Help:Make a Wiki page

Basic Editing

Editing a Wiki page is very easy. Simply click on the "Edit this page" tab at the top (or the edit link at the beginning of each section, to just edit that section) of a Wiki page. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the editable text of that page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox; not here. Before submitting your changes, write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes. When you have finished, press preview to check how your changes will look. This way, you can make sure you've done everything correctly and save some edits. If you're happy with what you see, press "Save" and your changes will be immediately applied to the article.

Discussion Pages

You can also click on the "Discussion" tab at the top of the article to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other KoLWiki users. Click on the "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page. Use talk pages for questions, comments, or raw data.

Wiki markup

The wiki markup is the syntax system you can use to format a KoLWiki page.

In the left column of the table below, you can see the various wiki markup effects. In the right column, you can see how the code used to create those effects.

You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. Again, if you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the sandbox. Try opening the Sandbox in a separate window or tab and keeping this page open for reference.

Sections, paragraphs, lists, and lines

What it looks like What you type

New section

Subsection

Sub-subsection

==New section==

===Subsection===

====Sub-subsection====

Sections on a page should be divided starting with second-level headings (==); do not use first-level headings (=).
Do not skip levels (for example, second-level followed by fourth-level).
A Table of Contents will automatically be added to an article that has four or more sections.

A single newline generally has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the function diff (used internally to compare different versions of a page).

But an empty line starts a new paragraph.

A single newline
generally has no effect on the layout. 
These can be used to separate
sentences within a paragraph.
Some editors find that this aids editing
and improves the function ''diff'' 
(used internally to compare
different versions of a page).

But an empty line
starts a new paragraph.

When used in a list, a newline does affect the layout (see below).

You can break lines
without starting a new paragraph.

You can break lines<br/>
without starting a new paragraph.

Please use this sparingly.
Close markup between lines, do not start a link or italics or bold on one line and close it on the next.

Lists are easy to do:
- Start every line with a star (asterisk).
  - More stars means deeper levels.
    - A newline in a list

marks the end of a list item.

An empty line starts a new list.

* Lists are easy to do:
** Start every line with a star.
*** More stars means deeper levels.
**** A newline in a list
marks the end of a list item.

* An empty line starts a new list.

Numbered lists are also good
1. very organized
2. easy to follow
  1. easier still

# Numbered lists are also good
## very organized
## easy to follow
### easier still

You can even do mixed lists
1. and nest them
  - like this

* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this

Definition list: list of definitions
item: the item's definition
another item: the other item's definition

; Definition list : list of definitions
; item : the item's definition
; another item
: the other item's definition

One item per line; a newline can appear before the colon, but using a space before the colon is easier to read.

A colon indents a line or paragraph.

A manual newline starts a new paragraph.

: A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.

This is primarily for displayed material, but is also used for discussion on talk pages.

IF a line starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines will not wrap;
ENDIF

 IF a line starts with a space THEN
 it will be formatted exactly
 as typed;
 in a fixed-width font;
 lines will not wrap;
 ENDIF

This type of formatting is almost never used on the KoLWiki.
WARNING: Formatting this way will turn off any kind of line-wrapping. In other words, if you post a very long sentence with a space before it, the page will stretch horizontally to accommodate the entire line of text.

A horizontal dividing line: this is above it

and this is below it.

A horizontal dividing line:
this is above it
----
and this is below it.

Mainly useful for separating threads on Talk pages.
Also used to disambiguate within an article without creating a separate page.

Links and URLs

What it looks like	What you type
Seal Clubbers have access to The Brotherhood of the Smackdown. A link to another VisualWiki article. Internally, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended). Thus the link above is to the URL http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/The_Brotherhood_of_the_Smackdown, which is the VisualWiki article with the name "The Brotherhood of the Smackdown".	Seal Clubbers have access to [[The Brotherhood of the Smackdown]].
Turtle Tamers also have access to this area. Same target, different name. This is a piped link.	Turtle Tamers also have access to [[The Brotherhood of the Smackdown\|this area]].
Some Adventurers in the Kingdom of Loathing have custom avatar forms. These are used to make custom avatars. Examples include BoozerBear's, Bashy's, and Mr Skullhead's. Endings are blended into the link. Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible.	Some Adventurers in the Kingdom of Loathing have [[custom avatar form]]s. These are used to make custom avatars. Examples include [[BoozerBear]]'s, [[Bashy]]'s, and [[Mr Skullhead]]'s.
Sauceror#Levels is a link to a section within another page. #Links and URLs is a link to a section on the current page. #example is a link to an anchor that was created using an id attribute The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case, and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections are not broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page. Identifiers may be created by attaching an `id="...">` attribute to almost any HTML element.	[[Sauceror#Levels]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Links and URLs]] is a link to a section on the current page. [[#example]] is a link to an anchor that was created using <div id="example">an id attribute</div>
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority. The server fills in the part after the pipe character (\|) when you save the page. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page (see previous entry).	Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority (skill) \|Stevedave's Shanty of Superiority]].
The study of bugbear eating habits in the woods is a page that does not exist yet. You can create it by clicking on the link (but please do not do so with this particular link). To create a new page: Create a link to it on some other (related) page. Save that page. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing. For more information, see How to start a page and check out Wikipedia's naming conventions. Please do not create a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.	[[The study of bugbear eating habits in the woods]] is a page that does not exist yet.
When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name: Shady McLain or four to add user name plus date/time: Shady McLain 13:57, 4 May 2006 (CDT) Five tildes gives the date/time alone: 13:57, 4 May 2006 (CDT) The first two both provide a link to your user page.	When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name: : ~~~ or four for user name plus date/time: : ~~~~ Five tildes gives the date/time alone: : ~~~~~
Redirect one article title to another by placing a directive like the one shown to the right on the first line of the article (such as at a page titled "Optimal Ascension Familiar"). Note that, while it is possible to link to a section, it is not possible to redirect to a section. For example, "#REDIRECT [[O.A.F.#Notes]]" will redirect to the O.A.F. page, but not to any particular section on it. This feature will not be implemented in the future, so such redirects should not be used.	#REDIRECT [[O.A.F.]]
What links here and Related changes pages can be linked as: Special:Whatlinkshere/Make a Wiki page and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Make a Wiki page	'''What links here''' and '''Related changes''' pages can be linked as: [[Special:Whatlinkshere/Make a Wiki page]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked/Make a Wiki page]]
A user's Contributions page can be linked as: Special:Contributions/UserName or Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0	A user's '''Contributions''' page can be linked as: [[Special:Contributions/UserName]] or [[Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0]]
To put an article in a category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. It does not matter where you put these links while editing as they will always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended.	[[Category:Character sets]]
To link to a category page without putting the article into the category, use an initial colon (:) in the link.	[[:Category:Character sets]]
Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: Bare URL: http://kol.coldfront.net/ (bad style) Unnamed link: [1] (very bad style) Named link: KoL Coldfront Square brackets indicate an external link. Note the use of a space (not a pipe) to separate the URL from the link text in the "named" version. In the URL, all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ \ / ~ % - + & # ? ! = ( ) @ \x80-\xFF If a URL contains a character not in this list, it should be encoded by using a percent sign (%) followed by the hexadecimal code of the character, which can be found in the table of ASCII printable characters. For example, the caret character (^) would be encoded in a URL as %5E.	Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: # Bare URL: http://kol.coldfront.net/ (bad style) # Unnamed link: [http://kol.coldfront.net/] ('''very bad style''') # Named link: [http://kol.coldfront.net/ KoL Coldfront]
Linking to other wikis: Interwiki link: Wiktionary:hello Named interwiki link: hello Interwiki link without prefix: hello All of these forms lead to the URL http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hello Note that interwiki links use the internal link style. See Interwiki map for the list of shortcuts; if the site you want to link to is not on the list, use an external link (see above). Is this necessary? I know there are some pages on here that link to Wikipedia.	Linking to other wikis: # Interwiki link: [[Wiktionary:hello]] # Named interwiki link: [[Wiktionary:hello\|hello]] # Interwiki link without prefix: [[Wiktionary:hello\|]]
Date formats: July 20, 1969 20 July 1969 1969-07-20 1969-07-20 Link dates in one of the above formats, so that everyone can set their own display order. If logged in, you can use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting. All of the above dates will appear as "20 July 1969" if you set your date display preference to "15 January 2001", but as "20 July, 1969" if you set it to "January 15, 2001", or as "1969-July 20" if you set it to "2001-01-15".	Date formats: # [[July 20]], [[1969]] # [[20 July]] [[1969]] # [[1969]]-[[07-20]] # [[1969-07-20]]

Images

What it looks like

What you type

A picture:

or, with alternative text:

or, floating to the right side of the page and with a caption:

Sock Monkey

or, floating to the right side of the page without a caption:

Only images that have been uploaded to The KoL Wiki can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.
Alternative text, used when the image is not loaded, in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is encouraged.
The frame tag automatically floats the image right.

A picture: [[File:Sockmonk.gif]]

or, with alternative text:
[[File:Sockmonk.gif|Sock Monkey]]

or, floating to the right side of the page and with a caption:
[[File:Sockmonk.gif|frame|Sock Monkey]]

or, floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption:
[[File:Sockmonk.gif|right|Sock Monkey]]

Clicking on an uploaded image displays a description page, which you can also link directly to: File:Sockmonk.gif


[[:File:Sockmonk.gif]]

To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.

Image of a Sock Monkey



[[media:Sockmonk.gif|Image of a Sock Monkey]]

Character formatting

What it looks like	What you type
Emphasize, strongly, very strongly. These are double, triple, and quintuple apostrophes (single-quote marks), not double-quote marks.	''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''.
You can use small text for captions.	You can use <small>small text</small> for captions.
You can ~~strike out deleted material~~ and underline new material. You can also mark ~~deleted material~~ and inserted material using logical markup rather than visual markup. When editing regular VisualWiki articles, just make your changes and do not mark them up in any special way. When editing your own previous remarks in talk pages, it is sometimes appropriate to mark up deleted or inserted material.	You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup rather than visual markup.
Diacritical marks: À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ Should we cut this down to only the diacritical marks used in KoL?	À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô &oelig; õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ
Punctuation: ¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ”	¿ ¡ § ¶ &dagger; &Dagger; • – — &lsaquo; &rsaquo; « » ‘ ’ “ ”
Commercial symbols: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤	™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤
Subscripts: x₁ x₂ x₃ or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ Superscripts: x¹ x² x³ or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ The latter methods of sub/superscripting cannot be used in the most general context, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. For the 1-2-3 superscripts, it is nevertheless preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it. ε₀ = 8.85 × 10⁻¹² C² / J m. 1 hectare = 1 E4 m²	x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or <br/> x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ <br/> x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or <br/> x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ <br/> x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. 1 hectare = 1 E4 m²
Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω	α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ &sigmaf; τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω
Suppressing interpretation of markup: Link → (''to'') the [[Kol Wiki FAQ]] Used to show literal data that would otherwise have special meaning. Escape all wiki markup, including that which looks like HTML tags. Does not escape HTML character references. To escape HTML character references such as `→` use `&rarr;`	<nowiki>Link → (''to'') the [[KoL Wiki FAQ]]</nowiki>
Commenting page source: not shown when viewing page Used to leave comments in a page for future editors. Note that most comments should go on the appropriate talk page.	<!-- comment here -->

At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the TOC to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear.

Tables

There are two ways to build tables:

in special Wiki-markup (see Help:Table)
with the usual HTML elements: <table>, <tr>, <td> or <th>.

For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see How to use tables.

Variables

(See also Help:Variable)

Code	Effect
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	03
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	March
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	March
{{CURRENTDAY}}	27
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Thursday
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2025
{{CURRENTTIME}}	17:11
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	23,171
{{PAGENAME}}	Make a Wiki page
{{NAMESPACE}}	Help
{{localurl:pagename}}	/thekolwiki/index.php/Pagename
{{localurl:Wikipedia:Sandbox\|action=edit}}	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox?action=edit
{{SERVER}}	https://kol.coldfront.net
{{ns:1}}	Talk
{{ns:2}}	User
{{ns:3}}	User talk
{{ns:4}}	TheKolWiki
{{ns:5}}	TheKolWiki talk
{{ns:6}}	File
{{ns:7}}	File talk
{{ns:8}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}}	Template
{{ns:11}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}}	Help
{{ns:13}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}}	Category
{{ns:15}}	Category talk
{{ns:100}}	Data
{{ns:101}}	Data talk
{{SITENAME}}	TheKolWiki

NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.

CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.

In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like {{grammar:case|word}} to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, {{grammar:genitive|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}} means the same as {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}.

Templates

The MediaWiki software used by the KoL Wiki has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as tables comparing zapped items) can be inserted into articles. For example, typing {{ZAP Dungeon of Doom Rings}} will make cause the table showing what you can receive by zapping a Dungeon of Doom ring to be displayed when the page is saved. Other commonly used ones are: {{disambig}} for disambiguation pages and {{spoiler}} for spoiler warnings.

For creating templates see Template:Test and the help page.

Hiding the edit links

Insert __NOEDITSECTION__ into the document to suppress the edit links that appear next to every section header.

More information on editing wiki pages

You may also want to learn about:

How to start a page
Informal tips on contributing to the KoL Wiki
Style conventions in the Manual of Style

Help:Make a Wiki page

Contents

Basic Editing

Discussion Pages

Wiki markup

Sections, paragraphs, lists, and lines

Links and URLs

Images

Character formatting

Table of Contents

Placement of the Table of Contents (TOC)

Tables

Variables

Templates

Hiding the edit links

More information on editing wiki pages

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

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