The best way to find out is to experiment with the system. Remember that in the upper-right hand corner of this page is a link to "Key Pages" including QwikiSyntax, a page that describes how to format text in the wiki. Read the comments on How The Wiki Works to understand the process.

Each wiki page should be a size that would allow it to be printed on a single page of paper (which you may be doing later on to report your progress). If your topic is too large to fit in that space chances are it could be broken down into multiple sub-topics on several pages.

Each page should have links to other pages. As explained on the QwikiSyntax page, any text entirely surrounded by underlines is interpreted by the wiki as a link. For example, "_Wiki_Format_" means Wiki Format.

A useful link in a structured web site is one pointing back to the referring page. If the link to your page is on the Home page put a link on yours saying "Return to Home" at the bottom of your page. You can use the Search function on any page to quickly Check For Links

Avoid using generic names for links such as "Mike's Page" or "More Information". The link becomes the name of the referenced page (as with the link to this Wiki Format page). Choose a name that can be used later by you or other users in the context of their writing to reference your page. For example,

"For more information about how you should construct your wiki pages, the Wiki Format page is amazingly useful!"

For simplicity, all links should be constructed with upper case initial letters. This allows them to be included in headings, if necessary, since any line with all initial capitals is a heading.

To make the names appropriately useful avoid really long names like "Transcription Factors I Know And Love And Think You Should Love Too". You should be able to create a unique name using two or three words.

Please use headings (like the line above) to organize your page. For the purposes of the class, each normal content page should have a minimum of two headings. Exceptions to this rule include pages that provide a Definition, Literature Reference or a Resource that needs to be separated from other text.

The wiki allows you to make text bold or italicized. In addition to heading lines, text can be arranged in list format, either

You also have the use of two specialized types of lines:

Finally, as shown above, putting one or more spaces before the line creates an outline format

Don't go wild but use formatting to make it easier for readers to find the interesting bits in your page.

You can, within limits, also add HTML tags (the things that tell the computer how to render web pages) directly into the pages you create. See the list of Acceptable HTML Tags for the tags that will work in this Wiki.