Are you aware that you have a webpage for your family history center housed in the FamilySearch Wiki? Just open the FamilySearch Wiki, and search for the name of your center, and you will find it! Use the search box in the upper right corner of the linked page. From your webpage, visitors looking for your center can find basic information about hours, location, and resources in your center. For a more detailed description about how you can maximize the use of your Wiki webpage, see the director workshop Ways to Promote Your Center.
In the past few weeks, the FamilySearch Wiki went through a major software upgrade.
All information that was in the wiki prior to the software upgrade should still be in place. Now is a great time to update your family history center webpage. Below are some details about editing pages in the new wiki format.
Welcome to VisualEditor, the new editing software for the FamilySearch Wiki. This new way of editing allows all users to edit pages without learning wikitext. In addition, VisualEditor works in most commonly-used browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 or higher, and Safari. This is a great benefit for the wiki’s many editors who use a variety of Internet browsers.
Log In to FamilySearch before Beginning the Editing Process. Once you have logged in, choose Edit, not “Edit source” in the toolbar near the top of the article. This link will open a text page very similar to the article page where you can begin editing the article. A toolbar will open at the top of the screen. It includes familiar icons to help you with additional editing features. For an in-depth discussion of these icons, see WikiMedia Help: VisualEditor/UserGuide. To use the WikMedia help page, scroll to the section “Getting started: the visual editor’s toolbar.”
Finish Your Edit by clicking the green button Save page in the toolbar. The button will appear gray if you made no changes. You can cancel all your edits by simply clicking the Cancel button.
Use the Edit Summary Box. A small entry field called the “Edit summary” box appears when you click the green “Save page” button. In this box, add a brief explanation of the changes you made to the article. Anytime you edit a page, it is considered good etiquette to explain your changes—Wikiquette! It is always a best practice to review your changes one more time before you click the green “Save page” button. A review gives you a chance to see what you wrote before it goes live to the world. The review changes feature is much simpler to view and understand in the new VisualEditor. Then click Save page, and you are done editing!
Important Things to Know about VisualEditor
- Get additional help by reading this FamilySearch Wiki article.
- Use the Edit source button on talk or discussion pages. Wikitext is the only option on these pages and is accessed through the “Edit source” button.
- Edit while viewing the entire article. Editing a single section is not an available feature.
Be BOLD, and try out this new software. Try a simple edit to your family history center Wiki page. You may be pleasantly surprised at just how easy it is to be a successful Wiki editor and to have a great-looking wiki page for your family history center!
