44 MAXIMUMPC SEPTEMBER 2007
Edit and Create
Wiki Pages
Immediately, your new wiki confronts you with a gaping, empty
text area. Remember: A wiki is a website you author, so the home
page is empty until you fi ll it. Thus, the fi rst thing you should do
with your wiki is fi ll in the home page
Instiki’s page edit mode has three components: the text area
on the left containing the page’s current content (none on a new-
born wiki), a text formatting guide on the right, and the Submit
button next to an author name on the bottom.
To add text to your home page, simply type in the text area.
Before you submit your changes, you can set the author name
to your name (by default it’s AnonymousCoward). Specifying the
author’s name is more important on a group wiki, where others
are likely to check to see who made what updates. If this wiki is
for your personal, individual use, it’s not as necessary.
Once you press Submit, you’ll see your newly created home
page, which contains the text you entered. From there, you can
click the “Edit Page” link on the bottom-left of the page to change
or add to the page’s content.
Keep in mind that a wiki is not just one web page. It’s a collec-
tion of as many web pages as you wish to create, interlinked using
what are called “wiki words.” Double square brackets designate a
word or phrase as a wiki word. You’ll use wiki words to create new
pages and link to wiki pages throughout your Instiki web.
For example, if you want to create a to-do list on your wiki,
fi rst click Edit Page on the home page. Somewhere inside the
home page text area, add the wiki word [[My To Do List]].
Save your changes. Your new home page will contain the phrase
“My To Do List” with a question mark next to it (minus the brack-
ets). The question mark indicates that the wiki word points to apage that hasn’t been created yet. To compose the My To Do List
page, click the question mark and you’ll be in the new page’s edit
mode. From there you can start entering your list.
Once you get comfortable editing your wiki’s pages, you’ll
want to format your text to your liking for easy readability. Instiki
uses the Textile markup language by default and offers a quick
guide to Textile formatting on the right side of the edit mode. For
example, to create a bulleted list, add an asterisk (*) to the begin-
ning of each line item. When you save your changes, you’ll see
you’ve created a bulleted list of items with those asterisks, like
the one seen here.✦ TAKE CLOTHES TO THE DRY CLEANER
✦ MAIL THE RENT CHECK
✦ FINISH WRITING WIKI ARTICLE
Likewise, you can bold, italicize, and color text in your pages
and create numbered lists, tables, headings, images, and links to
external web pages.Create your new home page: Just type into the text area and click the
Submit button.Instiki’s Textile formatting tips detail special wiki
markup that formats the text in your pages.ORGANIZE
YOUR LIFE WITH A WIKI