Help:Getting started

This is a basic guide to getting started with editing Wars Wiki. We're glad you decided to help out, so here's everything you need to begin editing right away!

Editing Pages

So you've found a page that you want to edit. To do this, go to the top of the page and click the little button that says "edit". This pulls up the editing screen, where you can make changes to pages. From here, edit the article how you see fit (as long as it is within the realm of Wars Wiki's Quality Standards). But don't save just yet! You'll want to make sure that the edit is okay, and that there are no broken images or that nothing else is messed up.

From here, click "Show preview". This will allow you to see the edits before you save them. Check to make sure that everything is in order (and sometimes spelling errors are easier to notice here). It is also preferred for the "Edit summary" to be used

simply type a short summary of the edit you've made (i.e. "Fixed 'als' to 'also'", etc.), then click "Save page". This will save your edits for everyone to see!

In a nutshell, the basic steps for editing are:

1. Click "edit" and make the changes in the edit box.
2. Change the edit summary to detail the edit you've made.
3. Click "show preview" and make sure that everything is working as it should.
4. Click "save page".

Basic Wiki Coding

Wikis have their own special coding system. This is a short list of some of the most-used Wiki markup:

Text Formatting

What you see	What you type
Bold Text	'''Bold Text'''
Italic Text	''Italic Text''
Bold and Italic Text	'''''Bold and Italic Text'''''
Underlining works, as does striking out.	<u>Underlining</u> works, as does <s>striking out</s>.
A line break won't be registered with only one new line. This line appears to be in the same paragraph as the previous line. Two new lines, however, begins a new paragraph.	A line break won't be registered with only one new line. This line appears to be in the same paragraph as the previous line. Two new lines, however, begins a new paragraph.
You can break lines without starting a new paragraph.	You can break lines<br> without starting a new paragraph.
This makes '''all''' of the [[wiki]] coding not display.	<nowiki>This makes '''all''' of the [[wiki]] coding not display.</nowiki>
Big text or small text	<big>Big text</big> or <small>small text</small>
Superscript or subscript	<sup>Superscript</sup> or <sub>subscript</sub>
Hidden page comments: not shown when viewing page	<!-- This is a hidden comment -->
A typewriter font for monospace text or for computer code: int main() For semantic reasons, using <code> where applicable is preferable to using <tt>.	A typewriter font for <tt>monospace text</tt> or for computer code: <code>int main()</code>

Signing Posts

When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding four tildes to add your user name plus date/time: Austin 18:08, 30 January 2010 (UTC) Other, less recommended alternatives are: Three tildes to add user name alone: Austin Five tildes gives the date/time alone: 18:08, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding four tildes to add your user name plus date/time: : ~~~~ Other, less recommended alternatives are: *Three tildes to add user name alone: : ~~~ *Five tildes gives the date/time alone: : ~~~~~

Link Formatting

A direct link and a piped link (one that shows different text than its actual link): Advance Wars 2 is also called Black Hole Rising. Any type of link can be a piped link.	[[Advance Wars 2]] is also called [[Adance Wars 2:Black Hole Rising|Black Hole Rising]].
This is a link to a page that doesn't exist. If you want to create that page, you could do so by clicking the link.	[[This is a link to a page that doesn't exist]]. If you want to create that page, you could do so by clicking the link.
Linking to a different namespace that is not Category: Talk:Main Page	[[Talk:Main Page]]
Linking to the category namespace: Category:Armies	[[:Category:Armies]]
Linking to a subpage: User:Austin/sig	[[User:Austin/sig]]
External links: [1] (very bad) http://www.warswiki.warscentral.com (bad) Wars Wiki (good)	*[http://www.warswiki.warscentral.com] (very bad) *http://www.warswiki.warscentral.com (bad) *[http://www.warswiki.warscentral.com Wars Wiki] (good))
Linking to Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Advance Wars OR Template:Wikipedia	[[Wikipedia:Advance Wars]]<br> '''OR''' {{Wikipedia|Advance Wars}}
To have a page automatically send a user to a different page, use this code. (See Help:Redirects for more information)	#REDIRECT [[page name]]
Andy#In Advance Wars is a link to a section within another page. #Links and URLs is a link to a section on the current page. #example is a link to an anchor that was created using an id attribute The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections aren't broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page. Identifiers may be created by attaching an id="..."> attribute to almost any HTML element.	[[Andy#In Advance Wars]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Links and URLs]] is a link to a section on the current page. [[#example]] is a link to an anchor that was created using <div id="example">an id attribute</div>
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: Advance Wars. Automatically hide namespace: Armies. The server fills in the part after the pipe character (|) when you save the page. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page (see previous entry).	Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[Advance Wars (series)|]]. Automatically hide namespace: [[:Category:Armies|]].
To put an article in a Category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. As with interlanguage links, it does not matter where you put these links while editing as they will always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended.	[[Category:Character sets]]
Linking to other wikis: Interwiki link: Wiktionary:Hello Named interwiki link: Hello Interwiki link without prefix: Hello All of these forms lead to the URL http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hello Note that interwiki links use the internal link style. See MetaWikiPedia:Interwiki_map for the list of shortcuts; if the site you want to link to isn't on the list, use an external link (see above).