How To Post A Pattern

Thank you for helping create pattern pages! Hopefully these instructions will be simple to follow. If you have any questions, search the [[::Category:Help|Help]] or post on the forum's Wiki page.

## How to Create a New Page using the VisualEditor (default)

1. Select **Contribute**, and **Add a Page**
2. Add a title, being careful of the spelling/capitalization. It can't be changed easily once submitted.
3. If you don't have an image for this page, skip to step 4. If the page you are creating has a picture (of the pattern itself, or a completed stitching), download it to your computer, then click **Insert** > **Media**. Click **Upload** and select the picture file. Select what type of licensing you have to use that image. Give it a simple, descriptive file name with spaces so the image becomes searchable (and remember the file name, or copy it, for use in the next step), and click **Add Media**. Click in the blank space to the left of the picture to place your cursor.
4. Click **Insert** > **Template**, type "Infobox", and select the item **Infobox**.
5. Fill out the form: If you have an image, enter a name for the image, and the file name you created in the previous step. Enter a custom width and a caption for the image if you want; OK to leave those fields blank. The following fields are also optional, but the wiki will be better for the more details you can add. Enter the height and width in stitches (it will calculate the size in inches/cm), the total stitch count, and the number of colors used, if known, and click **Done**.
6. If you added an image, click the original image outside of the Infobox, and delete it.
7. Click in the blank space to the left of the info box to place your cursor.
8. Click **Insert** > **Template** and type "Pattern", and select the item **Pattern**.
9. Fill out the form: In the Sprite Stitch forum, click the title of the post with patterns attached and copy the URL. This could be the first post in the thread, or somewhere in the middle. We want to link to the post with the patterns and not just the top of the thread, so that users can quickly find the pattern attachments. Enter the name of the pattern (will be the text for the link), and list all file types of pattern available (e.g. .pdf, .pat, .sth, or image). Enter the username of the member who created the pattern, or the URL of the source, if not a Sprite Stitch member.
10. Click the **menu icon (three lines)** > **Categories** to add Categories. This is important, to keep the page organized and make browsing useful. Check the Pattern Tree to see the Category structure. Any pattern page should have the category "Pattern", plus any specific other categories. For example, if my pattern is of Link, add the category "Link" (since it is a specific character someone could be looking for. If it's from a specific game, also add a category for the game ("Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"). Do NOT add higher-tier categories, like "VIdeo Game Systems" or "Games" for this example, since the subcategory structure will take care of that. Do take a look to see if the category already exists, so that we don't have multiples with slightly different spellings. Once you have added appropriate categories, click **Apply**.
11. If your page is complete, click **Publish**. Add a short description to explain your edit, like "Creation of page" or "Added additional pattern details", and click **Publish**.
12. Confirm that your Categories are mapped by clicking on each one. If your category doesn't exist (if this was the first pattern posted from "Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past") then click **Add to this page!** Add a brief description of the category (can just be "Patterns assoicated with Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past") and then add Categories for the game: "Games", and if you know what system it is from, add a category for the system: "SNES". After adding these categories and clicking **Publish**, follow step 11 again until you have confirmed all Categories map back to the Patterns tree. The more complete these categories are, the more useful the wiki will be, particularly if you don't have a specific pattern in mind when you are browsing.

## How to Create a New Page using the Source Editor

Sometimes, using the WYSIWYG editor can be a pain. Especially if you can't get the formatting to look quite right.

1. Select **Contribute**, and **Add a Page**
2. Add a title, being careful of the spelling/capitalization. It can't be changed once submitted.
3. If you don't have an image for this page, skip to step 4. If the page you are creating has a picture (of the pattern itself, or a completed stitching), download it to your computer, then click **Insert** > **Media**. Click **Upload** and select the picture file. Select what type of licensing you have to use that image. Give it a simple, descriptive file name with spaces so the image becomes searchable, and click **Add Media**. Even if you don't intend to use the visual editor, I find it easiest to just get your images added up front.
4. Click the **menu icon** and select **Source Editor**
5. Below is the Wikitext to create a basic page. Copy/paste it into your editor (below the image tag if you added one), and update the fields to the values you want. If any of the fields are not wanted, delete the entire line starting with the |. If you added an image, once you've copied the image file name into the template, you can delete the [[File... tag.
6. Add additional categories by duplicating the last line of the template. Categories are important, to keep the page organized and make browsing useful. Check the Pattern Tree to see the Category structure. For example, if my pattern is of Link, add the category "Link" (since it is a specific character someone could be looking for. If it's from a specific game, also add a category for the game ("Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"). Do NOT add higher-tier categories, like "VIdeo Game Systems" or "Games" for this example, Do take a look to see if the category already exists, so that we don't have multiples with slightly different spellings.
7. If your page is complete, click **Publish**. Add a short description to explain your edit, like "Creation of page" or "Added additional pattern details", and click **Publish**.
8. Confirm that your Categories are mapped by clicking on each one. If your category doesn't exist (if this was the first pattern posted from "Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past") then click **Add to this page!** after clicking the Category name. Add a brief description of the category (can just be "Patterns assoicated with Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past") and then add it's category: "Games", and if you know what system it is from, add a category for the system: "SNES". After adding these categories and clicking **Publish**, follow step 7 again until you have confirmed all Categories map back to the Patterns tree. The more complete these categories are, the more useful the wiki will be, particularly if you don't have a specific pattern in mind when you are browsing.

```
{{Infobox
}}

{{Pattern
}}

[[Category:Pattern]]

```

## Advanced Editing

When the basic template doesn't work for you, feel free to get creative.

If you have multiple Infoboxes and are having trouble with placement, you can create two columns. In the source editor, add these 4 tags around your templates:

```
<mainpage-leftcolumn-start />
    Code for the left column (Pattern templates)
<mainpage-endcolumn />
<mainpage-rightcolumn-start />
    Code for the right column (Infobox templages)
<mainpage-endcolumn />

```

See the Epic Mario Through The Ages page for an example of using a 2 column layout, with multiple Pattern templates, and an additional Featured section.

### Adding links to user pages

If the pattern is created by someone on the Wiki, you can make the Created by field a dynamic link to their user page by replacing the Created by line with this one, with the Wiki user name in the first half, and the user name as you want it to display (Sprite Stitch username, in case they are different) in the second half:

```

```

### Customizing your User page

To get to your user page, click your user icon in the header, or navigate to spritestitch.wikia.com/wiki/User:Your\_User\_Name

To add a navigational box at the bottom of your user page to link to any patterns you have created, add the Template:Navbox, with pattern pages you want to link to in double brackets, and links separated by a hyphen. Feel free to add labels or organize the links as you wish.

```
{{Navbox
}}

```