Visual Editor - Mediawiki

Opening the visual editor

1. First make sure you're logged in using your evergreen.edu username and password
2. To edit a page using the visual editor, click on the "Edit" icon at the top of the page.

• Note: It can take a few seconds for the page to open for editing, and longer if the page is very long.
• Clicking on the page options icon "..." is where you can access the "Edit source" tab will open the classic wikitext source editor

Getting started: the visual editor's toolbar

The visual editor's toolbar appears at the top of the screen when you begin editing. It includes some familiar icons:

• Undo / redo
• Headings pull-down menu
• Formatting: Clicking the "A" opens a menu
• Linking tool: The chain icon is the linking tool. Clicking on it (usually after selecting some text) opens the link dialog.
• Cite menu: The "Cite" menu is used to add inline citations (also called "footnotes" or "references").
• Lists and indentation: The first two items allow you to format text as either a "Bullet list" or a "Numbered list". The last two items allow you to decrease or increase the indentation level of list items.
• Insert: The "Insert" menu allows you to add a few different types of objects (including images)
• The Page options menu is to the left of the Save page button. On this menu there are options to adjust page settings. This is also where you can switch to Source editing.

Saving changes

When you're done editing, click the blue Save page button in the toolbar. If you have made no changes, the button will be disabled (grayed out). To cancel all your editing changes, just close your browser window, or click use the "esc" button on your keyboard to cancel.

Pressing the blue "Save page" button opens a dialog. You can then enter a brief summary of your actions, mark your edit as minor, and add the page to your Watchlist.

Editing links

Links can be added through the "Link" icon (links in a chain) in the toolbar, or by using the shortcut Ctrl+K (or ⌘ Command+K on a Mac).

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If you select (highlight) text and then press the "Link" button, that text will be used in creating the link. For a link that involves just one word, you can either select that word or just put the cursor within that word.

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When you use either the button or the shortcut, a dialog will open in which you may type the link. The link tool will try to help with internal links by searching for likely matches.

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Once you have entered or selected the link, you complete the linking process by pressing ↵ Enter or by pressing the "Done" button. Your link will immediately appear on the page, but as with other changes to the page, it will not be saved until you save the entire page.

Editing images and other media files

Note: Adding images to a page happens AFTER the image has been uploaded to the wiki. To add a new image (or another type of media file) to the page, click the "Media" icon (a picture of mountains) in the "Insert" menu. The image will be added wherever your cursor is.

Clicking the "Media" icon opens a dialog that automatically searches the local wiki for media files related to the title of the page you're editing. You can change the search by changing the text in the dialog's search box. If your media file needs to be uploaded

To choose a file, click on its thumbnail image.

This places the image onto the page you are editing.

Uploading images

Uploading images is currently still handled via the legacy File upload tool and not via the Visual Editor (look for this to change in later versions).