Creating, formatting and editing articles

This article shows features available for formatting articles, inserting images, links, tables, and page breaks. Directly following the example of each feature is the code needed to use it when editing an article. There is a separate article for inserting maps in articles

This is about the publicly viewable Articles section.

There is a template for creating an article about a place as a quick way to start.

Creating and editing articles

Click "Submit a new Article" on Articles list. This gives a form with boxes:

• Title
• Licence - pre-filled with "(Temporarily) Not Published)" - followed by contributor name
• Publish date -automatically filled, can be amended later
• Category
• Relevant Grid Square
• Short Description
• Content (big box for main text, images and maps)
• Save Changes

The title is used to generate the web address of the article, e.g. "Glasgow Parks" gets an URL of www. geograph.org.uk/article/Glasgow-Parks. The contributor can change the title later, but should not change the URL once the article is published.

"Licence" has four options:

• (Temporarily) Not Published
• Public Domain
• Creative Commons BY-SA/2.0
• Copyright

Clicking "Save changes" does not automatically change the licence, it can be left on "(Temporarily) Not Published" while the article is developed. The article can then be seen by the author and by moderators, but not by other contributors or the public. When changed to one of the other licences, the article is brought to the attention of moderators. A moderator can approve, or send an email to the author suggesting changes, or can make edits which would usually be to correct obvious typos.

When you want the article to be seen publicly, choose one of the other options. For almost all Geograph articles this is Creative Commons Share-alike licence. This is the same licence which applies to photographs and their description on Geograph, allowing others to copy, distribute, and transmit part or all of the work, also to adapt it, so long as the author is acknowledged.

The heading of the article will then include a statement like:
Text © Copyright June 2010, David Hawgood; licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence.
Images also under a similar Creative Commons Licence.
The foot of the article will have a statement like:
Images used on this page, © Copyright ; licensed for re-use under a Creative Commons Licence. Link


If Public Domain is chosen anyone can use the text of the article in any way, without acknowledgment.

If Copyright is chosen others cannot copy or republish in original or amended form without the author's permission. This would normally only be chosen if you have permission to copy material and publish it in an article, but do not have permission to publish it under Creative Commons licence.

These settings are about the legal status of the text of the article, not about whether other contributors can change the text of the article in Geograph.



Publish Date is initially set to the date of first creation, if the article remains unpublished for some time the author can amend it to the date when the article is first made available to the public, but it should not be changed if the article is edited later.

The category box has a pull-down list of about thirty categories plus provision to ask for a new one. For example category "Exploring the Community" is used for articles about a particular place or route or river, etc.

"Relevant grid square" is used to:

1. show a link at the bottom of the article to the 'Location' grid square page. and
2. Plot the location in the RSS feed (for anyone with a compatible RSS reader).

"Short Description" is added to the "Meta" lines in the head section of the web page. It is shown when the mouse is moved over the name in a list of articles, and is used by search engines, but is not visible on the displayed page of the article.

"Content" is for the text of the article with links to images, maps, etc.

After clicking "Save changes" the article appears as it will be displayed to the public - with the addition of links at the top of the article, visible to author and moderators, for "Edit this article" "Article History" and "Article Listing". There is also now a box for the URL generated from the initial title - the URL should not be changed even if the title is changed.

Collaborative editing

An article can be set so that it can be edited by any registered user of Geograph. For an example see Canals article. Add an 'Edit prompt' in the box so marked just above the article, before you select a licence. If you want to open for collaborative editing later, after initial publishing, send an email to a moderator to request it.

Formatting

Headings

[h2]Headings[/h2]

Sub heading

[h3]Sub heading[/h3]

Sub sub heading

[h4]Sub sub heading[/h4]


Note that h2, h3 and h4 headings are put into a contents list, top right of the article and of each page.
For the contents list to show only headings on the current page, include the following (which like other tags starts with a lower case "s") anywhere in the page:
[singlePageContents]
For example of suppression of heading list, Go to page 3
Note also that [h1] and [h5] are not actioned as headings, and that h2 h3 h4 have to be lower case h to be actioned.

Text formatting

Appearance of text

Text and bold text and italics and big text and small text
Text and [b]bold text[/b] and [i]italics[/i] and [big]big text[/big] and [small]small text[/small]

Monospaced text

iiiii
MMMMM
12345

[tt]iiiii
MMMMM
12345[/tt]

Bullets

• Item one
• Item two
• Item three and if you keep on adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text this is how it looks.

Start each bullet line with an asterisk -
* Item one
* Item two
* Item three and if you keep on adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text this is how it looks.
Please note that due to a peculiarity if you want a blank line before a bullet line you must put a space in the blank line.

Numbered list

Start each line with a hash (#) - must have a space after it -

1. Item one
2. Item two
3. Item three and if you keep on adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text this is how it looks.

# Item one
# Item two
# Item three and if you keep on adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text and adding text this is how it looks.


To put an asterisk or hash at the beginning of a line without making it a bullet, put a space before the asterisk or hash symbol. Or for a hash, make sure there is no space immediately after it.

Horizontal rule

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[hr/]

Images

Limit on images or maps per page

The recommended limits on numbers of images and maps apply per page, not per article, so page breaks can be used to allow large numbers of them. There can be tens of pages within an article.
Aim for no more than 100 (small) thumbnails per page, absolute maximum 200. Aim for at most 50 of the big thumbnails, 75 absolute maximum per page. For maps the maximum should be 10 (or maybe 15) large maps, 50 small maps. For text links to titles of photos, 200 before warning is issued. You can use an appropriate mixture, e.g 5 large maps and 25 small thumbnails.

Statistics within article

There is a basic statistics page which shows page counts of items including pages, characters, lines, words (approximate), various sizes of images and maps.
There are warnings if the numbers on a page seem too high (eg over 100 thumbnails).
It also uses a 'combined' calculation, if it thinks the combination is too much. eg 80 thumbnails, + 30 maps. (even if each on own would be ok)

There are 'pink' soft notices (which can be ignored but please do consider doing something about them), and red 'hard' warnings - which shouldn't be ignored, probably mean that the content is being cutoff already.

To do it, stats.php?page= is inserted before the last part of the URL.
Example for this article:
https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles
https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/stats.php?page=Help_on_formatting_of_articles

Example for article with maps:
https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/stats.php?page=Maps-in-articles

Geograph photographs and their titles

TQ1876 : Kew Gardens Temperate House from the Pagoda

[[[227173]]]
[[227173]]

You can display an image with the description supplied by the contributor:


[image id=1562709 text={description}]

You can also display an image in a box with text you have written for the article:

[image id=227173 text=View of the Temperate House at Kew Gardens from the top of the pagoda. The public cannot normally climb the pagoda, but it was opened for a few months in summer 2006]

You can insert into text a list of contributors of photographs used in the article.

Photos in this article are by David Hawgood, Jonathan Hutchins, Andrew Curtis, Pat TheMiller Gough, John Fielding, Michael Westley, Robin Stott, Pauline E, E Gammie, David Dixon, Mr Ignavy, David Medcalf, Trevor Littlewood, Barry Hunter and Keith Evans.
Photos in this article are by [imageCredits].

Note that there is a list of photographers generated automatically at the bottom of the article with a copyright notice and reference to the Creative Commons Licence.

Multiple images from lists and searches

mooflow - a way to display a set of thumbnails
[mooflow=3888400]
[mooflow=3888400]

External images

From August 2017 external images in articles are held within Geograph Media.

New image

It is recommended to upload the image direct to the 'Geograph Media' server. This avoids the issue of third-party sites not liking hotlinking, or that web pages can disappear. As long as the Geograph website is available the media server should be too.

If including an external image to display in an article you should make sure you have permission from the owner of the site referenced.

To add an image:
Go to Geograph Media
Click "Upload a file"
Go through a login sequence - confirmation is needed even if already logged in to Geograph.
From Browse box, either go to an image file on your computer, or enter a web link to an image file.
Click "Send"
Enter a title. This will be the tool tip for the image, displayed when browsing across image.
For an image to be displayed in an article, check the long term storage box. For an image to be displayed temporarily, e.g. in a forum post, leave it unchecked.
If from an external website, put in the website address.
Put in the name of the organisation or person originating the image, if it is not your own.
Choose licence conditions if needed.
Save changes.

Details of the saved image are shown, with links including thumbnail.
One box contains "Code for article". An example is:
[img=https://media.geograph.org.uk/files/1ff1de774005f8da13f42943881c655f/TOUR_Toilets.jpg OS25K symbol - Tourist - Public Toilets] which displays


If you link to an image on a third-party website, Geograph will attempt to automatically put a copy on its media server.

Old image

Before August 2017 an external image could be displayed linked from an external website. Such images have been uploaded automatically to Geograph Media. The image used as an example here was on the article author's website hawgood.co.uk .The code for it is now:
[img=https://media.geograph.org.uk/files/1ff1de774005f8da13f42943881c655f/wild123t-original.jpg Peacock in Sri Lanka, copyright David Hawgood]
displaying as


Such images appear in the list of "Your uploads" on Geograph Media, and the title, licence, etc can be edited, and the long term storage box can be checked.

Note that clicking the image does not link to the image on its external site. See next section for linking to the external site, either to the image or web page.

Fading one image into another

A geograph image can be displayed with a slider which fades it into another geograph image, or an external image. This facility can be used for historical or seasonal comparison where there are several photos of the same scene.
For method and examples see Fade Demo Article.
For more than two images, use slide show mode, also shown in that article.
Note that there is permission to use and recreate Francis Frith images, as shown in the demo article.

Links

Link external to Geograph

Peacock in Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka
[url=http://www.hawgood.co.uk/photo/SriLanka/peacock.htm]Peacock in Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka[/url]

Peacock in Sri Lanka, see photo Link
Peacock in Sri Lanka, see photo http://www.hawgood.co.uk/photo/SriLanka/peacock.htm

The link can be to an image:
link to external image of peacock
[url=http://www.hawgood.co.uk/photo/SriLanka/wild123t.jpg]link to external image of peacock[/url]

An internet link, starting http:// or www, appears with the word "Link"

Grid reference links within geograph

SD2605 Formby Point SD2605

Letters and numbers which can be a grid reference are interpreted as such, and are made into a link to the Geograph information for the relevant grid square.

Watch out for this if you happen to want to refer to an A or B road which has a 4 digit number, or a motorway with a 2-digit number.
B9212 Lough Barra B9212
A4000 (all at sea) A4000
To stop it happening put an exclamation mark before the grid reference:
!SD2605 !B9212 !A4000
The letters must be upper case to be treated as grid references - sd2605 b9212 a4000 are not treated as grid references.

Links within articles

The table of contents at the top right of an article uses internal links, using heading texts (lower case) as links.
Go to section with heading Table
[url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles#table]Go to section with heading Table[/url]
Note that some other changes are made in converting heading text to a link, so it is best to use the link from the list top right of the article.
Note also that in multi-page articles the page number is included in the link.
page break example
[url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles/2#page-break-example]page break example[/url]

You can also link to a heading by using its number in sequence from zero, but be aware that if a heading is inserted, the numbers of all headings further down the article are changed.
Return to first heading
[url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles#p0]Return to first heading[/url]

Single page article

Go to top of page
[url=#top]Go to top of page[/url]

link to {heading text} (for example, link is to heading Table)
[url=#table]link to heading Table[/url]

Multi-page article

One way to return to top of current article is to put in the full external link to the article:
Return to top of article
[url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles]Return to top of article[/url]

Link to top of this page
[url=#top]Link to top of this page[/url]

Go to top of page 2 (2 is used for example, use other numbers as appropriate)
[url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles/2#top]Go to top of page 2[/url]

link to heading on this page
[url=#table]link to heading on this page[/url]

Link to heading on page 2 (example links to heading "Page break example" on page 2)
[url=https://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Help_on_formatting_of_articles/2#page-break-example]Link to heading on page 2[/url]

Position of text after image - float

Without float codes, text starts after bottom right of image, and if there is enough text it continues below the image after reaching the right margin.
[[[227173]]] Without float codes, text starts after bottom right of image, and if there is enough text it continues below the image after reaching the right margin.

With float codes, text starts after top right of image, for several lines if there is enough text to fill up the text beyond one line,

a break code makes it continue below the image.
[float][[[227173]]][/float] With float codes, text starts after top right of image, for several lines if there is enough text to fill up the text beyond one line, [br/] a break code makes it continue below the image.

The [float] [/float] pair are around the code which calls the image. The [br/] is only needed to make the text continue below the image.

Hiding and revealing text

This is used for quiz answers and hints.
To see answer, click RevealHide click again to hide
Answer:RevealHide Hidden text
Answer:[reveal]Hidden text[/reveal]

Table

heading 1	heading 2	heading 3
cell 1	cell 2	cell 3
cell 4	cell 5	cell 6

--------------------------------
*| heading 1 | heading 2 | heading 3 |
| cell 1 | cell 2 | cell 3 |
| cell 4 | cell 5 | cell 6 |
--------------------------------


The number of dashes starting/ending the table is not critical, but needs at least 7.
The spaces either side of the middle | are required.
Note that clicking on a heading sorts on that column - and clicking again reverses the order.
The number of columns and rows is effectively unlimited, but each row needs the same number of columns.
The * on the first row makes it a heading.
An empty cell should contain at least two spaces.

Leave out * before first line to stop it being a heading, this also removes lines. This can be convenient for layout.

	column 2	column 3
	cell 2	cell 3

--------------------------------
| [[[227173]]] | column 2 | column 3 |
| [[[1562709]]] | cell 2 | cell 3 |

--------------------------------

For example of use see Local OS 25K map symbols

Maps (links to "Maps in articles")

Sections of 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey maps can be displayed within an article, sections of current OS maps at smaller or larger scales can be displayed in a separate window. The way of doing this is in the article Maps in articles

YouTube video

You can embed a (public) YouTube video. Example, article video of Geograph coverage buildup
With: [youtube=1md0iiu8Dlk]

Other examples, see Articles with YouTube video links.

Tags

You can display a sample of thumbnails of Geograph images with a particular tag, limiting the display by maximum number. The default is a sample of four. You can also select those within a myriad (100x100 km), hectad (10x10 km) or grid square.

The general syntax is [tag=....] where can pick any tag - with spaces and/or a prefix of course.
[tag=canals] - displays the default sample of four

To see more of them, click the name of the tag.

Can also [tag=.... images=5] to choose a maximum number of images to show (upto 40) - or even suppress images altogether.
[tag=canals images=12] (choose how many images - at most - may still be less)


And [tag=.... gr=SH64 images=5] to show images in that location. Works with myriad (e.g. SH), hectad (e.g. SH61) and grid-square references (e.g. SH6154). (note the count is still national, even if the thumbnails are local)
[tag=top:Uplands gr=SH images=6]

Page breaks

Before proceeding to the explanation on the next page, note the link below and to the right "Next page: multi-page articles"

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