Help:Site-Formatting

This page focuses on contributors and editing of the site content. If you have other help, please email me. You can also check out the old faq, but its mostly RPG related info, and doesn't apply much to this site at this time. Old FAQ

First and Foremost, editing pages you need to be logged in. Second, to edit a page, you need to browse to it, and then click on the edit link at the top of the page. If you do not see an edit tab, then it means that its protected and you'll need to pester me for changes on that page.

Some pages, especially database-like pages such as Technology, Species, and Factions use Templates. Please use these templates for the content of those pages as it makes them nice and uniform, and if we add sections then it will automatically update those pages to support those sections. Templates is where you access a list of used templates.

Formatting and Syntax is explained Below, including how to use the Templates, as mentioned above.

Remember, the design of the Wiki is to make the site better through group collaboration. Feel Free to make edits on design, correct grammar, and make the templates look better. We want to add as much as possible to this site and make it have more data than the Universe has ever had on display. :D Also remember others will edit your pages. If you are in a disagreement, just be communicative about it, use the discussion pages and the lists and we'll come to a consensus about what is best.

In order to keep order and prevent naming chaos amongst all the pages, please check out Naming_conventions. This will help you know how to name your pages, and if you are linking to a page how you can easily guess at a link! Please adhere to the convention, cuz we'll just rename the page if you don't ;P

Editing Pages

The first is by use of the Wiki Syntax. A good example is the above line that says "Editing Pages". To accomplish the title likeness and the underline, two == were placed, one before and one after the block of text. The full syntax looked like this

 ==Editing Pages Help== 

Which gave us our desired result.

Links are generated by the site by the use of double brackets. [[ ]] are containers for links.

Example

[[RPG:Old_Faq|Old FAQ]]

A | is used to seperate a potentially non-formatted text to replace with your own. Otherwise the link itself will show the underscore.

Why an underscore ? The link you create uses the link as its page title. So if you create a link called [[thisoldhouse]] you end up with a page title as thisoldhouse. Doesn't look very nice. However, underscores in links are converted to spaces in the page titles. So you end up with [[This_Old_House]] being This Old House as your title.

Templates

Templaes are a great thing. In function it allows any page to act like any type of database simply by referencing the template to be used, and telling it which variables to fill in for you.

Take a look at this template (open in new window) This is the faction template used on factions. You will see that by itself its pretty self explanitory. The {{{Text}}} are used as variables for definition when we use a template. When we use the template, we dont' paste that code in on the page of use. We do this instead.

<code>
 {{
 Template:Factions
 |Image=
 |Name=
 |Location=
 |Military=
 |Government=
 |TechLevel=
 |AssocSpecies=
 |About=
 |Diplomatic=
 |History=
 |Other=
 |Category=
 }}

</code>

...and we then simply fill in the blanks as if it was a normal database on the old site. The order isn't important, but its little syntax is (though it could all be on a single line if you wanted it to be.) I break it down for each section per line to make editing easier in the future. The link below is our current templates in use.

Templates

More Formatting

You can format your text using wiki markup. This consists of normal characters like asterisks, single quotes or equation marks which have a special function in the wiki, sometimes depending on their position. For example, to format a word in italic, you include it in two single quotes like ''this''

Text formatting markup

Description	You type	You get
applies anywhere
Italic text	''italic''	italic
Bold text	'''bold'''	bold
Bold and italic	'''''bold & italic'''''	bold & italic
Escape wiki markup	<nowiki>no ''markup''</nowiki>	no ''markup''
only at the beginning of the line
Headings of different sizes	==level 1== ===level 2=== ====level 3==== =====level 4=====	Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Horizontal rule	----
Bullet list	* one * two * three ** three and one-third ** three and two-thirds	one two three three and one-third three and two-thirds
Numbered list	# one # two<br>spanning several lines<br>without breaking the numbering # three ## three point one ## three point two	one two spanning several lines without breaking the numbering three three point one three point two
Mixture of bulleted and numbered lists	# one # two #* two point one #* two point two	one two two point one two point two
Definition list	;Definition :item 1 :item 2	Definition item 1 item 2
Preformatted text	preformatted text is done with   a space at the   beginning of the line	preformatted text is done with a space at the beginning of the line

Paragraphs

Mediawiki ignores normal line breaks. To start a new paragraph, leave an empty line. You can also start a newline with the HTML tag <br />.

HTML

Some HTML-Tags are allowed in MediaWiki, for example <code>, <div>, <span> and <font>.

More advanced formatting

Beyond the basic text formatting markup shown above, there are some more advanced formatting tricks: There are four sorts of links in MediaWiki:

1. internal links to other pages in the wiki
2. external links to websites
3. inter-wiki links (links to other wikis)
4. inter-language links to other language versions of the same wiki

To add an internal link, enclose the name of the page you want to link to in double square brackets. When you save the page, you'll see the new link pointing to your page. If the page exists already, it is displayed in blue, empty pages are displayed in red. Selflinks to the current page are not transformed in URLs but displayed in bold.

The first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link will have a similar effect as typing a space, but is not recommended, since the underscore will also be shown in the text).

How to link

Description	You type	You get
Internal link	[[Main Page]]	Main Page
Category link	[[:Category:Help]]	Category:Help
Piped link	[[Main Page|different text]]	different text
Anchor link	[[#External links|Anchor link]]	Anchor link
External link	http://mediawiki.org	http://mediawiki.org
External link, different title	[http://mediawiki.org MediaWiki]	MediaWiki
External link, unnamed	[http://mediawiki.org]	[1]
External link, same host unnamed	[http://{{SERVERNAME}}/pagename]	[2]
Interwiki link	[[Wikipedia:MediaWiki]]	Wikipedia:MediaWiki
mailto	mailto:[email protected]	mailto:[email protected]
mailto unnamed	[mailto:[email protected]]	[3]
mailto named	[mailto:[email protected] info]	info
redirect	#REDIRECT [[Main Page]]	→ Main Page

Description	You type	You get
Embed image (with alt text)	[[Image:Example.jpg|Sunflowers]]
Link to description page	[[:Image:Example.jpg]] [[:Image:Example.jpg|Sunflowers]]	Image:Example.jpg Sunflowers
Link directly to file	[[Media:Example.jpg]] [[Media:Example.jpg|Sunflowers]]	Media:Example.jpg Sunflowers
Thumbnail (centered, 100 pixels wide, with caption)	[[Image:Example.jpg|center|thumb|100px|Sunflowers]]	Sunflowers

Uploaded files

To use an image or other file which has been uploaded to the wiki, use:

• [[Image:Example.jpg]]

If you add a pipe (|) and some text after the filename, the text will be used as alternative text for text-only browsers:

• [[Image:Example.jpg|alternative text]]

If you don't want to display the image, you can link to the file's description page, by adding a colon:

• [[:Image:Example.jpg]]

To bypass the description page and link directly to a file , use the "Media" pseudo-namespace:

• [[Media:Example.jpg]]

You can also make piped links if you want some other text to be used:

• [[:Image:Example.jpg|link text]]
• [[Media:Example.jpg|link text]]

Advanced options

The full syntax for displaying an image is:

[[Image:{name}|{options}]]

Where options can be zero or more of the following, separated by pipes:

• thumb, thumbnail, or frame: Controls how the image is formatted
• left, right, center, none: Controls the alignment of the image on the page
• {width}px: Resizes the image to the given width in pixels
• {caption text}

The options can be given in any order. If a given option does not match any of the other possibilities, it is assumed to be the caption text. Caption text can contain wiki links or other formatting.

Gallery of images

It's easy to make a gallery of thumbnails with the <gallery> tag. The syntax is:

<gallery>
Image:{filename}|{caption}
Image:{filename}|{caption}
{...}
</gallery>

Captions are optional, and may contain wiki links or other formatting.

for example:

<gallery>
Image:Example.jpg|Item 1
Image:Example.jpg|a link to [[Help:Contents]]
Image:Example.jpg
Image:Example.jpg
Image:Example.jpg|''italic caption''
</gallery>

is formatted as:

• 

  Item 1

• 

  a link to Help:Contents

• 
• 
• 

  italic caption

Other files

You can link to an external file using the same syntax used for External links.

• [http://url.for/some/image.png]

Or with different text:

• [http://url.for/some/image.png link text here]

If it is enabled on your wiki , you can also embed external images. To do that, simply insert the image's url:

• http://url.for/some/image.png

Administration of images/files

Tables may be authored in wiki pages using either HTML table elements directly, or using wikicode formatting to define the table. HTML table elements and their use are well described on various web pages and will not be discussed here. The benefit of wikicode is that the table is constructed of character symbols which tend to make it easier to perceive the table structure in the article editing view compared to HTML table elements.

A good general rule of thumb is to avoid using a table unless you need to. Table markup often complicates page editing.

Wiki table markup summary

{|	start table
|+	table caption, optional; only one per table and between table start and first row
|-	table row, optional on first row -- wiki engine assumes the first row
!	table header cell, optional. Consecutive table headers may be added on same line separated by double marks (!!) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (!).
|	table data cell, required! Consecutive table data cells may be added on same line separated by double marks (||) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (|).
|}	end table

• The above marks must start on a new line except the double || and !! for optionally adding consecutive cells to a line.
• XHTML attributes. Each mark, except table end, optionally accepts one or more XHTML attributes. Attributes must be on the same line as the mark. Separate attributes from each other with a single space.
  • Cells and caption (| or ||, ! or !!, and |+) hold content. So separate any attributes from content with a single pipe (|). Cell content may follow on same line or on following lines.
  • Table and row marks ({| and |-) do not directly hold content. Do not add pipe (|) after their optional attributes. If you erroneously add a pipe after attributes for the table mark or row mark the parser will delete it and your final attribute if it was touching the erroneous pipe!
• Content may (a) follow its cell mark on the same line after any optional XHTML attributes or (b) on lines below the cell mark. Content that uses wiki markup that itself needs to start on a new line, such as lists, headers, or nested tables, must of course be on its own new line.

Simple table

Plain

The following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest wiki markup table structure

Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

Alternative

For more table-ish looking wiki markup cells can be listed on one line separated by ||. This does not scale well for longer cell content such as paragraphs. It works well for short bits of content however, such as our example table.

Extra spaces within cells in the wiki markup can be added, as I have done in the wiki markup below, to make the wiki markup itself look better but they do not effect the actual table rendering.

HTML attributes can be added to this table following the examples in other tables on this page but have been left out of the following example for simplicity.

Orange Apple more Bread Pie more Butter Ice cream and more

{| | Orange || Apple || more |- | Bread || Pie || more |- | Butter || Ice cream || and more |}

With HTML attributes

You can add HTML attributes to make your table look better

border="1"

Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

align="center" border="1"

Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| align="center" border="1" |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

align="right" border="1"

You can put attributes on individual cells. Numbers for example may look better aligned right

Orange Apple 12,333.00 Bread Pie 500.00 Butter Ice cream 1.00

{| border="1" |Orange |Apple |align="right"|12,333.00 |- |Bread |Pie |align="right"|500.00 |- |Butter |Ice cream |align="right"|1.00 |}

You can put attributes on individual rows, too.

Orange Apple 12,333.00 Bread Pie 500.00 Butter Ice cream 1.00

{| border="1" |Orange |Apple |align="right"|12,333.00 |- |Bread |Pie |align="right"|500.00 |- style="font-style:italic;color:green;" |Butter |Ice cream |align="right"|1.00 |}

cellspacing="0" border="1"

Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| cellspacing="0" border="1" |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"

Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1" |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

With HTML attributes and CSS styles

CSS style attributes can be added with or without other HTML attributes

style="color:green;background-color:#ffffcc;" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"

Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| style="color:green;background-color:#ffffcc;" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1" |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

Table with TH headings

TH (HTML table headings) can be created by using ! instead of |. Headings usually show up bold and centered by default.

Top headings

Each column

Yummy Yummier Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" !Yummy !Yummier |- |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

Colspan="2"

Yummies Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" ! colspan="2"|Yummies |- |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

Side headings

Default

Fruit Orange Apple Dish Bread Pie Complement Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" !Fruit |Orange |Apple |- !Dish |Bread |Pie |- !Complement |Butter |Ice cream |}

Right justify

Right justified side headings can be done as follows

Fruit Orange Apple Dish Bread Pie Complement Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" !align="right" |Fruit |Orange |Apple |- !align="right" |Dish |Bread |Pie |- !align="right" |Complement |Butter |Ice cream |}

Caption

A table caption can be added to the top of any table as follows

Food complements Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" |+Food complements |- |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

Attributes can be added to the caption as follows

Food complements Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" |+align="bottom" style="color:#e76700;"|''Food complements'' |- |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}

Table with H1, H2, H3 etc. headings

HTML H1, H2, H3, H4 etc. headings can be created the standard wiki markup way with ==equal== signs and must be on a line all by themselves to work.

Preview the whole table. If you click on an edit tab for a heading within a table, edit, and preview, the parent table will display erroneously broken because part of it will be missing.

Keep the heading hierarchy consistent with the rest of the page so that the table of contents at page top works correctly.

Yummiest Orange Apple Bread Pie Butter Ice cream

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" |colspan="2"| ===Yummiest=== |- |Orange |Apple |- |Bread |Pie |- |Butter |Ice cream |}