Help:Getting started

Welcome to the general FAQ about wikis and Wikia.


 * Before you begin...
 * Please visit our online demos page for videos demonstrating all of the Wikia basics and much much more - see Help:Video demos!

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a website you can edit. The word comes from "wikiwiki", which is a Hawaiian word for "fast". Wikis are designed to be collaborative so people can work together on a wiki project, so it's possible to build up a lot of content very quickly.

How do I create an account on Wikia?
You can create an account by clicking the "create an account" link at the top of the page. This will open a box where you can choose a username and a password. In addition, you will need to provide your birthdate as both a safety precaution and as a means of preserving the integrity of the site while complying with federal regulations. Finally, you'll need to type in the word you see in the "captcha" image shown. This tells us you are a real person! It's a good idea to enter your email here too.

If you don't give a valid email address you will not be able to recover your account if you forget your password.

More... Why create an account?

How do I log in?
Just click the "log in" link at the top of any page. This will open a box where you can enter your username and password. You might want to leave "Remember me" unchecked if using a public computer. If you don't have an account, you can create one right away.

More... Log in problems?

How do I change my email, password and other options?
Almost everything you might want to change can be found in your preferences. This can be found in the userbar at the top of every page - just click the link next to your username, or by visiting Special:Preferences.

If you somehow forget your password and are unable to reset it using the normal means, please Contact Wikia.

More... Preferences explained

How do I change a page on Wikia?
Editing any page is easy. Just click the "Edit this page" link above any article, and type your changes in the text box. It's a good idea to preview your edit, then to save your changes, scroll down to find the "save" button and click to save.

More...Editing tips

How do I make my text bold and italic?
To make a word bold, surround it with three single quotation marks ( ''' ). To make a word italic use two quotation marks ( '' ). You can combine this to make text bold and italic with five quotation marks ( ' ).

More... Fancy formatting

How do I start a new page?
To start a new page you can use four basic methods:
 * 1) Click a red (broken) link.
 * 2) Create a red link in an article and click it.
 * 3) Use an inputbox.
 * 4) Utilize Special:CreatePage (info)

More... New pages explained

I used the wrong title, how do I rename a page?
All you need to do here is move the page to the right title, using the "move" link above the article. Click "move", enter the correct title and then click "Move page". It's a good idea to explain your move first in the box provided. Only logged in users can move pages.

More... A moving experience...

What are templates? And how do they work?
A template is a page with text ready to be used on many pages without having to type it in each time. It looks like a normal page, but the title starts with "Template:"

To use a template, you just need to type its title inside curly brackets. So  will add the text from the page.

Templates can get very complex, but all are just pages that can be used many times using a simple form.

More... Template basics

How do I add an image?
There are two ways of adding an image. The first is to upload it to the wiki using the upload link in the toolbox. You will be able to choose an image from your computer, and save it on the wiki. Then you can add it to an article by editing a page to add the image name in the form.

You can also add an image while you are editing a page. Just click on the upload button and you will see a form to upload and insert your image. See Help:Add Images for more on this method.

More... How do I format an image?

How do I add a category to a page?
Categories are added in a similar way to making links. Just add  to the article. This will add the category to the bottom of the page. If you want to link to a category, rather than add a page to it, you need to add a colon inside the brackets:.

More... Categories in-depth

How do I find articles?
All pages (on the Monaco skin) have a search box at the top left. Just enter your search term here, and click the search arrow. An alternative is search suggest, simply start typing in the search box and it will try to guess articles based on what you're typing.

More... Searching Wikia

What is recent changes?
Recent changes is one of the most important pages on a wiki. It lists every edit that's made, tells you who made the change, and shows you what edit summary they added. So it's a great way to get an idea of what's going on in your wiki and what pages are most active.

More... The riddles of recent changes

How can I tell who wrote an article?
Every page has a "history" page to go with it. This lists the usernames of everyone who has edited the page, and tells you when it was edited. It also gives you links to old versions... nothing is lost when a page is changed, you can always recover previous versions. To see the history of a page, look for the "history" link above each article.

More... How history works

I want to know when a page is changed, how do I do this?
You can "watch" any page, by adding it to a list of pages kept for your username. To do this, click the "watch" link at the top of the article you want to watch. You can set your preferences to have an email sent to you each time a page on your watchlist is edited.

More... Watching Wikia

Where next?
There are many places to get help on Wikia. If you have not seen our video demos yet, check them out at Help:Video demos. Also, many wikis have a forum where you can ask questions of admins and other regular contributors. Alternatively you can contact the wider Wikia community at the Central Wikia forums. If you need more help, see Contacting Wikia.

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