Help:Links/Wikitext


 * This page is best viewed on Community Central. It necessarily uses links which are only available on that wiki.

Though much of this ground is covered at Help:Links, you may find the following approach more suited to your individual needs. Here, we'll only talk about linking through wikitext—what might also be called linking in source mode.

Internal links
An internal link is one made to a page on whatever wiki you're currently editing. It must be to a page other than the one you're editing, though.  Assume good faith = Assume good faith but  Help:Links/Wikitext = Help:Links/Wikitext

In other words, attempting to create a link to the current page will fail. Instead, you'll just get bolded text.

Displaying a link
As you've probably already figured out, the most basic kind of link simply puts two  square brackets   around the name of a page on the wiki. But you can change the way that link displays by using a pipe, the vertical line found on most English keyboards above the Enter key (|).

Generally, the pipe delineates between the proper name of the article on the left, and the how you want to display that link on the right.  Editing = Editing

Common link types
Now that we know what a wikitext link is, let's look at the variety of ways in which it can be achieved.

Wikitext external links
Links to a page that's not on your wiki can be achieved by either using the "w:c: method" or by knowing the domain name of wikis that are in your wiki's interwiki map.

The w:c: method
Every wiki on FANDOM can link to every other wiki by simply typing:  w:c:domain:article name  so</tt>

w:c:dc:Hawkgirl w:c:007:M w:c:warframe:Ash</tt> … and so on. Note that any valid domain for the wiki will work, as w:c:007:M</tt> is just as valid as w:c:jamesbond:M</tt>.

Be careful, though. A "w:c: link" always appears blue, even if there is no article of that name on that wiki. For instance, w:c:batman:Walt Disney World is a false blue link. When performing a "w:c: link", you should always click on it afterwards to make sure you're going to the intended page.

Wikis in your interwiki map
If an external wiki is in your interwiki map, you can link to a page there by simply using  domain:article name </tt>.

By far, the most common wiki that uses this method is Wikipedia. Links there are achieved simply by typing Dolley Madison</tt>. Another popular external wikis is mediawiki.org, which houses a ton of help pages our readers enjoy. Links there are as easy as mw:Help:Parser functions</tt>

Using URLs
Although it's possible to create an internal link with a URL, you shouldn't. It's easier just to create a link, and it makes wiki maintenance much easier if everyone is making internal links the same way.

When you need to link to a site that's not connected to FANDOM, though, you have little choice but to make a URL link.

Here are some ways you can do that.

Pipe tricks
A pipe trick uses a pipe to automatically transform the way a link is displayed. On saving a pipe-tricked link, the software actually changes the way the link is made.

Its most basic form is to chop off a namespace from the front of a page name.

Imagine you're trying to create a link to Community Central:Admins and mods, but you don't want to show the words Community Central. Just add a single pipe at the end, and the software will do its thing.  Community Central:Admins and mods = Admins and mods</tt>

When you go back to edit the text, you'll find that the pipe trick has resulted in the full form,  Admins and mods </tt>.

Here are some other examples:

Slash tricks
A slash trick is related to the pipe trick, but it helps you quickly link to subpages from the main page. For instance, this page, Help:Links/Wikitext is a subpage of Help:Links. If you were on Help:Links, you could link here by typing:  /Wikitext = /Wikitext </tt> If you wanted to get rid of the slash at the beginning, then you could type:  /Wikitext/ = Wikitext </tt> Since we're here at Help:Links/Wikitext, the use of a slash trick would refer to the subpages of this subpage:  /page doesn't exist/ = /page doesn't exist/ or Help:Links/Wikitext/page doesn't exist</tt>

Further help and feedback
de:Hilfe:Links/Wikitext fr:Aide:Liens/Wikitexte ja:ヘルプ:リンク/ウィキテキスト pt:Ajuda:Wikitexto/exemplos de links zh:Help:链接/Wiki文本 ru:Справка:Ссылки/викитекст