Guidelines:Getting Started

Getting Involved Getting Involved	Discord Discord	Knight Challenges Knight Challenges	Image edit request and support center Image Requests	Trello Boards Trello	Guidelines:Main Guidelines

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 StreetPass).
2. Zelda Wiki documents the North American English canon of the series.
3. Games are usually written with their initialisms (i.e. Ocarina of Time is usually written as OoT). To link to these game, use curly brackets surrounding the game's initialism (for example, {{OoT}} to generate Ocarina of Time). 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 ({{OoT|-}} returns with Ocarina of Time).
4. When uploading images, all files should follow the same pre-established format: File:<game> <topic> <filetype>.png
   
   For instance, if you were to upload a cropped screenshot of the Tail Key from Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch, you would upload it as: File:LANS Tail Key Model.png
   
   If you were to upload the inventory icon (or sprite) of the Tail Key, you would upload it as: File:LANS Tail Key Icon.png
   
   To learn more about image policies, please consult the file guidelines.
5. Because The Legend of Zelda series 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, {{Term}} should be used. For instances where the plural form of a term is needed, {{Plural}} exists and functions identically to {{Term}}, 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.: Sword, Shield, Hookshot, Rupees, etc). If not, we typically refer to things as objects instead (ie: Jars, Trees, 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.

Intent	What you see	What you type	Notes
Linking to pages directly	Princess Zelda	[[Princess Zelda]]	Should mainly be used when creating redirects. When possible you should use {{Term}} instead.
Linking while using text that is different from the page name	Zelda	[[Princess Zelda|Zelda]]	Both {{Term}} and {{Plural}} have the |display= function for this purpose.
Linking to pages that have parentheses	[[The Legend of Zelda (Game)|]]		As long as you only leave a pipe before the closing brackets, it will take whatever text appears before the parentheses and use that for the text of the link.
Linking with text after the link (i.e. using plural terms)	Hearts	[[Heart]]s	For plural links, you can use {{Plural}}. For other cases, we have the |display= function on the templates.
Linking to pages that don't exist	Template:Redlink	[[This is a link to a page that doesn't exist]]	If you want to create that page, you could do so by clicking the link.
Linking to a different namespace that is not Category	Talk:Main Page	[[Talk:Main Page]]	These links are perfectly acceptable.
Linking to the category namespace	Category:Zelda	[[:Category:Zelda]]	To add a category to a page, simply exclude the :. Please refer to {{Categories}}
Linking to a subpage	Talk:Main Page/Archive07	[[Talk:Main Page/Archive07]]
Linking to external sites	Zelda Wiki	[http://www.zeldawiki.org Zelda Wiki]	There are other ways to link to external sites, but this is the ideal way.
Creating redirects	#REDIRECT [[PAGENAME]]		See Guidelines:Redirects for more information.
Linking to sections of another page	Link#Breath of the Wild	[[Link#Breath of the Wild]]	{{Term}} and {{Plural}} automatically link to a section based on game.
Linking to sections of the same page	#Linking to other Pages	[[#Linking to other Pages]]	The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections aren't broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page. As with linking to pages with parentheses, you may leave a pipe before the closing brackets to create text for the link that matches the header name.
Linking to Wikipedia	Kimchi	{{Wp|Kimchi}}	You can add an additional pipe and text to display text differently from the page name ({{Wp|Kimchi|김치}} for 김치).

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 "Link" 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. Kakariko Town is an existing article whereas Template:Redlink 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 {{Media}}. Infoboxes containing a single image should be formatted as such:
   
   [[File:Foo.png|320px]]
   
   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 Link's Awakening (1993), you should use {{LA}}. If something first appeared in Link's Awakening DX or Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch, you should use the corresponding links).
4. The Nomenclature section should make use of {{Nomenclature}}, which automatically displays any names in other languages that have been stored.
5. To properly categorize appearances within games, we place {{Categories}} at the end of each article and assign parameters based on the type of article. The types are as follows:
   
   bosses
   characters
   dungeons
   enemies
   items
   objects
   places
   songs
   stages
   sub-bosses
   Inside these parameters, you should list the games in the canon order (i.e.: LANS is placed after LA and LADX but before OoT 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 WIKI PROJECTS 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 WIKI PROJECTS 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 The Legend of Zelda series 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.

See Also

• Help:Formatting on MediaWiki