Hello all,

Jim Sanford asked me to send a quick informational note on how to post to EaglePedia. EaglePedia is fairly easy to handle, and hopefully this brief introduction will help you get started. There is plenty of online help for the WikiMedia software, which Emily N1DID uses as the backbone of EaglePedia. The Wiki Help is available on the top of most pages or on the left side-bar. And you can always email me if you have questions, or need help...

EaglePedia is available from the AMSAT homepage, or via this link:

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Main_Page

NOTE: I use multiple browser tabs while editing, so I can flip back-and-forth to see my EaglePedia editing work and other web pages. I suggest you use Firefox's multiple tabs (shameless anti-Microsoft plug). This way you can pull up an EaglePedia Help page or Index page...

A) Creating a NEW page

Creating an EaglePedia page is straightforward. Simply use the "Create New Page" box at the top of the main EaglePedia page (see above link).

1. After enter the TITLE of your page in the dialog box, press create. Note that this actually creates an article, similar to an encyclopedia article. SPACES are allowed in page/title/article names and will be later referenced with the underscore (_) character in URLs.

2. Next you should see a large web-form. Type in this box! Put your info here. Note that this box accepts standard ASCII text, and also supports WikiMedia tags, for text formatting, linking, and tagging (e.g. classifying an article into a category, or marking it "Eagle Team Only"). You don't have to use fancy formatting, but bold, italics, etc., tables, and file links are possible. You can use the icon bar in the edit-box to implement fancy typesettings. For those of you using Word, a macro by Emily exists that will convert your word document to WikiMedia format, preserving the formatting. You can then simply copy and paste your text into the EaglePedia form. The macro is available here:

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Document_Converter...

3. Categorize your page. At the bottom of your text, create a category tag, using one of the pre-existing categories or sub-categories as listed on the main EaglePedia page (see link above). The syntax for creating a tag is as follows: [[Category:xxxxxxx]] where xxxxxx is the name of the category or sub-category. Be sure to double-bracket and accurately enter the name of the category as it exists on the main EaglePedia page, or the index page (see left side-bar). See the bottom of the "Eagle Project Index" for more information on creating categories and/or sub-categories (left side-bar). Please attempt to use existing categories first!

4. After entering your text, input a "Summary" statement regarding something like "created new page". ALWAYS CLICK PREVIEW PAGE and this will show you what others will see, and provide you with an edit box at the bottom for revision(s).

5. If you like what you see in the Preview, click save and you're done! Make sure you categorize correctly.

Thats pretty much all there is to creating a new page.

Often, we want to upload a file for others to access. This is easily done by embedding a Media tag into a page (see above if you don't have an article yet for your file). Simply uploading a file won't do, especially if you want others to see and access the file easily. EaglePedia doesn't use a file hierarchy, such as folders. EaglePedia (and WikiMedia) use a flat file format, and rely on the uploader to link the file to an article. It is also important to categorize your file.

Here is a quick intro on EaglePedia that you should read.

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/Help:Uploading_and...

Below is a step-by-step process for uploading and linking to a file:

B) Using Media Link tags.

1. Upload your file, by clicking on the "Upload New File" link on the left sidebar. Please fill out all the relevant information. Enter a category tag (or two) in the summary field: [[Category:Mechanical]] [[Category:Nutation Dampeners]]

2. Create a new page, or edit an existing one.

3. In the edit box, create a link to the newly uploaded file in the article where appropriate, like this:

[[ Media:My_File.zip|Visible name as I want it to appear]]

This link can appear by itself on a newline or in a paragraph of text.

See the "Help Uploading and Linking Files" link above for information on uploading and displaying images in articles, and for a picture of Jim Sanford. ;-)

Let me know if you have any questions, or find a bug in the above processes.

73, Dave NøTGD