EvaWiki:Boot Camp for Newbies
This page is meant to train newbies who have no idea how to do things using the MediaWiki layout of the site *whatsoever*, in the basics of how to write things on EvaWiki.
What do those buttons on the top of the page mean?
You can see several tabs on top of each article. The one on the far left, the one actually selected, is the actual "article" page, for the article you actually want to read. Clicking "Discussion" leads you to a "Talk" page for the article: basically its like a piece of note-paper taped to the article, which editors write notes to each other about things in that particular page (more on Talk pages will be explained below). "Edit" is the tab you click to actually make changes to an article.
The "History" tab leads you to the History page for an article: it lists all changes that have been made the the article, in chronological order, who made those changes, and dates them. You can click on "diff" to see what changes an edit made to the page. There is also a "Move" page, which is basically used for renaming an entire page: it moves the article to a new page, and actually automatically creates a redirect which links every page which was originally linked to the old name, to the new one. Depending on your user privileges, you might not be able to to "Move" pages. You're really only supposed to Move pages occasionally, and unless an article name is mispelled or something obvious, you should tend to discuss moving a page with other editors before moving it (go to the "Talk" page and say "I think this should be moved to (new name) because...". If you do not have user privileges to Move a page, it would be a good idea to directly ask an Administrator to move it. There is also a "Watch" button, which adds pages to your "Watchlist", basically your Favorites list.
The links in the extreme upper right are for your own account on EvaWiki, not related to the page you are looking at. Clicking on your screename taks you to your user page. Please fill this out (copy the format you see on other user's pages). "My preferences" takes you to your preferences page (you don't really need that). "My Watchlist" shows you what looks like a "History" page, but which actually shows you only the recent changes that have occurred on pages you have clicked "watch" on (that you have favorited). This helps you keep track of articles you are concerned with, or just plain interested in. "My Contributions" lists only edits made by you, in chronological order.
By the way, a red-colored link means that the link is broken, usually because it links to a page that doesn't actually exist yet. Help EvaWiki expand by "filling in the red links".
How do I know what is currently happening on EvaWiki?
Other than site announcements on the main page and such, MediaWiki format has a link labled "Recent Changes" in the "navigation" bar you see to the left. Click that to see the the changes that have occurred most recently, on any page of the site. It's basically a combination of all of the "History" pages from every article on the entire site, letting you see the most recent edits to everything at once. That's usually a good gauge of what's being worked on at the moment, or "in the news".
How to make Edits to an article
The most basic thing you need to start out with if you have physically never tried using MediaWiki before, is how to Edit, that is "make changes to", an article.
First, locate the "edit" tab on top of the page. Click it and it will take you to a "Editing (page's name)" page. Write what you want. When you've finished writing what you want, look below the editing box: there is a "summary" box, in which you may write a note to the other people editing the site, explaining why you made the change you did, etc. You don't necessarily need to write anything there, and it doesn't serve as an "official" notification of stuff, but it's a nice feature to have. Below the "Summary" box are three buttons. The one right on the left says "Save Page": click this button to make your edit actually happen.
There's also two other buttons, "show preview" and "show changes", which both basically preview the changes you are making. You don't really need those, though they help, as you can edit as many times as you want, so if you are unhappy with something you've changed you could just instantly change it back. There is also a box which you can check which says "this is a minor edit". This leaves a little tag in the "Recent Changes" list which lets other editors know "this is a minor edit". Please just click "minor edit" for things like spelling corrections and such. This isn't really enforced or anything, but please don't do something like routinely erase an entire paragraph of information you don't like, listing each edit as a "minor" one. Sometimes you might just accidentally click "minor edit" when you're clicking "Save Page" (happens all the time). Don't really worry about this, just please use your own judgment and try to list something as a "minor edit" only for spelling corrections, etc.
Besides the "Edit" tab on the top of the page, some pages have subheadings which have their own "Edit" tab. You do not absolutely need to use these, because you can just edit everything on an entire page by using the "Edit" tab on top. However, if you want to edit only a specific subsection of an article, in a very long article where it might be confusing to try to edit the whole thing at once, click this secondary "Edit" tab to just edit one subsection.
What does "Edit Conflict" mean?
If you're editing a page and it won't let you make a change when you click "Save Page", saying "Edit Conflict" instead, that just means that someone else was editing it at the same time you were, and managed to change the original article before you did. If this happens, the information you just wrote isn't lost, the "Edit Conflict" page will list "What you wrote". Just copy-paste it: copy it, click the "Edit" tab, and paste it back in. Of course, that's if someone was editing a part of the article you weren't working on. Someone may have been changing exactly the same thing you were working on, and disagree with you because of the overlap. Try to integrate both if they don't contradict each other, but more on "Revert Wars" below.
How to create a new article
You find articles on EvaWiki by either clicking a link from another page or navigation bar, or, by entering the name into the Search bar to the left (that's fairly obvious and didn't need its own subsection in these instructions). Click "Go" to try and link to it directly, or click the button "Search" on the right. "Search" won't take you to a new page but it will search the site for places the name you're looking for comes up, in any article. What you're looking for might not have an entire article devoted to itself yet.
To create a new article, enter the name you want for the new article into the "Search" bar, the click "Go". You will see a message that says "There is no page titled "(name of your article)". You can create this page. Click "create this page" and it will take you to a new blank editing box, and creating a new page is really just like "editing" a blank article. Edit it as you would a normal article, by adding in new information, then click "Save this Page", and the article will be created.
It is very important to remember, however, that article names are Case Sensitive. "Case Sensitive" means that it actually makes a difference if the words in the title are capitalized or lower case. If you are really new at this, don't worry, Admins and other users will probably take care of it. If you have a problem with this, contact an Admin. Basically, this just means that if you are creating a new article, at the least, make sure that the first letter of the first word is capitalized. Sometimes depending on the article the first letter of every word is capitalized. Please do not write in full capital letters unless it is referring to an acronym. Do not let worrying about this hinder you from creating a new article, the Admins will take care of it.
How to make links to other articles on the site
You make links to other articles on EvaWiki by writting double brackets around a word or set of words, for example: [[Evangelions]] will create a link to the Evangelions page.
Some articles have more than one word in the title; just put the brackets around all words in the title, like [[Shinji Ikari]]
As said above, article names are case-sensitive, so it actually matters if the links are capitalized or not. Please just write the name of the article you want to link to exactly as it appears on top of the page, and you'll be fine.
A neat little trick is that you can actually write one thing as the name in the link; this is like when on a messageboard it asks for the address of a website you're linking to, then asks "what would you like this link to say"? For example, instead of simply linking to "Shinji Ikari", you can write "useless whiny geek", and clicking on that will take you to the "Shinji Ikari" page.
To do this, instead of adding double right-brackets like normal, add in a vertical line "|" (the key above Enter, hit "shift"), then write what you want the link to say, then end in double brackets as normal, like this: [[Shinji Ikari|useless whiny geek]]
How to make links to webpages not on the site
You might want to link to another website outside of EvaWiki. You could just copy-paste the link directly, and hypertext will automatically be created: http://www.google.com/
However, you might want to write a message for the link instead of adding in the address like that: indeed, some addresses for news articles and such get really long, and it would save space to summarize it in a few words.
Linking to pages not on EvaWiki is a bit different from linking to pages on it, but it's pretty simple. Put the link in single brackets, and leave a space between the end of the address and the message you want to add. For example: writing [http://www.google.com/ A Big Search Engine] would result in the link A Big Search Engine
Use of apostrophes: how to bold or italicize text
Under *NO* circumstances use a single apostrophe to make quotation marks, always use full quotation marks:
NO: 'Feel free to take advantage of anything here'
YES: "Feel free to take advantage of anything here"
The reason for this is that Auto-wiki-code for putting text into italics or boldface uses apostrophe marks. Use two apostraphes at the beginning, and then two at the end, of a set of text to make italics. Use three for bold text.
Thus, ''Shinji Ikari'' = Shinji Ikari, and '''Shinji Ikari''' = Shinji Ikari
So NEVER use apostrophes to quote things, it screws up wiki code. It ends up italicizing things you don't want italicized. You do need to use apostrophes sometimes when it's actually showing something.
For example: "Shinji is fond of Asuka's boobs or Misato's boobs?" "Shinji is fond of Asuka's boobs". For that, you'd have to put: ''Asuka's'' enclosed by double apostrophes.
This gets a little wonky because sometimes it works perfectly fine, and other times an entire paragraph gets put into italics as a result of italicizing a possessive word like that with an "'s". Don't worry about that, if it's a problem someone else will fix it pretty quickly. Usually it doesn't do that though (if you must know, the way around that is to go through manually adding in "<nowiki>Asuka's"</nowiki> around any possessive words. If you see that an entire paragraph has becom italicized as a result of you doing this, try adding the "<nowiki>" thing around stuff. It turns off the auto-wiki-code in text inside of its brackets.)
How to do fun tricks with text font
There are several different sets of code which you can enclose around a section of text, to change the font, and size, of the text. You do this just like how on a messageboard you wrap bold or italics bboard tags around a section of text.
For example, enclosing a section of text with: <big>Big text</big> will result in Big Text
Use <small></small> to create Small Text
How to make a bulleted list
Use asterisks. One asterisk at the beginning of a line will create a bullet point:
" *Bullet Point 1" creates:
- Bullet Point 1
Write two asterisk marks one after the other to create a subsection, visually stemming from the original bullet point:
- Bullet Point 1
- Bullet Point 1-A
- Bullet Point 1-B
You can keep doing this to keep making more and more subsections, but after 3 or so it gets really cluttered. Its better that you don't do that at first until you're used to using it.
However, the lines you are making the bulleted list subsections out have to be immediately after each other. When you've just got a list written with only one bullet point each this isn't noticeable, they're still just one bullet point. However, if you are making multiple subsections of the first bullet point, and you leave spaces between each line:
*Bullet Point 1
**Bullet Point 1-A
***Bullet Point 1-A-a
Bullet Point 1-B
The result would be:
- Bullet Point 1
- Bullet Point 1-A
- Bullet Point 1-A-a
- Bullet Point 1-B
This looks really wacky and means you're doing it wrong. Thus, whenever you are making a bulleted list, most commonly in the "Notes" sections of articles, please make sure that each bulleted subsection is on the line immediately after the last one, do not leave a space.
How to make a numbered list
Actually this works pretty much the same as making a bulleted list, except that you use the number symbol "#" instead of an asterisk. This can be used to make numbered subheadings, for example:
- Numbered point
- Sub-numbered point
- Sub-numbered point
You won't use these as nearly often as you use bulleted points using the asterisk key.
How to indent text
Add a colon to the beginning of a line:
:This text has been indented once
Results in;
- This text has been indented once.
You add multiple colons to make it indent more
- This text has five colons, and thus has been indented five times
- This text has five colons, and thus has been indented five times
HOWEVER, a key problem you have to remember is that different computer monitor displays will actually indent to different amounts. The result is that if you try to center something simply by indenting it, it might look centered on YOUR computer but unknowingly it won't be centered on every computer people are reading it on. For now, just indent once, or maybe indent twice if you really have to.
How to center a line of text
As explained above, just because something looks centered on your screen, using colons to indent, doesn't mean it is centered on everyone else's screen. If you need something centered, there's a special set of wraparound code to put around the text you want centered. Around the "Text you want centered" write:
<div align="center" style="text-decoration:italic;">'''Text you want centered'''</div>
This will result in:
Never indent a line by hitting spacebar!
ALWAYS start writing at the beginning of a new line. DO NOT try to indent by hitting spacebar 5 times like you would in a word processor. This cannot be stressed enough. New paragraphs are made by hitting "Enter" and IMMEDIATELY starting to write something. Do *NOT* hit spacebar to try to indent. You indent by using colon signs, never spacebar. Leaving a space at the beginning of a line screws up the entire wiki code, for the entire paragraph.
It makes the entire thing just go on a SINGLE line. Everything from the entire paragraph. Imagine that you've written a particularly long paragraph with 500 words in it. And you indented it by hitting "spacebar". Now, a SINGLE line of 500 words will just extend to the right hand side of the screen, many times over, screwing up everything. Don't do it.
How to make subheadings on an article
To make subheadings on a page, add sets of equals signs to either side of the subsection's title:
==Heading 1==
==Heading 2==
The number of "=" signs you use changes the size of the subsection's header.
You should always start by using two on each side "==" as seen above. Please never use a single one "=" (those will only occasionally be used).
==Heading 1==
===Subheading 1-A===
==Heading 2==
Headers created by two equals signs will have a line extending across the screen (this makes it easy to tell where one section ends and another begins).
Headers created using 3 ='s on each side do NOT have a line extending across the screen.
You can actually make a large number of ='s signs, for example:
==Heading 1==
===Subheading 1-A===
====Subheading 1-AA====
=====Subheading 1-AAA=====
But please, for now try to avoid doing this. The two equal signs =='s and the ==='s subheaders are all you really need.
Headers with a single "=" sign are possible, but it makes the text even HUGER and is a big garrish. Thus two equals signs "==" are the default. We'll only use the HUGE single "=" ones if a page needs a LOT of subheaders (to avoid using something with like 6 equals signs "======" which is so small its not really much bigger than normal text.
Always write in the Third Person
Always write in the third person. NEVER write "I think this" or "I noticed this". A real encyclopedia would write "it is well known that" not "I know that", etc. etc. Just ask yourself if this were a printed encyclopedia you were reading, what person they'd be speaking in. This isn't a messageboard, it's a collaboratively written encyclopedia.
How to sign your name
DO NOT. SIGN. YOUR NAME.
NEVER sign your name on the ACTUAL article pages themselves. EvaWiki is a group project.
Actually, every wiki page has two pages: the *actual* article, and a "Discussion" page: for example: "Shinji Ikari" and "Talk:Shinji Ikari"
While you are never supposed to sign your name when you make changes to an actual article, you ARE supposed to always sign your name when you leave comments on Talk pages.
To sign your name after something you have written on a Talk page, type two dashes and four tildes, grouped together with no spaces in between: "--~~~~"
What a "Discussion" ("Talk") page is and how to use it
The "Talk" (or "Discussion") pages are essentially where things specific to that page should be talked about; basically you're supposed to talk about problems being encountered on the page on the "Talk" page instead of asking someone in the forums about it; something in the forums can be lost or might not be noticed, while the "Talk" page is basically like a sheet of paper taped onto the real page, on which we pass notes on it back and forth to each other. As it's always located "right next to" the real article (thanks to those little tabs on top) it's just more convenient for day to day issues.
While you must NEVER sign your name on actual article pages, you ALWAYS have to sign your name on Talk pages.
How to create Categories to group multiple pages into
At the bottom of some pages, you can see a "Category" link: this is an easy way to organize articles using MediaWiki. To create a new "Category" to label articles with, type "[[Category:Name of Category]], and add this link to the bottom of an existing page. This should result in a red link (it doesn't exist yet). Click on the link, and just add something like "These are all articles that belong to the (Name of Category)". This will actually create the category. Proceed to adding the Category tag to other pages that it applies to. Always add Category links at the extreme bottom of a page.
How to use Templates
"Templates" are an advanced feature that lets you quickly reproduce the same information on multiple pages. Often this is used for creating "infoboxes", those information boxes you see on Character and Episode Guide pages. If you are a complete and utter newbie to using MediaWiki, you don't actually have to worry about how to create new Templates just yet. Most of the major templates needed for the website (Episode Guide infoboxes, etc.) are already created directly by Admins. You've just got to worry about how to use them.
One of the most basic Templates is the "stub" template: typing "{{stub}}" will auto-generate the template message "This article is a stub. You can help the EvaWiki by expanding it".
The big difference is that while normal links use double brackets like [[]], notice that when you are using a template you use double braces: {{}}
The name of actual Template pages (the page that generates them) is "Template:Name of the Template". Just take "Name of the Template" and put it between double braces on a new page, and this will insert the Template. Thus for "Template:Stub" writing "{{stub}} adds that Template.
Templates are really an advanced feature that can be used for all sorts of things, most importantly the Infoboxes. If you're a newbie and don't understand this at all, you can eventually figure it out by observing how Templates are used on existing pages and "reverse-engineering" them, but basically you don't have to worry about Templates that much for now. Admins will walk you through it if you are confused.
