Help:Editing
The Absolute Basics
Hello! Welcome to D&D Wiki! Looking at our pages and scratching your head? Want to add to the wiki, but don't know the correct syntax to make stuff look good? Never fear! Here we have a basic rundown of all of the things you are likely to need in order to interact with this wiki for a long, long time. Most users will never need to learn much more about wiki markup beyond what is written here. If you're interested in learning how some of the stuff on this page was done, don't hesitate to open it up in the editor and take a look behind the curtain!
If you'd like to practice or experiment with any of this, head on over to the sandbox and play to your heart's content. Just keep in mind that the page gets wiped clean periodically, whenever an admin strolls through and happens to see that it has become too cluttered to work with.
Creating a Page
Although some of the other activities listed on this page are easier to do, you'll never get to editing if you don't have a page to write on! Here is a guide on how to make new pages on the wiki. Before reading on, please go over Help:Article Naming so that you can understand what we are talking about here.
From Scratch
You should only ever be making articles from scratch if you are making something other than homebrew. Unless you're part of a new wiki project, or working in your user subpages, (read on) chances are that you'll be using a preload of some sort. Still though, the basic method is to manually enter a page. This is a simple 3-step process.
- Search for the page name you want to make. Be sure to include the appropriate namespace and identifier. If a page appears, that name is taken, try something else. Otherwise, click the red link on the search results screen to begin editing your page!
- Fill the page with stuff. Don't forget to include any categories and templates it may need. Hit save.
- Make a link to it from somewhere reasonable you can easily navigate to.
From Input Boxes
In most cases though, we have streamlined this process significantly. If you go to the main page of a given type of content, 5e Races for example, you'll see a text box with a button in the top right corner. This is an input box. We have these built into all of the important pages. Simply replace the "mywhatever" bit with the name of whatever you're making and hit submit. It will automatically open the editor, creating a page of the name you asked for, and it will come pre-loaded with all of the necessary formatting, templates, and categories in place. All you have to do is fill out the form and hit save! Simple right?
Here, I have prepared for you a very practical example:
This button automatically creates subpages under your username. Feel free to copy it on to your user page if you find it convenient.
The most basic type of subuserpages are called sandboxes. They're exactly the same as the wiki sandbox, but nobody can see what you're doing there unless they somehow find a way to navigate to it and watch the page. However, you could name your subuserpage pretty much anything you want, and do with it pretty much what you will! Just make sure that you conform to Help:Behavioral Policy. Some users construct a "workspace", a subpage filled with links to other subpages of all of their works-in-progress.
Subuserpages are considered to be just as personal as a userpage, so editing anything on another user's subpage is generally considered to be extremely rude without a &@#% good reason.
One last thing, for those with an inquisitive mind: Yes, you can create subpages of subpages. I would be cautious with just how far down that rabbit hole you decide to travel though, cleaning up piles of needless subuserpages someone made out of random curiosity isn't exactly my idea of a fun friday night. Try to keep it no more than 3 steps removed from your userpage as a rule of thumb, 'k?
Images
Images are easy enough to work with, in cases like 5e Homebrew, there are templates such as {{5e Image|orientation|image url|Caption}}, but you can simply add in an image by way of encasing the url in single brackets, as [imageurl.png]. Uploaded images can be displayed with [[Image:Filename.jpg]], and resized easily, such as by putting it in div tags, such as <div width="50%">[[Image:Filename.jpg]]</div>.
External Image Resizing
The case of external images is slightly different, due to issues in MediaWiki's formatting. Images, even deep in transcluded templates, can be resized/manipulated image in div tags, with the class 'externalimage-holder', such as <div class="externalimage-holder" style="width:50%;">myimagehere</div>. Adjusting the width attribute to any given percentage (of the viewing screen) or absolute pixel width with "width:360px", or "width:50%". You can use other style additions such as "float:right" or "margin-left:5px", to finely manipulate the image display (search "HTML in-line CSS", or check Helpers, if you want in-depth information on moving these things around).
Text Editing
For most text you can just write however you want. However, single-spacing line-breaks,
which look like this in the editor, come out looking like this:
Example: For most text you can just write however you want. However, single-spacing line-breaks, which look like this in the editor, come out looking like this.
In order to make a line break, please do not use the HTML code <br>, as it is horrendously ugly in the editor, and can confuse other users who wish to edit a page. Instead, simply do a double-line-break...
like so...
and the editor will take care of the rest for you.
The big ugly text-box of death
Have you been editing an article, only to have the results come out in a big ugly box like this? Did you notice that the text inside one of these boxes runs off the screen, rather than wrapping with the page layout? Isn't it ugly? Did it demoarlize you?
Well don't worry, we have the solution. That box is generated when a line begins with a space. Simply delete the leading space, and the text will return to its correct appearance. This typically happens when a new user is trying to create an indentation. The wiki does have an indentation command, (read on to hear more about it) but it doesn't work the same way you would expact from a word processor. The editor screen you see when altering or writing a page, though it is very similar to a standard text editor, is actually a type of interface. Through this interface, you can type a wide variety of commands called wiki markup which have unique functions. Wiki markup is an extremely simple sort of coding language. You can also write some html code into the edetor as well, and the wiki also makes use of many css documents for its appearance, which can be edited from the wiki itself.
TL;DR, you aren't going to get a first-line-only indent the way you might want from a rich text editor. The wiki editor is designed to write webpages, not novels.
Signatures
After you post a comment in a discussion, you should end your message with a signature. Signatures are automatically generated with a timestamp from the signature command, which is 4 tildes.
~~~~
Which makes, (if I use my signature):
--Kydo (talk) 20:40, 3 October 2016 (MDT)
Additionally, you can sign without a timestamp with 3 tildes.
~~~
Which outputs
--Kydo (talk)
And you can leave just a timestamp without a signature using 5 tildes.
~~~~~
Which outputs
20:40, 3 October 2016 (MDT)
You can also alter what your signature looks like in your preferences.
<!-- Comments -->
If you've already tried to make something on the wiki, and found the page full of <!--these marks-->, you probably just left them alone out of fear of screwing up the page. Those are called comment commands, and any text written between them does not appear on the finished page. We put descriptions of what should go in each section inside comment marks so that section explanations do not appear on the display page during a work in progress. They can, however, become burdensome later on as the page gets fleshed out, can become problematic if they are altered and suddenly become visible, and are entirely unnecessary to a finished page. You should replace the comments in a preload with the content you intend to put there.
Pretty Text
''Two apostrophes cause italics.''
'''Three apostrophes cause bold.'''
'''''Five apostrophes do both at the same time.'''''
<s>You can use basic html code for certain effects, like strikethrough, as well.</s>
<u>You can use basic html code for certain effects, like underline, as well.</u>
Now that you know how that's done, go read Help:When to Italicize and Capitalize so you know when to use that knowledge.
Leading Marks
If you begin a new line with one of these marks, it will have a unique effect on the text which follows in line.
- The (:) causes an indent
- The (*) creates a bullet point
- The (;) creates a bolded line
- And following it with a colon turns it into a non-TOC header with automatically indented content.
- These can be mixed together...
- ...to achieve a variety of effects.
Now that you know how to use leading marks, go read Help:Talk Pages to make the best use of these.
Headers
You create headers by enclosing the intended header text with =. The rank of the header is equal to the number of = on both sides. For a header to have the correct rank, the same number of = must be on both sides of the header text. The following is a visual example.
= First Rank =
Used for main topics. Typically, a page will only have one of these. It will only have multiple first rank headers if the single page has multiple main topics compiled into a single page for some reason. As such, this should only be seen on user subpages.
== Second Rank ==
Used for various component topics regarding the page's topic.
=== Third Rank ===
Used for sub-topics.
==== Fourth Rank ====
Rarely used, if ever. If a page gets this far, it may be that the topic is too large and complex for a single page, and it may need to be split.
===== Fifth Rank =====
Pretty much never used. This would be for an extremely complex, but brief, single-page topic.
====== Sixth Rank ======
Never used because, as you can see, it is near-identical to fifth rank. The same goes for every other rank beyond this level. This is usually where we start using the semicolon to create in-section headers.
Links
Before you go and start making links around the wiki, you may need to go read Help:Article Naming. It will teach you some of the finnicky details about article names which you will need to understand in order to successfully link to other content.
Within the Wiki
Just follow this format: [[Full: Page (Name)|What you want the link to actually say]]
These are called local links.
You can use a local link to send people to a template page as well, but there is an alternative method, called a template link. It follows the format:
{{tl|templatename}}
To Other Places
Just follow this format: [www.url.com What you want the link to actually say] (Note that the link directory and link text are separated by a space)
These are called permanent links.
You can use permanent links within the wiki to direct people to technical things like redirects, search results, and, (with a bit more work) special pages.
Redirects
This is an example of a redirect page. Normally, if your browser tried to navigate there by following a wiki link, it would automatically skip to the directed page. It doesn't do it here, because we used a permanent link with a display url for that page. Redirects are, (mostly) a good thing. They ensure that even if a page is moved, old links will still be able to navigate to the correct document.
And THIS is an example of a double-redirect. That is to say, if someone navigated to the first one, it would hit this page, and THEN go to the final page in the series. Double, (or more) redirects are a bad thing. They are a waste of processing power, where a computer rapid-fire accesses the server. Many people have their security settings on their computers set to prevent double-redirects from happening, to help protect them from various forms of malware which abuse this function. As such, having double redirects on the wiki not only is bad for our server, it is bad for our users. If you see them, please notify an administrator to have them removed.
Red Links
Let's say you see a red link somewhere. What does it mean? A red link is a link to a non-existant page. These are tracked by the wiki as Special:WantedPages. They are caused by one of two situations:
- The page or redirect it was linked to was deleted.
- Someone is very strongly suggesting through implicature that you should make a page.
In general, the solution boils down to:
- Find the page it intended, and correct the link.
- Delete the link.
- Make the page.
You aren't expected to do this every single time you see a red link, just fix the ones that bug you.
Anchors
Sometimes you manually want to link to a certain section of a page. You can do this with what are technically known as anchor links. You can link to these directly by appending a link with a hash. Anchor links are automatically generated by every header (for instance, you can get directly to this section with Help:Editing#Anchors).
If you need to manually make an anchor link, you can make anchored text with {{#anc:anchortext}}. If you need an invisible anchor link, or want multiple links to go to the same section, you can add <span id="anchorlink"></span> to make a link (as an example, you'll find Help:Editing#headerlinks or Help:Editing#hashlinks or Help:Editing#badoo will all also get you to this section.
Citations
D&D Wiki is not the same as Wikipedia or other strictly factual wiki applications. This is primarily a creative community. That said, we do have quality standards for the material submitted to this website, and many of those standards hinge on compatibility with the source material- an extant game. In this regard, it is often necessary to make references to the source material. Using citations can clean up these page references from the body of the page. Here's how you do it.
- Step 1
- Let's say you need to reference the rules for advantage in 5th edition. This is done by making your page citation, "D&D 5e PHB pp.7" immediately following the word advantage, and surrounding the reference with <ref></ref> tags. (These should not be confused with the {{ref}} tag[1]).
- It would look like this:
advantage<ref>D&D 5e PHB pp.7</ref> - and would produce this:advantage[2]
- Step 2
- In order for the citation to work, there needs to be a citation list on the page, otherwise it goes nowhere. For organizational purposes, the list should go at the bottom of the page, above the categories. Immediately above the category line break, create a new header titled "References" and put the code,
<references />in that section. As an example, see the following subsection. The section should be of the same tier as the highest tier header in the page. (This will almost always be ==Second Tier==)
References
- ↑ See Help:Glossary of Jargon
- ↑ D&D 5e PHB pp.7
More Complex Stuff
This stuff tends to be confusing for inexperienced editors. Even for experienced editors, getting some of this stuff to work just right can get a little fiddly and annoying. You should wait a while and practice before diving straight into these activities.
Table of Contents
The table of contents, or TOC for short, is automatically generated directly above the first header on the page as soon as 4 or more headers exist on the page. Sometimes that is, in one way or another, less than ideal. In general, if you are working with a preload, let the TOC generate where it is allowed to. Those pages have already been formatted with the TOC in mind. Anywhere else though, if you think the TOC is ugly, or isn't appearing soon enough, here are some commands you can use.
__TOC__- Makes the table of contents appear, even if there are less than 4 headers. Useful for pages with 2 or 3 headers that are very, very long.
__NOTOC__- Prevents the TOC from appearing, regardless how many headers are present. Useful for pages which have a lot of headers but very little content between them. This help page, for example!
__FORCETOC__- Makes the TOC appear at the location of this command. Useful if the TOC is acting weird because of a table or something.
Categories
Categories are an organizational tool used by the wiki to sort pages by content, and also to populate the dynamic page lists we use to make homebrew content available. By including a category on a page, you are telling the wiki what type of content that page contains. As such, needless categories, (a category of one) or inappropriate categories, (Category:Race on a class page) are discouraged and should be removed when noticed. We do not want our organization tools being misused to create clutter and disarray.
Like most of our organizational tools, categories should be placed beneath the bottom line break of a page, so that they can be easily found and edited, and to keep them from cluttering up the rest of the page in the editor.
Using Categories
To apply a category to a page, simply create a local link to it somewhere on the page. The namespace for categories is Category:. once saved, instead of appearing as a local link, it will appear at the bottom of the page in the categories bar. Please ensure that the category name is spelled correctly, or you will effectively be creating a new, broken category.
Many of the largest categories have category pages saved on the wiki. In these instances, the correct spelling will yield a blue category name in the categories box, while a misspelling will produce a red link. An easy way to check if a category exists, is to type the full name you think it is under into the search bar. If the search brings up an extant category, you probably got it right.
If a category does not have a saved page, that is OK. We should only have actual category pages that are being used for something. If it is discovered that a specific category page would be useful to keep around, (as rare as it is) such as by editing it to include further information and links to other important pages, the method of creation is simple:
- Follow the red category link.
- Add the additional useful information.
- Save the page.
Making Categories
Sometimes, especially during the introduction of a new edition or the formation of a new wiki project, new categories need to be made. Making a new category is as easy as writing it on a page. A category doesn't need to have a saved category page in order to be used by the wiki! The actual incorporation of a category into the wiki is a little more abstract however. It must be applied to all pages which it was intended to represent, both old and new, and there must be a function somewhere on the wiki which makes use of the category. Depending on the ammount of material already in existence before the creation of a category to represent it, this can be either a cakewalk easily done by a child in under a minute, or a gruelling nightmare requiring the combined efforts of multiple editors and administrators over the course of months.
Subcategories
A subcategory is another organizational tool of sorts. They aren't really used or created much here, because the work we do is a lot less complex than some other wikis. Subcategories are used by this wiki's classifieds system, which is not perfectly detailed and may need to be expanded from time to time to include some users. (If you do choose to make an expansion to this system, DO NOT include any locations more precise than a state/province/territory/region. Subcategories for specific towns, cities, buildings, etc. are a security risk to anyone who would use them, so it is best to not even go there.)
To create a subcategory:
- Create a page in the Category: namespace, with the name you would like it to have.
- Apply the intended parent category onto that page.
- Hit save.
After doing this, check the parent category. It should now have a list of subcategories it includes. If it doesn't, you did it wrong. Try again or ask for help.
User Categories
Some of you may have now realized that it could be possible to make your own personal category. See Help:Legal.
Templates
Templates are a powerful tool at our disposal. A template is a pre-written piece of text/code saved to the wiki as a page in the Template: namespace. Templates allow us to put out standardized information using just a small string of text. Our Help:Improving, Reviewing, and Removing Templates are all examples of one way in which templates can be used. Another good example is the "breadcrumb" at the bottom of most pages, creating the appearance of a "file path" while browsing the wiki. Yet another good example is the entire help:portal, which allows our help pages to be moved and altered without anyone having to update every single other help page every time!
Using Templates
To use a template, simply wrap the pagename of the template in curly brackets. The curly brackets automatically indicate that you are utilizing a template, so you don't need to write the template namespace. When you do this, that text command is replaced with whatever is written on the template page by that name. For example:
{{example}}
turns into:
- This is an example of a template page in action.{{{1}}}
See the weird {{{1}}}? That's called a prameter. I failed to enter it in when I wrote that template tag. If we go to the {{example}} template page, we can see that the parameter is intended for a signature, because the creator was polite enough to leave a note there explaining it. Parameters are added by using the | command inside your template tag after the pagename. The number of | commands between the pagename and parameter input is given by the number in the parameter. In this case, that is 1, so we only need 1 | before we write what we want the parameter to say. Like so:
{{example|You know, just because someone says a parameter is "for" something, that doesn't mean it's the ''only'' thing you can put there. Parameters are just displaced text. People can get surprisingly creative in their misuse of parameters to repurpose a template for other functions.}}
turns into:
- This is an example of a template page in action.You know, just because someone says a parameter is "for" something, that doesn't mean it's the only thing you can put there. Parameters are just displaced text. People can get surprisingly creative in their misuse of parameters to repurpose a template for other functions.
A template tag always looks like a template tag in the editor. If you would prefer to have the full contents of the template added to the page, such that it may be edited on the target page, you can use a template substitution, which looks like this:
{{SUBST:example|~~~~}}
and outputs:
If you were to open this in the editor, you will notice that the output has completely displaced the template tag with the template contents. We use the substitution command to give out our greeting messages.
Making Templates
Templates don't usually need to be created very often. Most users only find themselves creating templates when working on large projects, like campaign settings or sourcebooks, though they are an integral part of many other parts of this wiki.
To create a template you must first create a page in the Template: namespace. I would recommend not capitalizing the pagename. Sometimes the wiki will decide the capitalization matters and force people to capitalize every single use of the template. If you leave it as all lowercase, the wiki has no complications if people do choose to capitalize the tag when they use it. Also, do not put a space after the namespace : as that can also have weird buggy effects.
On the template page, simply build all of the stuff you want your template to say or do. Whenever you use the template on a page, the full contents will be copied over to the target display page.
One useful note, any categories to add to a template will be applied to any page the template appears on as well. If a page has a category, and you can't find the code that's causing it, there's a chance it might be inside a template being used on that page.
To give your template parameters, like a place to apply a signature or a comment, follow this format:
{{{#}}}
Simply place a number inside triple curly brackets at the location you want the parameter to appear. The number corresponds to the number of | commands precedes the parameter when it is being used in a template tag. As such, it is most practical to count in order; 1, 2, 3, etc., and to count them off in the order that they appear. This makes the template more intuitive for other users.
Finally, you can put additional information on a template page that does not appear when the template is used.
<noinclude>This is done by wrapping the additional text in noinclude tags as shown here.<noinclude>
Deleting a Page
We all make content, then a few days or a few years later, realise we don't want it up at all. It either never got finished, or you lost your taste for it, etc. That's perfectly fine. Only administrators have the ability to delete pages, users are only capable of 'blanking' them, such that they can be reverted by anyone back to their original state. If you wish to delete a page, either one of your own, or you've seen somebody else's content that is entirely worthy of deletion, please place a delete template at the very top of the page, by typing {{delete|~~~~~|Reason here}}. And it will usually be attended to within a couple weeks.
Please note that simply because you are the author of page, does not mean you automatically have a right to delete it. Especially if other users have made contributions to the page, over its lifetime. When you upload your work to dandwiki, you agree that it is licensed under GFDL (or your other noted free license), so we are licensed to host that work forevermore, and any subsequent content deletion is at the discretion of administrators. If you think it is worthy of deletion, stick a delete template on it and somebody else might even come by and improve it! If the article is perfectly good, it will most likely stay up.
See Also
This page is intended to be just a crash course for getting into using the interface. If you'd like a thorough explanation of wiki markup and practices, take a look at the following links.
Editing help can be found in Wikipedia Help:Wiki Markup.
Everything about editing pages on a Wiki can also be found in the Category:Wikipedia how-to
Minor edits are defined here.