Editing Battlestar Wiki:Tutorial (internal links)

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'''Links''' are important in ''Battlestar Wiki'' articles.

== Internal links ==
One of the things that makes Mediawiki useful (and addictive) is extensive cross-listing by [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:internal links|internal links]]. These easily-created links allow users to access information related to the article they're reading.

=== When to link ===
The easiest way to learn when to link is to look at ''Battlestar Wiki'' articles for examples. If you're trying to decide whether to make a link or not, ask yourself "If I were reading this article, would the link be useful to me?"

=== How to link ===
When you want to make a link to another ''Battlestar Wiki'' page (called a ''wiki link'') you have to put it in double square brackets, like this:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Karl Agathon]]</nowiki></tt>

For example, if you want to make a link to, say, the ''Battlestar Wiki:Sandbox'' page, it would be:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Battlestar Wiki:Sandbox]]</nowiki></tt>

(The 'Battlestar Wiki:' part signifies that the target page is in the ''Battlestar Wiki'' [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:namespace|namespace]], rather than the main namespace, where normal articles go.)

Also remember that in ''Battlestar Wiki'' the links are created automatically, 
so if you put double square brackets around a word, it becomes a link, and because of that you have to be careful about [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Disambiguation|disambiguation]].

==== Piped links ====
If you want to use words other than the article title as the text of the link, you can add an alternative name by adding after the pipe "|" divider (SHIFT + BACKSLASH on English-layout and other keyboards). For example, if you wanted to make a link to this page's sandbox, but wanted it to say "my text" you would write it as such:
:<tt>To view the article, <nowiki>[[Battlestar Wiki:Sandbox|my text]]</nowiki>...</tt>

It would appear as:
:To view the article, [[Battlestar Wiki:Sandbox|my text]]...
...but would link to the sandbox.

==== Pipe trick ====
The pipe trick is a handy shortcut for when you want to link e.g. "Viper" to [[Viper (RDM)]]. Normally, you'd need:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Viper (RDM)|Viper]]</nowiki></tt>
But in this special case, you can also use:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Viper (RDM)|]]</nowiki></tt>

=== Alternate endings ===
When you want to use the plural of an article title (or add any other suffix) for your link, you can add the extra letters directly outside the double square brackets.

For example, you would write:
:<tt>Colonial craft such as <nowiki>[[raptor]]s</nowiki>....</tt>
:<tt>Various <nowiki>[[centurion]]s</nowiki>...</tt>

It would appear as:
:Colonial craft such as [[raptor]]s....
:Various [[centurion]]s...

== Categories ==
You can also put the article in a category with others in a related topic. Just type <nowiki>[[Category:]]</nowiki>, and put the name of the category between the colon and the brackets. For more information, refer to the [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Categories|Categories]] page.

== Linking to categories, images and pages in other languages ==
If you want to link to [[:Category:A to Z]], you can't use:
:<tt><nowiki>[[Category:A to Z]]</nowiki></tt>
as that would add the page to the A to Z category rather than displaying a link. If you just want to link to the category page, use:
:<tt><nowiki>[[:Category:A to Z]]</nowiki></tt>
Adding a colon to the beginning is also necessary to link to images (without the colon, you'd include the image itself) and pages in other languages (like [[:de:Hauptseite]]).

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