Welcome to the User Guide! If you just created this site, this page will give you a tour of the site's major pages and provide a step-by-step instructional for getting started. If this is your first Wikidot site, we also invite you to read the First Time User page.
Help Pages
These pages will help you get started with some specific aspects of Wikidot. These pages only provide a basic overview, and it is hence recommended that to fully explore the extent of Wikidot's power that you visit the Community How-Tos.
Step-by-step Setup
The below is a step-by-step instructional for setting up your website. Except for the first step, these instructions need not be followed in any particular order.
Step 1: Admin CSS Page
If you cloned the Standard Template, then you are presently an admin of the site. The top bar has an admins only link, but it will only show if you have created an Admin CSS Page. Thankfully, this process is simple. Simply click on the button below, press save, and return to this page. When you are finished, you should see a small cogwheel appear in the top bar.
Step 2: Visit the Site Manager
The Site Manager is where you as an administrator of the site can change global site options, such as membership permissions, access policy, site name, and more. We recommend that you take a look at the settings in the manager and adjust them to fit your site's needs. It is especially encouraged that you ensure the following are in order before getting underway:
| Item | Where it is found |
|---|---|
| Site Name | General Settings » Wiki Settings |
| Who can join your site, and how | Security » Access Policy |
| Member permissions | Security » Permissions |
| Forum settings and Categories | Forum |
Step 3: Edit Basic Pages
We recommend that you populate the below pages with information relevant to your site. You may not need all of these pages, and hence you may delete any that you feel to be unnecessary.
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| About | Provides cursory information about you and your site/service. |
| Contact | Allows users to contact administrators of the site. The form on the page is functional, but you may want to provide your actual contact information. |
| Become a Member | The page on which Wikidot users may join your site. Joining the site grants editing permissions which is ideal for wikis. |
| Side Navigation | The navigation bar that appears on the side of the site when not viewing the notebook itself. For more information, see Navigation Bars. |
| Top Navigation | The navigation bar that appears on the top of the site. For more information, see Navigation Bars. |
Step 4: Edit the Home Page
The home page is designed to act as a cover page for your site. Being the first thing your viewers see, you want it to catch their eyes. Under that principle, we have given the home page (and all pages in the home category) a specialized theme meant to look appealing and emphasize key features of the site/service.
The page is ultimately a wiki page like every other page on this site, and hence you can edit it. We recommend that you change it to fulfill your site's needs. To find out how it is formatted, simply look at the corresponding text in the source and on the page itself.
What if I do not want the home page to have that "special cover theme"? To make your home page look like a normal page, you can set a new, alternative home page in the Site Manager. In the Site Manager, go to General Settings » Wiki Settings » Advanced Settings (at the bottom of the page). Where it says "Default start page", change what is in the box to "main:home". This will cause your new home page to be the alternate home page.
How do I link to the home page? You can link to the home page using [/ Home], where "Home" could technically be any text. For instance, [/ apples] would also go to the home page.
Step 5: Editing Legal Pages
Finally, a few legal pages have been automatically provided for you, but you may need to edit them to fit your site's needs more precisely.
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Legal Guidelines | A page outlining legal qualifiers in order to protect you, the site owner, and the end users. |
| Terms of Use | A legal page detailing proper use of the website and webservice. The current description is very general, and it is important that you modify it to specifically cater to your service. |
| Privacy Policy | A legal page detailing how user information is handled. If your site requires any more information than what Wikidot itself requires, you should modify this page accordingly. |
Other Pages
The following pages are basic facilities of generic websites and are hence included in the Standard Template. They need not be edited, but you may, of course, do as you will if you are comfortable enough.
| Page | Description |
|---|---|
| Recent Changes | A list of all the recent changes that have occurred on the site. |
| Recent Posts | A list of all the recent forum posts that were made. |
| Search | The page that users are directed to when searching on the site. It displays search results. |
| Members | A list of all the members on your site. |
| This Page is Deleted | A message that is shown to non-admin users if they visit a deleted page. |
Customizing Your Theme
By default, this site uses a theme called the Standard Theme. You may wish to deviate from the default shade of blue or replace the looks entirely. In this case, read the CSS Themes help page and visit the Themes Administration page for more details.