Help:Magic words

A "magic word" is a symbol recognized by MediaWiki software (which Wikia is built on), which triggers the software to do something special on the page.

Step-by-Step

 * To add a magic word, you need to first be in editing mode on an article.


 * Simply add the magic word to the content of the page somewhere. It will look like code, but after you save (or preview), it will work as intended.

Common Magic Words
Here are some of the magic words used most commonly at Wikia:


 * hides the table of contents on a page.
 * places the table of contents exactly where this is entered. It overrides the NOTOC switch.
 * , disables the rich text editor on a page.
 * produces the current day of the week.
 * shows the number of articles on your wiki.
 * produces the name of the wiki.

Full list of Magic Words
For a full list of available magic words, see the Magic words help page on Media Wiki.

NOTE: Some magic words may function differently or not work on Wikia wikis unless they are the same version of the MediaWiki wikiengine as mediawiki.org or wikipedia.org.

Wikia-Specific Magic Words
Some extensions or features unique to Wikia also have magic words associated with them. Here is a comprehensive list:

Wiki Navigation
These magic words will fill in data for your wiki navigation bar. To utilize them, these must be placed on the MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation page:


 * - gets pages from the biggest category on a wiki
 * - gets pages from Category:Foo on a wiki.
 * - gets pages from MediaWiki:Most popular articles.
 * - gets recently changed articles.
 * - gets list of five most active users on the wiki.

Category Galleries
These magic words will apply to the Category Gallery feature when left on a Category page:


 * - Hides a category gallery from being rendered on a category gallery page.
 * - If the category gallery is enabled on a wiki, but it is not applied to all categories by default, this will add a category gallery to the category page.