Help:Editing
Style is page layout, baby! Or in another word: formatting. Here we deal with format elements like content structuring, borders, page color, etc. Well, there's a little more to style than that, and the rest is covered here too...
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Contents
Getting Started
Ok, let's start with the basics here, you're looking at this page right now which is good, you've found our wiki! Now, you probably have something to add to the articles, or maybe even a few new ones to create.
To edit an article, you must be registered with the wiki, so do that now if you haven't already (the link's in the top right hand corner). If you already have an account here, make sure you're logged in before you go any further (yup, it's in the same place).
Assuming that you are now registered and logged in, we'll continue. To edit a page, click the tab labelled edit at the top of this content box, right next to the wiki's logo. This will take you to the editing page, which basically allows you to change the article however you see fit, unless the article has been protected by a moderator, in which case you'll have to hold up and contact one about it.
Basic Editing
Ok, so now you're in the editing page for your chosen article. To change the content, just start typing in the box you see before you. Sooner or later though, you'll come across something you would like to format, make bold, for example. To do this, just select the text you want to make bold, and click the "Bold" button on the text editor toolbar. Alternatively, if you're used to typing code, or want to edit a bit faster you can format things just by using a certain arrangement of characters:
- '''bold text''' makes bold text,
- ''italic text'' makes italic text.
There are many, many more wiki code tags, but these are the ones you will use most often. For more information on the full set of formatting options, see Help with Formatting.
Links and Images
Now that you've got the basics sorted, you can move onto the stuff that makes a wiki really useful; links and images. To insert a link to another page in this wiki, you can use the button on the text editor toolbar, or use the code [[This is a link to an article in this wiki]]. To link to an external page, you need to use this code [http://www.somesite.com] which will insert a basic link, displaying the URL too. More often than not though, when linking externally, and sometimes internally, you'll want to use link a particular word and hide the URL or full title of the article. To do this, just add a pipe (SHIFT+\ on western QWERTY keyboards) after the page name for internal links or just a space after the URL for external links. Anything after the pipe or space will be displayed as hyperlinked text! Examples:
- SC4 is cool is done like this: [http://www.simcity4.com SC4 is cool]
- The homepage of the SC4 Encyclopaedia Wiki is done like this: [[Main Page|The homepage of the SC4 Encyclopaedia Wiki]]
When linking to internal articles, always use the format which does not include URLs. This allows the wiki software to automatically track and format the link, reducing the work for the moderators!
We should probably add guidelines for the different styles used in and around the wiki --Freedo50 17:38, 9 May 2008 (CDT)
It's very easy to edit the contents of a wiki. It only takes a few clicks.
- Click the edit tab at the top of the page.
- Make changes to the text.
- Click the Save page button.
Simple as that!
Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting
The number one rule of wiki editing, is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There can be all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophy governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!
In general try to write clearly and concisely and make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the wiki contents. An edit might be to contribute whole paragraphs or pages full of information, or it could be as simple as fixing a typo/spelling mistakes.
When you need to use some type of formatting e.g. new headings or bold text, you do this using wiki syntax, see Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.
Edit Summary
Before you save a change, you can enter a short note in the Summary box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it, but try to give a little description of what you just changed e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".
The summary gets stored alongside your edit, and allows people to track changes in the wiki more effectively.
Preview
It's a good idea to use the 'Show preview' button to see what your change will look like, before you save it. This is also related to tracking changes because every time you save, this is displayed to others as a separate change. This isn't something to worry about too much, but it's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving several minor corrections afterwards.
Discussion
Every article has its own "talk page" where you can ask questions, make suggestions, or discuss corrections. Just click on the "Discussion" tab at the top of the page to view it.
Links
you should check out ...
