Editing a page using the visual editor
An edit can contribute whole new paragraphs, screenshots or illustrations, or pages of information, or it can be as simple as fixing a typo or a spelling mistake. In general, try to add or edit text so that it is clear and concise. Most importantly, make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the contents of the SDSU Data Glossary so users campus-wide can better understand our institutional data.
Editing a page using the Edit tab (Visual editor)[edit | edit source]
To begin editing a page, you need to be logged in with your Data Custodian account.
When logged in, you will find the Edit tab in the upper right header navigation on the page you wish to edit.
There is also an Edit source tab, but we recommend using the Edit tab as it provides a visual editor, which means you don't need to know Wikitext syntax to format the page.
When you need to use some type of formatting, such as for new headings or bolding of text, you do this using the buttons in the edit toolbar that appears in the upper left header above the editing zone on the edit tab of the page.
See MediaWiki's Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.
When you are done making edits to a page, you can click the Save changes... button in the upper right of the edit header navigation.
Edit summary[edit | edit source]
Before you save a change, you are asked to enter a short note (must be shorter than 500 characters) in the "Summary:" box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it: just put in a short description of what you just changed. For example, you might say "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".
This summary gets stored alongside your edit, and helps to track changes in the CSUMB Data Glossary more effectively.
If you are making a small change such as a correcting a typo, click the checkbox for This is a minor edit.
If you want to add the page to your Watchlist so that you can see any future changes made to this page, you can select the Watch this page checkbox. This checkbox is selected by default. You can view pages in your Watchlist using the link located in the header navigation at the top right of the page between the Preferences link and the Contributions link.
Once you have entered a simple summary and made any other selections on this page you would like, you click the Save changes button in the upper right of the box and your changes to the page will be saved.
You can then view the page to ensure your changes have been successfully applied to the page.