Editing Help:Editing

==Absolute beginners?==
'''If you can type and click, you can edit most pages on this wiki.'''
#'''Find a page to improve.''' (If you want, you can practice in the [[Project:Sandbox|Sandbox]] first. It's there for "practicing" or experimenting with almost anything. It's a good place to get used to how the wiki works.)
#'''Click "Edit".'''
#An "edit box" will open - '''type''' your new sentences or corrections.
#'''Click the “Save” button''' - (Well, it may be wise to hit the 'Preview" button first, in case of mistakes!)

==More details==
As with all wikis, you can edit any non-[[Wikipedia:Protection policy|protected page]] on this wiki. Your changes will be visible immediately. Just click the "'''edit'''" link that appears near the top of every page.

Explain your edit in the "Summary" box between the edit window and the save and preview buttons (e.g. "typo" or "added info on xyz").

Use the "Show preview" button to check your edit and get the formatting right before saving. Remember to click "'''Save page'''" before moving on.

If you are logged in, you can mark an edit as minor by checking the "This is a minor edit" box to let people know your edit is not something substantive.

To experiment with edits, go to the [[SpongeBob Wiki:Sandbox|Sandbox]] (which is a page for testing edits), and then click the "'''edit'''" link. Add something and click "save."

==Formatting==
Most text formatting is usually done with wiki markup, so you don't have to learn HTML.

===Bold and italics===
'''Bold''' and ''italics'' are added by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):

*<tt><nowiki>''italics''</nowiki></tt> is rendered as ''italics''. (2 apostrophes on each side)
*<tt><nowiki>'''bold'''</nowiki></tt> is rendered as '''bold'''. (3 apostrophes on each side)
*<tt><nowiki>'''''bolded italics'''''</nowiki></tt> is rendered as '''''bolded italics'''''. (2+3=5 apostrophes on each side)

===Headings and subheadings===
Headings and subheadings are an easy way to improve the organization of an article. If you can see two or more distinct topics being discussed, you can break up your article by inserting a heading for each section.

Headings can be created like this:
*<tt><nowiki>==Main heading==</nowiki></tt> (2 equals signs) <!-- it’s not the “top” level -->
*<tt><nowiki>===Subheading===</nowiki></tt> (3 equals signs)
*<tt><nowiki>====Another level down====</nowiki></tt> (4 equals signs)
*<tt><nowiki>=====Another level down=====</nowiki></tt> (5 equals signs)

If an article has at least three headings, a table of contents (TOC) will be automatically generated.  Try creating some headings in the [[SpongeBob Wiki:Sandbox|Sandbox]] and see the effect on the TOC.

===Indenting===
To indent text, place a colon (<tt>:</tt>) right at the beginning of a line. The more colons you put, the further indented the text will be.  A newline (pressing "'''Enter'''" or "'''Return'''") marks the end of the indented paragraph.

For example:
<br><tt>This is aligned all the way to the left.</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>:</nowiki>This is indented slightly.</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>::</nowiki>This is indented more.</tt>
is shown as:
<br>This is aligned all the way to the left.
:This is indented slightly.
::This is indented more.

===Bullet points===
To insert a bullet, use an asterisk (<tt>*</tt>). Similar to rectal indentation, more asterisks in front of a paragraph means more indentation.

A brief example:
:<tt><nowiki>*</nowiki>First list item</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>*</nowiki>Second list item</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>**</nowiki>Sub-list item under second item</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>*</nowiki>Isn’t this fun?</tt>

Which is shown as:
:*First list item
:*Second list item
:**Sub-list item under second item
:*Isn’t this fun?

===Numbered lists===
You can also create numbered lists. For this, use the number sign or hash symbol (<tt>#</tt>).  Using more <tt>#</tt>s will affect the level of indenting.

Example:
:<tt><nowiki>#</nowiki>First item</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>#</nowiki>Second item</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>##</nowiki>Sub-item under second item</tt>
:<tt><nowiki>#</nowiki>Third item</tt>

Shows up as:
:#First item
:#Second item
:##Sub-item under second item
:#Third item

==Links==
Links are an important for others to navigate SpongeBob Wiki.

===Internal links===
You can cross-reference wiki pages using internal links. You can add links to existing titles, and also to articles that are yet to be made.

To make a link to another page on the same wiki, just put the title in double square brackets.

For example, if you want to make a link to, say, the ''Main Page'', it would be:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Main Page]]</nowiki></tt>

If you want to use words other than the article title as the text of the link, you can add an alternative name by adding it after a pipe “|” divider (SHIFT+BACKSLASH on English-layout and other keyboards).

For example, if you wanted to make a link to the [[SpongeBob SquarePants]], but wanted it to say “SpongeBob” you would write it as such:
:<tt><nowiki>[[SpongeBob SquarePants|SpongeBob]]</nowiki>…</tt>

It would appear as:
:[[SpongeBob SquarePants|SpongeBob]]...

When you want to use the plural of an article title (or add any other suffix) for your link, you can add the extra letters directly outside the double square brackets.

For example, you would write:

:<tt><nowiki>[[clarinet]]s</nowiki>.</tt>

It would appear as:

:[[clarinet]]s. (the link will be shown as <font color=red>red</font> if the page does not exist or was deleted)

===Interwiki links===
To link to another wiki, you can use its title followed by a colon and the article name, instead of using the full URL. This will only work for wikis listed in [[Special:Interwiki]].

For example, Super Mario Wiki's home page is at [[mariowiki:Main Page]], which can be typed as
:<nowiki>[[mariowiki:Main Page]]</nowiki>
:rather than as <nowiki>https://www.mariowiki.com/Main_Page</nowiki>

===External links===
If you want to link to an external website, you can simply insert the URL for the page you want to link to.

:http://www.spongebob.com/

It is often more useful to make the link display something other than the URL, so use '''one''' square bracket at each end, with the alternative title after the full URL address, separated by a '''space''' (''not'' a pipe). So if you want the link to appear as [http://www.spongebob.com/ SpongeBob official website], just type:
:<tt><nowiki>[http://www.spongebob.com/ SpongeBob official website]</nowiki></tt>.

===Redirects===
To redirect automatically from one page to another, type <nowiki>#REDIRECT</nowiki> and then put in brackets the name of the page to be redirected to.

For example, you could redirect from "Sponges" to "Sponge." That way, anyone typing either version in the search box will automatically go to "Sponge."

==Wiki variables and templates==
Typing '''''<nowiki>{{SITENAME}}</nowiki>''''' prints out as '''''{{SITENAME}}'''''.

That and a few other templates are common to MediaWiki sites.

Check the [https://spongebobwiki.org/index.php?title=Special:AllPages&from=&namespace=10 list of all templates on SpongeBob Wiki].

You can create templates. After you create the page Template:XXX, using the command <nowiki>{{XXX}}</nowiki> will include that content in your current page. So, if you have something that needs to be included on many other pages, you might want to use a template.

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[[Category:Help|Editing]]