If this is your first time writing a Wiki-style article, don't worry. You'll find step-by-step instructions below.

If you're an old hand at writing Wiki articles, please give the below quick read-through, anyway. We've made a few slight changes you might want to familiarize yourself with.

You can read any article you want without logging in. But if you want to edit/create an article, you'll have to start with the first step below:

Logging in to Wiki.TakePart.com

In the 'Personal Tools' section of the wik's left-hand menu bar, click 'Log in / create account'

(The wiki has a separate login system from www.takepart.com, so even if you've already signed in to www.takepart.com, you will have to sign create a new account to access wiki.takepart.com)

Creating an Article

Before creating (incubating) an article:

Run a search of the site (located in the middle of the left-hand menu bar) to see if it already exists. To see if a similar article already exists, click 'Special Pages' (located in the 'Toolbar' menu), and then click 'All Pages.'

If the article you want to create -- or one like it -- doesn't already exist:

Enter your desired article title in the 'Search' bar

The system will display the line "The topic 'X' does not currently exist. To create it please follow the link: X."

Click on the link. You're now ready to create an article.

Categorizing your Article

Before you start writing the body of the article, you'll need to categorize it so other readers can quickly find it. Do this by pasting the following tags at the top of the article.

[[Category:X]]
[[Category:Y]]

Category X is the main category. Category Y is the sub-category.

(Don't worry: anything you write inside of "[ ]" tags are formatting instructions that won't display as article text.)

For the first category (X), choose between one of the following seven categories:

Health
Responsibility
Education
Environment
Human Rights
Fairness
Peace

Those categories encompass the following sub-categories:

Health
Physical Health
Spiritual Health
Mental Health
World Health

Responsibility
Corporate Responsibility
Political Leadership
Ethics In Entertainment

Education
Alternative Teaching
Cultural Development
Educational Growth

Environment
Alternative Energies
Climate Crisis
Food and Water
Green Business

Rights
Future Rights
Human Rights
Tolerance

Fairness
Debt Relief
Microfinance
Social Entrepreneurship
Social Inequality

Peace
Peace
Security

So, for example, if you wanted to create an article about a threat to marinelife in Alaska, you'd start the article like this:

[[Category:Environment]]
[[Category:Climate Crisis]]

If you're writing about a person working to free the world of landmines, you'd start the article with:

[[Category:Peace]]
[[Category:Security]]

IMPORTANT: Make sure to spell the categories and sub-categories exactly as they are displayed above (i.e. case sensitive and retaining the word spacing). Also, don't put any extra spaces between the word "Category" and the chosen category.

Writing the Body Text

Many of the editing buttons will look familiar to users of Wikipedia or Microsoft Word. Hover your mouse over a button to learn its use.

In writing the body of the article, please check out existing articles and follow their formats (i.e. use bold text for section headings; use a horizontal line at the end of a section.)

As a precaution against losing your work, click 'Save' at the bottom of the article window frequently to save your progress. You can also click "Preview" to get a preview of how your recent changes will look once saved.

Adding Photos

If you already know how to upload photos, here's the format:

[[Image:X.jpg|right|frame|Xcaption]]

If you need instructions, please read below:

Before adding a photo, make sure to save the article you're working on.

Once you've saved, make sure you've got the picture on your hard drive.

Please only use photos that adhere to Wikipedia.org's policy on images (found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Upload)

On the very bottom of the left-hand nav bar of the WikIncubate screen, click "Upload file." (Loading this page in a separate frame makes this process easier.)

Click "browse" and select the desired image. Before clicking "save," please enter a description of the image in the "File Description" box.

Click "Save."

The next screen will display the image underneath a line of text that reads "Image:X.jpg"

Copy the entire line of text, (i.e. Image:X.jpg)

Return to your article by searching for it or selecting it from the list of "All pages" -- both of which you do from the left-hand nav bar.

Click "edit" to edit the article.

At the top of the article, directly underneath the category tags, paste the following line of code:

[[Image:X.jpg|right|frame|caption]]

Replace "ImageX.jpg with the line of text you just copied.

Replace Xcaption with a caption for the photo.

So, for example, if you uploaded a file named "Bono_at_LiveEarth.jpg" -- you would enter the following:

[[Image:Bono_at_LiveEarth.jpg|right|frame|Bons sings at the Live Earth concert, July 7, 2007]]

Click "Save" or "Preview" to save or preview your work.

That's it! Have fun WikIncubating!