Internet- Creating information using Wikipedia

Creating information using Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a storehouse of information in order to access information the
user need not have an account in WikiPedia. On the other hand if a user
wants to create wiki pages then there has to be a Wiki account. To access 
wikipedia, type the URL www.wikipedia.org in the address bar. The contents
 of this encyclopedia can be viewed in various languages. Choose the language
 English from the home page.

Fig: Home page of Wikipedia

The main page of Wikipedia is displayed.

Creating an Account in Wikipedia

Step 1: To create an account in Wikipedia, click on Create Account .

Fig : Create Account link on Main page of Wikipedia

2. Enter the required details in the form that appears. If you have not created
 your email id, you may leave     it blank as it is an optional field.

Thereafter click on Create your account button.

Fig : Create account form

Creating an article in Wikipedia

Wikipedia consists of numerous articles. Anyone who has created an
 account on Wikipedia can contribute by creating and uploading their 
articles on Wikipedia.

The tool that helps to create an article is Sandbox. It is a page designed
for testing and experimenting. To create an article using sandbox in Wikipedia
follow the steps given below:

1.  Visit Wikipedia Main page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) and 
   Click Login.

Fig: main page of wikipedia

2. Enter Username and Password and Click Login button.

Fig: Login Page

3. Click Sandbox.

 
Fig: Sandbox option

4. The Source editing page of Sand box is displayed. Start typing in the
    area highlighted with red colour box.

Fig: Typing area in Sandbox

The formatting of the text can be done using various tools on the formatting
 toolbar.

 

Fig: Formatting toolbar in Sandbox

5. Write the brief summary of changes done in Edit Summary text box.

Fig: Edit Summary

6. Click Show Preview to view the page or Click Show Changes to compare
   the versions of the page.
7. Once the page is complete, click Save Page option to save the page.

8. After saving the page switch from Source editing to Visual Editing. 
   For this click on Edit icon and then choose Switch to Visual Editing 
   option. Using this option, various formatting features, hyperlinks, audio
   and video files can also be inserted in your article.

Fig: Source Editing to Visual Editing

The status bar appears that shows the progress of the Switch Process.

Fig: Switching in progress

Once the switching is complete, the Visual editing page is displayed with a
 notification message saying You have switched to visual editing.

Fig: Visual editing page

9. To insert  links of other wiki articles. Select the word on which hyperlink
    is to be created and click the Hyperlink icon.

                Fig: Hyperlink icon

Type the address of the target page in the text box and click on Done button. 
The hyperlink will be inserted in the Wiki page.

Fig: Inserting Hyperlink

10. To add sources of information like books, newspapers and website, click
     Cite button and specify the URL of the resource to be added to the Wiki
     page.

Fig : Adding Citations

11. To add media files / resources to the Wiki page,  click Insert ->
     Media option.

Fig: Inserting Media

After typing the keyword for the images to be searched, select the image to 
be inserted from the list of images. The selected image will pop up on the screen.
 Click Use this Image on the top right of the pop up.

Fig: Use this Image option

The Media Settings pop up will appear. Type the Caption and click on Insert 
button on the top right corner.

 

 Fig: Media Settings Pop up

The image will be inserted in the Wiki page. Click Save Changes button to 
save the Wiki page.

Fig: Wiki Page with Media and Hyperlinks