User:Legroom/Wiki Tips and Tricks

Knowing these things can make your and other users' contributing on wiki (and not only on this one) much easier.

Editors

Wikia has 2 editor types:

• VisualEditor - currently default editor for anons and new users, that is considered to be the most user friendly; as its name implies - it shows how article will look w/o going on another address or pressing other buttons. But its functionality is kinda fixed, it offers little formatting, sometimes it can also mess up templates or just page's code (for example create ‘[[Tripp|Tripp.]]’ link instead of simple ‘[[Tripp]]’)

• Classic editor - older type which reloads page for an edit and lets to show other users what changes were made by filling summary on right panel w/ preview buttons; it has 2 modes:
  • Visual - similar to VisualEditor
  • Source - raw wikitext and coding w/ syntax highlighting; it may sound scary but it's actually much more flexible and lets to understand what's actually make article's content

As someone, who is contributing to the wikis for a good 3 years, I prefer Source Code editor: wikitext is pretty easy to remember (see here), so you won't waste time on often use of mouse + it more valuable for me as an admin and template maker.

Drafts and sandbox

Every page on wiki (and in some cases commentaries or messages) have “history” - how page looked between every edit. The more edits were made on a page, the more versions it will have in its history. One of the vital rules of wiki editing is to make less minor edits. Making edits in every section separately (i.e. clicking small “edit” button near every heading) is one the most common mistakes made by new editors. Remember: section edit it useful only if a small and vital edit needs somewhere in one place of the article, otherwise - make complete, full page edit in one session, check whole thing before saving changes.

If you often forgot to add something in one session or plan to make some huge improvements in article - try make draft for it first.

One of the ways to make a “draft page” on wiki is to create a personal page: just go to your profile page - in address bar it should end w/ “User:YourNickname”. Then just add in the bar “/Draft” (or any other name) and hit Enter - you'll be redirected on a blank page w/ “Create” button instead of “Edit” in the corner. When you'll finish draft you can just copy and paste it's content where is needed. Another way is to use Sandbox, which can be edited by anyone.

Links and references

If you've checked Wikitext basics, you'll know that for there are two main type of links:

• internal - they work only on a presented wiki and use double square braces and a vertical bar, to add title for it; example:
  [[Tyto the Swift|The Wanderer]] → The Wanderer
• external - lead to another website and use one pair of square braces and a space to separate url and possible title:
  [https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/Gigantic/news/detail/10516483-know-your-hero-vadasi Know Your Hero - Vadasi] → Know Your Hero - Vadasi

Other two, but no less useful, link constructions are similar to internal links:

• link to Wikipedia:
  [[wikipedia:Gigantic (video game)|Gigantic]] → Gigantic
  Other language version - [[wikipedia:fr:Gigantic (jeu vidéo)|Gigantic]] → Gigantic

Sometimes an information in the article should have a reference link, which might be internal, but in most cases it's external. Putting an external link right in the middle of text wall won't look good, so special “reference” construction is used on wikis for this case.

Example:
Handy Vadasi guide <ref>[https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/Gigantic/news/detail/10516483-know-your-hero-vadasi Know Your Hero - Vadasi]</ref>

But it will work only if article has “References” section (usually at the very bottom of it) to which number index leads to and which should have another special tag - <references/> (otherwise you will get an error w/ huge red letters). Whole thing looks like this (it's a screenshot):

If one reference link will appear several times in an article, you can give it a name, in first mention, and later use its shortened version:

• Handy Vadasi guide <ref name="guide">[https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/Gigantic/news/detail/10516483-know-your-hero-vadasi Know Your Hero - Vadasi]</ref>
• In official guide <ref name="guide"/>

Here you can see how both internal and external links are used as references.