Editing Tutorial

[[Category:Help]]
<font size=3>'''Basic Instructions on How to Create Pages in the Earthen Ring Wiki'''</font>
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=Introduction=
A wiki is an encyclopedia, open for people to add to as they see fit.  For Earthen Ring, this means that we can finally begin to organize and publish the years of information and events that have happened on our server, and gather resources for future projects.

Also, this be fun to browse through when bored.

'''This tutorial will give a brief introduction of the basic methods of editing the Earthen Ring Wiki.'''  Whether you read through all of it, or just skim to the parts you really need, this should provide the basics for how to set up your pages.

=Create an account!=
On the upper right hand part of the screen, you should see a link stating “Create an account or log in.” Click it and follow the instructions on the next page to create your account. Now you're ready to make your first page.

=Creating the page.=
The easiest way to create the page is to simply place into the URL what you want for your page to be.  So the basic format would be, ''<nowiki>http://earthenring.wikia.com/wiki/<insert title here></nowiki>''

Example being, ''<nowiki>http://earthenring.wikia.com/wiki/Bob</nowiki>''

The names are case sensitive for page creation; all lower case letters will forever give the page a title in all lower case.  When referencing the page after creation, though, capitalization is not an issue. Also, if the page you wish to create has multiple words in the title, you can separate the words by a simple underscore (“_”).

For example, ''<nowiki>http://earthenring.wikia.com/wiki/Insert_Story_Name</nowiki>''

=Editing your page=
At the top of the page, there should be a small tab called “Edit.” Click it and it will bring you to the edit page. You should see a nice big white text box with nothing in it. This is your canvas. There are a few buttons to the top for the simple formatting such as Bold, Italics, Links, and Pictures. The third button from the left, a small button with the text Ab in a light blue, is the internal link button. This button makes it easy to link other pages within the Wiki. To use this button, simply enter the exact name of the page that you wish to link to, highlight it, and click the button. This will produce results such as, ''<nowiki>[[Stormwind]]</nowiki>''  There are a few other buttons for things that are for more advanced formatting that will not be covered here. 

For basic formatting sections, you will place the section name within a series of “=” marks. You can have a total of four different types of headings. For example, if you wish to have a section for history, skills, and stories the formatting would look a little like this

<nowiki>= History =</nowiki>

<Insert History>

<nowiki>= Skills =</nowiki>

<Insert Skills>

<nowiki>= Stories =</nowiki>

<Insert stories>


Also, if you wish to have subsections within the sections, it is easy to do as well. Simply add the subsections within the section you wish by simply using a different formatting mark. So for exmaple:


<nowiki>= History =</nowiki>
 
<nowiki>== Pre war ==</nowiki>

<insert text>

<nowiki>== Post war==</nowiki>

<insert text>

After four different sections, the wiki will automatically create a small table of contents for you. Rather nice and handy looking. Also, to simply add a picture into your page, post the url within the wiki. There are ways to format it, but they will not be covered in here.  Reference other pages to see how it is done there.

=Images=
When making a wide variety of pages on the site, one would likely want some sort of supplemental picture--a character sketch, a map, or the like.  There are several different methods of inserting pictures into the wiki.

==Uploading an Image==
The wiki is capable of storing most images locally.  These are typically within a certain size limit.  If the image is too big for typical hosting, you will be requested to not upload the image and host off-site.

To upload an image, go to the "Upload File" link in the toolbox panel on the left side of the wiki.  From there, you may browse for and select the picture you wish to upload.  A name will automatically be given to the picture for wiki use, though you may change this if you wish.  Next, fill out the Summary field, making sure to include artist's credit when necessary. Beneath the summary box, choose the license that best fits the image you are uploading. Images without the required license information and artist's credit and/or link to a source (for copyleft licensed images and public domain) may be subject to deletion.

From this, hit Upload.

==Displaying an Image==
You may directly link to an image on the wiki by typing, ''<nowiki>[[Image:ImageName.xxx]]</nowiki>'', where ''xxx'' is the file extension.  To make the picture appear on the right side of your text, type, ''<nowiki>[[Image:Imagename.xxx|right]]</nowiki>''  ("left" will make the image appear on the left, and "center" will center it).

To show a thumbnail of the image, use the format, ''<nowiki>[[Image:{name}|{type}|{location}|{size}|{caption}]]</nowiki>''.

[[Image:ER_Shaman.gif|thumb|200px|left|'Little' Araki Earthmold, the ER Wiki Mascot]]
'''Type'''  
:'thumb' / 'thumbnail' or 'frame'. Causes image to be displayed with specific formatting (see below). 
'''Location  '''
:'right', 'left', 'center' or 'none'. Determines placement of the image on the page. 
'''Size'''  
:{width}px (e.g. 50px), scales the image to the given width, keeping its aspect ratio. 
'''Caption  '''
:Any element which cannot be identified as one of the above is assumed to be caption text. 


So, for example, the line ''<nowiki>[[Image:ER_Shaman.gif|thumb|200px|left|'Little' Araki Earthmold, the ER Wiki Mascot]]</nowiki>'' would produce the thumbnail above.

==Displaying Outside Images==
To display an image from outside the wiki a bit more work must be done.  Typically, this should be used only if the image is very large in file size.  To do this, use the following format as a guideline.:

:<nowiki>{| style="background-color:white; float:right; padding-left:8px;"</nowiki>
:|-
:|<nowiki> align="center" |http://www.myimagelocation.com/ImageName.xxx</nowiki>
:|-
:| align="center" This is an image not on the wiki.  It is positioned on the right side of the page, with 8 pixels on the left for padding.  This is the caption beneath it.
:|}

=Categories=
Categories are the main way that the wiki organizes pages. Adding a category is very simple. Type ''<nowiki>[[Category:<Category_Name>]]</nowiki>'' Only one category can be declared in one statement. So if you were a Horde Orc you would need to put:

''<nowiki>[[Category:Horde]]</nowiki>''

''<nowiki>[[Category:Orc]]</nowiki>''

This will allow people to go to the Horde category page or the Orc category page and find your character. The categories you will want to have for characters are Faction, Race, and Class. Events are simple as well, as the category name is Events. Stories are under the category Stories. Items, concepts, and ideas are located under the category Miscellaneous.

''Locations'' and ''Guilds'' are a tad more involved.

Locations are broken up into two categories, ''Eastern_Kingdoms'' and ''Kalimdor''. Be sure to use the correct category tag. Guilds are a tad more involved. First it requires a guild page to be created, and from there the category tags Alliance_Guilds or Horde_Guilds must be applied to the guild page. It is also highly recommended that the guild leader or the one who created the page to come up with their own category name for their members so the members can add the specified category to their page. For example, the Bob's Militia guild page would have the Horde_Guilds category tag. Then the leader of Bob's Militia creates a category called Bobs_Militiamen for the guild members. All the members of Bob's Militia add ''<nowiki>[[Category:Bobs_Militiamen]]</nowiki>'' into their profile. The code ''<nowiki>[http://earthenring.elwiki.com/index.php/Category:Bobs_Militiamen Members]</nowiki>'' may be added to guild webpage to make a link to all members of the guild.

Some common categories include:
*[[:Category:Stories| Stories]] ''<nowiki>[[Category:Stories]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Alliance_Guilds| Alliance Guilds]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Alliance_Guilds]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Horde_Guilds| Horde Guilds]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Horde_Guilds]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Groups| Groups]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Groups]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Warrior| Warrior]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Warrior]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Night_Elf| Night Elf]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Night_Elf]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Events| Events]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Events]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Eastern_Kingdoms| Eastern Kingdoms]]  ''<nowiki>[[Category:Eastern_Kingdoms]]</nowiki>''
*[[:Category:Miscellaneous| Miscellaneous]] ''<nowiki>[[Category:Miscellaneous]]</nowiki>''

To see examples of other existing categories, visit the [[:Special:Categories| Categories]] page.

=Tips=
*For further help, see the in-depth Wikipedia help documents.  [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents Wikipedia help]
*Try to add to an article before creating a new page.  Create a new page only when a topic really stands alone.
*Be creative. These pages are created by users for others to enjoy, so go wild and have fun with them
*There are things that have not been covered in terms of formatting among other things. Feel free to look them up and impress others.
*If you like the way someone has created their page, feel free to view the source and use what they made. Wiki is open source for a reason!
*Vandalizing is not tolerated. Any forms of vandalizing others pages or creating offensive pages will be dealt with through a variety of suspensions or bans.