User:Toomai/Wiki tips and tricks

If this kind of thing would do better elsewhere, go ahead and move it.

If you've got a tip or trick to add, go ahead and put it.

General

• Always use the preview button. One wrong key can cause an entire page to go out of whack.

Tables

• ALWAYS preview before saving! Mistakes in a single place can make tables look horrendous, especially if you've got merged cells.
• Putting class="wikitable sortable" in a table's header (that is, right after the {|) will allow users to sort the table. This doesn't work if cells are merged, however.
• Generally, things in a table look better when they're centered (with the exception of large blocks of text). Putting style="text-align:center" in the header will center all the text in every cell.
• Generally, tables themselves look better when in the middle of a page. Put align="center" in the header to do this.
• Use ! instead of | when starting cells that are headers. However, you still need to use a | to separate parameters (such as colouring) from the cell's content. Example:

!make it red|put text here!!make it yellow|put text here

Images

• Normally, clicking an image leads to the image itself. However, by adding the link parameter, you can make images just like normal links. Usually, it's best to leave images as linking to themselves, since linking them forces people to look at the source to find out where an image came from. However, there are cases where linking them is better (such as the Tier list templates).

This image leads to File:MarioIcon(SSBB).png	This image leads to Mario (SSBB)
[[File:MarioIcon(SSBB).png|50px]]	[[File:MarioIcon(SSBB).png|50px|link=Mario (SSBB)]]

Formatting

• Formats have to be closed in the opposite order they were opened. Otherwise, odd stuff happens.

This	Looks like this
Text '''[[Main page]]''' Text	Text Main page Text
Text '''[[Main page''']] Text	Text Main page''' Text
Blah <s>cross <sup>yoik</sup> doof</s> bladoonga	Blah cross yoik doof bladoonga
Blah <s>cross <sup>y</s>o<s>ik</sup> doof</s> bladoonga	Blah cross yoik doof bladoonga
Blah <s>cross <sup>yoik</s> doof</sup> bladoonga	Blah cross yoik doof bladoonga

• Colour on the internet is represented by a six-digit hexadecimal number (prefaced on wikis by "#"). Hex numbers use the letters A to F as extra digits - A is 10, while F is 15. Basically, the first two digits are the amount of red, the next two are the green, and the last two are the blue. So, 000000 is pure black, 7F0000 is 50% red (brown), and FFBF7F is 100% red, 75% green, and 50% blue (tan). While adding colour can sometimes be distracting, there are times when it can have a positive effect. Here are some simple colours:

Colour	Slight fade	Medium fade	Strong fade
FF0000	FF3F3F	FF7F7F	FFBFBF
FF7F00	FF9F3F	FFBF7F	FFDFBF
FFFF00	FFFF3F	FFFF7F	FFFFBF
00FF00	3FFF3F	7FFF7F	BFFFBF
00FFFF	3FFFFF	7FFFFF	BFFFFF
0000FF	3F3FFF	7F7FFF	BFBFFF
FF00FF	FF3FFF	FF7FFF	FFBFFF

Templates/Infoboxes

• Many things can be improved by using parser functions (see below).
• If you need to put a | somewhere, but its location causes things to mess up, use {{!}}. A shortcut for || is {{!!}}.

Parser Functions

Basically, a parser function is something that does something based on a condition. Think of it like low-level programming in a wiki page. You'll pretty much always be using this for templates. The best way to explain this kind of stuff is through examples.

Code	Input	Output	What It Does
{{{stuff|Unknown}}}	stuff=Bonk	Bonk	If "stuff" is specified, display it, otherwise display "Unknown".
		Unknown
{{#if:{{{this|}}}|[{{{this}}}]|}}	this=Yes that=No	[Yes]	If "this" is specified, display it in square brackets, otherwise display nothing.
	that=Yes
{{#ifeq:{{{pyro|n}}}|y|Stab|Sap}}	pyro=y	Stab	If "pyro" is equal to "y", display "Stab". If "pyro" is equal to something else, display "Sap". If "pyro" is not specified, assume it is "n" (and therefore display "Sap").
	pyro=n	Sap
		Sap
{{#ifeq:{{{pyro|{{{engy|n}}}}}}|y|Stab|Sap}}	pyro=y	Stab	If "pyro" is equal to "y", display "Stab". If "pyro" is equal to something else, display "Sap". If "pyro" is not specified, then use whatever "engy" is - if that's not specified either, use n (and therefore display "Sap").
	pyro=y engy=n	Stab
	pyro=n engy=y	Stab
	engy=n	Sap
		Sap
{{#expr:100-{{{m}}}}}	m=45	55	Display whatever the result of 100-m is. Be careful with this one, since if an error happens (such as m being a letter or division by zero) it explodes into bold red text.