User blog:Le717/Videos And Formatting

Hey guys! I'd thought I'd give you a few pointers on writing stuff on a Wiki. Not that you need it per say, but I see room for improvement.

Before I start, I will give my qualification for giving you tips. I am a long time member of the LEGO Universe Wikia, where I have 2,168 edits, and 31% of those are main space edits (the only reason File uploads count for more is due the the fact I am the only one uploading the LU Brick palette images. :P) I believe I am more than capable for helping you guys out.

Please do not think I am being cocky or something. I am trying to help you guys out, and I want you to succeed in your task. :)

This is the first of a three part blog post series. The first one (which is this!) relates to...

Videos
'Videos' are best viewed in a gallery, not as a normal file link. For example, I have created a small page which I will show off why a video is best left in a Gallery.

Here we have a page that has a video that is not in a gallery. As you can see, the formatting is all broken.

The code Wikia code that put the video in that position is this:



That is how Wikia adds videos in the normal Visual editing mode. A simple breakdown of the code follows:

File:Meet Cole, Ninja of Earth!

The file name that is linked on the page.

|thumb

A horizontal bar (|) is a break; it tells Wikia there is a break or a new function in the code. Thumb always creates a little border around the file with either a description, who may have uploaded the image or video, or nothing at all (if the Wikia CSS has the code to do that).

|200px

This is the size of the video frame, how big the thumbnail is. It has no effect on the Thumb parameter.

The best way to embed a video on a page is to put it in a gallery. Here is the same page as above, but with the Cole video in the Gallery.

Doesn't that look much better? Now, how did I add the video to the Gallery? Simple.

First, I needed to enter Source editing mode. Do that by clicking the tab that says Source near the top of the editing window. Then look for the code like the one I gave above, and move it to the Gallery. The resulting gallery code will look like this:

The File: code is no longer needed, as well as the Thumb or px size. On top of that, the page looks a lot better, a loot cleaner, and well kept.

Ending
And that concludes part 1 of my tips for you guys. I'm sorry if something is a bit confusing or weirdly written, it's just that writing (not English, I am from the US, and I've been complimented on my proper usage. It's just writing) is not my strongest point. I am much better in Math. If you have any questions, please, do ask! I will answer them the best I can and as soon as I can. ;)