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In brief: Use the Wikedbox to convert formatted text to wiki markup.


wikEd is an editing tool for MediaWiki. It is used for:

  • Converting formatted text to wiki markup - its most important function in Appropedia. See below for details, #Using wikEd to convert formatted text to wiki markup.
  • Color code HTML formatting - useful for editing a CSS sheet for example. One example is that where a color is indicated by a number, e.g. #000 or #0000FF, that number is highlighted in the color it represents.
  • Providing a number of other editing tools.

It can be seen in action at Wikedbox. (Keep the rich text editor switched off to be able to use wikEd)

It works in Firefox (and other Mozilla browsers).

Using wikEd to convert formatted text to wiki markup

This is usually an essential step in porting pages from external sources.

The easiest place to find wikEd is at Wikedbox.

To convert content using wikEd:

  • Copy and paste the formatted text into the box at Wikedbox
  • Click the wikify button, which looks like: [w]
  • Copy the converted wiki text (ctrl+a to select all, then ctrl+c) and paste into the target page.
  • Preview and fix problems as you are able to (or save first then do the fixing).
  • Note that it works for formatted text, and not for images. The urls of images are replaced with their filenames, so you must decide what to do:
    • Upload the images & ensure the links are correct - only if the images are open licensed; or
    • Manually fix the image links to correct links to the images -where they are very relevant, but not open licensed; or
    • Strip out the links entirely (easiest option)

WikEd instructions are found at Wikipedia:User:Cacycle/wikEd.

Note: it's best not to click "Save" when on the Wikedbox page, to avoid confusing others, but it doesn't matter too much. (You can also blank the page afterward, if it's been saved.)

You can use wikEd to port pages and keep their format. This works for Word documents and HTML pages, and probably many other standard formats. However, it does not yet work for , so PDF files must be converted to XML or HTML first (see Help:Porting content from PDF format) then converted again with wikEd.

How to install

It can be added to the individual user's account, to give:

  • a range of extra editing options and shortcuts.
  • a way to easily convert formatted text to MediaWiki markup (by clicking the wikify button ([w]).

To use it on one page, just click the Wikedbox as described above. To have it always on, rather than just on one specific page, use the following methods.

Add to your account

An example is found at: https://www.appropedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Chriswaterguy/monobook.js&oldid=33334

You can copy the text in that page to your own monobook.js page, do a hard refresh to clear your browser's cache (e.g. ctrl+F5?) and you should have the new editing tools above the edit box.

More complete instructions are found at Wikipedia:User:Cacycle/wikEd installation.

On Wikipedia

In the version of MediaWiki used by Wikipedia, it is available as a widget under user preferences, as well as by the previous method.

Installing on a single page in a wiki

See MediaWiki:Common.js page and find the code beginning with:

// install [[Wikipedia:User:Cacycle/wikEd]] in-browser text editor ONLY FOR A SINGLE PAGE: [[Appropedia:Wikedbox]]

Copy that section of code (the comment line and several lines after it) to your own [[MediaWiki:Common.js]] page, changing the pagename to whatever page you want to use on your wiki.

To avoid confusion, and errors in this script, choose a pagename without spaces; otherwise make sure any spaces are written as underscores in the script above.

Interwiki links

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