Getting Started with World Anvil

World Anvil, as a tool, is incredibly versatile, but can have a steep learning curve for users coming from Google Docs, Scriviner or One Note. In this series, I will be covering how to get the most out of World Anvil and get you worldbuilding quickly and efficiently.

The Basics

Three major features define how World Anvil works at its core. Without any other features, most of what you use for the site boils down to these basics.

The Mention System

The main calling card of WA is the ability to use a system similar to Twitter and Discord to mention other articles while writing by simply typing an at sign and the title of the relevant article you wish to have a link to for your readers. Thankfully, even when making a new World, this feature is useful, as following the title with a parentheses () enclosed template name creates a beautiful placeholder in your final article. As the world Author, you can click these and it will open an editor for the proper template. These placeholders also get scanned when you save or perform mass actions on your articles, and get added to your handy To-Do List.
Example Article Links:Combating World Sprawl, a real article, and Fighting Procrastination, an article I might write.

Draft Articles

The ability to have, yet still link to, articles that are in a Draft state makes checking how your articles will look and flow a blessing, especially when you are just putting your first world together. These Drafts are unpublished, and so do not show on your World's Table of Contents, and can not be viewed by your readers.

This is a Guild Feature!
If you want to use the To-Do List, please consider supporting World Anvil!

The To-Do List

A newer godsend on the site, the To-Do List scans your articles for created Placeholder links (those Title(template) we talked about earlier) and checks them against your created articles. If an article already made has a matching Title and Template, the system will auto fill the placeholder with the link to the proper article upon saving. If no article exists, the To-Do List will populate with a handy listing on the right hand side of your Dashboard, showing you all of your placeholder links and allowing you to have a type of checklist to clear off for yourself.

What's Next?

Once you understand the basics of World Anvil, the rest is all applying the myriad of tools at your disposal to normal Worldbuilding. Strap in for a ride through the Templates system as I break down the big picture and connections that allow your world to become real!