= The Trac Wiki Engine =
[[TracGuideToc]]

Trac has a built-in wiki engine, used for text and documentation throughout the system. WikiFormatting is used in [wiki:TitleIndex wiki pages], [wiki:TracTickets tickets] and [wiki:TracChangeset check-in log messages].  This allows for formatted text and hyperlinks in and between all Trac modules.

Editing wiki text is easy, using any web browser and a simple [WikiFormatting formatting system], rather than more complex markup languages like HTML.  The reasoning behind its design is that HTML, with its large collection of nestable tags, is too complicated to allow fast-paced editing, and distracts from the actual content of the pages. Note though that Trac also supports [WikiHtml HTML], [WikiRestructuredText reStructuredText] and [http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/ Textile] as alternative markup formats.

The main goal of the wiki is to make editing text easier and ''encourage'' people to contribute and annotate text content for a project.

The wiki itself does not enforce any structure, but rather resembles a stack of empty sheets of paper, where you can organize information and documentation as you see fit, and later reorganize if necessary. 
As contributing to a wiki is essentially building an hypertext, 
general advices regarding HTML authoring apply here as well.
For example, the ''Style Guide for online hypertext'' explains how to think about the
[http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Structure.html Overall structure of a work] 
and how to organize information [http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/WithinDocument.html Within each document]. One of the most important advice is “make your HTML page such that you can read it even if you don't follow any links.”

Learn more about:
 * WikiNewPage creation, eventually starting from PageTemplates
 * WikiFormatting rules, including advanced topics like WikiMacros and WikiProcessors
 * How to write WikiPageNames and other forms of TracLinks which can be used to refer in a precise way to any resource within Trac

If you want to practice editing, please use the SandBox.

Some more information about wikis on the web:
 * A definition of [http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Wiki], in a famous  wiki encyclopedia
 * The [http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiHistory History] of the original wiki
 * A wiki page explaining [http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WhyWikiWorks why wiki works]

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See also: TracGuide