See the guidelines how a Wiki-article should look like. The use of basic wiki-markup to make links and do simple formatting adds to the value of your contribution. You can preview your work as you go, click Show preview to see how your changes will look before you make them permanent. Repeat the edit/preview process until you are satisfied, then click Save page and your changes will be immediately applied to the article. It is also important to Save page often while you are working. The buttons Show preview and Save page are found at the bottom of the edit page.

Editing

The table below provides an overview of how-to-edit topics. The links refer to the article How to edit an article

Step	Instructions
1. Basic Wiki-formatting	Try to use appropriate headings and subheadings, add references an links. Add bullets and numbering where appropriate. Use italics and bold for emphasis. More information
2. Images	Add illustrations, boxes and tables to your article, if they are appropriate to the subject, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status. Try to insert 1 image for every 500 words.
3. Definitions	Define terms and refer to the definitions from separate, individual definition pages.
4. Formulas	You can use html-format or Wiki Math-format to edit formulas or to insert special symbols, Greek or mathematical characteristics.
5. Links and references	Create internal links to other articles at the Coastal Wiki and create Web links. Provide references with citations from cited and reputable sources and create a list of cited references.
6. Credit the author	Add an author-ID at the end of the article, so that users know who is the main author of the article.
7. Categorization	Add at least three appropriate categories to your article, in order to make it easier to be found by different types of users.

Alternatively the tutorial links can be viewed in a PowerPoint format - Coastal Wiki Tutorial (PowerPoint)