The word "wiki" is Hawaiian for "quick." In this context, "wiki" refers to a collaborative web site that allows its visitors to add and revise the content within it. This makes it a pretty handy tool for easily sharing information, as one of the goals of any wiki is to be "quick" and simple to use. Still, there is a bit of a learning curve, but not because anything is difficult to understand, but because Wiki's use formatting and linking tactics that you are probably not familiar with, so here is a crash course.

Here is an example of a typical page here at EcoWiki:

Beginning at the top of the page: The top of the page contains information/links that will be displayed on every page. This is a common practice and this section is technically called the "header", is has a light gray background. In this case, the first line of the header contains the name of the website "EcoWiki", followed by a colon, and then the name of the page you are currently viewing.

The second line of the header contains some static (non changing) links that are useful for navigating the rest of the site. At the end of this line is a link that says "register". You must register if you want to add or revise any pages within this website.

The middle of the page (white background) contains the information that some user has added to this page. You will notice that some words are blue. A blue word is a link that you can click on to take you to another page that is somehow related to that word (the word itself may be a page name). As a rule, all page names within this wiki are a combination of two words, and the first letter of each word is capitalized. If a blue word also has a red dashed line under it, that means that that particular word is a link to a page that does not yet exist. These "links to no where" are a result of simply typing a word like this: SomePage. By "mashing" two words together, it automatically becomes a link. The reason for this is that you are encouraged to create new pages, not simply out of air, but by placing a link to it in another page first. This helps to keep all of the webpages within a given wiki relative to each other and thus there is a better "flow". I could talk more on this point, but I will do so later. So, if you click on one of these links with the red dashed underlines, you will be taken to the editor, which will allow you to create said page if you have registered.

There are many formatting tricks when you are adding/revising content to a wiki page - including being able to add html directly. You can learn all about the possibilities (and limitations) on this page: FormattingRules. Also, you can view some great videos showing how to add/edit within this wiki here: http://wikkawiki.org/WikkaInAction∞.

The next section has a gray background and is technically called the "footer". The first line of the footer allows you to add or view comments for the particular page you are viewing. You do not have to register to add comments.

The last line of the footer contains several links:

1. "Edit Page" this will only appear if you have registered and are allowed to edit the page you are on.
2. "Page History" This simply gives you a look back at past revisions to the page you are on.
3. "some date" This gives a list of the dates that revisions were made on, and allows you to compare different revisions/page versions.
4. "XML" If you do not know what this orange button means, then chances are you do not need to know. It is for other website developers that want to be able to add information about the page you are currently on to their own website.
5. "Owner:" Lists the owner/creator of the page you are on.
6. "Edit ACLs" This is only visible to you if you are the "Owner" of the page you are on. You'll read about this section later (if you become an owner).
7. "Referrers" Lists all of the URLs that are linking the page that you are currently on.
8. "Search " This is simply a search field that allows you to search this entire website.