When viewing any page of the GCcollab Wiki you’ll find three main navigation elements: the sidebar, tabs and, user options and tools.

Sidebar

The sidebar is displayed on the left edge of the page, below the GCcollab Wiki logo. 

You can find some standard options such as Main Page, Random page and Upload a file. On some pages, at the top of the sidebar, a language option will appear allowing you to switch between a French and English page.

Clicking on the GCollab Wiki site logo brings you back to the main page. The links in the navigation section just below will take you to important pages of the Wiki.

Here is a description of each navigation link:

Navigation

Help

Actions/Tools

PDF/Print

Page Information

Tabs

At the top of the page are tabs which relate to the page currently displayed: its associated discussion page, the version history, and the edit tab.

User options and tools

In the top right corner, you'll find GCollab Wiki user options and tools. As an anonymous user, you'll see a link to create an account or log in. As a logged-in user, you have a collection of personal links, including ones to your user page and preferences.

There is a search box in the top right corner of every page on the GCcollab Wiki. For more assistance, check out Wikipedia's help tutorial on searching.

To find information about a particular project or community, your best search option is to click on Communities or Projects in the left hand navigation bar.

There are three ways to create a page in the Wiki:

• Through the search bar.
• Through the address (URL) bar.
• Using wiki code.

Creating a page using the Search Bar

When you search for a page name using the Wiki search bar, you will see a list of results which correspond to the keywords you have typed. If the segment you have typed does not correspond exactly to an existing page name, the system will prompt you to create one yourself.

For example, if you were to search "GCcollab Wiki Help Documents", and there are no results which match that phrase exactly, the following message will appear:

If you click on the red link within the search results, the Wiki will redirect you to where you can create your page.

Creating a page through a web browser's address (URL) bar

You can create a new page by typing the address (URL) of the page you want to create in the address bar of your web browser.

For example, if you want to create a page titled "Wiki Help":

1. In your address bar of your web browser type the URL of the page you want to create (e. g. see the box below)
   
2. Go to that page by hitting enter, or go, or whatever your browser requires.
3. Click create this page.
   
4. The GCcollab Wiki will redirect you to where you can create your page

Creating a page using wiki code

You can also create a new page by using wiki code. On the GCcollab Wiki you create internal links to pages by using the wiki code [[Example]] (two square brackets on both sides of the page you want to link to)

For example if you want to create a page titled "Wiki Help":

1. On an existing wiki page include [[WikiHelp]]
2. This produces a red link, Click the red link.
3.  The link will bring you to the page Wiki Help, and you will be prompted to create the page.

Note: To edit a page on the GCcollab Wiki you must be logged in.

1. To add or modify content to a page, click Edit at the top of the page. 
2.  The toolbar at the top provides basic text editing functions. Simply click on the content in the page that you wish to edit and start typing!
3.  Alternatively, you can mark up the document yourself using the formatting explained in the wiki formatting cheat sheet.

While many of the tools are self-explanatory (e.g., bold and italics), others require some explanation:

• Strikethrough: puts a line through text. This is normally done in "talk" pages if you wish to retract a comment that you made earlier. Strikethrough is not normally used in articles.
• Ignore wiki formatting: used when you want to show wiki commands without having the codes to be operational. The help sections often use this command in order to show how to enter codes.
• Signature and timestamp: used to sign your name and put the date on "talk" pages. Articles are never signed because wiki articles are deemed to be collectively authored.
• Insert hidden comment: used to add comments or notes to an article. These notes will only be seen by editors who are editing the article. They will not be visible to general readers.

Show preview

To view what you have edited before saving, you can click on the <show preview> button at the bottom of the screen and, if satisfied, save the page. Pressing this will show you what the article will look like without actually saving it.

This allows you to check what the page will look like first and to check that you haven't made any errors and prevents the need for multiple saves. Saving the same article a large number of times in quick succession makes it harder for people to check what changed, and clogs up the page history.

Saving after Editing

Once you are satisfied with what has been edited and/or previewed, you can:

• Go to the Edit Summary and summarize what has been done to the document in the Summary window below the editing screen
• Check the This is a minor edit box below the summary window and then
• Press the Save Page button
• To cancel, just click the Cancel link and none of your changes will be saved

Your user profile has several settings that you can customize.

Navigating to your settings

1. Make sure you are logged in to the GCcollab Wiki.
2. In the top-right hand corner of the page, click Preferences. 
3. Modify your settings. 
   • Basic Information: Account information that you cannot edit, such as your username, registration time, and the number of edits. 
   • Internationalization: Changes the language of the GCcollab Wiki interface and your preferred pronouns. 
   • Signature: If left blank, your username will appear whenever you post your signature. You can change your signature to include a nickname, or your department or school acronym. 
   • E-Mail Options: These options control whether or not you receive emails from the GCollab Wiki
4. Click Save

Related Articles

• How do I change my email address? 
• How do I change my language preferences?
• How can I modify my signature?

Signing your posts on talk pages, both in the article and non-article namespaces, is a good practice and facilitates discussion by helping identify the author of a particular comment. Other users can then navigate to a talk page and address their comments to the specific, relevant user(s). Discussion is an important part of collaborative editing because it helps all users to understand the progress and evolution of a work.

• To sign a message: type four tildes (~~~~) or press the signature button ( ).
• When editing a page, main namespace articles should not be signed because the article is a shared work, based on the contributions of many people and one editor should not be singled out above others.

Modifying your signature

When signing with -- ~~~~, your default signature will appear with a link to your user page and a time-stamp, like this:

--Catharine.Au 11:50, 18 March 2011 (EDT)

This default signature can be customized by modifying the Signature option in your Preferences.

1. Log in to the GCcollab Wiki.
2. From the left hand menu under Actions/Tools, click Upload file.
3. Click Choose File to search your computer for the file that you want to upload.
4. Enter in the Destination filename (bilingual name is recommended).
5. Type in a short, meaningful description of what the file is and/or why it is being uploaded (optional).

Conflicts

Sometimes there will already be a file with the same name as the file you are trying to upload. When this happens, you are presented with a link to the existing file, which you can click to view, and a choice of two options:

• Save File: Clicking this button will overwrite the existing file, so it is highly recommended that you know what the existing file is before doing so.
• Re-upload: Click this button to go back and specify a new name for the file, if you do not wish to overwrite the existing file.

Tips for success

• Make sure you are logged onto the GCcollab Wiki before you try to upload a file or edit a page.
• Maximum file size for uploading files is 32MB
• Choose a destination filename that is bilingual
• Use a meaningful name for hyperlinking - i.e. use social media presentation rather than click here. This helps keep our content accessible.

1. Go to the log in page, and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Forgot password?                
   

   
   

   
   

2.  If it's not already there, enter your username in the appropriate field
3.  Click on Reset password. GCcollab will send you a new temporary password via email. 

Note: Your password is case-sensitive. You must enter your user name into the log-in page exactly as it appears on the user list.

1. Go to the log in page
2. You will find a section to retrieve forgotten usernames at the bottom of the page
3. Type in your GCcollab Wiki-associated email address and click on Find username. If found, your username will be displayed in the Username field at the top of the page
4. Type in your password and continue as normal. If you forgot your password, you can follow this tutorial.

1. While logged in to your GCcollab account, click on the Preferences menu item located on your personal GCcollab Wiki user menu bar.
   
   
   
2. Scroll down to the Email header and click Change email address. You will be redirected to a new page.
   
   
   
3. Enter your new email address in the New email address box, and your password in the Password box.
4. Save your changes by clicking on the Change email button at the bottom of the page.

I’ve created my account. What happens next?

The system will send you an email to confirm that you have created a GCcollab account. Click on the link in the email to activate your account

I did not receive the email confirming that my account has been created. What should I do?

1. Check that you entered your email address correctly
2. Go to the Preferences tab at the top right-hand side of the browser window, and click on User profile.
3. If your email address is wrong, correct it, and click on the Confirm email link
4. If you are still having problems, please contact us for assistance

Users can choose either English or French as their language preference. Toggle between the two at the top of any page, where the language you are currently using is listed next to your user name. 

You can also select your preferred language in your preferences. 

We’ve integrated accounts from our third-party Help Desk tool, Freshdesk, into GCTools Support, in order to make the process of viewing and managing Help Desk tickets easier for users. This is done through GCcollab Single Sign-On.

If you previously had a Freshdesk account, you will need to connect a GCcollab account to a GCTools Support account in order to view and manage your tickets.

Click the link below to login or create a GCcollab account, which will automatically connect your GCollab account to a GCTools Support account:

GCcollab Account

Note: If your Freshdesk account used a different email than your GCcollab account you will be unable to access your past tickets. 

At the top of the page you will find some useful tabs. These tabs relate to the particular page you are viewing. Some additional tabs are available only after you have logged in.

These tabs allow you to discuss/talk/comment on an page, edit a page, view an page's history, move (and rename) pages, and watch a page for changes.

Default for all users

• Main Page
• Discussion: See what others may have written about the current page, or to add your own comments to the discussion thread.
• Edit / View: If available, you may edit the page. 
• Edit/View Source: Takes you directly to the source code of the page, and, if available, you may edit this code. 
• View History:  Every editable page has an associated page history, which is accessed by clicking View history at the top of the page. The page history contains a list of the page's previous revisions, including who made the changes and the nature of the edit or change

Extra tabs for logged-in users

• Move:  Used to rename pages; use with caution to avoid broken links.
• Watch/Unwatch: Click so you are notified when the page is changed, and are kept aware of revisions.
• Star: Click to easily add or remove a page from your list of favourites. These are pages you frequently visit. Unlike your watch pages, you will not receive notification when your favourites are edited.

Extra tabs for discussion pages

• Add topic: adds a new section to a discussion page, without changing what is already there.

Across the top right of the page you will notice the following six headings:

<username> : This links to your user page where you can put information about yourself or store bits of information you want to remember.

Talk: This links to your discussion page, where people can leave messages for you.

Preferences: Allows you to change your personal site preferences. Here you can change your password, change the language you prefer for the Wiki interface, or choose to have e-mail notifications when watched pages are changed.

Watchlist: A list of all pages that you are watching. Pages can be added to this list by clicking Watch at the top of the page.

Contributions: A list of all contributions you have made including edits, comments, new pages, etc.

Log out: Click this link to log out of your account.

You can hover your cursor over the tabs at the top of a page to see an explanation of what that tab does and to see the keyboard shortcut for that tab.

In the left-navigation under Tools you can access a feature called What links here. This is used to see a list of the pages that link or redirect to the current page. These are sometimes referred to as backlinks.

It is also possible to make a wikilink to the What links here list for a particular page. Type [[Special:WhatLinksHere/Page name]], replacing Page name with the title of the target page. (The same text – without the brackets – can also be entered in the search box, to access "What links here" for any page title.) 

It is possible to limit the search to pages in a specified namespace. To see this information, click What links here link while looking at any page. The list is sorted by page ID, i.e. by date of creation of the page.

The list of links to a page is useful in a number of ways:

• The number of incoming links gives a rough indication of how popular a page is.
• Where the intended subject material of an article is unclear, the list of articles linking to it might provide useful context.
• It facilitates proper disambiguation.

To invoke a What links here list directly (in the search box, browser address bar, or wikilinks) use the syntax >Special:WhatLinksHere/Main Page (replacing "Main Page" with the desired target page title).

Redirects

The backlinks feature shows which backlinks are redirects. The backlinks of the redirect are also shown, and if they include a redirect, the backlinks of that also (not more). This makes it a useful tool for finding double redirects, which should generally be replaced by redirects to the final target. There are options to filter the backlinks table to hide redirects, or to show only redirects (by hiding links and transclusions).

Transclusions

The backlinks list includes transclusions of the current page.

It also includes links which exist on certain pages due to the transclusion of other pages (templates). For example, if page A contains a transclusion of template B, and B contains a link to C (not contained within <noinclude> tags), then the link to C will appear on page A, and A will be listed among the backlinks of C.

It is possible that pages may contain links to C as a result of the transclusion of a template even though the template does not itself contain such links (the links may be produced in the template wikitext by the application of various parser functions, rather than explicitly). In this case the template will not show up in the backlinks of C, although pages on which it is transcluded will (if they have the links to C). It may be convenient to make the template appear on the list by placing a link to C on the template, within <noinclude> tags.

The recent changes page displays the most recent edits made to pages in the GCcollab Wiki. The link to the recent changes page is in the navigation sidebar at the left of every page in the Wiki. 

Interpreting Recent Changes Page

Understanding recent changes

With the default preferences, the bulk of the page consists of fifty lines, one for each edit, looking like this:

This indicates two edits: in the first JMitchell created the Main Page, and in the second she amended a typing error. From left to right:

• "diff" links to the diff-page for this edit; it is not available for new pages, or for page moves
• The "hist" link corresponds to the Page history link on the edited page: it shows not just this edit but also older and newer ones. For page moves, the hist link leads to the history of the new page title
• A bold m indicates that the user marked the edit "minor". Only logged in users can mark edits minor.
• A bold N indicates that the page is "new", i.e., previously did not exist. It is possible for a change to possess both the "minor" and "new" indicators; this is typically used for new redirects.
• The next link is a link to the current version of the page in question.
• 16:20 refers to the time in UTC. You can change the time to your time zone using your preferences
• For logged in users, the next link is a link to their user homepage. If the user profile page has not been completed, the link will be in red. If the user profile page exists, the link will be in blue
• Finally, there is a link to the user's talk page
• For page moves, a link is given to both the old and new title.

Preferences

Logged in users can set preferences to adjust the way that Recent Changes looks. The options that affect recent changes are:

• Hide minor edits in recent changes - this hides all edits that have been marked as minor by logged in users;
• Enhanced Recent Changes - with this option enabled, multiple edits are grouped together. This option uses JavaScript, and won't work in every browser. * Number of recent changes. You may select the number of changes which will be shown by default on the Recent Changes page. Once on that page, links are provided for other options. In the case of Enhanced Recent Changes this number of changes includes those that are initially hidden.
• See Help:Enhanced_recent_changes for more information about Enhanced Recent Changes.

Edit records that are changed or lost

After a page has been renamed (moved), earlier edits, including the original creation of the page, are shown in Recent Changes etc. under the new name. After a page has been deleted, earlier edits, including the original creation of the page, are not shown in Recent Changes etc. In this Recent Changes differs from a real log of editing events (the latter in the sense that something that has happened can not be changed afterwards).

There are two types of discussion pages:

• Standard discussion pages are used to discuss the content of a page/article
• User talk pages are used to communicate with other users

All of the GCcollab Wiki articles have an associated discussion page.

• A red link indicates there has been no discussion associated with that page
• A blue link indicates there is a discussion associated with the article

Whatever the colour of the link, you can click on the discussion tab to add to it. 

To contact a user via their Talk page

• Go to Special Pages in the Navigation Bar on the left-hand side of any GCcollab Wiki page.
• Click on users and scroll to the name of the person with whom you want to communicate
• Click on the person’s name
• Click on the Discussion tab and leave your message

Notifications

When someone else edits your user talk page, an alert is automatically displayed on all pages until you view your user talk page. If you click new messages it will direct you to the bottom of your talk page. If you click last change it will show you the last edit done to your talk page.

Using the Discussion page

Sign your contributions

You should sign and date your contributions on all talk pages. To do this easily, type four tildes (~~~~) at the end of your comment, or just click the signature button  on the row of buttons above the edit box. This will be automatically converted into a user signature and the date and time.

Sections

To discuss a new topic, start a new section by going to a new line and typing a title like this: == Heading ==, replacing "Heading" with a suitable title for the topic you wish to raise. Place new discussions at the bottom of the page. You can also use the tab labeled "+", at the top of a talk page, next to the edit tab, which performs these steps automatically.

To respond to a discussion already in progress, add your comment below the last entry in the discussion. If you want to respond to a specific comment, you can place your response directly below it. When doing this, keep in mind the advice given below about indentation.

Indentation

Indentation is used to keep talk pages readable. Comments are indented to show whether they are replies to other comments, and if so, which ones.

Comments are indented using one or more initial colons (:). Each colon represents one level of indentation. You will see these colons in the wikitext when editing a talk page, but when viewing the page itself you will see the indents.

The first comment in a section will have no colons before it. When you reply to a statement, you should use one more colon than the number that appear in the statement you're replying to. For example, if you're replying to a statement that has 2 colons before it, your response should have 3 colons before it.

The following is an example of a talk page discussion using indentation. The text typed in the edit box is shown on the left, and the resulting display on the right.

FUser contribution pages are automatically generated pages that list the edits that a particular user has made on the GCcollab Wiki.

You can check your own contributions to refresh your memory about which pages you have worked on (and to easily access these again), and also to find out whether there have been any subsequent edits. This can be a useful quick alternative to accessing your watchlist, particularly if your watchlist contains a large number of pages. Other users' user contribution pages can also be accessed and are useful for seeing how other users have contributed.

To access your own user contributions page, click my contributions at the top of your page or type Special:MyContributions in the Search box.

To access the contributions of a registered user, go to the user page (User: xxxx) and click User contributions on the left-hand side of the screen (under What links here and Related changes).This works even if the user page has not been created yet (i.e. an edit box displays).

An example of a user contributions page:

1. The username of the contributor
2. A search form, allowing you to search by username, date, or >namespace(such as Template).
3. A list of edits, shown from newest to oldest. Each edit takes up one line which contains:
4. The time and date of the edit, displayed in your preferred format.
5. (hist) takes you to the page history, so you can see all edits made to that page. This can be useful if someone has updated a page you have worked on, and you want to see their changes.
6. (diff) takes you to a diff page showing the changes between that edit and the previous revision. The revision after the edit appears below the changes so you can see the result of the edit.
7. m indicates a minor edit; N indicates a new page.
8. The current name of the page that was edited.
9. The edit summary, a description written by the editor (or generated automatically, in certain cases). If a summary begins with an arrow link and grey text, the user has only edited the stated section of the page. The Wiki automatically adds this when you edit a section.
10. (current) signifies that the edit is the current revision. The page is as the user last saved it. This can be used to watch pages (if your last edit to the page does not display (top), the page has been changed).
11. If an editor has made more edits than will fit on one page, this line provides links to the most recent edits (latest), oldest edits (earliest) or the next or previous page of edits (newer n / older n).
12. The blue numbers list the number of edits displayed on a page: 20, 50, 100, 250 or 500. The number you select replaces n in the links to the previous or next pages e.g. (newer 100 / older 100). Views of up to 5000 edits per page are possible by modifying the URL.

The following information normally does not appear:

• Edits from a page that has been deleted afterwards (unless the page, including the revision concerned, has been restored). If the revision concerned has been restored but not the previous one, then the fact that the user has edited the page is preserved, including the time and the edit summary, and the resulting revision, but not the change.
• Uploading of a new image with the same name as one that already exists, thus replacing it
• Deletion or restoration (undeletion) of a page (if the user is an administrator).

The Related changes feature lists all recent changes in each page linked to from the current page, but not more than the number specified in the preferences. Its header is Related changes with sub header "(to pages linked from "xxx")".

This feature can be used to set up custom watchlist-like functionality. It behaves like a watchlist, which would contain every page to which the current page linked. However, Related Changes do not automatically include talk pages; for the talk pages to be automatically included, the page to which Related Changes is applied has to link to these pages.

        Note: The option Hide minor edits that can be set in the preferences applies to Related Changes.

Note that for links to redirects, only a change in the redirect is given, not a change in the target page. In this regard a direct link to the target page is superior.

The Related changes feature does not list changes in images, sound files or image description pages (regardless of which of the three linking methods (image, :image or media)) is used.

When applying the feature to a sub page, the automatic link to the parent page is ignored, i.e., changes in the parent page are not listed unless there is also an explicit link to it.F

There are three ways that you can search for user profiles:

Option 1

Most users have either Firstname.Lastname or Firstname.lastname (Note: This is case sensitive) as their username. Each user gets a user page by default. Typing “User: Firstname.Lastname” or “User: Firstname.lastname” in the search box will bring up the page of the user if their username follows this format. However, older users (pre-2011) did not have their user page auto-created so if you are searching for someone with an older account you may not be able to find them this way.

Option 2

If the user’s username does not follow the standard format, you may also find them by:

• Search the person’s name from the main search box in the upper right of the page.
• On the results screen, uncheck all boxes except User and List redirects and press the search button again.
• You should be able to find matching names where the user has a non-standard username.

Option 3

If neither of the above work you can also:

• Go to Special:ListUsers which lists all users to a maximum of 500 per page.
• Go to the range of the person you are looking for.
• Use the Find on this page feature in your browser (Ctrl-F) which will find the information you entered if it appears on that page.

Here is a description of each navigation link used in the side navigation:

Navigation

Help

Actions/Tools

PDF/Print

Page Information

Note: You can only add an image to a page after you have uploaded the image to the GCcollab Wiki.

Below is the code for placing an image (Monitors.jpg) uploaded to the Wiki on a page, and the result.

Alt Text

It is also recommended to add a caption to an image, using the pipe character. This alt text will appear when a user hovers their mouse over the image. This is an important feature for accessibility.

Thumbnails

You can also add the image to a page as a thumbnail (smaller version) by following the code below. "thumb" tells the Wiki the image is to be added as a thumbnail, and "100px" tells the Wiki to make it 100 pixels wide.

Aligning Images

To align an image to the left or centre, simply add "left" or "center"(note U.S. spelling) as shown in the codes below.

Image Gallery

The basic syntax for creating a gallery looks like this:

The File: line can be repeated for as many images as you have to display. To add a gallery to a new or existing wiki page:

• Copy the text above in the box
• Navigate to your new page
• Paste the scaffold to re-create this layout on your own page
• Copy and paste the File: line for each image you wish to add

Larger pictures are automatically scaled in size to match the Wiki standard dimensions of the gallery, and the number of images on each row of the gallery adjusts according to the dimensions of the display the gallery is being viewed on.

Sometimes an article becomes too large and complex to fit on a single page. If a page has a variety of content, creating subpages makes the page easier to navigate.

The best way to keep closely related articles together is to create additional subpages within the main article, just as you would create sub-folders in a project’s main folder on your computer.

Creating a subpage

1. Navigate to your main article.
2. Enter a slash and the new document title in your browser’s address box.
3. You will be redirected to a page that says no text exists in the page. Click the hyperlink edit this page. 
4. Create the subpage in the same way you create a new page.

Linking a subpage to a main page

When creating an internal link, you will need to edit the source code. To do this:

1. On the main page of the article click Edit source in the top bar.
2. Locate the place you’d like the link to appear.
3. Copy and paste this code with the details of your subpage: * [[name of your subpage]] (Note: Make sure the name you enter into the code exactly matches the name of the subpage. It is case sensitive).
4. Save the page as you normally would when editing.

If you accidentally create a subpage at the top level that should have been created under another article, you can easily move pages to their proper location.

To create a link to a media file other than an image (i.e. .PPT, .PDF, .DOC), use Media: instead of Image

1. Go to the wiki page that you want add a link to
2. Select the Edit tab at the top of the page
3. Place your cursor at the spot within the existing text where you would like to insert the link to your document
4. Copy and paste the following text:  [[Media:destination_file_name.xyz|Description of document you are linking to]]
5. Edit the text you have just pasted to reflect the actual "destination file name" and the "description of the document you are linking to". The latter will appear as hyperlinked text on the page once you save it.
6. To preview the page, click on the Show preview button at the bottom of the page.
7. If you are satisfied with your changes, click Save page.

Editing a file 

Files cannot be edited on the GCcollab Wiki. You will need to download the file in order to edit it, and then use a suitable software program to perform the modifications. Once the changes are completed, upload the file to the Wiki. You can use the same filename, which will overwrite the original file.

If other versions (especially a larger version of an image) of the same file exists, link to them.

Categorizing files

Files can be in the same category as other pages, but they are treated separately. On the category page files are not included in the count of articles and are displayed in a separate section. 

Files can be in the same category as other pages, but are treated separately: on the category page they are not included in the count of articles in the category, and they are displayed in a separate section with a thumbnail of their content.

See category page. 

You can categorize the file in the upload summary of the file. 

For categorizing a new file, the file page does not even have to be edited: the category tag can simply be put in the upload summary.

An edit summary is a brief explanation of an edit to a page. After you click Save page on the top left part of the page, a summary window will appear:

When you make an edit, major or minor, always put at least a single word description in the Summary text box. This allows others who have selected that page for their watchlist to know, at a glance, what has been changed.

Minor edits

If you are making minor changes such as spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearrangement of text, check the This is a minor edit box.

Marking a significant change as a minor edit is considered bad behaviour, and even more so if it involves the deletion of some text. If you have accidentally marked an edit as minor, a best practice is to edit the page again, mark it major (or, rather, ensure that the check-box for This is a minor edit is not checked), and, in the summary, state that the previous change was a major one.

Major edits

All editors are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that you can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly.

• Before engaging in a major edit, consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page.
• Additionally, making major changes on a subject outside of one's expertise area should also first be discussed.
• Once the edit has been completed, make sure you include a summary of the edit stating that you made a major change.

Interlanguage links are links from any page (most notably articles) in one language to one or more nearly equivalent or exactly equivalent pages in another language. They appear at one or two edges of the webpage (in Monobook on the left, in Classic at the top and bottom) after Languages, and show the names of languages for which a link is available.

The interlanguage links take the following form:

[[language code:Title]]

where the language code is the two-letter code as per ISO 639-1 (English is "en", French is "fr", etc.) and titleis the article's pagename in that particular language.

For example, in the English language article for the GCcollab Wiki Help, the interlanguage link looks like this:

[[fr:Aide:Pour commencer]]

In the French language article for the GCcollab Wiki Help, the interlanguage link looks like this:

[[en:Help:Getting Started]]

You should not include the link to the language in which you are writing.

Note: These links are treated specially, and don't show up in the body of the text, but in a special sidebar section "in other languages" listed by language name. Technically they can go anywhere in the article source; placement does not alter the visual appearance of the links on the rendered page except for the order. However, the convention is to put them at the bottom of the wikitext.

Alternate methods to display bilingual text

Display both official languages on the same page

The {{Two column fr-en}} template creates a simple two column layout for pages that are bilingual. As coded the English column is on the left and the French column is on the right. However, this can be changed by changing the order of the code if you prefer French on left and English on right.

How to: Follow the instructions on the {{Two column fr-en}} template page.

Display language of content dependent on the user's language preferences

The <multilang> tag is used for selective text display depending on user language settings. The language of the content is dependent on the user's language preferences. Small parts of texts like in templates (where you are forced to use exactly the same template name) can efficiently and easily be made multilingual using the <multilang> tag.

<multilang> 
@en| 
English Text Section 
@fr| 
French Text Section 
</multilang>

In the GCcollab Wiki context, the terms move and rename are synonymous. You can rename a page by moving it.

There are several reasons why you might wish to rename a page:

• the title has been misspelled.
• the title does not follow the GCcollab Wiki’s naming conventions
• the scope of the article has been reduced, extended or otherwise changed
• to establish a sub page hierarchy

Why should I move/rename a page, instead of creating a new one?

Instead of cutting and pasting the contents of the older article into a newly created article, using the move tab has the following advantages:

• The history and discussion pages are preserved with the move.
• All other pages that link to it will be automatically redirected to the newly named page.

How to move a page

1. Log in
2. Go to the page you want to move
3. Click the move tab at the top of the article
4. Type the new name for the page
5. Choose whether you also want to move the page's talk page.
6. Indicate why you are moving the page.
7. Click the move page button and the page will be renamed to the new title

Every editable page has an associated page history (sometimes called revision history or edit history), which is accessed by clicking View history at the top of the page. The page history contains a list of the page's previous revisions, including who made the changes and the nature of the edit or change. You can see who has developed the content for a particular page, or how it evolved.

Click on the History tab for a complete look at all the edits to a page. This feature means that nothing is ever lost! You can go back to any previous version just to take a look, or to revert the page back to that state.

With a little practice, you'll see how useful this function can be. Here are some tips:

• To view a specific version, click a date.
• To compare two specific versions, tick the left-column radio button of the older version and the right-column radio button of the newer version, and then click the "Compare selected versions" button.
• (cur) compares an old version with the current version
• (diff) compare a version with its predecessor
• (talk) provides a link to the user's talk page
• (contribs) shows all of the contributions made by that user
• m are minor changes

Diff: viewing the two versions of a page

The two versions are shown side-by-side, the old version is on the left. The diff shows differences per line.

Explanation of colours

Unchanged text is black on grey (only parts before and after changed text are shown). Paragraphs which have changed are highlighted in yellow on the old version side, and green on the new version side. Where whole paragraphs have been removed or inserted, the other side is blank (white). Removed text is shown in red on the old version. New text is shown in red on the new version.

The Watch function allows you to follow the development of a specific page. It is especially useful if you have created an article and would like to see if anyone is making any changes to the page, or you would like to be kept up to date on someone else’s page. Email notifications are sent to the email address registered to your GCcollab Wiki account.

To stop watching a page, simply click on the Unwatch tab. The Unwatch tab is located on the options bar of the page. 

Adding Articles to Your Watchlist

Access the articles that you would like to follow and click the watch tab at the top of the page. This adds that article to your watchlist. If you would like to remove an article from your watchlist, simply access that article and click the tab that says unwatch. 

Viewing Your Watchlist

There are two ways of viewing your "watchlist":

• Click the My Watchlist link at the very top of the page (you must be logged in to see this!)
• View the list of Special Pages by following the link in the left hand navigation tool box.

Your watchlist will list all the edits made to articles that you have chosen with the following details: the date, whether or not it was a minor edit, a link to the article, a link to a comparison of the current and previous version of the article, the name of the user who made the change, and a summary of the change.

Note: Following the Recent changes link on the left hand navigation bar will bring up a page that lists the changes that have been made to all wiki pages in chronological order and the articles on your Watchlist will be bold so you can easily pick them out.

Deleting pages is a function that is restricted to the GCcollab Wiki system operators. However, users can flag a page for deletion by adding special template code {{delete}} at the top of the page that notifies the system operator that the page should be deleted.

You can contact us at any time to ask to take a page or file down, as long as you provide a rationale.

Put the text 

{{Delete|reason=Your reason for requesting a page deletion.}} 

at the top of a page or category that you think should be deleted, and an administrator will process the request. Justification, see the common list of reasons below, is defined within the template with the code "reason=…", or on the talk page. i.e.:

{{Delete|reason=Page was for planning purposes only.}} 

gives:

Common Reasons for Deletion

• Author request
• Blanked by author
• Broken redirect
• Copyright violation
• Duplicate content
• Expired content
• Orphaned talk page
• Page was for planning purposes only
• Policy request
• Redundant
• Test page
• Unused category
• Unused redirect
• Vandalism

A redirect is a page created so that navigation to a given title takes the reader directly to a different page. They:

• Help users find related/relevant articles.
• Help to prevent other editors from wasting their time creating duplicative articles.
• Redirect people to an article when they search on a name variant. For example, if a user searches on "CIO", they will automatically be redirected to the Chief Information Officer article. Create redirects for alternate names of organizations and variants of foreign names.
• Are used to send GCcollab Wiki users to the officially titled page. For example, a page titled with an acronym can be redirected to a page with the title spelled out. This means users who search for the acronym and users who search for the full title will end up at exactly the same page.

It is also a good idea to check the What links here link (on the left menu of an article) for any article you are going to redirect. You might want to edit those articles to link to the correct article. Avoid using redirects to other redirects. Instead, make all redirects go to the correct article.

Redirects are automatic when a page is moved, thus preventing dead links. However, this is often the source of double redirects, so check the redirects when moving a page.

How to create a Redirect?

There are two ways to create a redirect:

• automatically, by moving or renaming a page
• manually, by inserting this code #redirect[[Page name]] at the top of a page before the text, where page name would be the name of the page to redirect to .e.g template:helpbox.

The Rich Editor (also known as a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor) is a familiar interface similar to most word-processing applications, where wikitext coding is invisible. It includes:

• Easy table creation
• Easy link creation, including automated search for internal articles
• Easy image insertion, including automated search for uploaded image files
• Can switch back to wikitext formatting by clicking on the Disable rich editor tab at the top of the edit window

To use the Rich Editor, click Edit on the page you wish to contribute to. You can switch back from the Rich Editor by clicking on Edit Source.

Sometimes particular topics generate a disproportionate amount of traffic on a talk page. It may be decided to remove discussion of those topics to a subpage of the talk page by doing the following:

• create a page titled "Talk:Xxx/Yyy", where "Talk:Xxx" is the name of the main talk page, and "Yyy" indicates the topic of the subpage.
• Leave a note at the top of the main talk page linking to any subpages.

On talk pages that generate significant amounts of discussion, old discussions are often archived to keep the size of the talk page at a manageable level.

An archive box with links to the discussion archives is normally placed at the top of the current talk page.

• {{Archive}}
• {{Archive banner}}
• {{Archived2}}

Reverting means undoing the effects of one or more edits, which normally results in the page being restored to a version that previously existed. Reverting may also refer to any action that in whole or in part reverses the actions of other editors.

(Note: Keep in mind that reverting actions of other editors is considered disruptive when done excessively. Revert only when necessary.)

Manual reverting

In some cases the easiest way to undo past edits is to edit the current page, deleting wrongly added text or restoring wrongly deleted text (this can be copied and pasted from a past version of the page). However it may be more convenient to restore a particular old version of the page from prior to the changes you wish to revert. To do this:

1. Click the history tab at the top of the page to display the page history.
2. Click the time and date of the earlier version to which you wish to revert. You will see a phrase similar to: "This is an old revision of this page, as edited by User.name (Talk) at 15:47, January 24, 2009. It may differ significantly from the current revision."
3. Click the Edit this page tab. (Above the edit box, you will see a warning similar to: "You are editing an old revision of this page. If you save it, any changes made since then will be removed.")
4. Complete the Edit summary field 
5. Click Save

Undo

The MediaWiki software sometimes enables editors to easily revert (or "undo") a single edit from the history of a page, without simultaneously undoing all constructive changes that have been made since.

1. View the page history or the diff for the edit.
2. Click on (undo) next to the edit in question. 
3. The software will attempt to create an edit page with a version of the article in which the undesirable edit has been removed, but all later edits are retained. 
4. There is a default edit summary, but this can be modified before saving.

It is also possible to undo several consecutive edits, even if they conflict among themselves: view the diff to be removed (by selecting the two extremal revisions in the history and clicking "compare selected revisions"), and click the "undo" link.

This feature removes the need to manually redo useful changes that were made after the edit which is being reverted. However, it will fail if undoing the edit would conflict with later edits. For example, if edit 1000 adds a paragraph and edit 1005 modifies that paragraph, it will be impossible to automatically undo edit 1000. In this case, you must determine how to resolve the problem manually.

Reverting images

Logged-in users can see a revert link for every version other than the current version. Clicking on a version's revert link makes that version the current version.

In order to revert an image to a previous uploaded version, go to the image page. The File history section of the image displays the full history of edits to the image along with a thumbnail of each version.

The GCcollab Wiki is a public-facing wiki hosted by the Government of Canada to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing with external partners.

The Wiki content is available publically however, users must have an account and be logged in if they wish to add or modify/edit content.

Wikis are designed to be collaborative. Pages do not have “owners”, instead they have creators and editors. Any member of the GCcollab Wiki can create and edit articles. The collaborative nature of wikis creates interactive content which is constantly evolving.

The Digital Collaboration Team within the Treasury Board Secretariat that manages GCcollab does not moderate individual pages.

The Wiki content is visible to the public.

The Wiki is open for contribution from students and academics from all Canadian universities and colleges as well as federal, provincial, territorial and municipal public servants when logged in to their account.

Registered members of GCcollab are also able to invite anyone else from around the world to join and collaborate in real-time on the Wiki.

Almost any type of activity that requires the sharing, use and collaborative development of information can be supported by the Wiki.

There are other areas of opportunity being demonstrated by wiki users every day. Users are encouraged to be bold and creative.

You are eligible for an account if you have are an academic, student from a Canadian university, college or CEGEP, or are a  federal, provincial, territorial or municipal public servant. Simply register using your professional email address.

Yes, you can browse the Wiki anonymously, but users are encouraged to contribute information.

Although you can browse the Wiki without having an account or needing to be logged in, we encourage users to register for an account so you can create, edit or share content with your colleagues or professional network.

When you are logged on, you can:

•Contribute new content, including your own user page.
•Edit pages.
•Rename pages.
•Upload images.
•Keep a watchlist to track changes on articles of interest.
•Easily review your own contributions.

The GCTools Team, which is responsible for the GCcollab Wiki, respects the Official Languages Act and is committed to providing all functionalities of the Tools in both official languages. When posting content, you should consider your role within your organization, your work responsibilities and your intended audience. The Team advises that official content and content intended for broad dissemination be provided in both official languages as a best practice.

Yes. Wikis are meant to be a collaboration tool where anyone can edit pages. All edits are attributable and linked to a user with a work email address, so it is unlikely that a user would edit a page unless they had a good reason to do so. 

Also, the GCcollab Wiki keeps a history of all edits made on a page. If you don’t like a change someone has made, it’s easy to revert to an earlier version.

Like all physical and virtual workspaces where individuals are invited to participate and make contributions, there is the risk that an individual could disrupt the creative process or vandalize the product itself. However, there are a number of mechanisms in place to mitigate this risk and incentives to dissuade inappropriate or destructive behavior within the GCcollab Wiki community. 

1. GCcollab Wiki users are required to use their real names and work email addresses when registering. Pseudonyms or 'handles' are not permitted
2. A feature of the MediaWiki software that forms the basis of the GCcollab Wiki is that it logs and tracks all changes to content on the site. In fact, each page has a 'history' tab that lists who changed a document and when. The software also enables version comparisons to highlight specific changes made over a period of time.
3. GCcollab Wiki is a business tool. It is unlikely that an individual will risk their professional reputation for the sake of mischief.
4. Given that everything that happens in the GCcollab Wiki is fully documented and tied back to a unique user account, it is easy to identify someone who vandalizes a page on GCcollab Wiki.

When using the GCcollab Wiki, public servants are expected to abide by the Value and Ethics Code for the Public Service.

Given that any registered user can edit any article, it is, of course, possible for biased, out-of-date, or incorrect information to be posted. However, because there are so many other people accessing the content and monitoring contributions using the recent changes page, incorrect information is usually corrected quickly. Thus, the overall accuracy of information on the GCcollab Wiki is improving all the time. You are encouraged to help by correcting information, validating content, and providing useful references.

It is the responsibility of each individual who creates a page to maintain its accuracy. There is no way of enforcing accuracy. Each individual must be trusted to be effective in sharing information. It should be noted however that any user can and should correct that which they know is wrong.

As a reader you need to use your judgment about the credibility, timeliness, reliability, and accuracy of what you read on the GCcollab Wiki. Looking at when the page was created (via the history tab), and examining how many people have edited the page will help you judge what you read. Individual users' edit histories can also be scrutinized to see the kind and quality of information they are providing to the GCcollab Wiki community.

As a GCcollab Wiki user, feel free to contribute to the accuracy of its content -- that's the beauty of collaboration via a wiki! 

Wikis tend to self-monitor, so inappropriate content is removed or corrected very quickly. TBS can delete inappropriate content within 24 hours.

All content is attributable as all entries are automatically date and time stamped with the contributors valid e-mail address. Inappropriate content can be removed very quickly. Wiki users who come across inappropriate content are encouraged to contact the GCTools help desk by submitting a ticket (please include the link to the page containing the inappropriate content and the details of the issue).

If necessary, the GCcollab Wiki administrators can remove the inappropriate content and suspend a user’s account.

The GCcollab Wiki uses MediaWiki software, the same software as Wikipedia, to facilitate collaborative editing and storage of page histories.

For more information on MediaWiki, see the MediaWiki web site.

The system only allows files smaller than 32MB to be uploaded. It is best to compress your file to 32MB then upload to the GCcollab Wiki.

The Wiki is a collaborative tool intended to facilitate the sharing of information between the academic and public sectors. Students, academics, public servants and members of other key communities can all take part in developing information resources accessible by all members.

The Wiki does not support private spaces, it is designed to be open and collaborative. All registered users are encouraged to share and update any information they believe others would benefit from receiving, or get feedback in return.