Doctor Who Internet Adventures Wiki
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Welcome to the Internet Adventures wiki Style Guide & FAQ.

Wiki 101

Never edited a wiki before?


       One of the simplest ways to get to grips with what's goin on is simply to click the Edit Page link and have a look at the code people have used. For those who's prefer a slightly more structured approach, here's a page dealing with the basics of text formatting.


       It's really important to read at least that page, though I thoroughly recommend following the links at the bottom of it to familiarise yourself with some of the more advanced options, such as templates: this wiki uses quite a few of them.       


Making a New Page

So, you've got an idea of what you want to write and how to write it. You'll see a link on the side bar named Create a new article; when you click on it, you'll be given a choice of standard layout or blank page. Choose the latter.       


Template: 750

Every page uses the 750 template in some form as its basic layout, either on its own as part of another template. In essence, it creates a html table that limits the distance the text of a page can reach across the screen, to stop it sprawling over widescreen displays. As you'll see when you follow the link, each template has a "how to" entry that you can simply copy-and-paste into your new page.


       A reminder that an error with html, such as a broken bracket can affect the way the page displays; it's wise to click on the preview button before saving a page.       


Template: tab

The tab template is the other great layout assistant for our wiki: it breaks up chunks of text by creating an extra blank line and identing the first line of a text block so they're easier to read on screen. When you look at the code for this page, you can see how it's been used at the beginning of each paragraph and the end of each section. It's important to remember that you can't manually ident using your space bar, because wiki reacts to a leading space with a funny little box

like this

which messes with formatting, especially for long strings of text. Similarly, there should be no blank spaces between the {{tab}} and the first character of the paragraph, but that's purely to help generate a uniform look.


       As a matter of style, the first pargraph of a section is never indented.       


Spelling

Doctor Who is a British series. As a result, while we can't stop you from doing otherwise please try and use the UK version of English when creating entries just as a matter of uniform style. So that's "colour" instead of "color", "mum" instead of "mom", "sabre" instead of "saber" and so forth.       


Linking to other Wikis

Sometimes you will feel a need to link to a wiki outside this one. While it's possible to use the [http://domainname/articlenameΔarticlename] form, which works in all instances, you may feel that's a little on the inelegant side. Shortcuts to some of the more common wikis can be found here.       


TARDIS Data File

You should notice in the side bar a link to the TARDIS Data File. The TDF — which deals with all manner of official Whoishness — is a useful site for referencing events of the larger Doctor Who universe that the Internet Adventures play off. The shortcut takes the form [[w:c:tardis:articlename|articlename]].       


Inline Definitions

Sometimes when you write an article or a chapter, you might find yourself using a technical or in-inverse term the meaning of which is not always evident to the reader. You want to inform the reader of its meaning, but doing so inline may not be possible without disrupting the flow of the text and you may not want to include an external link. For instance, people might not even know what a TARDIS is.


       The above link is achieved with the following code: <span class="explain" title="Definition text">object being defined</span>       

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