Help

AetoliaWiki uses MediaWiki software, and thus follows the same formatting rules and code conventions as one would see on Wikipedia. This page is a helpful reference on how to perform the most common functions on the wiki.

For advanced users and users wanting much more detailed information, please consult MediaWiki's Help page.

Creating a Page

Creating a new page is very easy, and can be done straight from your URL bar.

Take this:

http://wiki.aetolia.com/Help

And replace with this:

http://wiki.aetolia.com/My New Page

This will, of course, lead you to a screen telling you (usually) that the page doesn't exist. Click edit this page to get started. Alternatively, and probably a little more conveniently, you can simply enter the name of the page you wish to create in the Search box, and if it doesn't already exist, you can create it from there.

Table Of Contents

As you may have noticed, using a header adds a table of contents to your page. There are several ways to interact with the TOC.

__TOC__

Insert this token to place the table of contents at the desired location on your page.

__NOTOC__

Insert this token somewhere in your page to suppress the use of a table of contents.

__FORCETOC__

Insert this token much in the same way you would use __TOC__. It will cause a table of contents to appear regardless of whether the page's structure allows for one (e.g. no headers).

{{tocright}}

This special notation (a template) adds a table of contents, forcing it into a floating window on the right-hand side of the page. Use of this template is preferred on pages very heavy in text, so as not to disrupt the flow of the article.

Links

Creating a link to an article is essential for the wiki to function. All pages must contain at least one link to another page, and must be linked to by at least one page, or else they are called orphans. Orphans are undesirable because without knowing the exact name of the page, they are essentially impossible to find.

See MediaWiki's Link documentation for detailed information on how to use links.

[[YourPage]]

This notation creates a link to the page with the exact name "YourPage". Remember that link names are not case-sensitive ([[yourpage]] or [[yOuRpAgE]] work as well).

[[YourPage|click here for more information]]

This notation utilizes a pipe ("|") character, a very common character in most wiki code. The link format is [[desired page|text displayed on page]]. In the case above, this would result in click here for more information. Clicking it would take you to http://wiki.aetolia.com/YourPage.

External Links

External links allow you to guide users out of the wiki into other pages on the internet. These are done using a single bracket notation.

[http://www.google.com/]

This will create a link on the page leading to Google, with a small icon on the righthand side of the link to indicate it being external. Please do not use this notation, as it does not meet the visual standards of the wiki.

[http://www.google.com/ Click here to visit Google.]

This notation will create an external link with a label, the label defined as any text entered following the URL. In the above example, it would produce Click here to visit Google. on the page. If your URL contains a space, replace any and all spaces with "%20" to avoid breaking the URL.

Anchors

Anchors are ways of creating links to a certain section of a page. These are useful for much larger articles with several different headers and/or chapters.

See MediaWiki's Anchor documentation for detailed information on using anchors.

Interaction with Headers

Headers, the large, boldface text such as the one immediately above this sentence, not only help populate the table of contents, but automatically act as anchors for the purposes of linking. Let's say we had a page called "Gods of Aetolia", and we want to link users to the section of that page concerning Razmael.

[[Gods of Aetolia#Razmael|click here to see information about Razmael]]

This link takes our users to Razmael's section on the Gods of Aetolia page. However, this will only work if there is a header with the exact name Razmael on that page (== Razmael==, ==== Razmael ====, etc.).

Creating an Anchor

<span id="razmael">Razmael is a mysterious entity who watches over Aetolia. He does not...</span>

This case is special. By surrounding a portion of text in the <span> tags, you can create your own anchor. This is handy for linking to certain concepts or key terms on a page; if it needs to be linked to often, though, consider restructuring the page to emphasize that data.

Linking to Category pages

[[:Category:The World of Aetolia]]

To link to the page that represents a category, add a colon before the word "Category".

Images

To upload an image, visit the Special:Upload page. This can also be accessed by the "Upload file" link on the lefthand side of the website. Follow the instructions on the screen to upload your image. Note: Images that do not meet the age guidelines of the game will be removed, and your access to the wiki prohibited.

See MediaWiki's Image documentation for detailed information on using images.

[[Image:MyImage.png]]

This type of link will place your desired image directly on the page.

Redirection

As we are not all mind-readers and do not possess a comprehensive mental map of the entire Wiki, sometimes you forget, and you put a link to Artifact Armor where it should have been Artifact Armour. As you'll notice, however, clicking Artifact Armor takes you directly to the Artifact Armour page. How? The #REDIRECT command.

To use it, simply create (or edit) the page you wish to have redirect, and enter #REDIRECT [[PageName]] at the very top of the edit box, where PageName is the article you want to redirect to. Like crazy Numerology magic, clicking the redirecting link will take you instantly to the intended page.

Redirects are useful for instances in which many articles link to a page that hasn't been created yet, but small discrepancies in the page's name crop up. If, for example, half of the Subterfuge skill articles linked to the Syssin, but the other half linked to the Syssin Defenders, it might be desirable to create the Syssin Defenders page, and put a redirect to Syssin. It's a lot easier than changing all the links, eh?

Templates

Just like forum signatures, everyone knows the best way to make a document look professional is to add myriad blinking lights and enormous, italicized text to it. With templates, this is not just possible, but a cinch! Templates all have unique names, and are added to a point in the page by entering {{TEMPLATE}} wherever you wish to put it, TEMPLATE being, obviously, the name of the template.

For a complete list of templates and what they do, see Templates.

Signatures

Signing off in discussion/talk pages is considered polite. After all, we don't want to have to search through the page's history just to figure out who the hell said something.

Standard signature: --~~~

Hyphens and a name.

Ex: --Lin

Extended signature: --~~~~

Leaves a timestamp. Handy, but not entirely necessary. Recommended on very long talk pages.

Ex: --Lin 05:37, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Simple signature: {{User|YourNameHere}}

Hyphens and your name in bold, plus a link to your talk page and a list of edits you have made. Note: This uses a template: click here.

Ex: --Lin ^{(talk · contr)}

Custom Signatures

A custom signature is possible, and quite easy to create. All that is required is a special page under your user page that contains the contents of your signature.

1. Create a new page with the following name: User:YourNameHere/X. This can be done by manually typing in the page name into your URL bar after "wiki.aetolia.com/" (Ex: wiki.aetolia.com/User:Lin/sig). Alternatively, you can enter User:YourNameHere/X into the Search bar, and click on the option to create the page. For X, I recommend using sig.
2. Use the new page to design the custom signature. Anything from regular text to images may be used, though if your signature is too big, you may be required to resize it. You may view this signature for an example. Note that timestamps (~~~~~) cannot be entered into templates.
3. Once it's finished, you can sign off with it by entering {{User:YourNameHere/X}}.

Ex: {{User:Lin/sig}}

lin