First steps on a new wiki

Included page "include:languages" does not exist (create it now)

1. Your wiki ist created - and these pages exists

If you create a new wiki you will get automatically a lot of "pages":
(do not delete them! )

Page title Page category Page name (url)
Side nav nav:side
Top Bar Menu nav nav:top
Recent Changes system system:recent-changes
List All Pages system system:list-all-pages
Join This Site system system:join
Site Members system system:members
Page Tags system system:page-tags-list
No title system system:page-tags
Search the site search search:site
How To Edit Pages - Quickstart _default how-to-edit-pages
Contact _default contact
What is a Wiki Site? _default what-is-a-wiki-site
Welcome to your new Wikidot site _default start
Manage Site admin admin:manage

2. Forum is switched on - and these pages exists

After enabling the "forum" in the Site manager (page name "admin:manage", title "Manage Site" ) you will have these following "standard" pages created automatically too - do not remove/rename/delete these pages!

Page title Page category Page name (url)
Forum Thread forum forum:thread
Forum Categories forum forum:start
Forum Category forum forum:category
Recent Forum Posts forum forum:recent-posts
Recent Threads forum forum:recent-threads
New Forum Thread forum forum:new-thread

3. Your "home" page is build

One of them is called "start"(title = "Welcome to your new Wikidot site" and will look like the following copied content. This page is set by default ( at the beginning) to be shown with the URL of your site. You can change this later in the "admin:manage" page.
- PLEASE - TRanslate the above text into francaise!

Bienvenu à bord ! Voici la copie de la page d’accueil qui apparait dés que vous avez crée votre Wiki. Lisez-la attentivement car elle contient des d’informations utiles qui vous aideront à débuter rapidement.

Si c’est votre premier site

Alors vous devez prendre connaissance des points suivants:

  • Vous pouvez configurer tous les paramètres en ligne, y compris ceux relatifs à la sécurité. Pour cela utilisez le menu Site Manager. Les usagers que vous invitez à collaborer à votre site n’ont pas l’autorisation d’accéder à ce menu sauf si vous les élevez au rang d’administrateur comme vous. Vérifier la section nommée Permissions.
  • Votre site à probablement 2 menus, un sur le côté gauche nommé 'nav:side', et un autre sur le haut de la page nommé 'nav:top'. Ces menus sont des pages de votre site et vous pouvez les éditer comme n’importe quelle autre page.
  • Pour éditer une page, allez sur cette page, trouvez le bouton edit et cliquez dessus. Vous pouvez modifier tout ce qui se trouve sur votre page. Le langage utilisé par Wikidot est facile à apprendre mais puissant.
  • Vous pouvez attacher des images et autre documents à vos pages puis les afficher et établir des liens avec eux.
  • Toute les pages wikidot ont un historique complet qui vous permet de revenir sur n’importe quelle modification, aucun risque de perdre des informations, essayez sans crainte.
  • Vous pouvez choisir différent thèmes prédéfinis dans la page d’administration de votre site mais vous pouvez aussi créer vos propres thèmes si vous connaissez la syntaxe des CCS.
  • Pour démarrer un Forum sur votre site regardez Site Manager » Forum.
  • la licence par défaut de votre site est Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 License. Vous pouvez la modifier par les pages d’administration du site.
  • Si vous voulez en savoir plus visitez les pages de la section Documentation de www.wikidot.com

Si vous avez déjà crée d’autres sites

Alors nous n’avons pas besoin de vous dire combien wikidot est prenant mais peut-être pourrions-nous vous rappeler quelques fonctionnalités avancés de wikidot :

  • Vous pouvez faire tourner wikidot sous votre propre nom de domaine. Voir le Howto:Set up a custom domain.
  • Vous poivrez utiliser les analyses de Google pour mesurer le trafique sur votre site.
  • Vous pouvez utiliser de la publicité pour rentabiliser votre site.

Nous espérons que vous prenez autant de plaisir que nous à utiliser wikidot. Si vous souhaitez discuter de ce sujet il existe une communauté de passionnées de Wikidot ou vous pourrez échanger astuces et idées.


PLEASE - TRanslate this and the start in to francaise!

Welcome to your new Wikidot site

If this is your first site

Then there are some things you need to know:

  • You can configure all security and other settings online, using the Site Manager. When you invite other people to help build this site they don't have access to the Site Manager unless you make them administrators like yourself. Check out the Permissions section.
  • Your Wikidot site has two menus, one at the side called 'nav:side', and one at the top called 'nav:top'. These are Wikidot pages, and you can edit them like any page.
  • To edit a page, go to the page and click the Edit button. You can change everything in the main area of your page. The Wikidot language is easy to learn but powerful.
  • You can attach images and other files to any page, then display them and link to them in the page.
  • Every Wikidot page has a history of edits, and you can undo anything. So feel secure, and experiment.
  • You can choose different themes in the Site Manager, and you can write your own theme if you know CSS.
  • To start a forum on your site, see the Site Manager » Forum.
  • The license for this Wikidot site has been set to Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. If you want to change this, use the Site Manager.
  • If you want to learn more, make sure you visit the Documentation section at www.wikidot.com

If you've already created other sites

Then we don't need to tell you how addictive Wikidot is. But maybe it's worth reminding you of some of the advanced Wikidot features:

  • You can run your Wikidot site on its own web domain name.
  • You can use Google Analytics to measure traffic going to your site.
  • Giving away free wikis is not enough for us — we are also offering you a way to earn money from your wiki using our AdSense implementation.

We hope you enjoy using Wikidot as much as we do. If you want to discuss Wikidot, there's an active community of Wikidot enthusiasts where you can share tips and ideas.

Consider upgrading to Pro Account

With Pro Account you get:

  • more new wiki Sites to create
  • more storage

and a lot of other useful features such as: custom domain, advanced web statistics, site cloning, favicons, secure SSL access and more.

Prices start at only $2 a month.

Check our plans for more information or visit My Account panel to upgrade instantly.

4. What is the next step?

You should really read this page before you go on with the next howto: copied from Site Check List !

4.1. Save your start page

(- it is a good idea to know later what advice wikidot has given!)

How and where to do this: your start page after the creation of your site is by default set to "start" and contains important first tips from wikidot. You should create your own start ( and Welcome) page, but before doing this you should save this automatic created first start-page.

a) "Edit" ( or use buttons "+options" - "view-source") the welcome page (your open first start page) and "mark & copy" all the source text into your intermediate storage.

4.1.1. Create your "archive" start page

How and where to do this: ("Rename" in this situation is perhaps a dangerous task, new visitors can not know which dependencies will arrive and what to do with them)

b) Create a new page "start0" ( as an example) - it is to key in the new name on the address-bar behind the ….wikidot.com/__ __ and press "Enter" on your keyboard.

c) this opens the "New page window and offers you the "create page" button:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The page does not (yet) exist.
The page ……….. you want to access does not exist.

create page
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

d) Click on the create page link and the Edit window opens.

e) "Paste" the text-source from the original start page into this input window and

f) Change the "Title" of the page to "Old welcome" and

g) click on save !

Note1: now you can change the original "start" page to your own wishes! Later you will perhaps build an extra menu-link to find the "old welcome" page under "….wikidot.com/start0".
Note2: the start page (often called "Home page" ) is the "normal landing" page when people type in the URL-"Site name" in the address bar. But there is no real neccessity to name it "start". You can take every page as the landing page for normal usages (there is another landing page for unallowed visitors) and have only to set the page name of this "custom landing page" as the "start" page in the Site manager for your site. On the other hand - using a different name for the Home page could be confusing later for yourself and other people too!

5. Create menu bars

- where and how to store the navigation menu.

5.0. Created menu bars exist!

How and where to do this: with the "Site creation" 2 navigation pages were created: "nav:side" and "nav:top", using the special namespace called category "nav". To change this pages key in the name on the address bar after the … wikidot.com/ and press "Enter".

This pagenames are default and can later be renamed in the "site manager" (although this is not recommended). You can always have a look on the navigation pages of the Wikidot Community site: nav.top or nav.side. Click at the bottom of the pages on "+options" and "view source", or use the "src" button at the top of the left side menu.

5.1. Create your own menu structure

How and where to do this: the menus are stored on these pages. Be sure you know what you plan for the future.
Hints how to do are given on help:menu

It is a good idea to save & use the standard menus from wikidot. Think of the visitors who will come to your site and will have at the first entry no idea what to read first and where to go… "Do not let them think too long"…

Note1: you can change the used navigation pages in the "site manager" under "Appearance" -> "Navigation_elements" for every category extra or like the _default. But changes in naming convention is not recommended. If you want no top bar menu than you should clear the page name here.
Note2: You have to consider the appearance of your site in coordination with the themes - again for every category extra (or like the _default). You do this in the "site manager" under "Appearance" -> "Themes". Here you can choose and test some layout themes with or without the navigation bar. The top bar usage you can remove on the navigation elements.