Help:Editing pages

Any registered user on Fanlore can edit the wiki! Follow this link to create an account.

It only takes a few clicks to edit the contents of a wiki page:

• Click the Edit tab at the top of a page to access the Visual Editor.
  • If you prefer to edit the page source code using wiki markup, click the Edit source tab instead.
• Make changes to the text.
• Click the Save changes button.

Simple as that!

If you want to create a brand new page instead of editing an existing one, refer to Help:Starting a new page and Help:Naming Conventions. Users must wait four hours after registering an account with Fanlore in order to create new pages, as an anti-spam measure.

Editing rules and conventions

The number one rule of wiki editing is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There are all kinds of editing conventions and philosophies governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule is the most important!

In general try to write clearly and concisely and be sure you always aim to improve the wiki with your edits. A valuable edit might contribute whole pages of information, or it might simply fix a typo.

Using the Visual Editor

Selecting the Edit tab at the top of a page (or next to a page section header) will direct you to a Visual Editor that allows you to preview what the edited page will look like as you make changes to it. There is a toolbar near the top of the page, right above the page preview, with options to format the text as you type.

• Left arrow: Undo
• Right arrow: Redo
• Paragraph (Format paragraph): Select whether to enter text as a heading, subheading, preformatted, or block quote. (Avoid using the last option, page title, as this will add a top level header equivalent to the page title, and confuse the formatting.) Block quote formatting is useful for small amounts of quoted text - for longer quotes or sections with lots of quotes, we recommend using Template:Quotation or Template:Quotation2.
• A (Style text): Format your text as bold, italics, superscript, subscript, strikethrough, computer code, language, big, or small. Highlight text and select remove to remove any existing formatting used from this menu.
• Link: add a hyperlink by entering the name of the Fanlore page (internal links only) or the URL (external links only).
  • If you add an internal link, the Visual Editor will insert the name of the page into the text for you. If you want the link text to be something different, you can select it, choose "Change text," and type your desired text.
  • If you insert an external link, it won't have text by default, but you can select it and choose "Add label" to insert the full URL. Alternatively, you can choose "Add label" and then "Change text" to add some different text link.
• Cite: Select Basic to enter the reference you wish to appear as a footnote at the bottom of the page. Click Reuse to select a reference from the existing reference list on this page.
• Structure: Add a bullet list or numbered list, or increase or decrease indentation of items in a list.
• Insert: Choose from one of the following options:
  • Images and media: Search for the name of an existing Fanlore image or media file, or upload your own. For more on how to add files to Fanlore, refer to Help:Managing files and Help:Images.
  • Template: Search for the name of an existing Fanlore template to add to the page. For more information, refer to Help:Templates.
  • Table: Select to add a table to the page. To edit or delete the table, select it, then select Properties or Delete as desired. To insert, move, or delete rows or columns, click on a cell in the table, and then select the arrow that appears above or beside a column or row.
  • Comment: This is for adding coding asides to the source code of a page, and on most pages, should only be used by admins. However, you can use this on your user page to add notes to yourself that will not be visible unless the page is edited.
  • Gallery: Add an image gallery to the page. For more on how to do this, refer to How to create an image gallery on our Help:Images page.
  • References list: Select to insert the list of references at a given point on the page (typically at the bottom).
• Ω (Special character): Select to select one from a list of non-English characters.
• ? (Help): This will bring up the Help menu with three options:
  • Read the user guide - this will direct you to our New Visitor Portal
  • Keyboard shortcuts - brings up a window with a range of keyboard shortcuts for text styling and formatting
  • Leave feedback about this software - you can use this to submit feedback about the Visual Editor mode, which will add a comment with your message and signature to Fanlore:VisualEditor/Feedback. This will automatically include information about your system. You can also use our contact form to reach the Fanlore team directly (and privately), which is just as effective! Warning: do not select "File a technical task", as this will open a Wikimedia page that is unrelated to Fanlore - and will get rid of the window you are inputting text into.
• Next to the ? is an additional hamburger (three lines) menu, with some additional options:
  • Options: Select Options or choose from the following options:
  • Categories: Add a category to the page or enter an alternate name by which to sort this page within category pages. (In markup, this is the equivalent of the magic word DEFAULTSORT.)
    • For example, for a page "Harry Potter," you could enter the alternate name "Potter, Harry" to alphabetize the page by the character's last name on category pages on which this page appears.
  • Page settings: Redirect the page (refer to Help:Redirects to learn more about redirecting), select whether to display a table of contents (this will appear by default on pages with four or more headings) or identify the page as a disambiguation page.
  • Advanced settings (In the "options" menu): The top two settings here should be set to "Default"; "Display title" can be used to alter the capitalization of your page, such as by changing Due South to due South. (In markup, this is the equivalent of the magic word DISPLAYTITLE).
  • Languages (In the "options" menu): As Fanlore is only in English, this option does not do anything.
  • Templates used: Display a list of the templates that appear on the page.
  • View as right to left: This will switch the layout of your text from left-to-right to right-to-left. We don't recommend it for writing in English!
  • Find and replace: Can be used to helpfully auto-replace any word on the page with another word, or mass-replace all uses of one word with another word (using "Replace all").

Using the Source Editor

If you feel confident using wiki markup to format your text, you can use the Source Editor instead of the Visual Editor by selecting "Edit Source" at the top of the page or next to a page section header. For more information about how to use wiki markup, refer to Help:Formatting and Help:Cheatsheet.

Edit Summary

When you click Save changes, you can enter a short note in the Summary box describing your changes. (If you Edit source rather than Edit the page, the Summary box will appear on the edit page for you to fill in before clicking Save changes.) Don't spend too much time thinking about this. Just try to give a little description of what you changed, e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".

The summary gets stored alongside your edit and allows people to track changes in the wiki more effectively.

Reviewing your changes

It's a good idea to preview your changes before you save to make sure that all your formatting appears as expected and there are no typos. In the Visual Editor, you can do this by selecting Save page… and then Review your changes to check your work. You can select the back arrow to go back and make any further changes. In Source Editor mode, you can use the Show preview button to check your work before saving.

Discussing edits

Every article has its own "Talk page" where you can ask questions, make suggestions, or discuss corrections. Talk pages can only be edited by editing the source using wiki markup. Refer to Help:Talk pages#Formatting for more information.

Other types of editing

Refer to Help:Starting a new page and Help:Naming Conventions for more information on creating new pages.

Gardeners, Policy & Admin volunteers and Advanced Editors can also move (rename) and delete existing pages.

Other Help Pages

• Editing Cheatsheet
• How to start a new page
• What categories to add to a page
• What templates to add to a page
• How to format a citation
• Help:Wikitext Examples

For any other questions, you can use the Talk page or contact the Fanlore Committee.