QED:FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions about QED

Contents


Help

How can I get help? 
  1. Many hyperlinks have helpful tips (sometimes called tool tips, hovertext, or balloon help) associated with them. To see the tip if there is one, allow the mouse cursor to hover over the hyperlink for a moment or two.
  2. Use QED's Help system. Start by clicking on the Help hyperlink in the navigation box.
  3. For help on some topic, e.g. tables, try typing "Help:tables" in the search box, and then press the Go button.
  4. Alternatively, try typing a sequence of keywords in the search box (e.g. help hyperlink colors), and press Search.
  5. If you want to see how a page achieves a certain effect, look at its source text ("wiki source"). This can usually be done by clicking on the view source or edit tab as applicable.
  6. Use the Search facility with the "Help:" namespace checked.
  7. Use Google with MediaWiki as a search term (MediaWiki, the content management system underpinning QED, is widely used, e.g. by Wikipedia).
  8. Send mail to qed@princeton.edu
How can I ensure that the "Help" namespace is searched by default? 
Once you have logged in, you can select the namespaces to be searched by visiting my preferences.
Where can I find help about using the Course namespace? 
See Help:Course. Instructors may also wish to read Help:Blackboard.

Viewing

Why aren't the Google Maps on a QED page being displayed properly? 
Your browser may be preventing "third party" images from being displayed. See Help:Google Maps#Troubleshooting.
I am using my browser's Reload button to refresh a page, but the old version is still displayed. What should I do? 
See Help:Refresh.
What browser plug-ins should I install to view QED content? 
See Help:Plugins.
My browser is trying to open the PDF file description page (Image:*.pdf) as a PDF file! 
This is probably because of a Firefox "PDF Download" plug-in. You may need to disable or remove the plug-in. Alternatively, if the file has not been restricted, and if you can login, then add {{imageURL:FILENAME.pdf}} to your user page, replacing the string FILENAME as appropriate, and then click "Show preview". You should see a direct link to the PDF file.
Which are the most popular (i.e. most-viewed) pages on QED? 
See Special:Statistics.

Searching

In the search box, what's the difference between the Go and Search buttons? 
The search box buttons have hovertext associated with them. For further information, see Help:Search.

Editing

How can I create a new page? How can I create a blank page? 
See Help:Editing#New pages.
How can I edit just one section of a page? 
If after logging in you do not see the per-section "[edit]" links, you will need to change your personal settings as follows: click on my preferences, then click on the "Editing" tab, check the appropriate box, and finally save your changes.
How should I name a new page? 
The name of a new page may contain spaces and special characters such as :/_() but the colon has a special meaning and should usually only be used in connection with namespaces. Although it is possible to create a page with a name beginning or ending with "/", this invariably creates confusion and should generally be avoided. For further details, see Help:Editing#Naming a New Page.
How should I name an image or other file when uploading it? 
The name must have the appropriate suffix, e.g. .jpg for a JPEG image. The name you choose will also be the name of the file description page in the Image: namespace, so it should be fairly specific but should not extend over more than one line. Look in the Image: namespace for examples, e.g. by clicking on the Index button in the navigation box.
How can I rename a page? 
If you have editing privileges for the page and are logged in, you should be able to use the move tab. However Image: pages can only be renamed by a system administrator because the associated mediafile must also be renamed. If you don't remember the page name or are having trouble getting to it (e.g. because the name starts with a "/" character), try using the Recent changes button.
How can I delete a page? How can I move a page into another folder? 
Only system administrators can actually delete a page, but if you are logged in, you can rename any page (except for pages in the "Image:" namespace) by using the move tab, assuming you have the necessary editing privileges.
How can I add a caption to an image? 
See Help:Images
How can I get those [edit] links to appear on a page so I can just edit one section at a time? 
"my preferences" > "Editing" > "Enable section editing via [edit] links".
How can I check the spelling of an article? 
To avoid having to copy and paste, we recommend the spell checker in the Google toolbar.
What's the best way to create and manage footnotes? 
See Help:Cite.
What does "class=wikitable" mean? 
See Help:Tables.
How can I align the columns of separate tables? 
See Help:Tables#Alignment
How can one embed a video (or Google video, or Flash animation) in a web page? 
See Help:Video.
How can one create a "flyover effect" for images (like hovertext)? 
See Help:flyover.
How can I change the font size on a specific page? For part of a page? 
See Help:Font size.
How can I change the displayed title of a page without changing its name? 
Include a line of the form {{DISPLAYTITLE:Xyzzy}} in the page, where Xyzzy is the desired title to be displayed. Doing so, however, is generally not recommended as it easily leads to confusion.
Is it possible to have a Table of Contents without numbered sections? 
Use __NOTOCNUM__. See also Help:TOC.
How can I create a site map or directory listing for my project or folder? 
See Help:Sitemap.

Printing

How can I print out several QED pages at once? 
See Help:Print.
How can I print out a page without all the surrounding clutter? 
Use the Printable version link in the toolbox.

Customization

How can I customize the interface? How can I change the date format? .... 
You can alter many settings by logging in and clicking on the preferences link at the top of the page. You can also include your own CSS and Javascript by populating the pages User:LOGIN/monospace.css and User:LOGIN/monospace.js respectively, where "LOGIN" stands for your login.
Can the logo and the left-hand navigation menu be modified on a per-project basis? 
Currently, the logo and the contents of the navigation menu above the search box can be customized by QED administrators on a per-folder basis. (For an example, visit the MG project page.) For further details, see Help:Customization.
How can the logo of an image description page (or more generally, a media description page, i.e. a page in the Image: namespace) be changed? 
See Help:Customization#Media_Description_Pages.
How can I make it easier for editors to insert special characters? 
See Quasi-keyboard.

Restricting Access

How can I prevent anonymous users from editing my pages? 
On QED, only logged-in users can edit pages.
How can I prevent anonymous users from reading my pages? 
Pages in the Course:, Project: and Princeton: namespaces can only be viewed by logged-in users. Anonymous users can also be blocked from accessing pages on a page-by-page basis, and similarly for uploaded files — see Help:Restricted for details.
How can I restrict access to uploaded files (e.g. images) so that they are invisible to the public? 
So long as the description page includes the text [[Category:Restricted]], neither it nor the uploaded file will be publicly accessible. You may also wish to consider using Princeton's Webshare (Webspace) service. See Help:Webshare for further details.
How can I make pages private so that only I can view them? 
You can make pages in your User: area private on a page-by-page basis by adding the text {{Restricted:User}} anywhere on the page. See Help:Restricted:User for further details.
How can I restrict read-access to a small set of authors while my project is under development and then open up read-access to the world? 
The simplest approach would probably be to use QED:Folder-Based Access Restrictions. If you want to open up access incrementally, consider QED:Category-Based Access Restrictions or a mix of the two. Another possibility is to use the Project: namespace for development and then move pages elsewhere. If you adopt this approach, be sure to use relative links to minimize the effort required to maintain the integrity of hyperlinks.
How can I restrict read-access to a small set of authors while my project is under development and then open up read-access to the Princeton University community? 
As above, but start in the Course:, Project: or Princeton: namespaces.
What is an ACL? 
An ACL is an access-control list.

HTML

How can I convert a QED page to HTML? 
The simplest way is to let the MediaWiki engine do it for you. You can control how this is done e.g. by choosing Printable version in the toolbox, and also by changing the skin in your user preferences. To view the HTML, use the View button of your browser.
If you want to convert wikitable markup to HTML markup, see Help:Tables.
Various "wiki2html" tools are available on the web but they are of limited use as they have no knowledge of locally-defined templates. Here is the link to one online wiki2html tool:
How can I use HTML on a QED page? 
See QED:Import.
How can I convert HTML to wiki markup? 
Two online HTML-to-MediaWiki converters are:
HTML is a W3C standard so shouldn't I use HTML instead of wikimarkup? 
HTML is complex and insecure whereas MediaWiki markup, which includes a "safe" subset of HTML and is a de facto standard, was designed to be safer and easier to read and to write. QED also includes numerous tags that are not part of HTML. Since the MediaWiki engine generates HTML, one can generally revert to HTML if need be. See Help:HTML and Help:Tags.

Miscellaneous

On the login screen, what does "Remember my login on this computer" mean? 
See Help:Remember my login.
How can I convert (... an Excel spreadsheet ... a Word document ... ) to wiki markup? 
See QED:Import.
How can I delete a page? An uploaded image? 
Currently it requires special authorization to remove a page or uploaded file, primarily because such an action destroys the page history and audit trail, but also because some care needs to be taken, e.g. to ensure that there are no links left dangling. One can of course simply blank out a page and use the What links here button to detect any references to it. If a page or image should be deleted, please send mail to qed@princeton.edu with a brief explanation.
I have added several pages to my watchlist but am not receiving email notifications when the pages are changed. 
See Help:Watchlist.
How can I include (transclude) one page within another? How can I create a compound document? 
See Help:Template.
What should I do if I believe that something on this website (a photograph, document, map, image, ....) is being used without permission? 
See Help:DMCA Procedure.
What can I do to avoid the popup dialogs warning that "This page contains both secure and nonsecure items"? 
If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer and wish to disable these popup dialog warnings, see Help:MSIE. Consider also using a different browser.
Some maps have a copyright symbol © in their name. What does this mean? How can I gain access to them? 
For copyright reasons, access to some of the QED maps is restricted to students enrolled in specific courses at Princeton University. Thumbnails of these maps will nevertheless appear in the results returned by a Category Query. Instructors at Princeton may arrange to gain access to these course-restricted maps by contacting Professor Miguel Centeno.
How can I manage linkrot? How can I check the integrity of hyperlinks? 
The tool for detecting dead links is intended for administrators, but if you want to use it, you can copy the following URL into your browser, and change PREFIX to the prefix of your choice (e.g. for pages beginning with MG, you'd specify prefix=MG):
http://qed.princeton.edu/maintenance/linkrot.php?prefix=PREFIX
How can I report a problem? 
Send mail to qed@princeton.edu.

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