Help:Common Mistakes

This is a list of common mistakes and fixes for them.

[edit] Indenting

Many new users treat the edit box like a word processor. It isn't, really. This is especially true when it comes to indentation. There is no good way to indent the first line of a paragraph in MediaWiki. It's just not done. Trying to force it can cause problems.

If you try to indent the first line of a paragraph by putting spaces in front of it, MediaWiki will think you're inputting preformatted text, and spit everything out on one giant line. Here's an example in fake Latin:

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut vehicula turpis eu sem. Suspendisse eu nunc. Suspendisse pretium dolor id felis. In neque ipsum, condimentum eget, ultricies non, sollicitudin id, nisl.

You might skim the documentation and read that putting a colon (:) at the start of a line causes an indent. This is true, but it's a block-level indent which indents the entire paragraph:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut vehicula turpis eu sem. Suspendisse eu nunc. Suspendisse pretium dolor id felis. In neque ipsum, condimentum eget, ultricies non, sollicitudin id, nisl. Pellentesque fringilla, eros eget vulputate imperdiet, dolor diam malesuada sapien, nec volutpat magna erat quis massa.

Basically, just give up on indenting. It's not ever going to work right in MediaWiki.

[edit] Paragraphs

Many users type their text in discrete paragraphs, then wonder why MediaWiki spits them out in one giant glob. It's because MediaWiki requires a blank line in between paragraphs, or it won't break them apart.

Here is an example.
This is a second "paragraph" with no blank line in between.

Here is another example.

And here is the second "paragraph" with a blank line in between.