General Hints/Tips
Contributing +
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Belgrave's Basic Words of Wiki Wisdom
- The 'Show preview' button is your friend. You cannot use it often enough.
- Perfection takes time. It may look good today, but it still isn't perfect.
- If you cannot figure out how to do it today, try again a week from today.
- No matter what you do, it is highly unlikely that you will break the wiki.
- It is easier to start small and work bigger than starting big and working smaller.
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Things To Know
- The most basic thing to know is Wiki Markup.
- Advanced formatting uses HTML and CSS.
- You can link directly to the in-game images.
- Don't be afraid to ask another user for help.
- You are completely free to copy someone else's code.
(providing credit for that code is appreciated)
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Using Page Layouts
The easiest way to use the new page layouts is to copy the code into a text editor program and edit it there. With the game open in one window and the wiki page layout open in a window next to it, it is easy to flip from one to the other. I prefer to use Notepad.
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Sorting and Hiding Tables +
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Many times, information listed in a table would be very helpful if you could sort it based on the information in each column. This is done by adding class="sortable" to the table. There must be a table header row for this to work.
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Code
{| class="sortable" width="100%"
! Col 1 !! Col 2 !! Col 3
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| 1 || green || 45
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| 6 || blue || 23
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| 4 || red || 44
|}
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Output
Col 1 |
Col 2 |
Col 3
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1 |
green |
45
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6 |
blue |
23
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4 |
red |
44
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When the information in a table is useful but not always needed, it can be helpful to hide (collapse) a table and make it less obtrusive to the rest of the page. This is done by adding class="collapsible" to the table. There must be a table header for this to work.
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Code
{| class="collapsible" width="100%"
! colspan="3" | header
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| 1 || green || 45
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| 6 || blue || 23
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| 4 || red || 44
|}
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Output
header
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1 |
green |
45
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6 |
blue |
23
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4 |
red |
44
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To have a table load already collapsed, use class="collapsible collapsed". You can also have a sortable collapsed table, once again by adding all the classes so you have class="collapsible collapsed sortable"
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Using Non-Templates as Templates +
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When more and more content is added to a page, eventually it becomes very difficult to navigate the code to make small edits to it. One way around this is to split the content into other pages and then put them into the main page the same way you would a template.
The first thing you need to know is the Namespace the page is in. For example, templates are in the Template namespace because they are preceded by Template: and user pages are in the User namespace because they are preceded by User:. Pages in the Main namespace do not have anything preceding them. To see all the namespaces currently available on the wiki, take a look at Special:Search.
Once you know a page's namespace, that page can be included on another page the same way a template can be included.
- Template: {{Template:TemplatePageName}}
- User: {{User:UserPageName}}
- Main: {{:MainPageName}}
Experienced contributors could take this a step farther and insert optional parameters on pages the same way templates have parameters.
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Area Maps +
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Adding an area map does not have to be as hard as it looks and definitely does not require walking around an area and writing down all the map tile images. There is a much easier way:
- When you are in the area you want the map for, use the map quicklink button. Or press m on your keyboard.
- Right click and select 'View Page Source' from the menu.
- Select and copy everything between the <body> tags and paste it to your favorite text editor. (I use Notepad)
- Select everything between an image url and copy it.
- Go to the top and click Edit -> Replace.
- Paste the code into the 'Find what:' box and put | in the 'Replace with:' box.
- Click on 'Replace All'.
- Sit back and enjoy a drink or snack while the text editor works.
- When it is done, you can go through and clean up the code, add in the mapnotes, and put it into the Area's wiki page.
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More hints and tips will be added as I have time.
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Advanced Hints/Tips
Making Your Own Private Wiki +
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I like to be able to test my templates and major page changes before I save them on the wiki. To do this, I have installed a web server on my personal computer and then installed my own wiki. Expect to make mistakes unless you are experienced doing this. I do not recommend this unless you plan to make lots and lots of contributions.
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Web Server
MediaWiki
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