Foo2

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Since Ninjamask and I (Foo2) have been cleaning up the wiki pages, trying to use '''practical templates''' to make the look more consistent, I will be putting together a list of tips (as reminder to myself), but quite possibly also useful for the wikipedians out there as well.

==Todo==
* Add link to the templates...
* Mention how to make the most of the link related templates with real-world examples.
* Tips & Ideas on "nice" layout.
* ...

==Using templates to manage links more easily==
As you can see the templates significantly reduce the information noise, and are easier to handle than the full URLs. This should also help avoid typos.

{{m|short}} - AniDB short links
 http://anidb.info/p13        ->   <nowiki>{{short|p13}}</nowiki>
 http://anidb.net/post59971   ->   <nowiki>{{short|post59971}}</nowiki>

{{m|AniDBLink}} - AniDB links
 <nowiki>[http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=userpage user page]</nowiki> 
   ->   <nowiki>{{AniDBLink|userpage|user page}}</nowiki>
 http://www.anidb.net/cgi-bin/animedb.pl?show=file&size=247822336&hash=7762
   ->   <nowiki>{{AniDBLink|file|size|247822336|hash|7762}}</nowiki>

'''Wikipedia''' references
 <nowiki>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page How to edit a page]</nowiki>
   ->   <nowiki>[[Wikipedia:How to edit a page|How to edit a page]]</nowiki>

{{m|OldThreadLink}} - Old Forum links
 http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=5653      ->   <nowiki>{{OldThreadLink|5653}}</nowiki>
 http://www.anidb.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=933   ->   <nowiki>{{OldThreadLink|933}}</nowiki>

{{m|t}} - Links to the Bugtracker
 <nowiki>[http://tracker.anidb.info/view.php?id=498 convert to html]</nowiki>   ->   <nowiki>{{t|498|convert to html}}</nowiki>

... more to come ...

==Consistent Capitalization of Names==
Where possible spell these terms exactly as shown:
* AniDB
* MyList
* Avdump
* ...

==Avoiding HTML, when Wiki Code exists==
The wiki very much supports HTML tags in the textareas, but since it comes with it's own set of convenient "tags", it is a good idea to use the latter, if possible:
 <nowiki><b>...</b></nowiki>   ->   <nowiki>'''...'''</nowiki>
 <nowiki><i>...</i></nowiki>   ->   <nowiki>''...''</nowiki>
<br>...

==Tips==

===How to colour text?===
Use the {{m|colour}} template to colour text, this way you can avoid having to use <tt><nowiki><font color=...>...</font></nowiki></tt> or <tt><nowiki><span style="color:...;>...</span></nowiki></tt>, e.g.

 {{m|colour|blue|blah blah blah}}      ->  HTML colour name used to colour "{{colour|blue|blah blah blah}}" blue.
 {{m|colour|#FF8000|oink oink oink}}   ->  HTML colour code used to colour "{{colour|#FF8000|oink oink oink}}" orange.

{{eyecatchLight|Note|"Manually" colouring text is actually *not* recommended style-wise, but if you really need to colour text the template should help.}}
{{eyecatch|Note|The template has problems colouring more than one line, i.e. several paragraphs, so be sure to double-check its usage.}}


===Use of <nowiki><br></nowiki>===
* Empty lines in the Wiki code do *not* require a <tt><nowiki><br></nowiki></tt> at the end of the previous paragraph, i.e.
 blah<nowiki><br></nowiki>
 
 more blah
is redundant, remove the <tt><nowiki><br></nowiki></tt>:
 blah
 
 more blah



--- everything is still very much todo ---