How to create a how to guide

How to guides are a great way to contribute to institutional memory at Columbia. Started in 2013 by the WikiCU team and the Communications Committees of CCSC and ESC, the guides are now open to the Columbia community. We're always looking for additional information, so we encourage you to create a guide of your own.

Steps

1. Request a WikiCU account.
   1. Click "Log in / Create account" in the top right corner or click here.
   2. Click the request account link or click here.
   3. Enter your personal information and submit. Requests usually take 1-2 days to process.
2. Log in to your account.
3. Check to see if your desired guide already exists by using the search box or by browsing the How to guides landing page.
4. If your guide does not yet exist, go to the Main page of wikicu.com.
5. Type the name of your desired guide into the search bar on the center of the page.
   1. Each guide should begin with "How to"
   2. Only proper nouns and "How" should be capitalized.
   3. Guide titles should not end with a period.
   4. Keep titles as brief as possible.
6. You will then be brought to a "Search results" page. Below a series of checkboxes, you will see bold text which says "Create the page "How to..." on this wiki!" Click on the name of your guide in red to create the page.
7. In the textbox, you can now begin crafting your guide.
   1. Provide a brief background on your topic. You can link to other pages or guides on WikiCU by putting the name of the page inside of double brackets (i.e. [[Page title here]]).
   2. Leave one line space after your background information and then type ==Steps==
   3. Then you can begin listing your steps in chronological order. To number your steps, use the pound key # at the start of each new line/step.
   4. To place additional steps under each major step, use two pound keys ## at the start of each new line/step.
   5. To link to outside pages in your steps, use this code: [URL Name of link that you want to appear]. For example, [http://www.columbia.edu Columbia homepage].
8. Oftentimes, it can be beneficial to provide additional resources and additional links at the bottom of the page.
   1. Insert an extra line space and then create a new section titled "External links" by using the code ==External Links==
   2. Use the same external link code as above and separate each link by a full line space.
9. Then save your page. You can go back and edit your guide by clicking "Edit" in the top right corner of the page.