Guidelines:Getting Started

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 Basics

 * 1) Articles are written in-universe. No mentions of "the player" or "the game". 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.
 * 3) Games are usually written with their initialisms (i.e.  is usually written as  ). To link to these 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 in the same section of the article) you can append   just before the closing brackets (  returns with ).
 * 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:   To learn more about image policies, please consult the file guidelines.
 * 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,   should be used. For instances where the plural form of a term is needed,   exists and functions identically to , outputting the plural form of a term. Please refer to Template:Term for more information.
 * 6) Items and objects are distinguished between whether they are obtained and put into the inventory in any capacity (i.e.: Series:, Series:, Series:, NaN Rupees, etc). If not, we typically refer to things as objects instead (ie: NaN Pots, NaN Trees, NaN Signs, etc.).

Editing Pages
So you've found a page that you want to edit. To do this, go to the top of the page and click the little button that says "edit". 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). 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". 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 simply type a short summary of the edit you've made (i.e. "Fixed 'als' to 'also'", etc.), then click "Save page". This will save your edits for everyone to see!

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".

Linking to other Pages
As explained above, you should almost always link to pages with the Term or Plural 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.

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:    In the event that the file is either smaller than 320x320px or that it is taller than it is wide, x320px should be used as the size instead so as to not upscale images.
 * 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, 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).

Fields of Interest
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.

Writing
Though all of our projects are important, writing is one of the most prominent fields on the Wiki. We have an article guideline if you are interested in seeing what goes in to 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 #wiki-general channel on our Discord . There are also specific channels for recent games as well under the  category.

Research
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 #wiki-general 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.

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.


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

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.


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