How Do I

Use and Join DishiWiki

Visitors are welcome to search, read, print and comment on recipes without creating an account. Visitors can also subscribe to "Fresh Recipes from DishiWiki" and "The Buzz on DishiWiki."
But a free and private account lets you do more things at DishiWiki, including:

• Submitting and editing recipes, articles, tips and photos
• Using the MyCookbook maker to collect and save recipes
• Creating your own User page
• Setting your own preferences, such as site appearance, email preferences, etc.
• Receiving site announcements and exchanging email with other members
• "Watching" a recipe (receiving an email when the page is updated)
• Being recognized for your contributions
• Participating in Promotions

Create an account

1. Click on log in / create account at the top right.
2. At the log in / create account window, click the create an account link.
3. Choose a username and password, and enter them in the boxes.
4. After completing the create an account process, check your email for a confirmation message.
5. Follow the link in your confirmation message to verify your account.
6. Recommended: Explore and modify your My preferences settings.

Your User page

A User page is all about and all for a DishiWiki user. If you have an account, you can create your own User page. You can reach your User page from the personal tool bar links at the top of every page. Others will see links to your User page from various places within DishiWiki, which assists in collaboration, such as on the Recent changes page and history displays.
Your User page is all yours, and you're encouraged to write freely about yourself. You could think of it as your "profile" page. User pages help others to know who you are and to bring the DishiWiki community closer together. You might like to mention where you live and what your job is. You can also state your areas of interest in food and cooking, and describe contributions you have made or areas where you are interested in contributing.
You can create links to other Web sites, recipes and articles. You can even include photos on your User page. Do you sell on eBay? Include some links to your items!

Other people's User pages

As mentioned above, throughout DishiWiki you will see links to other people's User pages.
When viewing another person's User page, an additional link, User contributions, appears in the action tool bar (bottom). This takes you to a list of the user's DishiWiki contributions and edits.

Recipes and Articles

Search for a recipe

Enter your search words in the search box, then click the Search button to display a list of recipes or articles that contain all your search words. Only pages containing all of your search words will appear in the results, so don't include the word recipe as a search word.

Browse recipes by category

Click Recipes on the Menu bar (above).

Print a recipe

Visitors can use the print function of their Web browsers. Members can click Printable version on the action bar (below) then use their Web browser's print function and settings to print a cleaner, more user-friendly page. Members can also use the Collections Toolbox to download a PDF version of one recipe or an entire collection. (See Recipe Boxes.)

Add a recipe

1. In the Search box, enter the exact title of your recipe, then click the Go button.
2. Click the link to your recipe (after the phrase Create the page . . .) to go to your blank recipe page.
3. Follow the simple instructions there.

Categorize a recipe

To make a recipe's title and link appear on subcategory pages, go to the last line of a recipe and include a tag for all appropriate subcategories. Subcategory tags should all appear on the same line, like this: {{Seafood}}{{Grill}} or {{Side}}{{Quick}}{{Farmer}}. For a table of subcategories and tags, see the Help Page about categorizing recipes.

Include photos of your recipe

• Prepare your digital photo for uploading:
  1. Your recipe photos should be in the JPG file format (.jpg).
  2. Always use original photos.
  3. Get in close, and/or crop your photo so that it fills the frame.
  4. Rectangular photos -- either portrait or landscape orientation -- look much better than square photos. (If your recipe becomes a featured recipe, editors will crop your photo(s) to be square.)
  5. If necessary, reduce the file size to 500 kb or less. Cropping a photo usually reduces the file size sufficiently. If not, refer to your photo software instructions to further decrease the file size, such as using "Save for the Web."
• Upload your first prepared photo:
  1. Click Upload file in the action bar (below).
  2. You'll be taken to the Upload file page.
  3. Follow the simple instructions there.

Can I add my photos to someone else's recipe?

Certainly! Adding photos to recipes -- even if they already display one -- is encouraged. Recipes can display up to three photos. See the Help page about uploading images.

Your recipe doesn't look like the ones already here

Be sure to type {{Recipe}} as the very first line of your recipe. (That is, type the word Recipe inside double braces.)
Readers will be glad to see your recipe no matter how it looks. Volunteer editors watch for new recipes to be added, and will smooth out any that need a little touching up -- so just do your best!

Comment on a recipe

Click the Leave a comment link at the bottom of a recipe.

Edit a recipe

If you have a different version of a recipe that's already here, we'd love to see it. See Add a recipe, above.
Alternatively, if you've made a recipe that's already here, and you think you can improve it, feel free to edit the recipe! Click the Edit tab, make your change(s), and add your name, city and state to the bottom of the recipe. Then leave a Comment to tell us about your changes.
Even if you haven't made the recipe, your correction of typos, misspellings, grammatical and other mistakes is welcome and appreciated.

About Wikis

• A wiki is a collection of Web pages that all its members can contribute to and modify.
• DishiWiki uses version 1.16.0 of MediaWiki, Web site software originally written for Wikipedia, the well-known online encyclopedia. It is now used by several other projects of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation and by many other wikis.
• Wikis are thought of more as online communities than mere static Web sites and are enjoying a rise in popularity.
• Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described a wiki as "the simplest online database that could possibly work."
• For more about wikis, see Wikipedia.org.