Page Creation
- Open the Characters page.
- Type the name of your character bit into the left-hand box and click 'Add New Character'.
- In the page editor, type your character's first and last names into the Page Title box.
- Continue to 'Filling out Info' below.
Filling out Info
First of all, under no circumstances remove any of the default ==== dividers from the page.
Each section prompts you for the info to enter in it. You can leave sections blank at your discretion. Some do not apply to all characters or all players. Fill out whatever is appropriate to share OOCly.
The 'Everything Else / Appendices' section is for anything you want to include that is not covered by the base template. For many characters, this includes such things as a Timeline of scenes, Relationships with other characters, music/themesongs, and/or a gallery. Quotes, trivia, and anything else you want to share can also be put here. This section behaves in all ways like a normal wikipage, and you can use modules, tabviews, etc. just like anywhere else.
Important Notes
Keep short fields short, i.e.:
- ALIASES is intended for major alternate identities, not nicknames. If your character is on file somewhere under a completely different name, that name should go here.
- If you specify a WEIGHT in numbers, leave it at that. Please do not also put BUILD — the field is for one or the other (because some people are better with descriptions than numbers).
- Relationships — For Parents, Siblings, and Children, it generally looks cleanest if you put each named individual on their own line (rather than a list of one, two, and three).
Remember that the summary sheet is like official paperwork: there's only so much room provided on a line. Concise is best. This includes your character profile.
If you're choosing not to fill out the background, psych profile (i.e. personality), and/or ability tabs, you may use
[[f=image characters/classified.gif]]to occupy the space.
When you're finished writing, save the page and continue with setting its tags.
For NPCs
The left-hand box gives the source code to add at the bottom of the page, after any 'appendices'. The right-hand box shows an example of how that code should be filled out.
====
[!-- IC Status (referenced if on vacation or dead) --]
====
[!-- NPC Role --]
====
[!-- NPC manager(s)/contact(s) --]
========
In Searsmont, ME [!-- IC Status --]
====
Company Founder, developer of the Shanti Virus strains [!-- NPC Role --]
====
Rose or Manhattan [!-- NPC manager(s)/contact(s) --]
====Tags
Some info (e.g. evolved status) is derived based upon page tags. These also control what list a character shows up in (e.g. active, idle, retired). You have to set these after saving the page.
Scroll down to the very bottom and click on the 'Tags' button. Then enter a space-separated list of every tag that is appropriate for their Registration status, faction affiliation, and character status:
| Expressive Status | evolved (a legacy term for Expressives), non-evolved, registered, unregistered |
| Registry Category | unknown, biological, chemical, kinetic, mental, meta, spatiotemporal |
| Registry Class | class-A, class-B, class-C |
| Endorsements | COM, INST, LE, MIL, RES, NEG, AUGMENTED |
| Factions | raytech, szc, sesa, wolfhound, yamagato |
| Char Status | deceased, idle, npc, retired, uncast, vacation |
Additionally, if your character has no designated PB, please add the _noactor tag.
For more information on the registration tags, see SESA Registration.
NOTE: If carrying over a 'timeskipped' character, please tag their original char: page with _aftermath.
Uploading Images
Image files are typically uploaded to the wiki in order to be referenced on a character page. To add an image:
- Scroll down to the buttons at the bottom of the page and click on "FILES" (in the center of the row)
- Then select "Upload New File"
- Browse to the file in question, and
- Provide a new name for it IF its original filename does not match what you cited in the wikipage
- Remember that you must include the extension, e.g. Grace.jpg
- Also that filenames are case sensitive; Grace.jpg and grace.jpg are two different files
- and that they cannot use spaces
Once the file has been uploaded, you should be able to hit refresh and see it displayed at whatever point the wikipage references it.
Tricks and Troubleshooting
Evolved Ability Tab
If you can't see the Evolved Ability tab and your character is Evolved — add the 'Evolved' tag to the page. See the 'Tags' section above.
Hide Line in TOC
The Table of Contents is generated from headers — lines prefixed with one or more + symbols. If you want one to be left out of the TOC, put an * right after the last +, e.g. '++* Title Text.
Info in the Wrong Place
If something is not where it's supposed to be, odds are you deleted (or added) a ==== line. Hopefully you retained the comments with section descriptions or can otherwise CTRL+F through the editor to the out-of-place section. Then just reenter or remove the offending line as appropriate.
Info Not Displaying
If you do everything correctly and something fails to display (e.g. the 'Evolved Ability' tab not appearing despite you having the 'evolved' tag on the page, or nothing showing on the page at all), try opening the editor and saving the page.
If that doesn't work, try removing one or more comment blocks (i.e. stuff bracketed by [!-- --]) and then saving.
PB Linebreak
To get rid of that extra line-break after 'Portrayed By', remove the field comment.
Photo Not Displaying
If you uploaded a photo and it is not displaying, you may need to do a "hard refresh."
- On Windows, hold down Ctrl and click the Reload button (Be careful not to hold ⇧ Shift on Chromebook, or it will rotate the internal display). Or, Hold down Ctrl and press F5 (On Chromebook builds, this only takes a screenshot instead).
- To do so on Mac, hold the Shift key and then click the Reload icon on the address bar. Or, hold down ⌘ Cmd and shift key and then press R.
If this doesn't work, double check that you have named the file on the wikipage the same as the file you have upload, keeping in mind that on Wikidot, files are case sensitive. If you named a photo Petrelli.jpg and you have it typed as petrelli.jpg on your wikipage, the photo will not display.
Tabviews
- You cannot have a nested tabview in your history, personality, or Evolved ability sections.
- If you want to use one anyway, say for Ability, put the actual tabview code in 27 (Everything Else/Appendices).
- Then write a short summary in the 'proper' Ability section and save the page.
- If you have the Table of Contents visible, right-click on the link that points at your tabview and 'Copy Link Location'. Insert this below the summary so viewers can click on it and be taken directly to the detailed section.
- (If you don't have the TOC visible, and don't know how to manually figure the link, talk to Rose about setting it up.)
Code Snippets
Collapsible Sections
To hide a section of text, bracket it with the following code. 'Show' is the link people see while the block is hidden, which they click in order to show the hidden content. 'Hide', similarly, is the link presented while the block is displayed and can be clicked to hide it again. The 'hideLocation' value determines whether the 'Hide' link appears above the block, below the block, or on both sides.
[[collapsible show="TEXT TO SHOW BLOCK" hide="TEXT TO HIDE BLOCK" hideLocation="TOP, BOTTOM, or BOTH"]]
CONTENT
[[/collapsible]]Relationships
The most common format for relationships is a table. Many people will also group relationships within a tabview, e.g. using one tab for family, and another for associates.
If you want to use a separate page for your character's timeline, create it in the relationships: category.
Tabviews
Copy the source code below into your page, change tab names and content as appropriate. You can include more tabs as necessary, just add more [[tab]] [[/tab]] pairs with content in between them. 'Content' can include divs, tables, modules, and most other nifty code features — but not another tabview.
[[tabview]]
[[tab NAME1]]
CONTENT1.
[[/tab]]
[[tab NAME2]]
CONTENT2.
[[/tab]]
[[/tabview]]Timelines
The tables used for personal timelines are many and idiosyncratic. Some are nested in tabviews; others are hidden behind 'collapsible' sections.
If you want to use a separate page for your character's timeline, create it in the aflogs: category.
| Date | Title | Summary | Cast |
|---|---|---|---|
| DATE | [[[SCENE]]] | DESCRIPTION | [[image log-icons/NAME1_icon.gif link="NAME1"]] [[image log-icons/NAME2_icon.gif link="NAME2"]] |
( See Coren's page for an example in use. )
| When | Where | What | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| DATE | [[[SCENE]]] | DESCRIPTION | [[[NAME1]]], [[[NAME2]]] |
( See Gabriel's page for an example in use. )