Help:Editing
From Wikitroid, the Metroid wiki
Wikis allow anybody to edit. However, some people may be new to wikis and thus may not know how to edit. This page is for those people. To edit, you don't need to know HTML to edit an article, all you need to know is English and simple wiki code. You don't even have to register to edit!
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[edit] Getting started
To edit a page, simply click the edit button, which is usually found at the top of the page. Clicking on this button will open the edit box. Once here, simply type in what you want! It's that easy!
When you're done typing, click on the save page button at the bottom of the page. However, before doing so, you may want to click on the show preview button to proofread what you typed. You can also include a summary of what you typed to help other editors get an idea of what you did to the article.
[edit] Simple editing
Above the edit box are several buttons:
Bold button. This button will make text bold. Another way to do this is to put three apostrophes (''') on each side of the text you want bold.
Italic button. This button will make text italic. Another way to do this is to put two apostrophes ('') on each side of the text you want to be italic.
Internal link button. This button will link a word to an article of the same name on this wiki. Another way to do this is to put two square brackets ([[article name goes here]]) around the word you want to make a link.
External link button. This button will make a link to an external web page. Another way to do this is to put single square brackets ([website address goes here]) around the address.
Level 2 headline button. This button will start a level 2 headline, useful for separating the sections of a page. Another way to create a Level 2 headline is to put two equal signs (==Headline goes here==) around the headline title. It is recommended that only the first word in these headlines be capitalized.
Embedded image button. This button will add an image to your article. Another way to do this is to put two square brackets ([[Image:Example.jpg]]) around your image title.
Media file fink button. This button will create a link to a file not related to an image, such as a sound file.
Mathematical formula button. This button will allow you to add a mathematical formula to the text.
Ignore wiki formatting button. This button stops the highlighted text from following the wiki code format. This is useful to demonstrate wiki code, such as showing three apostrophes create bold text.
Signature button. This button will add your signature to a page. Another way to insert your signature is to type four tildes in a row (~~~~). This is useful for signing your posts on talk pages and on the forum.
Horizontal line button. This button will add a horizontal dividing line on the page. Another way to do this is to type four dashes in a row (----). It is recommended that this is rarely, if not at all, used.
Upload image. This button will allow you to upload an image. You can also do this by clicking Upload file in the toolbar on the left side.
[edit] Adding Images
To add images, you must first upload it. Once you've done this, you can edit a page and add [[Image:NAMEOFIMAGE.FILETYPE]] to the page.
[edit] Advanced editing
- Adding a pipe ( | ) allows you to control how an internal link appears. For example, doing [[Samus|Samus is cool]] will appear as this: Samus is cool. You can also use a pipe to hide anything before a colon or in parenthesis. This can be useful when linking to pages with disambiguation tags. To link to a page section, add a number sign and then the heading. For example, doing [[Samus Aran#Biography]] will link directly to the story section for Samus Aran: Samus Aran#Biography. You can also use a pipe as shown above to clean up the link and make it appear simply as Samus' biography.
- With external links, instead of using a pipe, use a space to control the look of external links. For instance, [http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Wikitroid] will appear on the page as this: Wikitroid.
- Adding more equal signs to headlines will make them smaller. Also, when a page has four or more headlines, it will automatically generate a Table of Contents at the top of the page.
- Use pipes to modify an image. Modifiers include thumb, frame, size in pixels (e.g. 200px), left, right, and center. You can also add a caption to describe the image by placing words after a pipe. For example, [[Image:Example.jpg|200px|right|frame|This is an example]] will produce an image scaled to 200 pixels, on the right side of the page, framed with "This is an example" as a caption.
[edit] Categories
Categories help organize pages. To add a category, simply type something like this at the bottom of the article:
[[Category:Games]]
If you want to add more than one category, simply list them all, like this:
[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Characters]]
[edit] Redirecting pages
Redirecting pages is useful for sending misspelled pages to the correctly spelled pages. To do this, simply create a page and then type #Redirect [[page name]]. For example, typing #REDIRECT [[Samus Aran]] on Samus will make that page automatically link to Samus Aran.
[edit] When to use redirects
Redirects can be used for a number of things:
- Common misspellings
- Different forms of capitalisation
- Common shortenings or abbreviations
- Alternative names
[edit] When not to use redirects
However, redirects should not be used to redirect one namespace to another; instead, these pages should be moved. For an unclear term with more than one possible meaning, a disambiguation page may be an alternative to a redirect. Don't forget to redirect any mis-spellings of this term to the disambiguation page.
[edit] Moving pages
Moving a page will rename it. To do this, click the move button at the top of the page. You must be logged in to move a page. A redirect page will be created automatically, so moving a page does not break links. The page's history and talk will be moved along with it.
[edit] Reverting pages
If you see a page messed up, you can simply revert it to a correct previous version. To do this, you:
- Click on the history tab;
- Click on the date of the version you want;
- Click on the edit tab;
- Save the page. Don't forget to say that you're reverting the page in the summary box!
[edit] Testing
If you want to try something out just to see how it looks, you can use the sandbox. The sandbox is just for experimenting, so any changes made to it are temporary.