Help:Editing
This page explains the technical part of entering chapters. We have a separate page with some guidelines such as chapter length.
If you want to practise your formatting skills, you can use the sandbox.
Headings
Chapters moved over from the old system all start with a chapter number and title. If you want, you can give your chapter a title, but you do not have to. The chapter will always get the option text as a main title.
Clicking the Signature button (second from the right) will enter your login name (or nickname / real name, if you're entered one), plus the server time. Your name will appear as a link to your user page, where you may want to write a little about yourself, or a link to your site / LJ. People can also leave messages to you there, and see what else you've written here.
Please also include warnings at the top of your chapter if you are introducing a new squick to the thread.
Chapter Text
In your chapter you can use bold and italic text by clicking the buttons, or typing ''' (three single straight quotes) before and after bold text, and '' (two single straight quotes) before and after anything that should be in italic. It might be helpful to preview before you save to check you've got it all right.
If you want to include headings in your chapter text, the level 2 header for which a button is provided might be too heavy. Try a lower level header instead (the ones used for this text are level 3: type === before and after the header text; for level 4 it's ====), but maybe just a bold line will do just as well. In any case it's always a good idea to preview before you save.
Avoid using asterisks (*) at the start of a line. In wiki markup an asterisk is used to create an unordered list, so it will show up as a little blue square, just like the ones in the navigation menu on the left of your screen. If you want to use an asterisk at the start of a line, you'll have to turn off wiki markup for a bit: use the 'Ignore wiki formatting' button for this (third from right), or the <nowiki> command.
You can include in-text links, for example to Character pages. By putting double square brackets around a character's name like [[this]], the system automatically generates a link to the page with the same name, or will make a new page if it doesn't exist already.
For readability, better not make a link out of every mention of a name; just one of these links per character per page will do. That is enough for your chapter to show up on the "What links here" page for that character, so people interested in a particular character can easily find your chapter.
And for all your other formatting needs, WikiMedia has a comprehensive list of all wiki markup - but please: less is more!
Options
To enter options, or any link to a new wiki page for that matter (maybe you want to link the name of a new OC to a page explaining more about him/her), you put your link text in double square brackets: [[text]] - or you just select your option text and click the internal link button.
You can also copy and paste the text below, and write in your own options, but remember to leave the brackets in place.
----
What happens next?
* [[Your first option goes here]]
* [[Your second option goes here]]
Overview Page
Then when you've entered your chapter, it would be helpful if you could also enter it in the Chapter list. Read the talk page to learn how.
And if you don't want to edit the Chapter list, then please mention on your chapter's talk page that you chapter's options still need to be added there, so someone else can do it for you.
WikiWord: MS Word-to-Wiki
If you write your chapters in Microsoft Word and plan on using a lot of formatting, there's a template available that will add a toolbar to Word, including one marvellous button that "wikifies" your entire document in one go and copies it to the clipboard, ready for pasting. One drawback: c'est en français (though if anyone's interested I could translate it - just drop me a line).
Installation instuctions (in English) and link to file (in French) here.