Help:Contents

This Help Page is defined for the users of this Lost Plays Database to help with general functions.

Navigation and General Pages

Main Page: Links back to the main home page.
Play Titles: A quick page that lists all known lost plays alphabetically by title.
Dramatists: Alphabetically lists playwrights whose plays have been lost.
Auspices: Lists companies and venues associated with lost plays.
Keywords Lists: A list of keywords that categorise lost plays.
Documents: Contains links to transcribed historical documents of relevance, such as early modern playlists and other records.
Search Box: A functional box that allows quick searching of the articles ('search') or takes the user directly to an article ('go').

General Page Tabs

At the top of each page, there are tabs that provide additional function and options to the academic users of the website. Here is an example of these tabs located at the top of the web page.

Each tab focuses on different aspects of the website. Each will be discussed in detail below:

Page: This tab allows you to load the contents of the page you are currently viewing. So if it’s an article, it will load the article page.
Discussion: This tab allows the users to be able to add in their own ideas or gossips outside the article so it does not cause the article to be more cluttered.
Edit: This tab allows users to be able to edit the page. This tab will only work if you’re signed in, otherwise you will not have authorisation to change the pages.
History: This tab tracks the history of changes on the current page you have loaded.
Move: Moves contents of this article or page into another page. It will create a new article and use the old article as a redirecting stub.
Watch: This tab can toggle the status to watch the page by adding it into your watchlist. That is, if any changes occur to this page, it will notify you.
Create with Template: This tab is an important tab for general academic users. It allows academics to input new articles into the database following a preloaded template.

User Control Panel

This section is designed to give you familiarity of the user control panel that is given when logged into the website. The following screenshot shows the user control panel on the top right of the page. Please not this panel is only available after logging in.

Each link will lead you to another page. Each page will be discussed in the following:

Your Profile Page (listed as your username): This page is a general wiki page that is open for your editing. Information about yourself is at your leisure, where other users can see this if they choose to view your profile.
My Talk: This lists all the time that you’ve commented on other articles and submissions.
My Preferences: This is the main panel that allows you to modify large amount of settings to suit the user of the website. It would also modify what notifications can be given to the user at given events.
My Contributions: The contributed changes by you on articles over a short history will be listed here.

General Administrative Functions

Creating an Account for Lost Plays Database

The main objective of this section is to provide instructions on how to create a functional account for the Lost Plays Database.

Step 1: At the top right hand corner of any page in the Lost Plays Database website, there is a small user control panel. Click on the “log in / create account” link to proceed to the next screen.

Step 2: Click on “Create an Account” on the web page. This will then proceed onto the next page for account information.

Step 3: Fill in the appropriate information in the fields. You must fill in the fields entirely. E-mail must be real and accessible to the user, as it is the main form of communication when activating the account. After filling in the details, the application will be considered for approval.

Logging into Lost Plays Database as a Registered User

This section is detailed to help users to log into the Lost Plays Database as a user of the website.

Step 1: Locate the “login / create account” button on the top right of the web page. Click this link to proceed onto the next page to sign in.

Step 2: Type in your Username and Password you have created for the Lost Plays Database. Proceed with pressing the log-in button.

Resetting Password

This section details the procedure on how to reset a password of a given account. This will be particularly useful for when you have forgotten your password to your account.

Step 1: Locate the “login / create account” button on the top right of the web page. Click this link to proceed onto the next page on your account.

Step 2: Type in your username in the Username input box. Click on the “E-mail new password” button. This will then send a notification to your registered e-mail account.

Step 3: Log into your personal e-mail account, and open the e-mail that has been sent you by the administrator. There will be a temporary password activated and assigned for you sent to your e-mail. Follow the link provided in the e-mail.

Step 4: Click on “log-in / create account” on the top right of the screen. Log in with the new password that has been given in the e-mail.

Step 5: It will prompt you to the next screen where you can reset your password. Type in your new password twice in each box for confirmation. Click on the “Set Password and Log-in”

Article Related Functions

Searching for Articles

This section provides step by step instructions on how to search for articles. The general search function and also the Advanced Search Function will be discussed.

General Search

Step 1: Locate the search box on the left hand side of the screen. It will be there for all pages for consistency.

Step 2: Input into the text box keyword(s) to search for desired articles. Click on Search in order to commence the search for the article.

Step 3: The search results will be displayed onto the screen. Browse through the results and click on the article link in order to view the article. If the article doesn’t exist, you may choose to create the article page, however, please refer to Section 2.2 for information on Adding Articles.

Go (or Enter on keyboard) will take you automatically to the article, if it exists. Search will search the text of all pages on the wiki (with some restrictions, see below).

If you clicked “Search”, or you clicked “Go” and the page you were looking for did not exist, you will be presented with a list of articles that matched your search criteria (or a message that no matches were found). The search function searches only the article content (the page title is ignored) and is not case sensitive.

Advanced Search Function:

Step 1: Locate the Search Box, and then press the “search” or “go” button to proceed onto the next screen.

Step 2: The next screen will prompt you to increase the detail of your search. Ticking and or un-ticking the different types will help improve search results. Go through the options carefully and continue to input some keywords.

Additional Information on Advanced Searching

You may find it useful to restrict a search to pages within a particular namespace e.g., only search within the User pages. Tick the namespaces you require for this search. By default only the namespaces specified in your preferences will be searched. Logged-in users can change their preferences to specify the namespaces they want to search by default. This can be done by selecting and deselecting boxes in the “search” section of user preference.

Adding Articles

This section provides a short guide on how to add articles into the Lost Plays Database. This section requires the user to be logged into the website before all functions can operate.

Step 1: If you haven’t already logged into the website, please do so before continuing on. Please search for the desired article for a particular page if it exists using the search box on the left hand side of the screen. If the article exists, you may view it and edit it if need be.

Step 2: If the article does not exist, then locate the “create with template” tab on the top of the screen. Click on it to proceed onto the next page.

Step 3: Please type in the name of the article inside the input field of the page. This will become the name of the article that will be created after when you click the ‘Create’ button. Please double-check your input before creating.

Step 4: On the next page, it will have an edit window/box that will allow you to modify your information on your entry. Please refer to editing rules and formats later in this documentation for help with the entry. Do not change the headings of the articles. You may use the [Rich Text Editor] that’s located on top of the editing box. This will enable easier view and editing of articles.

Step 5: Click the “Save Page” button once you are happy with the article.

Editing Articles

This section provides a quick reference guide to editing articles. The general commands are given in table format for quick reference.

Step 1: Click the “Edit” page tab at the top of the page.

Step 2: Make changes to the text. Please read the following on editing and follow the format later described in the table. Using the Rich Text Editor will also provide you a structured view of how the article will appear on the page. It also provides tables, subscripts, superscripts and other functions making it easier to add. Please refer to the following rules and format after step 3 of this process.

Step 3: Click the “Save page” button to finish editing.