Guidelines:Getting Started

Overview Zelda Wiki, just like any other wiki, has its own lot of policies and unique ways of documenting information on the games it covers. This guideline is here to show you how we do things and how you can get started helping out. If you are interested in working alongside us, you are invited to join the Zelda Wiki Discord server ! For detailed instructions on how to use wiki code, please visit the Gamepedia Help Wiki. The staff would like to thank you for taking the time to help us with covering these games.

The Basics

 * 1) Articles are written in-universe, and there should be no mentions of "the player" or "the game". For example, the sentence "Walk through the river and pull the Series:. This removes the lock on the door and you can proceed." is not accepted, and should instead be "Series: walks through the river and pulls the Series:. This removes the lock on the door, allowing him to proceed." There are exceptions to this for articles that deal in out-of-universe details (such as Series:).
 * 2) Zelda Wiki documents the North American English canon of the series. (see here for a more in-depth explanation on canonicity in .)
 * 3) Games are usually written with their initialisms (for example,  is usually written as  ). To link to the page of a Zelda game, use curly brackets surrounding the game's initialism (for example,   to generate  ). If you need to refer to the game but not link to it (ie: you have already linked to it once in the same section of the article) you can append   just before the closing brackets (  returns with ). Each game has their own template to use for linking to the game.
 * 4) When uploading images, all files should follow the same pre-established format:   For instance, if you were to upload a cropped screenshot of the LANS: from, you would upload it as:  If you were to upload the inventory icon (or sprite) of the LANS:, you would upload it as:  (see here to learn more about image policies and uploading standards.)
 * 5) Because is over 30 years old and most of the characters and items are recurring across all of its games but with different names, Zelda Wiki has come up with templates and modules to help maintain the canon of the series for each game. When linking or referring to a topic, the   template should be used. For instances where the plural form of a term is needed, the   template exists and functions identically to , outputting the plural form of a term. (See here and here for more information on how to use the Term template.)
 * 6) NaN Items and NaN Objects are distinguished between whether they are obtained and put into the inventory in any capacity (for example, Series:, Series:, Series:, NaN Rupees, etc). If not, we typically refer to things as objects instead (for example, NaN Pots, NaN Trees, NaN Signs, etc.).

Editing Pages
First off, are you editing the Zelda Wiki on Mobile or PC? The following two sections will explain how to edit a page on each version. Please note that Zelda Wiki editing is best done on a PC and editing on Mobile can be more difficult, as well as lacking some features. For editing on a PC, click here. For editing on Mobile, tap here

Before you save your edit, you should read through the rest of this article so you know how editing works.

Editing on PC
So you've found a page that you want to edit. To do this, go to the top of the page and click the option that says "edit". (You can find this to the left of the search bar.) This pulls up the editing box with all the code of the page. From here, edit the article how you see fit (as long as it is within the realm of Zelda Wiki's Guidelines). But don't save just yet! You'll want to make sure that the edit is okay, and that there are no broken images, or that nothing else is messed up.

From here, click "Show preview" underneath the edit box. This will allow you to see the edits before you save them. Check to make sure that everything is in order (and sometimes spelling errors are easier to notice here). It is also preferred for the "Edit summary" to be used. Under the edit box where it says "Summary:", simply type a short summary of the edit you've made (for example, "Fixed 'als' to 'also'"), then click "Save page". This will save your edits for everyone to see! Congratulations!

In a nutshell, the basic steps for editing are:
 * 1) Click "edit" and make the changes in the edit box.
 * 2) Change the edit summary to detail the edit you've made.
 * 3) Click "show preview" and make sure that everything is working as it should.
 * 4) Click "save page".

Editing on Mobile
So you've found a page that you want to edit. To do this, go to the top of the page and tap the pencil icon on the right side underneath the page name. This pulls up the editing screen, where you can make changes to pages. From here, edit the article how you see fit (as long as it is within the realm of Zelda Wiki's Guidelines). Then, tap "Next" at the top of the page.

You will then be shown your edits before you save them. Check to make sure that everything is in order (and sometimes spelling errors are easier to notice here). It is also preferred for the "Edit summary" to be used. At the top of the page where it says "How did you improve the page?", simply type a short summary of the edit you've made (for example, "Fixed 'als' to 'also'"), then tap "Save" in the top right. This will save your edits for everyone to see! Congratulations!

In a nutshell, the basic steps for editing are:
 * 1) Tap "edit" and make the changes in the edit box.
 * 2) Change the edit summary to detail the edit you've made.
 * 3) Tap "show preview" and make sure that everything is working as it should.
 * 4) Save your edit.

Linking to Other Pages
As explained above, you should almost always link to pages with the  or   templates. However, there are some instances where this is not possible. We have provided a table showing all of the ways that you can link. Linking using brackets should only be used when linking to pages about real-life subjects, for example Merchandise.

Creating a Page
To create a page, follow these steps:
 * 1) First, think: does my page stay within the realm of the Wiki? That is to say, is it important enough or part of what the Wiki covers? An article about "Series:" is acceptable as it is related to Zelda; an article about "Xbox" is not, because it is not related to Zelda or Nintendo in any way.
 * 2) If you deem it acceptable, check the wiki to make sure that the page doesn't already exist. This includes alternate spellings, alternate capitalization (i.e. "Series:" is an existing article whereas "" counts as a different article and may be a source of possible confusion in creating an article), and alternate possible names. Use the search feature as much as possible!
 * 3) If you're sure that your article doesn't exist, search for it on the Wiki. When no results appear, you will see text stating that you can create the page in question. Click it, and create the page, making sure to stay within the Wiki's Guidelines. If all is well and good, save the page.
 * Note: Clicking on a red link will also take you to a "create this page" screen.

In a nutshell, the basic steps for page creation are:
 * 1) Figure out if your topic deserves its own page
 * 2) Find out whether or not it already exists
 * 3) Create the page using the search function's "create this page" link

Intermediate Tips

 * 1) When creating new articles, make sure to use the Boilerplates provided. To learn more about Boilerplates, see the Boilerplate guidelines.
 * 2) Images in the infobox (when multiple) are added through the use of . Infoboxes containing a single image should be formatted as such:  Files in the infobox will automatically be resized to fit the infobox. To resize a file yourself, add   to the end of the file, with # being a number.
 * 3) The games listed in the infobox should not be exhaustive, only the first iteration of a game should be listed (for instance, if something appeared in the original (1993), you should use  . If something first appeared in  or, you should use the corresponding links).
 * 4) The Nomenclature section should make use of the  template, which automatically displays any names in other languages that have been stored.
 * 5) To properly categorize appearances within games, we place  at the end of each article and assign parameters based on the type of article. The types are as follows:                                         Inside these parameters, you should list the games in the canon order (i.e.:   is placed after   and   but before   even if it was released after).

What is Your Specialty?
There is a large assortment of work topics and fields where you can edit in, and maybe there is one that you would feel comfortable in, or maybe you want to work on a variety of topics. Whatever your topic, Some of the main topics can be found here:
 * Articles (Article Writing)
 * Files (Image Retrieval and Graphics Work)
 * Modules (Behind-the-scenes Coding)
 * References (Fact-checking and Sourcing)
 * Translations (Translating Terms from Other Languages)

There are several ways that you can contribute to Zelda Wiki depending on your interests. Many of these disciplines overlap, so you are welcome to explore anything that interests you. If you would like guidance on any field, we can help you over on our Discord server.

Article Writing
Though all of our projects are important, writing is one of the most prominent fields on the Wiki. As linked above, we have a Guideline going over how to format articles if you are interested in seeing what goes into writing articles. We also have a list of wanted pages, and a list of priority pages on our Trello board.


 * The best place to discuss writing is in our  channel on our Discord . There are also specific channels for recent games under the   category.

Music
Coverage of music and soundtracks in is a relatively fledgling field. Though we generally cannot host any music for legal reasons, it is one of our goals to descriptively cover all named songs in the series. We don't have any guidelines for music yet, but the basic formatting in the article guidelines is a great start!


 * The best place to discuss music coverage is in our  channel on our Discord .

Images and Graphics
Images are crucial to help illustrate the ideas that we write about on Zelda Wiki. Graphics work is usually divided into two types of work: image retrieval, such as taking screenshots directly from a game, and image alteration, which usually entails touching up images or removing their backgrounds in an image editor such as GIMP. As linked above, we have a Guideline that covers how files should be formatted and uploaded along with other help.


 * The best place to discuss graphics work is in our  channel on our Discord .

Modules
Modules and templates make up the base of the Zelda Wiki and they give us the framework we need to make our articles look and feel easy to read. If you feel like you are fluent in code and can help with coding our base for the Zelda Wiki, we also have a Guideline for modules.


 * The best place to discuss modules is in our  channel on our Discord .

Research and References
In order to maintain an accurate database of information, we often have to research our topics in-depth. There are many applications for research, such as fact checking, checking official names, and sourcing claims. It doesn't hurt to ask other people directly for information, either. Sometimes the information you're looking for is already known even though it's not documented on the Wiki yet. Even if what you're looking for isn't known, many of us have access to the tools to check and we would be happy to help.


 * The best place to ask questions for research is in our  channel on our Discord . There are also specific channels for recent games as well under the   category. For terminology research, check out our #terms channel.

Translations
Since terminology in English is already a very precarious topic, one can assume that terminology in different languages is even more precarious. Because we don't have many editors that speak different languages, we keep our translations locked away on pages where people can't get to them as easyily. We wouldn't want someone adding an inaccurate translation to a page and not having anyone to check if the translation is correct. To make sure that you are capable of providing accurate translations, all you need to do is send a Staff member a message on either their talk page or on the Discord server that you wish to help with translations, and that's it! Just taking the time to ask us about translations is enough to show us that you can add accurate information because if you couldn't even take that first step, that wouldn't be a good sign for accurate information. Once you take that first step, we will be happy to set you up and explain more about translations.


 * The best place to ask questions for translations in on our  channel on our Discord .

What Else Can You Do?
Maybe none of these topics appeal to your liking and you would rather try something else out. Whatever you have in mind, go for it! If you ever have any questions or ideas, you can always share them on our Discord (that we've already linked 5 times) and we can see what we think. Don't feel like you need to read through every single guidelines page on the wiki; having to read through every guideline gets rough, so we don't want to make you do that. Skimming through a few to get a general idea of how to edit is a great start, and once you find a good topic to work on, then you can read in-depth on that specific guideline. And again, thank you for your contributions!