A quick list of things we learned the hard way and some which make the life of admins easier ;)
For more detailed guidelines on all aspects of editing this Wiki visit the Help pages
All info provided by Jade Raven of the Malazan Wiki.
Wiki skins
- You can edit either in the 'Wiki default skin' also referred to as 'Oasis' or in 'MonoBook'. Try both of them by going to your preferences and changing the lay-out from one to the other. Most of the regular contributors use MonoBook for various reasons but whichever you use, it is good to occasionally switch between the two to see how your edits look in the alternate skin.
A few 'do's and don'ts
- It is important that you add a source reference - book and chapter as a minimum - to give your edit credibility - see how to add references - if you are not sure about codes, add the reference in brackets
- It helps if you sort categories, lists etc. in alphabetical order
- Some names may link to a disambiguation page like the name Jan, for example. If you can, please link directly to the page as in 'Jan (Seguleh Second)|Jan' or 'Jan (old man on Jakuruku)|Jan' for example
- Use Preview. It saves time to always preview entries, even when the changes are insignificant. Once you have used preview, it is also often possible, using back/forward button and retry, to recover your editing if you have accidentally deleted what you have written
Wiki codes
- In MonoBook there are a whole raft of blue-text symbols and common codes below the preview button. Simply left click on one of them and it will appear in the edit box at the position where your cursor last was. If you can't find what you want there, please leave a note for Lord of Moon's Spawn
- In Oasis, those symbols appear in a pop-up window if you click on the + symbol above the editing window.
- Some of the most useful Wiki code pages from Community Central
Symbols and related keyboard issues
- The | symbol is part of most keyboards (for example - left of Z or right side, just above the enter key)
- If you get no search result or a link you have made to an existing page isn't working... check if the name contains an apostrophe - there are two types about, ’ and ', and the one you use needs to be identical to that for the page in question. Creating redirects for the alternate versions is work in progress.
- If you are trying to insert a file and it isn't showing, instead of typing in the name or using the auto-prompt, go to the original file page and copy and paste the file name across. The issue may be one of incompatible symbols or similar.
E-readers and similar
- Kindle Fire: To get something from the Kindle to the PC, highlight it, click Share in the pop-up menu, then click Email. The highlighted part appears in an email which you then send to yourself. Now the info is there on the PC to add to Wiki at leisure. Very handy for adding quotes-- just cut & paste. (Be sure to note context, if needed & add chapter number for the ref.)
- PDF: With Acrobat Reader, there are a couple of approaches. It's easy to work with the text directly when editing Wiki. Or, to set something aside to work on later, go to upper right-hand corner & click Tools. After the sidebar opens, click Comments (at top, beside Tools). In Comments, under Annotations, are tools for Highlights & Notes. Anything you highlight will appear in the sidebar. Same for any notes you add. When you want the info, click the item in the side bar to see, edit, cut & paste, etc.
- If you have any questions about 'how to', the search box at Community Central will almost always have the answer.
Images
- Make sure you upload any images under a unique name and, in the case of fan art, please include your name in the title.
- It is important that when uploading images, you add them under relevant sections especially images which contain spoilers. In mobile view, images will otherwise show before text. Preferably no more then two per section.
- Images are sorted in order of book appearance, if two images are of the same event then the one uploaded first should come first unless there is a reason, for example creating a break between two images too much alike.
- For fan art, the following image info should be added in the summary section: name of artist, if possibly link to artist's page, type of upload permission (no permission - no upload!), categories. See example, Blend
- Currently there is a problem with thumbnails where they cannot be centred on monobook, to centre an image remove the thumb attribute. If this is a problem contact me and I will try to expedite a fix.
JR's productivity tips
I use many tricks and tools to help me get things done faster around the wiki. I will list them out here as I recall them. Please note that I use Firefox as my primary internet browser and all listed add-ons may only be available for Firefox.
- Find and Replace is really helpful when you want to change the same thing that appears many times on a page. It's very useful when working on tables or with lists. One caveat is that it has no check-before-action safety so I recommend saving the page before using it and then preview immediately after using it to check the find and replace worked as you expected.
- Using "Ctrl + F" and selecting the "Highlight All" button when working on a large mass of code or long list can greatly speed up a repetitive task and ensure you don't miss anything.
- Google's Search by Image is so useful in everyday usage. When you find an image on the internet right click on it and select "Search this image" from the menu. It's really good for tracking down the source of an image or in finding better quality versions, if they exist. Have an image that needs sourcing? Use this, very quick.
- If you have the ebook versions you can use the search function in ebook viewers to very quickly track down sources. I use Calibre Viewer to effortlessly hunt through the books.
- Sometimes it's really handy to have lots of tabs open when you are working on something (I have 40 Malazan related tabs open at the moment). Tree Style Tabs is what I use to keep everything tidy and under control. I've used it for many, many years and would find it difficult to go without it now.
- If you find yourself repeatedly entering the same thing when editing you can put it in MediaWiki:Edittools, where with one click (2 to 3 clicks in Oasis) you can put it on the page. If you are not an admin then ask me and I will put it in.
- I also use textarea cache which can save stuff written in all sorts of places on the web, including this wiki, from being lost. If you are worried about not catching edit conflicts this can save you a lot of stress and re-writing.
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