Face Monster's Guide to Source Editor

I noticed that most of this wiki's contributors use the Visual Editor, which is really bad. I can't see how this thing can be comfortable for an intelligent person, so I assume that people just don't know that there is the great and lovely Source Editor. So, I decided to write this guide, which is more like a "cheat sheet", to improve the contributions on BlazBlue Wiki.

Why you should use the Source Editor

The Help page states that "Editing on Wikia is generally as simple as clicking the 'Edit' button on a page".

It's not.

When clicking the 'Edit' button, most users will see VisualEditor, or sometimes the Rich Text Editor. Both of them are shit. You see, Wikia works on the MediaWiki engine, and uses MediaWiki's wikitext format, so that users without knowledge of XHTML or CSS can edit the pages easily. And this is great, but...

Wikia decided to go even further, and make it so people would not need to learn even wikitext, by inventing the Visual Editor. As every other Wikia feature, 'fluid layout' for example, it is terrible.

Some examples:

1. Here, you can see that the Visual Editor doesn't know how to use the internal links properly, and it also lets unnecessary symbols into tags. (My browser has a bugged spellchecker.)
2. Here, you can see that the Visual Editor doesn't care if there are any source users and just turns all of the infobox code into unreadable mess. Yes, that is the User Infobox.
3. And this is from the Russian wiki, a really extreme example of what horrible things can do a stupid contributor with the use of Visual Editor. Please don't do that.

For people, who use the Visual Editor, it is not really a problem, they just don't see this awful code. The source users see it, and suffer from it. But the Visual Editor is very limited, e.g., you can't create an advanced table with it, like the "Musical themes" or "Stages" tables on this wiki, you have to use the Source Editor for such stuff.

So, the Visual Editor makes mess of everything and has limited capabilities. That is why we should use the nice and sweet Source Editor.

Switching to Source Editor

You can actually edit the page's source code in VE or RTE, I think there were options for it, but why would anyone use these awful editors to switch to the source mode and then edit, if you can start editing the source code right after you click the "Edit" button?

To use the Source Editor, you should choose it as your default editor on the Preferences page, third tab, first section, third item in the dropdown list.

It's in Russian on this screenshot, but you should see the page in whatever language you chose for you.

You have to be logged into your Wikia account to access this page, and if you don't have it, then you can't edit the Wiki anyway. You can create an account here.

Using the Source Editor

After you set this sweetie as your preferred editor, when you click the 'Edit' button, you'll see this, minus the bugged spellchecker. It looks cute, right? They even made it easier by highlighting some parts of the code!

Now, let's learn the wikitext. The Help page states that "Wikitext can be used to add photos, tables, bold styles, links, and other visual changes". Below is a "cheat sheet" that shows you what things you can do in the Source Editor and how to do them.

Links

You type	You get
External links
http://www.blazblue.jp/	http://www.blazblue.jp/
[http://www.blazblue.jp/]	[1]
[http://www.blazblue.jp/ BlazBlue Official Portal Site]	BlazBlue Official Portal Site
Interwiki and Wikipedia links
[[w:c:guilty-gear:Raven|Raven]]	A link to the Raven page on the English Guilty Gear Wiki
[[w:c:ru.blazblue:Кагура Муцуки|Кагура Муцуки]]	A link to the Кагура Муцуки (Kagura Mutsuki) page on the Russian BlazBlue Wiki
[[wikipedia:BlazBlue|BlazBlue]]	A link to the Wikipedia BlazBlue page
[[ru:Слейпнир]]	An interlanguage link with the Russian version of the Sleipnir page. Each page should be linked only with their respective versions on other wikis. More info here.
Internal links
[[Murakumo Unit]]	Murakumo Unit
[[Murakumo Unit|text]]	text
[[Murakumo Unit]]s	Murakumo Units
[[Murakumo Unit#Gallery|Gallery]]	Gallery - this link will open the Gallery section of the Murakumo Unit page
[[:File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png]]	A link to the file File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png
[[:File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|file]]	A link to the file
[[:Category:Locations]]	A link to the category Category:Locations
[[:Category:Locations|category]]	A link to the category
[[Category:Locations]]	This code will add a page to the Category:Locations
[[Special:Forum|]]	Forum
[[Immortal Breaker (group)|]]	Immortal Breaker

Headers, line breaks and indents

You type	You get
Headers (work only when used at the start of a line of code)
=Level 1=	Level 1 This header is automatically used for the page's title. If you use it in the article, I'll find you and rip your heart out
==Level 2==	Level 2
===Level 3===	Level 3
====Level 4====	Level 4
=====Level 5=====	Level 5
======Level 6======	Level 6
Line breaks
Single line breaks do not affect the code	Single line breaks do not affect the code
Line one Line two	Line one Line two
Line one<br/>Line two	Line one Line two
Indents (work only when used at the start of a line of code)
One :Two ::Three :::Four	One Two Three Four

Lists (work only when used at the start of a line of code)

You type	You get
*Item 1 **Item 1.1 **:Indent	Item 1 Item 1.1 Indent
#Item 1 ##Item 1.1 ##Item 1.2 #Item 2 ##Item 2.1	Item 1 Item 1.1 Item 1.2 Item 2 Item 2.1
*Item 1 *#Item 1.1 *#Item 1.2	Item 1 Item 1.1 Item 1.2
#Item 1 #*Item 1.1	Item 1 Item 1.1

Text formatting

You type	You get
''text''	text
'''text'''	text
'''''text'''''	text
<u>text</u>	text
<s>text</s>	text
<strike>text</strike>	text
<small>text</small>	text
<big>text</big>	text
1<sup>2</sup>	12
1<sub>2</sub>	12
Text alignment
<p style="text-align:left;">Left</p>	Left
<p style="text-align:center;">Center</p>	Center
<center>Center</center>	Center
<p style="text-align:right;">Right</p>	Right
Text size, font and color (do NOT use in articles)
<font size="4">text</font>	text
<font face="Times New Roman">text</font>	text
<font color="#DC143C">text</font>	text
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#DC143C">text</font>	text

Other things

You type	You get
Horizontal line (work only when used at the start of a line of code)
----
<hr />
Wikitext suppression
<nowiki>[[Totally not a link]]</nowiki>	[[Totally not a link]]
<pre>[[Totally not a link]]</pre>	[[Totally not a link]]
Preformatted text
(Start a line with a space) [[BlazBlue Wiki]]	BlazBlue Wiki
Comment
Check out the source <!-- text --> code of the Azure page	Check out the source code of the Azure page
Switches
__NOTOC__	This thing will remove the "Contents" box from the page
__TOC__	This thing will place the "Contents" box on the place where you put it. Overrides the __NOTOC__ switch.
__NOEDITSECTION__	This thing will remove the "Edit" buttons from the sections
Tabber
<tabber> Tab 1= text in tab 1 |-| Tab 2= text in tab 2 |-| Tab 3= Don't forget to use the closing tag! </tabber>	Tab 1 Tab 2 Tab 3 text in tab 1 text in tab 2 Don't forget to use the closing tag!
References
You have to put a special tag on a page to make this thing work properly<ref>This tag is "<references/>"</ref>. No matter how many <ref>'s you put on a page, you have to use <references/> only once.	You have to put a special tag on a page to make this thing work properly. No matter how many <ref>'s you put on a page, you have to use <references/> only once.
If you have to use a reference to a certain source more than once, then you should use this<ref name="source">You can replace source with whatever you want.</ref>	If you have to use a reference to a certain source more than once, then you should use this
After you used it once, you should write only this<ref name="source"/>	After you used it once, you should write only this.
<references/>

Tables

Basic table code

You type	Description
{|	Begin table
|-	Begin table row
!	Table header
|	Table cell
|}	End table

Example

{| |- ! Table header | Table cell |}

Table header Table cell

Table properties

You type	Description
{| border="1"	Begin table with 1px border
{| width="90%"	Begin table with 90% width
{| cellspacing="8px"	Begin table with 8px distance between cells
{| style="background-color:#DC143C;"	Begin table with crimson background
{| class="darktable"	Begin table with "darktable" class. These tables are used in the articles of this wiki.
| style="padding:16px;" |	Table cell (or header, change the starting "|" to "!") with 16px padding
! colspan="2" |	Two-column wide header (or cell, change the starting "!" to "|")
| rowspan="2" |	Two-row tall cell (or header, change the starting "|" to "!")
! align="center" |	Header (or cell, change the starting "!" to "|") alignments. Works the same as with text examples above.
{| class="mw-collapsible"	Begin collapsible table. Can be used with other classes, like {| class="darktable mw-collapsible".
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"	Begin collapsible table which is collapsed initially. Can be used with other classes, like {| class="darktable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed".
{| class="sortable"	Begin sortable table. The columns are sortable alphabetically/numerically, in ASCII order (e.g., 10, 100, 20). Can be used with other classes, like {| class="darktable sortable".
! data-sort-type="number" |	Special attribute for a header of a sortable table. This column will be sortable numerically, in correct order (e.g., 10, 20, 100).
! data-sort-type="currency" |	Special attribute for a header of a sortable table. Expects a number with $, £, €, or ¥ in front (e.g., $100, ¥10000).
! data-sort-type="date" |	Special attribute for a header of a sortable table.
! class="unsortable" |	Special attribute for a header of a sortable table. Makes the column unsortable.
| data-sort-value="…" |	Special attribute for a cell of a sortable table. Write a number instead of … .

Example 1

{| border="1" width="50%" cellspacing="10px" style="background-color:#eeeeee;" |- ! colspan="2" | Header 1 |- ! style="padding:20px;" | Header 2 | rowspan="2" | Cell |- ! style="padding:20px;" | Header 3 |}

Header 1 Header 2 Cell Header 3

Example 2

{| class="darktable" width="100%" |- ! colspan="3" | Header 1 |- | colspan="2" align="center"| Cell 1 | colspan="1" rowspan="2" | Cell 2 |- | colspan="2" align="center" | Cell 3 |- ! colspan="3" | Header 2 |- | Cell 4 | Cell 5 | Cell 6 |- | Cell 7 | Cell 8 | Cell 9 |}

Header 1 Cell 1 Cell 2 Cell 3 Header 2 Cell 4 Cell 5 Cell 6 Cell 7 Cell 8 Cell 9

Example 3

{| class="darktable sortable" |- !Name !Drive !Overdrive ! data-sort-type="date" |Birthday ! class="unsortable" |Blood type |- |Ragna |Soul Eater |Blood Kain IDEA |March 3 |B |- |Jin |Frost Bite |Frost End |February 14 |A |- |Noel |Chain Revolver |Chain Quasar |December 25 |A |}

Name Drive Overdrive Birthday Blood type Ragna Soul Eater Blood Kain IDEA March 3 B Jin Frost Bite Frost End February 14 A Noel Chain Revolver Chain Quasar December 25 A

Images

You type	You get
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png]]	A full-sized File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png image. It's 2048 × 1024px, that's why there's text description instead of an example.
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|thumb]]
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|200px]]
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|thumb|200px|Article pictures should be no more and no less than a size of 200px]]	Article pictures should be no more and no less than a size of 200px
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|200px|left]]
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|200px|center]]
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|200px|right]]
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|thumb|200px|center|text]]	text
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|thumb|200px|link=BlazBlue Wiki:Image Policy|Click me!]]	Click me!
[[File:XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|thumb|200px|link=|Clicking this image will do nothing]]	Clicking this image will do nothing

Galleries

Gallery types

You type	You get
Gallery
<gallery> XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|Image caption Nobody (Character Artwork, 1, Type C).png </gallery>	Image caption
Slideshow
<gallery type="slideshow"> XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|Image caption Nobody (Character Artwork, 1, Type C).png </gallery>	Image caption 1/2
Slider
<gallery type="slider"> XBlaze Lost Memories (Illustration, 26).png|Image caption Nobody (Character Artwork, 1, Type C).png </gallery>	Image caption

Customization options

Of all of these options I prefer to use this: <gallery widths="200" position="center" spacing="small" captionalign="center">.

Options	Possible options	Description
type=	"slideshow"	Turns the gallery into a slideshow. Most options do not work with this type.
	"slider"	Turns the gallery into a slider. Can't contain more than four images. Has default width of 600px, which cannot be changed. The only option that works for slider is 'orientation'.
widths=	"200"	Maximum width of all images in the gallery, you can write any number you want, but let's stick to 200px in the articles.
position=	"left"	The gallery will appear on the left side of the page.
	"right"	The gallery will appear on the right side of the page.
	"center"	The gallery will appear in the center of the page.
columns=	"3"	Number of columns in the gallery. You can write any number you want. Works only for galleries.
	"dynamic"	Number of columns changes depending on page width in a browser. Works only for galleries.
captionalign=	"left"	The image captions will appear on the left side. Works only for galleries.
	"right"	The image captions will appear on the right side. Works only for galleries.
	"center"	The image captions will appear in the center. Works only for galleries.
spacing=	"small"	Spacing between images. Works only for galleries.
	"medium"
	"large"
bordersize=	"none"	This option will remove the border around an image. Works only for galleries.
bordercolor=	"transparent"	This option will remove the border around an image. Works only for galleries.
	"red"	Red border, you can write simple colors like "red", "green", or "blue". It's blue by default. Works only for galleries.
	"#DC143C"	Crimson border. Works only for galleries.
crop=	"true"	This option will crop all images in a slideshow to a 4:3 format. Works only for slideshows.
orientation=	"landscape"	This option will crop all images in the gallery to a 4:3 landscape format. Works only for galleries.
	"portrait"	This option will crop all images in the gallery to a 4:3 portrait format. Works only for galleries.
	"square"	This option will crop all images in the gallery to a 1:1 format. Works only for galleries.
	"right"	This option will move the preview images of a slider to the right. Works only for sliders.

Conclusion

Now that is a very long list, but it is actually very easy to memorize this stuff. And if you looked at some pages before and asked yourself "What sorcery is this?", now you know how to do this sorcery yourself! Just don't be afraid to try it, and use the preview buttons to make sure you did everything properly. If you have trouble with something, you can use the already existing pages as a reference, and if this doesn't help, you can ask questions on the Forum, or on my message wall. I don't bite, as long as you don't ask me stupid questions like "will Mei and Touya be playable in CF?".