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Forums: Index > The Wizengamot > You've been chosen to beta test the new Wikia Editor



Wikis are all about editing, and having a great editing tool makes contributions easy, fast, and fun. To improve your editing experience on Wikia, we have been upgrading our editor's layout and design.

This wiki has been chosen to test the new design, making you among the first to see and use it. The new editor will be enabled here Monday June 13.

What has changed[]

We've redesigned the experience from the ground up, so there are many updates across the board, including improvements to both the visual and source mode editing. The main changes you will see are:

  • The media features have been moved from the top toolbar to the right rail. Note: On the main page, which has no right rail, these items remain in the top toolbar area.
  • The feature list is expandable — you can see more or less depending on your preference.
  • We now have only one scrollbar on the page in the edit window.
  • Messages (such as warnings, notices, license text, etc.) have been updated and moved to more obvious and consistent locations. Note: Some messages have content updates planned.
  • We have removed the unlink toolbar button —you can still undo a link by using the right click context menu.

What hasn't changed[]

  • The functionality of the editor itself has not changed.
  • Source mode still works the same (but uses the new design), and the preference to disable visual mode is respected.
  • You can still switch to widescreen mode in source mode.

Future development plans[]

This is just our first iteration of the new editing experience. Here are a few areas we want to focus on next:

  • Faster loading
  • A spellchecker for visual mode
  • Working on interaction design — fewer fallbacks, fewer puzzle pieces, more drag-to-resize functionality
  • Your requests!

What we would love to hear about[]

Please leave a message here if you notice any of the following issues:

  • General edit page bugs
  • Browser failures (e.g. feature X is broken on browser Y)
  • Missing important features (or if something exists but took a long time to find)
  • Confusing experiences

Thank you in advance for being one of the first wikis to use our new editor. We will be releasing the editor across Wikia in a series of stages over the next month as we work out any issues you come across. Stay tuned to the staff blog for further announcements. If you have any questions -- please let me know here. --Sarah (help forum | blog) 22:09, June 9, 2011 (UTC)

Comments[]

Hi All. It has now been flipped on - please let us know what you think. Sarah (help forum | blog) 16:42, June 13, 2011 (UTC)
- Wow, thank you for choosing me. Honestly, I can't think of anyhting I'd like to comment about. I'm pretty happy with the wikia the way it is. --omarsamad.

I think it's a terrible version. I can't find the title-box in the version and half of the page is missing.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Danniesen (talkcontribs).

I'm not sure I understand - you can't edit the title when creating a page? Atm there should be a button by the title (though that's getting tweaked soon). On half the page is missing: it is intentional that the only scrollbar is in the edit area. There's nothing below that area. Kirkburn (talk) 11:20, June 14, 2011 (UTC)
  • Hi, please excuseme my english. I edit Harry Potter in Spanish so I came here to add interwiki links, they do not seam to appear in the preview, and I see the text is blur, not very clear when I am editting it. I miss the wide open space in the old editor and to see the page and the edit box in the same page. Regards. --Zeist Antilles flimsiplast 22:08, June 14, 2011 (UTC)
I like the new editor. Looks pretty neat and is as easy to work with as the old one. One thing I don't like is the lack of template preload which makes adding certain templates to articles (i.e. infoboxes) a harder task. --  Seth Cooper  owl post! 22:18, June 14, 2011 (UTC)
I agree with you. --RavenclawcrestThe Evening Prophet Ravenclawcrest (Owl Post) 22:52, June 14, 2011 (UTC)
Preload stuff should still be supported - can you give me some links/steps to check out?
@Seth, is your comment about this particular wiki? It looks like preload templates aren't in use on this wiki, and Template:Infobox was deleted. But if you open the "Templates" section in the right rail of the editor and click, say, the "Welcome" template, it prompts you to fill it out. You can see an example of preload templates in use at frontierville.wikia.com (the message with preload links appears above the editing field). --Dopp WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 22:18, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
Seth was referring to the preloads available in MediaWiki:Edittools which has been removed in the new editor. We have our various infobox templates in there. When you select one of the infoboxes, it inserts the infobox in the edit window with the parameters listed. It is done with some JS I added. Is it possible to expand the list of templates available, and can parameters be inserted when you select a template so it's easier for users to fill out? :-) Grunny (talk) 07:08, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
Huh, I hadn't seen that use of edittools before. Edittools still exists (see 'More shortcuts' next to the source mode toolbar), but it does look like the template insertion tweak isn't working. I shall investigate further. Kirkburn (talk) 12:08, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
Ah, so there's the edittools :). It is working for the edittools that is on the page but hidden. However, it doesn't fill the options in the popup version as it seems to clone the edittools on load, which is faster than the query that gets the list of options from Template:Stdpreloads to populate the options, so it doesn't have the options there. Also, I wrote a way to make the options work, but as the edittools is now in a popup, the insertatcursor function that inserts the template wherever the user puts their cursor isn't working as it needs to be able to focus on the editbox. I have written a temporary script that people can use if they feel it would be useful to have the preloads working in the new editor for now. It adds the dropdown underneath the Preview and Publish buttons and will work as it did in the old editor. I'll add the custom template preload later. To use this add importScript( 'User:Grunny/infoboxpreloads-neweditor.js‎' ); to your wikia.js. Grunny (talk) 14:33, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
I want to see about making the edittools popup more like a 'companion' to the page than a popup on top of it, but it'll need some thought. The right rail seems like a sensible location for that dropdown though - I'd like to eventually get to a point where it's easy to add items to right rail modules (e.g. an API to add a button to the templates module, or such). Kirkburn (talk) 14:14, June 17, 2011 (UTC)
  • Thanks for choosing me (even though I have only edited a couple of times really). Nothing much to say, except that I prefer the old version. For one thing, I don't have to click on the 'more' button at the top of the old one to get to such features as strikethrough and underline (which admittedly aren't used very often). I would prefer not having to type, and see my words at the very bottom of the screen, though. (Arrrrgh! I tried to scroll down to find the 'publish' and it took me a while to find it up there! Ah well ...) --*Ginny*(Point Me!) 04:25, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
    • We're not entirely keen that text hits the bottom of the page quite so much - we may put in a bit of padding there. On the more button: it should be automatically expanded if you visit a talk page - possibly we didn't include Forum pages, I'll check. It should also remember your last choice on other pages. Kirkburn (talk) 11:35, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
  • Perhaps you may add an option to change fonts. I know you can do this with special codes in source mode, yet this option idea with make it fast and save more time! It All Ends Here 580 voldemortbanner On July 15th 04:35, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
    • That will be one of the benefits of having the 'More' toolbar option - we plan to add more stuff there over time. Whether that means font choices, we're not sure. Kirkburn (talk) 11:35, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
  • I like this more than the old one. My only suggestion is replacing all the adjust to left, center and right with the signaturefor forum and talkpages.kangaroopowahTalk 15:04, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
    • We'll make sure the toolbar is expanded immediately on forum pages. Kirkburn (talk) 19:22, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
  • I like it, its more neat and its more spaced out, really cool. Speedysnitch 16:54, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
  • I miss to go to the history when you are on the article. You can only go into when the article is changed and you go into the recent changes. But when I want to see the history of a not changed site, I find no possibility. From the article itself you can't go anymore into the history of this article. Harry granger 20:22, June 15, 2011 (UTC)
    • We'll look into it. Kirkburn (talk) 12:08, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
  • Sorry, but what I wanted the new editor to be was make it easier to add coding stuff unlike RTE. Because newer editors mess up page with RTE. Hope Wikia doesnt roll this out globaly...
--.Nobody Cares .OwlsDarkmark.
11:13, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
  • This update does not affect the choices of when visual mode appears - it's just a layout update. Kirkburn (talk) 12:08, June 16, 2011 (UTC)
  • I'd prefer it if "Preview" was still a button that looked like "Publish" and that the preview results were displayed on a new page like they used to be instead of in an inline pop-up window. I'm too accustomed to the old style and I can see myself accidentally hitting "Publish" instead of "Preview" and posting something unfinished at some point.
  • The right sidebar is a convenient addition, but when I've got the "Add features and media," "Categories," and "Templates" panes all open, the content in the bottom-most one ("Templates") gets cut off and there's no scroll option. I'm running Firefox on a new iMac with the resolution set to 1600X900. Starstuff (Owl me!) 18:47, June 17, 2011 (UTC)
    • We don't want to show extra scrollbars too often, when users can move stuff onto the screen themselves - but we do have one in place for really small resolutions (when it's impossible to see everything, even when closing boxes). We will be looking at tweaking when it appears. Kirkburn (talk) 12:31, June 20, 2011 (UTC)
  • You want my wiki, the Total Drama Comeback wiki, to beta test? But I just got the new editors accustomed to the current editing process! Fine, I'm okay with it. I'll let the other editors know. Per Ankh, now owner of the TDC wiki. 02:37, June 18, 2011 (UTC)
    • I'm glad you chose my wiki to be a beta tester! Thank you! Per Ankh, now owner of the TDC wiki. 03:09, June 18, 2011 (UTC)
  • Really? You want Harry Potter Fanfic to bets test? Cool! Look Out Sunshine Here comes 12 jammy dodgers and a fez! 17:27, June 18, 2011 (UTC)
  • The sidebar is good, but I would prefer it to be hidable. And the space under the edit box, where the copyright warning was should be kept, some wikis have that input thing, I find it very useful (it could also be incorporated to the sidebar). Other thing is the font type on the edit box (I edit with code). I don't know if it is just on Chrome, but the old font was better, cleaner. Aside from that, I could get used to this edit page. Lele Mj Ravenclawcrest (Intelligence and Wit) 02:11, June 19, 2011 (UTC)
    • Both the hidable sidebar and edittools options appear in source mode - but aren't really appropriate for visual mode. Edittools can be accessed via the 'More shortcuts' option on the toolbar. Thanks for the font feedback - may I ask, what operating system and browser version are you using? Kirkburn (talk) 12:31, June 20, 2011 (UTC)
  • I have some of the same issues with Preview mode and the right sidebar as Starstuff. Furthermore, I can no longer find the "Back to page" link when looking at specific edits in the page's history, and I can't see any other way to get directly back to the page's current version. The "Categories" section is also harder to manage, with many of the longer category titles cut off partway, both with the current categories and the selections that pop up automatically when adding a new one. For example, when trying adding a category starting with "Promotional images from", it's impossible to tell which of the selections is from which film without having to type out nearly the entire title yourself, which somewhat defeats the purpose. - Nick O'Demus 17:50, June 20, 2011 (UTC)
    • When you're editing old page revisions, the page title links to the current live revision - are you saying you'd like a link to the version of the revision you're currently editing? On categories: we're going to look at improving it - a quick addition will be tooltips so you can see the full name on hover. Kirkburn (talk) 12:39, June 21, 2011 (UTC)
      • I noticed the link when editing, but this is what I'm talking about:
      • In this specific edit in the history of a page on the fanon Wiki, there's a "Back to page" link in the upper left that takes you directly to page's current revision. That link appears when reviewing any edit in the page's history. Our old editor was the same way.
      • In this specific edit in the history of a page on this Wiki, there is no longer a "Back to page" link in the upper left, nor does the title link to the current revision like it does when editing. As far as I can tell, there is no direct link on that page back to the current revision.
      • That leaves only more roundabout ways of getting back to the current page, like clicking "Edit" and THEN clicking the title link, or doing a Search for the page title. Nick O'Demus 13:03, June 21, 2011 (UTC)
  • Other thing I've noticed is that when you're on a page you've been redirected to (say, you're on the page "1920s" and you've been redirected there from "1926"), when you click the "Edit" button you edit the redirect instead of the page you were in (i.e., you edit "1926" instead of "1920s"). That can be a bit annoying. --  Seth Cooper  owl post! 18:12, June 20, 2011 (UTC)
    • Wow, that's an odd one. I see it too - we'll get on it. Thanks for the report! Kirkburn (talk) 12:39, June 21, 2011 (UTC)
      • The same thing happens with deleting a page as well. Recently a user made a fanon page and then renamed it. I opened the redirect in a separate tab from the page it linked to, and deleted the redirect first. When I tried to delete the main page, it told me it had already been deleted, but listed the redirect's title instead of the renamed one. I had to retype the title to get back to the renamed page. - Nick O'Demus 13:11, June 21, 2011 (UTC)

There is something I hate. When you are no friend of the new look and use the old, you are out. You don't get anymore editing help like the Editing (section) with the formattings Bold, Italic, the links [[ ]] etc. When you want to get this, you are forced to take the new look. That's not very friendly. Harry granger 19:56, July 15, 2011 (UTC)

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