Uploading Data

This page is a guide for uploading data of different types and formats into the wiki, as well as tips for formatting your data to make it appear as you want it on a wiki page.

Image Files

Most standard image types are supported by the wiki including jpg, png, gif, ps, pdf, tiff, bmp and more. If you are unsure if a file is supported, just try it and see what happens. If there is a particular format you use that will not work on the wiki and you are either unable to convert it or have too many files of that type, contact us and we can see if there is a package we can install to handle it. The basic formatting for each file type is the same.

To insert an image with no formatting whatsoever, edit the page you wish to upload to and type [[File:image_name.imagetype]] (for example [[File:image.png]]) and save the page.

There should now be a red link with the image name on the page. Click the link on the page and you will be taken to an image upload page where you can insert an image from your local machine or url, as well as enter a description of the image. After you select upload, you should be taken to a page with the image on it, at the bottom of this page there is a link taking you back to the page where you wanted to upload the file. Returning to the page you should see the file.

• Note, all images are saved to the wiki, and therefore once uploaded once can be linked to from multiple pages. Therefore giving your images unique names when you save them is a good idea.

You can also just go to the upload file link on the left hand sidebar beneath toolbox and upload your image. Once it is uploaded you can link to it from any page.

Formatting Images

The wiki editing section does automatically put images on a new line. Therefore, if you want to start your image on a new line, end the last line of text before the image with <br /> to insert a page break, and similarly put another in after your images.

There are a number of options for formatting images, including resizing, page alignment and borders. The general way to use these options is to alter your image link to be [[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]

For example, if I had an image file titled picture.png and wanted to upload it to be center aligned and resized to have a width of 100 pixels, the command would be [[File:picture.png|center|100px]].

A more thorough discussion of image formatting in wikis and explanation of the different options that be used with images is found here

Uploading Videos

The wiki does not support adding video files into it directly. If you have a video file you'd like to share you can either add a link to your own website, or upload it to our server via the Upload Video File link on the left of the page and include that link.

If you are unable to upload a specific type of data, or would like to add a section of your own to add a guide for a data format not covered on this page, please email Phillip Hess at phess4@gmu.edu