Guidelines

Welcome!

You found your way to the Repair Wiki! A wiki where we collect everyone's findings on repairing electronic devices, so it's all in one place.

Page Structure

Pages are generally structured by section headers, and a table of contents that lets the user quickly find the section they're looking for. When you create new pages or edit existing ones, try keeping the general layout the same, namely:

• Product / Guide Introduction
• Main Problem Table for the product
  • example format:

Problem	Solution
Problem1	Solution1
Problem2	Solution2

• Links to references / other guides on the wiki.

New Page

Thanks for growing Repair Wiki!
Write as much or as little as you want, as it's stress free: if you don't finish, insert {{Stub}} at the top of the page.
Once you are finished, underline every single link you clicked through on each page to let people know where it's located and that it has information on it - the underline separates that page out from the rest to find easily.

Format

The title includes all the device information from just the title alone. This not only prevents title duplication, but also lets readers know what it is and where it's located at.

Steps:
1) write in all the link titles that came before it in order of the navigation.
2) Be sure to label the link after writing it.
Example: "Lenovo" should have "Laptops" after it, so it's known it's a laptop, not another device. "ThinkPad" would have "Series" after it, so we understand that too.
3) add model number last
Example: the T series has T410, so the T in the 410 stays, even though it's labeled T series before it, as that's the model number.

Overall the examples put together look like this: Lenovo Laptops ThinkPad Series T Series T410

Create:

• enter the article title in the box (or on the homepage) to create a page with a preselected boilerplate.
  
• type https://repair.wiki/w/ as a url in the url box of your web browser. Enter the name of your page after the w/. If there're multiple words, separate them with an underscore (i.e. _). Be use to use the appropriate case (i.e. upper and lower case), as it's case-sensitive.

Move

If a page has an incorrect title, you can move it:

1. Mouseover the More tab in the top right and click Move.
2. Give the page a New title and click Move page.
3. For normal pages, don't change the default namespace (Main).
4. Note that if you move a category page, pages belonging to it will need to be recategorized manually.

Delete

Ask one of the wiki admins in the Discord.

Other options:

• If you don't want to have it truly deleted (to come back later to work on or archive it), or can't wait, then give the page a title that's not in use nor will be found. Just be sure to add the link of the page in the discussion tab of the place it got moved from, so people know it's still there if it was decided on being moved.
• You can also add it to the Stub category by inserting {{Stub}} at the top of the page too for the off-chance someone else can grow it. Visit Stub Pages to help out those with the most need of contribution.

Minor changes

Once on a page, click Edit or Edit Source (recommended) in the top right of it to begin editing.

Everyone starts small! If you want to add some information, fix typos or add a few links, go ahead.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents (TOC) is inserted automatically on articles with more than three section headers.

You can move the TOC somewhere else by inserting __TOC__ on the page in the source editor.

To align the TOC to the right, insert the Template {{TOC Right}} instead at the top of the page, right underneath the first header.

To disable the TOC on the page, insert __NOTOC__

Section level headers

From the Edit Source tab:

Section headers are added by using equal signs. Each indentation to a new level gets an extra equals sign surrounding the name (i.e. Level 2 gets 2 equals signs on each side, Level 3 gets 3, etc.).
Level 1 headers are reserved for the title and should not be used (i.e. =Example=).

==Level 2 header==

===Level 3 header===

Text

From the Edit tab:

First, highlight the word you want to become a section. Then click on the paragraph dropdown menu. There you can see the hierarchy of section levels and select the one you want. It's also possible to make use of the shortcuts listed after highlighting. Section order (from highest to lowest): Page Title -> Heading -> Subheading (1 -> 4) -> paragraph

Major Changes

While you can make as many contributions and changes to different articles as you'd like, major changes to the general layout of the website need to be discussed first. If you're hesitant about a change you would like to implement, explain your ideas in the Discord, so that others can comment on it beforehand.

All edits are publically viewable and reversible through the View History tab, so don't be afraid you to make mistakes. For larger edits it's advised that you state what's changed so others can stay informed. You may also want to share the information in the Discord to bring further attention to it and inspire participation.

If you're changing other's work substantially, giving the author a heads up preemptively would also be wise to avoid conflict.

Categories

Source Editor

The source editor is recommended in general, but especially for adding categories. Simply add [[Category:_____]] at the bottom for your product page.

If you're using the page creation box, you will see [[Category:Name]] preloaded in the editor. Replace "Name" with your own category.

Visual Editor

To categorize a page using the visual editor, go to Edit, then the triple stacked bars (i.e. page options) and click on Categories. Under add a category to this page, start typing in the category you would like to see this page under. If the category already exists, select that one. If not, you can create a new category (which will have its own, unique URL for this). If you want it in a subcategory, type in the category that is a subcategory.

When you're finished, click on the name of the category. To add another category, type another one in and repeat. There's no limit to the number of categories a page can be under. To delete a category created, click on the category name. There will be a trash can icon to click on. Click save changes once done. To see the page under the category, go to the category URL and it will be seen under Pages in category "_____". This will be separated from the subcategories (as pages aren't categories, only categories are).

Hierarchy

The standard category format is [[Category:Brand_Product Type]].

Only add one or two categories per page, and make sure a relevant category doesn't already exist before you create new ones.

All product type categories should be a subcategory of Category:Product Repair Guides.

Say you're making a repair guide for the new MacBook Pro, you'll want to add the article to the [[Category:Apple Laptops]] category.

But since Apple has many lines / series of laptops, you'll want to specify further by adding the [[Category:MacBook Pro]] category as well.

If a brand does not have a wide product stack, further categorization is not necessary.

If your article applies to more than one or few products, it likely belongs in Category:Board Repair Guides.

If it's even more general than that, it belongs in Category:General Repair Guides.

Notes:

• Once you save a category, changing it becomes cumbersome, so make sure you get it right. New subcategories can be added however.
• Often a category will have a separate gateway article with links to specific products. Check the URL to make sure you're on the right page.
  • If a link to your page doesn't show up, try clearing the cache:
    Firefox / Safari: Ctrl-R (⌘-R on a Mac)
    Google Chrome: Ctrl-Shift-R (⌘-Shift-R on a Mac)

MediaWiki

This wiki uses MediaWiki Formatting, which is also used on Wikipedia. (Also known as Wikitext - there's a link to general help about MediaWiki / Formatting in the sidebar.).

Page Formatting

Links & Citations

Internal Links (Repair Wiki)

[[Main Page]]

[[Standards|Standards page]]

Result:

Main Page

Standards page

If the link is red, either the link is wrong, or the page doesn't exist yet.

However if you want a page to redirect to another page, you can use the following:

#REDIRECT [[Target Page]]

External Links (other websites)

Consider archiving your links to avoid link rot.

From the Edit Source tab:

[https://www.gofundme.com/f/lets-get-right-to-repair-passed Right to Repair fundraiser]

Result:

Right to Repair fundraiser

From the Edit tab:

After highlighting the text to use, use the hyperlink symbol or CTRL + K to add a link.

Citations

To transform an external link into a citation, enclose it in <ref>URL</ref> tags:

Donate to the GoFundMe<ref>https://www.gofundme.com/f/lets-get-right-to-repair-passed Right to Repair fundraiser</ref>

If you want control over where the references list appears on the page use:

{{Reflist}}

Result:

Donate to the GoFundMe

Italic & Bold Font

Don't be scared to use bolded text frequently in your articles, such as highlighting crucial steps of the repair process or safety warnings. It helps the reader find what they're looking for faster.

Source Editor:

* ''italic text''
* '''bold text'''
** '''''bold italic text'''''

Result:

• italic text
• bold text
  • bold italic text

Line breaks

Arrows in the editor indicate a single line break. Characters following line breaks will be inserted on the next line.

You can add them in the source editor by typing <br>

Put line breaks on a new line, so people know they're there.

Use {{clear}} for line breaking all elements, including images.

Tables

To add a classic Problem & Solution table, fill in the template named "ProblemTable" or copy / paste the following into the source editor:

{{ProblemTable
|P1=Problem1
|S1=*Solution1
*Additional Solutions
|P2=Problem2
|S2=*Solution2
*Additional Solutions
}}

Result:

Problem	Solution
Problem1	Solution1 Additional Solutions
Problem2	Solution2 Additional Solutions

To add a new row, simply define as many |P1 and |S1 parameters as needed.

In-line Tabs

Source editor, for 3 tabs:

{{#tag:tabber|
Tab 1=
one
{{!}}-{{!}}
Tab 2=
two
{{!}}-{{!}}
Tab 3=
three
{{!}}-{{!}}
}}

Results:

one

two

three

Uploading & Embedding Files

Click Upload File in the sidebar to upload files.

Once uploaded, insert either of the following at the top of the page:

{{File|FileName.png|Fig. 1: File Caption}} or [[File:FileName.png|right|thumb|350px|<center>'''Fig. 1: File Caption'''</center>]]

Example:

Fig. 1: Rossmann Group logo

Make sure to reference the image in the solution text, ie. "See Fig. 1".

You can search for images in the public domain here.

Templates

You can create your own template or find what's already created here Category:Formatting templates. Boilerplate templates are portions of information that get copied/pasted. If you edit the original, all the copies will change accordingly.

Transclusion

You can include a page inside another page with {{:Page name}}.

Make sure to use <onlyinclude>text</onlyinclude> to not duplicate too much content (search engines don't like it).

Note:

Make sure the page or Template you're transcluding has its categories inside noinclude tags: <noinclude>[[Category:IPhone]]</noinclude>

if you want to link to a category instead, colon symbol in front of it: [[:Category:Product Repair Guides]]

Code text:

A highlighted blue box around text that's inside it.

Source editor: type in <code>highlight word</code>

Result:

highlight word

Visual editor: copy/paste from text that already has it.

Warning:

Watch out for writing before and after the box, because they might get mixed into the box itself, when it shouldn't.

Suggestions

If you have suggestions for how to improve the wiki, you can leave them on Talk:Repair Wiki

Talk Pages / Discussion

Every page has a Talk Page associated with it.

Click on Discussion in the top left to leave a comment on it, then add ~~~~ to insert a user signature, like so: Patrolin (talk) 15:21, 24 April 2021 (PDT)

It is probably easier to just use the Discord, but it's a good use for leaving notice board-like notes.

Responses

When responding to someone in the talk pages, do it on a new line and prefix your message with : to give it indentation.

This is the OP speaking. Patrolin (talk) 02:43, 5 May 2021 (PDT)

This is a response to OP. Karar (talk) 02:57, 5 May 2021 (PDT)

Here I've used double colon punctuation :: to respond to the message above. Patrolin (talk) 03:00, 5 May 2021 (PDT)

Another response to OP. Karar (talk) 02:57, 5 May 2021 (PDT)

Louis Rossmann's Repair Video Project

A project is underway to transfer information from all of Louis Rossmann's repair videos onto this wiki.

To avoid duplicating effort, we are using Google Sheets. Please mark videos as 'Done' when you have added their contents to the wiki, or confirmed that they are already on the wiki.

Searching through captions

You can find captions by video URL here

Ctrl+F and paste the part of the URL after v=. For example: QnowcxcO2-0

Viewing schematics and boardviews

• Search for <board number> schematic and download a .pdf file
• Search for <board number> boardview and download a .brd file
• Open the .brd file in a Schematic viewer

Your work

• Mentioning copyrighted materials is at times unavoidable; sometimes someone already wrote out the solution or the reader wants more detail. Refer to the "Links & Citations" section under the "Formatting" tab to properly cite others' work.
• If you make a new page or category on the Repair Wiki, you don't need to ask anyone for permission. You can even give yourself or someone else credit by inserting {{Credit|Name}}
• All content on the Repair Wiki is for public use. You can freely download pages for your own use or for sharing with others using Special:Export.

Proprietary Material

• Examples: patented schematics, instruction manual PDFs, other people's images, plagiarized problems/solutions from online articles etc.
• Material that is not your own or available for use under laws (such as fair use), licenses (i.e. open source), and copyrights (like public domain or creative commons) shouldn't be posted without permission. If permission is granted, then that should be stated next to the proprietary material, so that it's made known and can be verified by the grantor.
• Anything that puts (or is at risk of putting) the Repair Wiki at risk of being litigated against and taken down shouldn't be posted.