User:Zsingaya/Picture Tables FAQ

UPDATE
I'm currently working on the task of updating these tables to a gallery-style, as per my user-talk page. You can see the effects of these updates on these pages:


 * Erick Avari
 * Cyia Batten
 * Vaughn Armstrong

I'd be very pleased if you'd like to make comments on this, whether you like it, or hate it. Any comments will be welcome!

Picture Tables
As one of the main contributors of the picture tables on many of the recurring actors' pages, I thought it was my duty to write a small page here. It's my objective to demonstrate the art of building a simple picture table, and I hope that this page will be accessible to everyone.

Introduction
Firstly, I'd like to explain the reason why I decided to start putting picture tables on the actors' pages. When I first noticed the number of actors' pictures building up on their pages, I realised that there must be a way to arrange them neatly, whilst still displaying all the information.

OK, now onto the good stuff...

Types of tables available to use
There are basically three types of tables that you can use.


 * "gallery"
 * "Grey"
 * "Wiki-sidebar"

"gallery"
This is an example of a "gallery" table.

As you can see, the table is split into three sections horizontally (for the three characters Erick Avari played) with small text under each picture for links to the character's name, and the episode he appeared in.

Construction
The construction of this type of table is very simple. It uses tags at each end of the table.

You start with:

 

Then, you put in the link to the picture, followed by a verticle bar:

 File:BiJik.jpg| 

Then, you add the wikilink to the character's page, followed by a tag to force a line-break:

 BiJik 

Finally, you add the link to the episode, in this format:

''' TNG: '''

This is all you need for one picture. The next picture is simply added below this:

''' File:BiJik.jpg|B'iJik TNG:

File:Yarka.jpg|Vedek Yarka DS9: '''

You can add as many pictures as you need/want. The most I've ever done is on Vaughn Armstrong's page, which has 12.

"Grey"
''' {| class="grey" width="100%" ! colspan="4"| Characters performed by Alan Altshuld '''

This type of table recognises the total width of the page as 100%. Knowing the number of pictures you want to add per row, you divide this by 100%, so, 4 pictures = 25% per picture... easy right?

Then, you add this into the next line of script here: '''
 * class="even" style="text-align: center" width="25%"| Pomet.jpg '''
 * class="even" style="text-align: center" width="25%"| Pomet.jpg '''

This is the most complicated part of this table. All you then need to do is replicate this for the other three pictures, and then add the rest of the information as if it was a "mainpage" table.

If this doesn't make sense to you, leave me a message :-)

"Wiki-sidebar"
I refer you to Max Grodénchik for the details of this one. I only implement this style of table on pages where there is alot of information. The large list of appearances for Rom on this page makes the "wiki-sidebar" format more logical.

This format is also used to make tables with less than three pictures.

As you can see, there is less information on this type of table, but, usually, the relevant information is available in the text associated with the actor. I'ts best to keep the size of these pictures between 100 and 170px, otherwise the page looks a bit right-heavy.

Questions, anyone?
If anyone has any questions regarding picture tables, or the editing of them, feel free to contact me on my talk page.