Help:Editing

From Forgotten Realms Wiki

Editing a page at the Forgotten Realms Wiki has a lot in common with editing a page at Wikipedia. If you are new to editing wikis, we recommend you read the Wikipedia Help for a general introduction.

[edit] References

This wiki is in the strong position of being able to provide accurate, verifiable sources for the information it provides. This is unlike Wikipedia where certain information is difficult to cite. Help:Citing sources provides a guide to providing clear, accurate referencing. If you come across an article on this wiki that is not referenced, you should add the {{unreferenced}} template.

[edit] Cleanup

Many articles on the wiki require cleaning up because they are not laid out properly, they were put together by an inexperienced editor, or more and more information has been added without consideration for the article as a whole. You can edit these articles so that they read better and contain properly formed wikilinks. Don't confuse cleanup with referencing: it is possible to have a perfectly referenced article that still requires cleanup, because it has spelling errors, for example.

[edit] Categorization

The category hierarchy is a detailed structure intended to allow browsing to find similar articles or articles about broader or narrower subjects. For example, a reader starting from a page about a town on the Sword Coast might use categories to browse for other towns, other towns on the Sword Coast, or other settlements in general on the Sword Coast. If you come across articles in need of extra categories or categorized wrongly, you can update them so that they are more correct.

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.