Contributing to wikis

Last updated 26 February 2013

Some screen shots in this guide are from another TeachingEnglish online course. The steps are
the same, even where content/titles may differ.

Wikis are usually used on TeachingEnglish courses to gather information contributed by many course
participants in one place. All course participants can usually contribute to the wiki unless it has been
created especially for groups or individuals. Sometimes wikis will be created using tables and sometimes
using section headings.
Adding your ideas to a wiki is similar for both table or section header formats, but what the wiki looks like
might change how you write your ideas.

A wiki will appear on a course page with an icon of a

webpage and a pencil and the wiki title will appear next
to it as blue text. This text is a link that you should click
to enter the wiki.

Figure 1 - Wiki icon and title

When you click on the title of a wiki you will go to the first
page.
The first page tells you what your task is. To write your
ideas in the wiki you click on the Edit tab.

Figure 2 - First page of a wiki showing title and Edit tab

Wiki laid out using tables

In many TeachingEnglish courses, information is

organised in wikis using a table.

Opposite is an example of a wiki using a table.

The table will usually have some text as an example of

what the task requires.

Figure 3 - A wiki laid out using a table

© The British Council, 2013

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

Page 1 of 3
When you click on the Edit tab the text editor
will open and the table can be seen as dotted lines and
there is no background colour.

Click on the Toggle fullscreen mode icon in the

top right hand corner of the toolbar.

You will be able to see a lot more of the page you want
to write on and it is easier to do your work.

Figure 4 - Table in Edit view. Columns and rows as dotted

lines. No background

Click into an empty row of the table (or a row that has
the words "Edit this text" or something similar) and type
your ideas.

You can use the toolbar to help you format the text e.g.
make your words bold or underline them.

Figure 5 - Click into a table row and type. Use the

formatting toolbar to format text

Sometimes other people will have edited before you

and there are no more table rows available.

To add an extra row, right click into the bottom row and
select Row from the drop down menu.

Then click Insert row after. When you have your

new row, click into it and type.

Figure 6 - Right click in table to access the Edit table menu

Click on the Toggle fullscreen mode icon (see

Figure 4) so that you return to the normal editor. Scroll
to the bottom of the page and click on Save.

Figure 7 - Save button below the text editor

© The British Council, 2013

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

Page 2 of 3
Wiki laid out using section headings
In some wikis when you go to the first page you will see
a Table of contents. Each title in the Table of
contents is the name of a section on the wiki page.

You can click on a title in the Table of contents

and jump to that section or you can scroll down the
page until you reach the section that you want.

Figure 8 - Wiki table of contents

You can edit a section without opening the editor for the
full wiki page. Click on [edit] in the Table of
contents or next to the section heading on the wiki
page. This opens the wiki editor. This is the same as the
editor you see when you click on the Edit tab but with
Figure 9 - Edit button in TOC or next to section heading
less content to scroll down.

You usually need more space to write in a wiki.

To get more space click on the Toggle fullscreen

mode icon on the top row of the toolbar.

Figure 10 - Toggle fullscreen mode icon

Click into the section and type.

You can use the toolbar to help you format the text e.g.
make your words bold or underline them.

Figure 11 - Click and type in the section

You might need to start a new section for your idea. To

do this, type the word or words you want to appear in
the Table of contents.

Select the text and then format it as Heading 1 from

the dropdown menu on the formatting toolbar. Format
all other text Paragraph.

Click on the Toggle fullscreen mode icon (see

Figure 10) so that you return to the normal editor. Scroll
Figure 12 - Format text as Heading 1 to create a section
to the bottom of the page and click on Save (see Figure
7)

© The British Council, 2013

The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.

Page 3 of 3