Help:Editing

From the White Wolf Wiki, the most complete White Wolf reference

Part of what makes a wiki so great is the simplicity of creating or editing an article. No knowledge of HTML is required, only the simplified wiki markup which is used to structure and style the page.

In fact, you can start right now by clicking on the Edit this page link that is displayed on every page. (If you're new to the White Wolf Wiki, we recommend trying out your skills in the Sandbox if you're not confident about editing a live page yet.)

To edit a page, all you have to do is type your article as you would any other page, and use the simple guidelines below to create the desired styles.

[edit] Markup

WW Wiki uses a specialized style of markup to replace verbose HTML, called "wikitext". Wikitext is designed to make it as easy as possible to type an article and style it at the same time, without having to worry about long and sometimes-confusing HTML codes. The tutorial is broken into four separate pages:

[edit] Edit summary

The edit summary is a field where you can summarize the changes you are making to an article. You are strongly encouraged to fill this field whenever possible, because it helps other contributors who are browsing the Recent Changes page to know what kind of changes have been made.

[edit] Minor edits

When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option of flagging the edit as a minor edit. When to use this is somewhat a matter of personal preference. The rule of thumb is that an edit of a page that is spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text should be flagged as a minor edit. A major edit is basically something that makes the entry worth relooking at for somebody who wants to watch the article rather closely, so any "real" change, even if it is a single word. This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.

The reason for not allowing a user who is not logged in to mark an edit as minor is that vandalism could then be marked as a minor edit, in which case it would stay unnoticed longer. This limitation is another reason to log in.

[edit] See also

MediaWiki User's Guide: Editing overview - A more detailed, blow-by-blow example of every facet of MediaWiki's wiki markup styles.

This text is stored on Wikia Help. Suggest changes here.

In pictures

Click edit at the top of the page you want to edit.

An "edit box" will open, type your new sentences or corrections.
Please note: on newer wikis you may see the new editor.

Click Preview to check what you have written.

Click Save page to save your writing.

Video walkthrough

Video at Blip.tv

Editing

Ready to put your flavor on things? Learn how here!

Also check out our editing Tips and Tricks

For more videos please see our online demos page.

Some other editing tips

Explain your edit in the 'Summary' box between the edit window and the bottom row of grey buttons. By filling it the summary box, it allows you to tell members of your wiki community why you made a certain change to an article, making communication easier. You only need to type a short message here, for example 'added introduction'.
Use the 'Show preview' button to check your edit before saving. Remember to save your preview before moving on. The preview button gives you a chance to check your edit for formatting and typos before it's up on the wiki for all to see. It also spares you the grief of having to go back and make another change after saving an article.
If you are logged in, you can mark an edit as minor by checking the 'This is a minor edit' box. This lets other editors know your edit is very small.
Pages that start with 'User:' are personal pages. While it's considered impolite to make major edits to other people's user pages without permission, feel free to leave messages for people on their User_talk pages.
Always remember to sign your talk page comments with four tildes ( ~~~~). That way, the person you're writing to will know who sent him/her the message.

Formatting

Most text formatting is usually done with wiki markup, so you don't have to learn HTML.

See Help:Formatting and Help:HTML.

Links

Links are important on wikis to help readers navigate your site. The more your pages are linked to each other, the easier it is for readers to find what they're looking for.

See Help:Links, Help:External link and also Category:Link help on Wikia Help.

Wiki variables and templates

Use {{SITENAME}} to see the current Wikia. For instance, {{SITENAME}} on this site prints out as Wikia Help.

That and a few other templates are common to MediaWiki sites. For a complete list of these "magic words", see magic words on Meta.

You can create templates. After you create the page Template:XXX, using the command {{XXX}} will include that content in your current page. So, if you have something that needs to be included on many other pages, you might want to use a template.

Most templates available on the Central Wikia can be used on individual Wikia wikis with just "wikia:" prefixed to the name. See Help:Shared templates.