Front cover WFN

The front cover of Wikia For Noobs.

Page 1: What the heck is Wikia?

Wikia is a community that allows people to share wikis, with different themes and titles. Everyone can join Wikia and start editing, and creating his own wikis! It's free!

Page 2: What is a "wiki"?

A "wiki" is a website, or a subcategory of a website, which has a theme and it`s own special name. A wiki called "The Zelda Wiki", will have tons of information for The Legend of Zelda.

Page 3: Cool! Can I make my own wiki?

Yes. You don't need to have anything special! Just create a Wikia account, and click the "Start a wiki" button located at the top of every page. You will be asked for a wiki name, address and language. When you click continue, you will be asked to register, if you haven't. Then after several other steps, you will have your wiki!

Page 4: Now, what?

Start editing your wiki, create pages, try to get your progress bar to 100% etc. You can do anything you want. It's up to you to explore in Wikia!

Page 5: What is the Admin DashBoard?

That's a Special Page. You get accsess to it only if you are a Founder or an Admin. To accsess it, click on "Admin" on the bar that follows you across the screen, or go to Special:AdminDashboard.

There has different things. The most important thing is the Wiki Progress Bar. It's located on the top-right corner on the DashBoard. It will first display 0%. Click on "See full list", to view a list with tasks that you can complete.

There are several glitched tasks. They include:

-Upload a wordmark

-Facebook Connect

-Reach 3 Facebook likes (Not sure about it.)

There are many other. These can't be completed, even if you try to do them 3 times.

I preffer you add these in the skip list. (See "Skipping tasks")

Page 6: What is the Admin DashBoard? Part 2

What is Skipping Tasks?
Feel like a task will not mach the wiki? Don`t worry! - Hover it with your mouse :and click "Skip this task". Just be careful - if you complete a task which is in :the Skip List, it will count as completed.
Blocking users... Hmm...
WARNING: Don't do this randomly, just to show that you are an admin! This will make the following thing:
You block a user randomly -> He tells a friend, who tought to join your wiki -> He is afraid not to block him -> You lose a user
To block a user, go the Admin DashBoard, click on Advanced, search for Block a user, type in the user name, fill in some other options and click Block.

Page 7: The user account

If you go to your user page, you will see a bunch of information that you must fill in. Let's start with your avatar.

First you will see a blank image, with a user on it. Hover the avatar with your mouse and click the "Edit avatar" link, that appears. Follow the instructions, to add your avatar. Let's continue with the personal information.

You see these blank things, (Location, Gender etc.) on the right? Hover that part, and click the "Edit" link that appers on the rop-right corner of the user panel. Fill in everything you want the users to know, and click "Save, I'm done". Now, let`s continue on the profile information.

You will see a bunch of useless text on the bottom of the MastHead. Click the "Edit profile" button, to edit your profile.

Page 8: The Rich Text Editor (RTE)

The RTE is Wikia's text editor. It features Source Mode and Visual Mode. It has much of different features.
The right rail (RR)
The right rail is the bar you see at the right side of the screen. In it you can:
Add a summary of your edit
Preview and publish your edit
Add photos, galleries etc.
Add the page to a category while editing
Add a template
The top part of the RR
From there you can:
Make your edit a Minor Edit, by checking the "Minor edit" checkbox
Leave an edit summary
Preview your work
Publish your work
The second part of the RR
The second part (Add features and media) of the RR has some "coolies". It includes:
Feature to add a photo
Feature to add a gallery
Feature to add a slideshow
Feature to add a main page slider
Feature to add a video
Feature to adda table
The third part of the RR
In the third part of the RR (Categories), you can add the page to a category while editing. To expand it, click on the "Categories" text. Type a category name in the upper box, and hit Enter. The lower box shows the current categories. If you hover a cetogry, you will get two options. They are self-Explanatory.
The fourth part of the RR
In the fourth part of the RR (Templates), you can add templates straight into your code. Read the helpers page, to know more about them.

Page 9: The Rich Text Editor (RTE) Part 2

Visual Mode
Visual mode is the mode that is turned on by default when you click the "Edit this page" button. There are some exceptions. Is easy to edit and work with it, because it has everything ready! You just click the format buttons!
Source Mode
You can switch to Source mode, by clicking "Source" on the top of the editor page. Everything will lose its design and turn into code. This is for advanced users, so don`t bore with it. Some pages require you to practice how to edit in Source Mode, because Visual Mode is disabled. If you try to switch on it, you will get:
Source Mode required!
Rich Text Editing has been disbled because the page contains complex code.
The templates are used to display a theme and customizable text. To display a template use:
For more information, see this page.

Page 10: What is the "wiki navigation"?

The Wiki navigation is the menu that you see at the top of your wiki. You can edit it, if you are a founder or an admin. Hover one menu, and click "Edit this menu" to go the edit page. There you can edit every menu!

What does everything mean?
One asterisk (*) means a menu and two asterisks (**) mean an item.
Wait, is there a limit?
Yep. Four menus and seven items per a menu.
Well that sucks! I want more! I think I will leave the wiki.
Not so quick! There is a cheat. Three asterisks (***) for a menu and four asterisks for an item (****). This will give you unlimited number of menus and items! Cool, eh?

Page 11: The Community Corner

"Community Corner" does not make any sense to me. Can you explain?
Sure. The Community Corner is a short message that an admin can change. Click "Wiki Activity" on the top-right side of a page. Scroll down to see the Community Corner.
How do I change the message in that crap?
You go to this "crap", then click "Edit community message". You use the same old Wikia things and click "Publish".

Page 12: Chat

Yep. Here we have a chat! Click the "Join the chat" button to join it!
Extra buttons?
The extra buttons are Chat Hacks. Click AFK to switch through the away status, and click Clear to clear the chat box. On the up, there's a ping list. Type anything in it, and it should become red when someone says it.
What does a star next to a username mean?
That means a chat moderator/admin. Be careful with these users, because they can kickban you. But, remember! They are also humans and kickban only if you spam, violate the rules of the wiki etc. Feel free to talk to them! They can give you serious advice.
Wait, what is a kickban?
You should avoid getting kickbanned. This means, that you can no longer join the chat. Don't create new accounts just to join, because we can block you.
I want more! Is that permanent, can you get un-kickbanned?
That is permanent. You can't join until you get suspended by an admin.
I wanted to ask about admin/chat moderator permissions, but I can get kickbanned!
No, you can't. A Founders means Admin means Chat Moderator. No matter what the user group is (staff, bureacrat, admin etc.) they can't kickban each other. Only normal users can be kickbanned.
Private Chat?
Yes. To open a private chat, click on a username in the right list and click "Private Message". The chat that will open can be seen only by you and the user who chats with you. To return, click the wiki wordmark on the top-right side of the scren.

Page 13: Starting your own topic

You've learned enough about Wikia, so it's time for me to show you how to create your own articles.
Ha! Ha! That is cool! Let's begin!
Okay. So first you need to click "Add a Page" found on the right hand side of every article. A pop-up box will show. Type the name of your article. Then choose the type. A standart layout, or a blank page. In some wikis Top 10 Lists are aviable, too. Then just click <ENTER>.
Same as the edit page. Just blank.
Yeah. You must write the article on your own!
But, what to include?
First is the intro. Write something short about the thing you are describing. Then type a name of a section, like "Modes". Then make it a level 2 heading, by clicking on the text and choosing "Heading 2" from the "Format" menu. Then on the next line write about the thing you will describe in that heading. Repeat for other level headings.
Something else?
Yes! If you have fun facts or something other about the thing you are describing, make a "Trivia" heading. Then put everyting under it, by marking with a "-" or a bulleted list.

Page 14: Tips of the Pro

In this pages, you will get some information on how to become a Pro on Wikia.

The confusing Source Mode! Part 1
Source Mode mode is very confusing, isn't it? Here are some tips and tricks you can do.
Buttons on the top!
So, there are buttons on the top. The first one is a B. When you select something and click that button, three single quotes (''') will appear around the selected text. In Source Mode, that means Bold-Styled-Text. The second button is an I. When you select something and click the button, two single quotes ('') will appear around the text. In Source Mode, that means Italic-Styled-Text. The third button is Ab. When you click it, [[Link title]] will appear. You must type a valid page name where the highlighted text is. I Source Mode, that means an Internal Link (A link to a page in the wiki). The last button we will explain is a button with the world and a little file on it. When you click it, [ link title] will appear. In the URL-ish part you must type the URL of a website and after the space - the text you want to appear. In Source Mode, that means an External Link (A link to another website).

Page 15: Special Pages

So, I looked over the wiki and I noticed that some pages begin with Special
As you may noticed in the title, these are the so-called Special Pages. There are some famous, like Special:Random. By going here, you will be taken into a random article. If you define a target, however, you can search for namespaces. For intstance, going to Special:Random/Template will get you to a random choosen template page.
Can I have a list of all the Special Pages?
There are lots of them. Making a list will pretty much mess up the book. But, no worries! Go to here: Special:SpecialPages. That is a list of all the Special pages, that exist in Wikia.
Can I create a Special Page?
Heh... No! You must contact Wikia, so they can make you one.