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Help:Editing

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To edit a page, click "Edit" near the top of the page. When you are finished, click "Show Preview" to preview your changes. If you are satisfied, enter a summary of your changes in the "Summary:" box and click "Save Page". Entering a summary allows you explain to other editors why you made a certain change.

If your edit was a minor correction, such as a grammar, spelling, or minor formatting change, you may tick the "This is a minor edit" box. Minor edits can be excluded on the Recent changes page, making it easier for other editors to review major changes. Ticking the "Watch this page" box adds the page to your Watchlist, which allows you to track changes to particular pages.

Please Note: If you want to try out or practice wiki markup or other formatting, please use the Sandbox, not an actual article.

Adding New Pages

To add a new page, first search for it to make sure it doesn't already exist at a different name. Click the red link on the top of the search results page to add it as a new page. You can also click any red link and it will automatically take you to the edit page.

  • Be sure to add any appropriate templates, such as character boxes, navigation elements, etc.
  • If your page lacks images, be sure to add {{noimage}}.
  • If your page is a stub--in other words, if it is not as complete as presently possible given the information available about the subject — be sure to assign the {{stub}} template.

Naming Conventions

To make your article easier for other editors to find, you should follow standard naming conventions. The basic rule is that the article title should appear however it would if it were used in the middle of a sentence (bearing in mind that the Wiki software will automatically capitalize the first letter, but that links ignore the capitalization of the first letter).

To test whether your article title is appropriate, simply use it in a sentence, ignoring the capitalization of the first letter. If it looks good, then you have the right title. For example, if you are writing an article about Peter's bangs, trying the sentence "Peter's Bangs look preposterous" reveals that a better title is "Peter's bangs".

Some basic guidelines:

  • Do not capitalize the second or subsequent words of the article's title unless they are proper nouns. Titles (whether of episodes, books, graphic novels, films or what have you) should be capitalized as they normally would be: the first and last word should be capitalized, as should every important word in between, excluding articles, short prepositions, and the like.
  • Use singular nouns whenever possible. Only if the article explicitly refers to multiple subjects (e.g. Linderman's thugs) should it be plural. If a word is frequently used both singularly and plurally, use the singular form. Links to articles may be easily pluralized by simply adding the plural suffix outside the link (e.g. [[symbol]]s).
  • Adjectives should redirect to their noun form. For example, do not add an article called "Angry". Instead, add an article called "Anger" and redirect "Angry" to "Anger".
  • If your article title is a verb, it should be added in the gerund form. For example, this page is correctly labeled "Editing", not "Edit", "Edits", or "To Edit".
  • Use the common names of persons and things. For example, Nathan's younger son is "Monty Petrelli", not "Montgomery Petrelli". (Of course, for character names, use however the character is listed in the credits.)
  • Be precise. If an article's title will lead to ambiguity, you should consider adding a disambiguation page. For example, since there are several tapes in the series, "Claire's tape" is preferable to "The tape".
  • Prefer spelled out phrases to acronyms.
  • Avoid special characters in article titles. In particular, ampersands (&) tend to break links. Use "and" instead, even if it means altering a title.
  • Avoid any characters used for emphasis, such as quotation marks, exclamation points, or asterisks, unless they are part of a proper noun as it appears in the show ("9th Wonders!" is correct, "*-*OMG PETER ROXXORZ <_< !!1!" is not.)
  • Avoid using the definite or indefinite articles ("the", "a", "an") in the article's name unless they are used as part of a proper name or title. "The Haitian" and "The Company" are fine, since those names are used like titles. "Explosion" and "Train wreck" are better choices than "The Explosion" and "The Train wreck" because they provide more flexibility in using the article's title in a sentence as a link ("Isaac predicts an [[explosion]]" instead of "Isaac predicts an [[The Explosion|explosion]]").

For specific naming practices for characters and powers, see Help:Naming conventions

Categories

Assign appropriate categories to your article. The following table lists the top-level categories, plus some primary subcategories:

Category Description Article Perspective Subcategories
Heroes Articles about in-show information, such as episodes, characters, and plot points In-world Episodes, Characters, Events, Items, Places, World Locations, etc.
Graphic Novels Articles about the Graphic Novels, such as issues, characters, and plot points In-world Issues, Graphic Novel Characters, Graphic Novel Places, Graphic Novel Locations, etc.
Heroes Wiki Articles about this website, such as help, policy, and user pages Real-world Help, Heroes Wiki Contributor, Templates, Stubs, Articles without images, etc.
Production Articles about the behind-the-scenes production of the Heroes TV show, including cast and crew bios Real-world Season One Principal Cast, Season One Supporting Cast, Season One Guest Stars, Series Crew, Graphic Novel Crew, etc.
Heroes Evolutions Articles about the Heroes Evolutions online experience, including NBC.com features and the ARG In-world
Real-world (sources)		 Abilities, Characters, Locations, Web Sites, Other
Files All images, animations, video clips, and audio clips uploaded and available In-world (descriptions)
Real-world (sources)		 Images, Animations, Multimedia
Speculation Information not from canon sources, including theories, spoilers, and fan creations Real-world Fan Creations, Spoilers, Theories

To assign a category, add [[Category:Name of Category]] to the end of your article.

  • Be specific. If an article is assigned to a subcategory, do not assign it to the parent category as well. The exception is Category:Characters, whcih should be assigned to all characters to produce a "master list".
  • Assign categories in a logical order. Check other articles with similar categories.
  • Be mindful that some templates assign categories automatically. You can still add the category manually if necessary. This is most often done to change the category sort.
  • In general, an article should not be assigned to both "in-world" and "real-world" categories. For example, images should be assigned only Category:Files categories.

To link to a category, precede the word "Category with a colon, like this: [[:Category:Images]]. This is particularly important when redirecting to a category; otherwise, the redirect itself will be categorized.

To change the way an article sorts within the category, pipe the sort after the category assignment. For example, to sort an article called "Nathan Petrelli" as "Petrelli, Nathan" within Category:Evolved Humans, you would type [[Category:Evolved Humans|Petrelli, Nathan]]. Be sure to sort the article appropriately on all categories.

Article layout

Your new article should be laid out consistently with other articles in its category. Pay special attention to standard navigational elements, sidebars, and section headings, and the order of page sections. For a detailed breakdown of standard article layout practices, as well as sample layouts you can copy and paste into your new article, see Help:Layout.

Adding a New Episode

See the new episode template for information on how to use the template to create a new episode. All episodes articles are created within the Episode namespace (ex. Episode:Genesis). Once a new episode is created, edit its Talk page and use the instructions here to include the new episode checklist into the talk page. This will allow everyone to more easily remember what information has to be updated elsewhere on the Heroes Wiki after a new episode.

User Subpages

Many users enjoy adding pages as part of their own fan fiction series or an alternate reality game, for humor, to draft articles before they move into the main namespace, or to keep track of information that might not fit in a main article. A user subpage is added the same way any other article is added, only the user namespace and user's name is added before the article title. For instance, if the user UlurusGirlfriend wanted to create a fan fiction article called "Isaaluru", it should be called "User:UlurusGirlfriend/Isaaluru". This title can be typed into the search box to create a red link, which can then be clicked to begin editing the page. All user subpages should be added to Category:User subpages, Category:User templates, or Category:User subtemplates as appropriate. User subpages should not be added to main categories (like Category:Abilities or Category:Characters).

Formatting

Text Formatting

To format text, you can use either html or Wiki markup. Wiki markup is generally preferable because it makes pages easier to read when editing. Some basic formatting:

To... Typing... yields...
Italicize ''Hiro'' (2 single quotes either side) Hiro
Bold '''Hiro''' (3 single quotes either side) Hiro
Bold & Italicize '''''Hiro''''' (5 single quotes either side) Hiro

Most other formatting, such as underlines, strikethrus, superscripts, subscripts, etc. should use HTML:

To... Typing... yields...
Underline <u>Hiro</u> Hiro
Strikethrough <s>Hiro</s> Hiro
Superscript Hiro <sup>Nakamura</sup> Hiro Nakamura
Subscript Hiro <sub>Nakamura</sub> Hiro Nakamura


For more help on using HTML in wikitext, see Wikipedia Help:HTML in Wikitext.

Section Headings

Section headings divide the page into sections. They provide links to edit a particular section, automatically produce a table of contents when necessary, and make the page easier to read. To add a section heading, surround the heading text with two equals signs on either side. For each level of subsection heading, add an additional equals sign to either side. For example, the heading of this section, a second-level section, was produced by typing ===Section Headings===.


Miscellaneous Formatting

You can add a horizontal line by entering four dashes. You can add lists by using a pound sign (for numbered lists) or an asterisk (for bulleted lists).

Typing... yields...
----

* Hiro
* Ando
* Micah

  • Hiro
  • Ando
  • Micah

# Hiro
# Ando
# Micah

  1. Hiro
  2. Ando
  3. Micah

For more help with formatting, see Wikipedia Help:Editing.

Tables

You can add tables using either HTML or Wiki markup. Begin the table with {|. Begin each row with |-. Begin each heading cell with ! and each normal cell with |. Close the table with |}. You can apply formatting to tables, rows, and cells just as you would with HTML. For cells, be sure to separate the content of the cell from the formatting with an additional pipe.

Typing... yields...

{| border="1"
|-
! Character
! Actor
|-
| Hiro
| Masi Oka
|-
| Niki
| Ali Larter
|}
Character Actor
Hiro Masi Oka
Niki Ali Larter

For more help with tables, see Wikipedia Help:Table. For help creating collapsible tables or sortable tables, see Help:Collapsible tables.

Links

A good article should include plenty of links to allow navigation between articles and to provide supplemental information. There are two main kinds of links: internal links, which are links to other pages on Heroes Wiki, and external links, which are links to other sites on the Web.

Internal Links

To add an internal link, simply put the name of the article to which you wish to link in double brackets:

Typing... yields...
[[Hiro]] Hiro

When linking to an article, the capitalization of the first letter is ignored. [[powers]] will link to "Powers". Other capitalization must match the article exactly. For example, [[Mr. bennet]] does not link to "Mr. Bennet".

Blended Links

Link text will automatically blend with text that is consecutively after it. This means that redirects are not needed for plurals, some alternate conjugations, and such. To add a blended link, simply place double brackets around the portion of the term which is an article title.

Typing... yields...
[[Claire's tape]]s Claire's tapes

Piping a Link

You can alter the link text that is displayed from the name of the linked article by piping alternate text within the brackets. Type the correct name of the article first, then a pipe (|) character, then the text you wish to display.

Typing... yields...
[[Hiro|Ando's friend]] Ando's friend

Be careful when piping that the text remains descriptive of the link to avoid making link navigation confusing for the reader. As a general rule, the piped text should always describe the subject of the article in the context in which it is used. For example, saying "Niki sees [[Jessica|her alter ego]] in the mirror" in a context where Niki (or the viewer) does not know her alter ego is named Jessica is appropriate. Saying "Hiro is a [[Star Trek|big geek]]" is not appropriate because the piped text, "big geek", does not describe the article "Star Trek". It would be clearer for the reader to say "Hiro is a big geek, and a huge fan of Star Trek". That way, they have a better idea of where the link will take them.

Linking across Namespaces

You can link to articles in other namespaces just as you would normal articles. Simply include the namespace, a colon, and the article title. You can automatically remove the namespace from the displayed link by adding a pipe but no pipe text. You can also pipe and blend as normal.


Typing... yields...
[[Episode:Genesis]] Episode:Genesis
[[Episode:Genesis|]] Genesis
[[Episode:Genesis|the first episode]] the first episode
a [[Episode:Genesis|]]like cliffhanger a Genesislike cliffhanger

If the namespace is one that would normally have special reflexes (like images or categories), you can convert it to a link by preceeding the namespace with a colon:


Typing... yields...
[[Image:Algorithm_sm.jpg]]
[[:Image:Algorithm_sm.jpg]] Image:Algorithm_sm.jpg
[[:Category:Evolved Humans|]] Evolved Humans

Linking to a Section

You can link to a specific section heading in an article. Section headings create HTML anchors, and can be linked to just like in HTML: add a pound sign to the end of the article name, and then add the name of the section.

Typing... yields...
[[Powers#Phasing]] Powers#Phasing
[[Powers#Phasing|D.L.'s powers]] D.L.'s powers

You can also redirect to a section. For example, redirecting "Queens" to "[[New York#Queens]]" will take the reader directly to the "Queens" section heading.

Redirects

Redirect pages provide an easy way to point links which refer to one piece of text ("Peter") to an article with a different title ("Peter Petrelli"). Redirects allow editors to write more natural sounding text without needing to pipe every link. To do this use the #REDIRECT link. For example to redirect ("Peter") searches to the ("Peter Petrelli") article use the following:

#REDIRECT[[Peter Petrelli]]

Redirects behave like other links. In particular, when redirecting to a category, be sure to begin the link with a colon to prevent the article from including the category rather than linking to it:

#REDIRECT[[:Category:Characters]]

It's also possible to redirect to a specific section of an article. To do so, link to the section using the article title, a pound sign, and the section title.

#REDIRECT[[Peter Petrelli#Notes]]

Linking to Redirects

When linking to a redirect page, be sure to check the preview before saving your change. Make sure the link points to the proper article.

Otherwise, there is no reason to prefer piped links over links to redirect pages or vice-versa

External Links

Adding an external link is similar to adding an internal link, with two important difference. First, the link is surrounded by single, not double, brackets. Second, the url is separated from the link text by a space, not a pipe. If no link text is entered, the link will be numbered. The numbers assigned to unlabeled external links will increment automatically throughout the page.

You can also add a link as raw text and it will appear as it is.

Typing... yields...
[http://www.9thwonders.com] [1]
[http://www.9thwonders.com 9th Wonders] 9th Wonders
http://www.9thwonders.com http://www.9thwonders.com

You can also use the <ref> tag to create an external link as a part of a list of references. All links placed between <ref> tags will appear as footnotes, and the links will be grouped together and displayed wherever the <references /> tag is placed in the article. For more help with footnotes, see Wikipedia Help:Footnotes.

Interwiki Links

Interwiki links allow you to link to other Wikis, such as Wikipedia, and have the link appear as an internal link. To add an interwiki link, prefix the link with a recognized interwiki prefix. For example, to link to the article "jelly baby" on Wikipedia, add the link as [[wikipedia:jelly baby]]. The link will look like this: wikipedia:jelly baby. To remove the interwiki prefix, add a pipe character after the article title, like this: [[wikipedia:jelly baby|]].

Available interwiki links include:

Special Links

A few templates are available to produce special links.

Template Function Example... ...Yields
Editlink Produces a link to edit the current article {{editlink}} edit
Imagelink Produces a clickable image that links to an article {{imagelink|image=sylar.jpg|height=63|width=50|link=Sylar|text=Sylar}}
Link Produces a link if article exists, text if not {{link|Peter Petrelli}}
{{link|Uluru's girlfriend}}		 Peter Petrelli
Uluru's girlfriend
Nowantedlink Produces a link if article exists, an edit link if not (but no red link) {{nowantedlink|Peter Petrelli}}
{{nowantedlink|Uluru's girlfriend}}		 Peter Petrelli
Uluru's girlfriend
Nbl Produces a link which won't break across a line break {{nbl|Peter Petrelli|This link won't break at the spaces}} This link won't break at the spaces
Querylink Allows you to append a URL query string to a link {{querylink|link=Sylar|qs=&oldid=104267}} Sylar
Searchlink Creates a link which will search for the listed term {{searchlink|text=Nikki}} Nikki
Nousercat Allows templates to be used on user pages without assigning mainspace categories. Assigns category:User subpages if used in userspace, or the specified category if used elsewhere. {{nousercat|Help}} [[Category: User subpages]] on a userpage
[[Category: Help]] on a non-userpage

For more on each template, including full usage instructions and options, click the template's name above.

Episode, Webisode, and Graphic Novel shortcuts

In addition to the special links above, the following templates create quick, formatted links to individual episodes, webisodes and graphic novels:

Template Function Example... ...Yields
Template:Ep Produces a link to the specified episode, webisode, or graphic novel {{ep|201}}
{{ep|wb15}}
{{ep|gn24}}		 Four Months Later...
The Recruit, Part 4
War Buddies, Part 1
Template:Epp Produces a linked citation to the specified episode, webisode, or graphic novel, with italics and parentheses as appropriate {{epp|201}}
{{epp|wb15}}
{{epp|gn24}}		 (Four Months Later...)
(The Recruit, Part 4)
(War Buddies, Part 1)
Template:Epn Produces a link to the specified episode, webisode, or graphic novel, and prints the namespace {{epn|201}}
{{epn|wb15}}
{{epn|gn24}}		 Episode:Four Months Later...
Webisode:The Recruit, Part 4
War Buddies, Part 1
Template:Eps Produces a link to the specified episode, webisode, or graphic novel, and prints the subtitle, if any {{eps|201}}
{{eps|wb15}}
{{eps|gn24}}		 Four Months Later...Expression error: Unexpected > operator.
The Recruit, Part 4Expression error: Unexpected > operator.
War Buddies, Part 1Expression error: Unexpected > operator.
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