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Adding New Pages and Links

Most of the Swiki power comes from the stuff you put between stars. The characters you place between stars affect what kinds of links are created.
The star character is a special character in the Swiki.
If you really want to type an asterisk, you have to type

☆

If you type the name of a page in the Swiki, you create a link to the existing page. You will not create a new page. Every page in the swiki has a unique name.
For example, if I type

☆Swiki Basics☆

I get a link to the Swiki Basics page:
Basics
If the page doesn't exist yet, you can create it. If you mistype a page name, then it will think you want to create a new page. Instead, just edit the page again and correct the spelling. When you create a new page:

☆Some New Page☆

it looks like this
<form><input type="hidden" name="name" value="Project Signup">Some New Page: <input type="submit" value="create"></form>
(note - faked for demonstration purposes)
Click "create" to create the new page. Or, if you don't want to create a new page, simply edit the page again and correct the error.
If you type a URL, it will go to that URL:

☆http://www.squeak.org☆

becomes
http://www.squeak.org
This also works for email addresses:

☆user@somewhere.edu☆

becomes
mailto.useratsomewhere.edu
If you link to a URL for a picture, the picture will appear in the current page. For example,

☆http://www.ucar.edu/wag/logos/ucar_small.jpg☆

becomes
http://www.ucar.edu/wag/logos/ucar_small.jpg
If you type a path name between + signs, you can create a link to a file you uploaded to the swiki. For example,

☆+sample-file.pdf+☆

becomes
sample-file.pdf
See How do I upload files for more details.
As an advanced feature, you may not want a link to show the page title. Use the greater than

>

to create an alias. For example

☆Cool Swiki Features>Swiki Basics☆

appears as
Cool Swiki Features
and links to the Swiki Basics page. Similarly,

☆UCAR>http://www.ucar.edu☆

looks like:
UCAR