Help:Editing

From the The Gundam Wiki, the ultimate guide to Gundam

Are you a fan of the Gundam series? Did you find an article that could be expanded? Would you like to contribute to this site and further increase our accumulated knowlage here? Well now you can! This site is a Wiki, which means that anyone can contribute to this site, so go forth Gundam fans, and know that you can make a difference. Before you set out to change the universe, there are a few things you should know.

Welcome to the Gundam Academy!

Glad to have you aboard! Before we let you charge out onto the field, there are a few things you should know.

Piloting 101

To edit any page on this site, simply click on the edit tab at the top of the page. This will open a window that will display a large text box. If the page you are editing already contains text that text will be present in the box as it appeared on the page before you clicked edit. You may change and modify this text any way you see fit.

Saving your edit

At the bottom of the page, below the text box, are two big buttons. One is marked "Save Page", and the other is marked "Show Preview". At the moment, the page you are looking is not actively being edited, so these buttons are not visible to you, but they will be displayed every time your click the edit tab at the top of the page.

The "Show Preview" button will display your edit as it currently appears; all of the text typed into the text box will show up on the screen exactly as it will appear when the page is saved. Check this information very carefully. Once the page is saved, your edit(s) to the page will be immediately visible, so you should check to see that everything is spelled correctly, that all of the grammar is used correctly, and that the punctuation is correct.

Once you are satisfied with your addition or correction, press the "Save Page" button. This will save the page with your revisions on it.

Adding Images

Images, graphs, screenshots, artwork, and other visual and audio media can be added to this site as well, but before you can do that you will have to register a screename. Registering is free and easy, and can be accomplished by clicking the link at the top right hand side of your computer.

Once your register the bar on the left will be enhanced to include a link titled "Upload file", clicking this link will lead you to a special upload page where you can upload your find into this site. Be sure to follow all instructions on the page, otherwise your material may end up deleted.

This page is protected?

Occasionally you will happen across a page that can not be edited by ISP adresses or even logged in Users. A message at the top of the page will inform you that the page in question has been protected. There are various reasons for this, but the four most prominent ones are:

The page contains important legal information. These pages explain what the licensing restrictions are, and where we draw the legal power use copyright material. Such information may be important enough to warrant protection.
This page contains Gundam Wiki guideline(s) and/or policy(s). These pages outline procedures and requirements for the community, and may be protected to ensure that such guidelines and policies are upheld.
This page is very visible. Sometimes a high traffic page becomes a target for vandals who add inappropriate content to the page. If this happens enough the page may be protected so that first time visitors to the site get the right impression.
The page is the subject of an edit war. Edit wars on a page can result in it being temporarily protected until all parties involved in the war agree to a peace plan, or at the very least a cease fire.

Only Administrators can protect and unprotect pages; additionally, administraters are the only Users who can edit pages that have been protected.

Vandalism

A word of caution about editing the pages here: Edits that serve no constructive purpose or edits that add inappropriate content to this site are considered vandalism. Every page has a "history" tab at the top that records an ISP address or User edit, and Users and Administraters can use this tab to track down people who vandalise this site. Repeated vandalism sprees by such users or ISP addresses will result in that User or ISP being banned by an administrator for a period of time determined by the severity of the vandalism and the number of times a User or ISP address have committed such vandailsm. Repeated vandalism sprees will eventually result in having your editing privilages here permenantly suspended.

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.