Help:Editing

This page is a reference and a tutorial for Mediawiki code, which is the code used on this Wiki. Should there be something that you cannot find here, but want explained, ask here.

Basic Code

These are the most basic and most used pieces of code.

If a display of wiki coding is wanted, use the "nowiki" HTML-like tag around the code:

• "<nowiki>[[Main Page]]</nowiki>" - produces the text "[[Main Page]]" rather than creating a link.

To redirect a page to a different one, use:

• "#REDIRECT[[redirect location]]"

If you do not wish to include something on a page but want it on another page that includes that page, add "includeonly" tags around the code:

• "<includeonly>code to be included only</includeonly>"

Similarly, information in "noinclude" tags is only displayed on the original page:

• "<noinclude>this is not included in pages that include this one</noinclude>"

For italicizing and bolding text, use 2 or 3 apostrophes:

• "''this is italic''"
• "'''this is bold'''"
  • "'''''this is both italic and bold'''''"

The "gallery" tags create a gallery of images:

• "<gallery> Image:first image Image:second image|this one has a caption Image:last image </gallery>"

To make a line across the page, use four hyphens:

• "----"

As well as this, a fair amount of HTML is functional.

Linking

To add an internal link (that is, to another page in the Pikipedia), enclose the page name in double square parentheses. Correct capitalization is required for every letter but the first:

• "[[insert page name here]]"

To change the text that is displayed, a pipe character is used to separate the link and text shown:

• "[[actual page name|displayed text]]"

It is also possible to link to a specific section of a page. For that, add a number sign and then the name of the section, like this:

• "[[article name#name of section]]"

To link to a page in another Wikia Wiki, add "c:Wikiname:" to the start of the link. The Wiki name is not necessarily its title, but the subdomain it is located at, as seen in the URL. The Pikipedia, for example, is at:

• "[[c:Pikmin:Main Page]]"

External Links

To add an external link (a link to a website outside of Wikia, Mediawiki or Wikipedia), use single square parentheses:

• "[http://web adress]"

Again, it is possible to change the displayed text. This time, however, simply leave a space between the address and the text. The following example displays make the recent changes:

• "[http://pikmin.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Recentchanges the recent changes]"

Media

This includes images and audio files. To include them on pages, link to them as you would an article. As with categories, adding a colon before the namespace creates a link rather than showing the media:

• "[[Image:image name]]" to show an image.
• "[[:Image:image name]]" to link to the description page of an image.

To add a caption, add "|thumb|caption text" within the brackets. You can also align left, center or right (thumbnails are automatically aligned right) or resize the image. Look at the following examples:

• "[[Image:image name|350px|center]]" - centred image with a width of 350 pixels.
• "[[Image:image name|thumb|left|this is an image]]" - thumbnail image aligned left with the caption "this is an image".

Categories

If you want to add a page to a category, simply add: "[[Category:Category name]]"

If you want to make a link to a category and don't want to add the page to that specific category, add a colon in front of "Category". Shown as a visual, to make Category:2-Player Locations, type [[:Category:2-Player Locations]].

Templates and Inclusions

Any page can be included in another page by way of enclosing it in double wiggly parentheses. Write the page name as you would in a link. This includes everything on that other page wherever the code is put:

• "{{Page name to be included}}"

Usually, when a number of pages need similar information or layouts, templates are used, which are pages in the Template namespace created to be included in other pages. They make pages shorter and remove complex code, and allow many to be altered at the same time.

It is possible to pass information to templates when including them, which make the content displayed different. These are either named or numbered, and used as follows:

• "{{Template name|a piece of information|another piece of information}}"

In the template, these are referred to as "{{{1}}}", "{{{2}}}" and so on, and can be put anywhere, as if they were text or code. For example, the following template, included as above, would display "This template contains a piece of information and another piece of information.":

• "This template contains {{{1}}} and {{{2}}}."

These can be named to make things easier to follow:

Template:

• "My name is {{{name}}} and I am {{{age}}} years old."

Code:

• "{{Template name|name=Bob|age=5}}"

Result:

• "My name is Bob and I am 5 years old."

Signatures

How to sign a post

To sign your name at the end of your posts, type four tildes.

• "~~~~", for me, produces Prezintenden 20:35, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Three tildes will only display your signature without the time, and five will only show the time without your sig.

Custom Signatures

To make a custom signature, first make a subpage to your userpage called "User:(yourname)/sig"; this can be done by adding "/sig" to the URL in the address bar while at your userpage. On that page, you can add a link to your userpage if you like, and edit your username as you want it to appear in your signature, maybe adding colour, a picture, or a link to your talk page.

After you fixed up your custom sig to your liking, you now (quite obviously) want to display it. To do so, save your creation, then go to your preferences screen in the upper right hand corner. In the "Nickname" field (right under your email address), add "{{SUBST:User:(yourname)/sig}}", make sure that "Raw signature" is checked, and save. Now when you sign your name, your sig should be replaced by your custom sig.

• Example: Take a look at User:Goolix/sig. User:Prezintenden/sig, or User:Greenpickle/sig as examples of how to turn the coding into something nifty. If you find some other user's sig you like, you can take a look at the source by adding "/sig" to the end of the user in question's userpage.

Note that this now makes it possible to write {{User:(Your Username)/sig}} on a talk page. This will "update" your signature on pages if you perform changes to your sig. This will not display time, though, but adding ~~~~~ will make up for that if you wish.