› wiki2xhtml, Quick start Guide

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What does it really require to create a web page with wiki2xhtml? Here a short overview and an introduction which is to show the potentials of wiki2xhtml.


Create xhtml-Files

You may wonder: “Why not html?”. xhtml[1] is in principle the same as html with the difference that the code has to be cleaner. Thus you can be a little more sure that the browser which reads the file also shows what you want.

wiki2xhtml reads text from arbitrary text files[2]. Binary files[3] (like images) which don't contain text are not accepted. To edit and write text files, I recommend Windows users to use an editor like Notepad++, PSPad or Notepad2 (please do not use the provided Editor from Microsoft, you cannot work with it). Good platform-independent editors are e.g. jEdit (Java) and Vim (for keyboard freaks).

The text file's extension is irrelevant, but “.txt” is recommended, so you immediately see that it is a text file. If you just don't have a text at hand you want to create an xhtml file from, you may for instance use a Filter Text[4] Now store the text into a file (maybe index.txt which will be index.html after converting; this file is automatically shown if you visit a page) in a separate directory. In this directory (e.g. “page” in the program directory) you should keep all your data so you won't have to look for it a long time.

The program is started in the following way:

In the now appearing dialogue field you can add your file (index.txt) by clicking the button “Select/Add files”. Click “Next” and “Go!”. The file index.html will be created in the directory “html”.

If that is enough for you, you now can terminate the program by clicking “Exit”. If not, you can go back to the previous tab[6] and change the settings (and go on with the quick start guide). Top

Add a menu

As soon as your web page is made up of more than one page─what usually is the circumstance─you will need a menu to navigate. In order that it does not have to be entered on every page again and, if you have to change something, you do not have to change it on every page, it is stored in a separate file which is built-on according to the pattern “* Title 1, Filename 1 ↵ * Title 2, Filename 2 ↵ …» (↵ betokens a return). Create a second text file (blindtext.txt) with any content (and at will another one). You have to consider that the file extension is .html after converting the .txt file! So index.txt becomes index.html, blindtext.txt becomes blindtext.html. The new files now are to have the name “Home” and “Blindtext” in the menu. Create a new text file for the navigation menu (navigation.txt) and insert the menu: * Home, index.html * Blindtext, blindtext.html Now (in wiki2xhtml) choose the file navigation.txt under “Settings › Set the index file” and click again on “Go!”. And the page possesses a menu. Top

Formatting

There are still a few commands you ought to know. You can find an overview over all possible commands in the Documentation.

Headings have to stand on a separate line. For a second level heading you have to insert two equal signs at the beginning and at the end of the line (for a third level you have to set three equal signs etc., upto 6): == Seasons ==

The second level heading, thus the page headline, can be set anywhere in the text with the following command: {{H1:Spring}}

Links are recognized automatically, if they start with http://, www, or ftp://. If you want to set a name for the link, it can be labelled as follows: [http://freepdfxp.de/fpxp.htm Create PDF Files]

Is the target lying on the same domain (for example wiki2xhtml.sourceforge.net/doc.html is being linked with wiki2xhtml.sourceforge.net/doc-de.html), you can instead set an internal link (here in doc.html): [[doc-de.html German]]

That brings you the following link: German. If you encounter problems with links, take a look at the Documentation. If it does not help, you may read the FAQ in the documentation or ask in the mailing-list.

Bold/Italic: For this mark-up you use the apostrophe. If you enclose text with two apostrophes, it is set cursive, with three apostrophes it is set in bold type. '''Bold''' and ''italic'' together is '''''terrible!''''' Top

Footnotes

  1. [↑] Wikipedia: XHTML
  2. [↑] Text Files: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_file
  3. [↑] Binary Files: See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_file
  4. [↑] A Filter Text is used to fill in text to look how something looks like, see also Blindtext (de).
  5. [↑] Command line in Windows: cmd.exe
  6. [↑] Wikipedia: Tab.