How to Edit a WordPress Wiki
In yesterday’s Online Workshop, we went into “How to Edit a WordPress Wiki” – amongst others… and as some members couldn’t attend and asked me about it today, here are the basic considerations and steps.
First of all, click on the image above and have a look at my screenshot to see what enabling and using the WP Wiki plugin actually does – from a visual aspect on your Semiomantics Author Blog. Look where the snaking arrow is pointing. See the little box featuring the headlines of the Content of this post?
Why use a WordPress Wiki?
So why use a WordPress Wiki in the first place when you are showing your headlines anyway?
Good question… but the secret is again in what plays behind the scenes, in the mysterious intricacies of code and… the way it communicates with Google. Although this little Content container may allow a quick practical overview as to what main topics are being dealt with within the post, much more important is that Google search engines pick them up very easily and in a very clear and concise way… if set up correctly that is – and they will send us flowers… meaning support our Semiomantics powered websites and blogs on their way to Google Top 10!
How to get a WordPress Wiki?
Simply go to the Dashboard of your Blog, click on Add New under Plugins, and pull in the WP Wiki, instal and enable.
You will find Wiki Settings under your settings on the left side of your Dashboard. Set them to your requirements. I just have a number to reduce what I want to show… but most importantly, when you now go to a post – existing or new – and scroll all the way down, you see right at the bottom 2 items you should now tick to enable the WP Wiki Contents Box on your post:
Firstly, “This page/post is a wiki friendly page and may be edited by authors and contributors” and
secondly, “Enable Table of Contents”.
If you go to an existing post – that has at least a <h2> headline and ideally some <h3> sub-titles – looking at it from outside on your blog as a reader would do, you now see the Contents box.
If you went to a new post, you need to write a post first, including an <h2> as a minimum – otherwise nothing will show – and then enabling the WP Wiki at the bottom by ticking the two tick boxes as explained above – you will have the same effect.
How to Edit a WordPress Wiki
The question now is: How to Edit a WordPress Wiki?
Why would you want to do this?
Well – as you read in my previous post “The Color Pink” – once you are into more sophisticated Blogging and you apply a specific color scheme – in other words Color Branding – to your Blog or Website, you want your WP Wiki to integrate into your blog.
If your background colors are all in the yellows – as on Joe Ceguna’s Blog – you don’t want your WordPress Wiki to stand out in glaring white like a violent ad… you want the background to be tone-in-tone for instance, and you may want a little fine frame in another color of your color scheme around the contents, or a bold dark tab with Contents written on it… or not, or a double line or no lines at all… and when people hover with their mouse over a title you want it to change in one way or another…
Well all these details can be easily adapted when you go to your SmartFTP and open the plugin under themes.
In the WordPress Wiki plugin folder you will find – amongst other files – the style.css.
Open it with PSpad and work your way through it – it’s easy enough. The best way is to implement one change at a time. Say you change the background from #FFFFFF (white) to #222222 (grey-black) because your blog is black or you want a black box. Just do it on the stylesheet, save and refresh your blog to see how it looks.
Once satisfied, move on to the next styling item, eg. the hover color. Maybe you want it to be a bright red, so change it to say #FF0000 – like here:
div.contents a:hover {
color:#FF0000;
}
Change the font-family if you want sans-serif fonts and here it’s coming in with serif fonts.
I wouldn’t fiddle too much with the padding etc as that looks pretty neat already as you see, but best is to save a copy of the original stylesheet and play with the new version until you see what you want – then your goal is reached: you’ve edited your WP Wiki to integrate perfectly with its surroundings and another big step in customizing your blog – or that of a customer – has been done. I hope this helped with your Website Publishing… and don’t forget:
~ without an >h2< heading nothing works.
~ Without an activated plugin nothing works.
~ Without ticking the 2 little ticks on your editor’s page where you write and edit a post, right at the bottom of it, and then saving it… nothing works.
Once everything is done correctly, it works :). Now wasn’t that a clever statement – duh????
And yes… without the server being up and running, nothing works either as I notice at this moment… but the good news is, sooner or later it will be back, so I will grab an apple and enjoy some South African sunshine! I just ricked those 2 little Wiki boxes right at the bottom and … Publish! See what it shows on my post… once it rises back into the virtual world :)
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