Help:Editing
Absolute beginners?
If you can type and click, you can edit most pages on this wiki.
1. Find a page to improve. (If you want, you can practice in the Sandbox first. It's there for "practicing", or experimenting with almost anything. It's a good place to get used to how the wiki works.)
2. Click "Edit this page".
3. An "edit box" will open - type your new sentences or corrections (just like MS or Lotus or WordPerfect wordprocessing)
4. Click the "Save" button - (well, it may be wise to hit the "Preview" button first, in case of mistakes!)
5. You're now a Web Publisher. Welcome to the team!
More detail
As with all wikis, you can edit any non-protected page on this Wikia. Your changes will be visible immediately. Just click the "edit" link that appears near the top of every page.
Explain your edit in the "Summary" box between the edit window and the save and preview buttons. eg: "typo" or "added info on xyz".
Use the "Show preview" button to check your edit and get the formatting right before saving. Remember to Save page before moving on.
If you are logged in, you can mark an edit as minor by checking the This is a minor edit box to let people know your edit is not something substantive.
To try editing, open a new window and go to the Sandbox (which is an editing test area), and then click the "edit" link. Add something and click save.
Formatting
Most text formatting is usually done with wiki markup, so you don't have to learn HTML.
Bold and italics
Bold and italics are added by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):
- ''italics'' is rendered as italics. (2 apostrophes on each side)
- '''bold''' is rendered as bold. (3 apostrophes on each side)
- '''''bolded italics''''' is rendered as bolded italics. (2 + 3 = 5 apostrophes on each side)
Headings and subheadings
Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up your article by inserting a heading for each section.
Headings can be created like this:
- ==Main heading== (2 equals signs)
- ===Subheading=== (3 equals signs)
- ====Another level down==== (4 equals signs)
- =====Another level down===== (5 equals signs)
If an article has at least three headings, a table of contents (TOC) will be automatically generated. Try creating some headings in the Sandbox and see the effect on the TOC.
Indenting
To indent text, place a colon (:) right at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be. A newline (pressing Enter or Return) marks the end of the indented paragraph.
For example:
This is aligned all the way to the left.
- :This is indented slightly.
- ::This is indented more.
is shown as:
This is aligned all the way to the left.
- This is indented slightly.
- This is indented more.
Bullet points
To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (*). Similar to rectal indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.
A brief example:
- *First list item
- *Second list item
- **Sub-list item under second
- *Isn't this fun?
Which is shown as:
- First list item
- Second list item
- Sub-list item under second
- Isn't this fun?
Numbered lists
You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (#). Using more #s will affect the level of indenting.
Example:
- #First item
- #Second item
- ##Sub-item under second item
- #Third item
Shows up as:
- First item
- Second item
- Sub-item under second item
- Third item
Cock pussy yo momma biatchezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz121354658786478632111002202010001110111101
Wiki variables and templates
Use {{SITENAME}} to see the current Wikia. For instance, {{SITENAME}} on this site prints out as SmashWiki.
That and a few other templates are common to MediaWiki sites.
Check the current list of all templates on this Wikia.
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 with just "wikia:" prefixed to the name. See the help page on Central at Wikia:Help:Shared templates.
