Help:Editing


 * See also Help:Editing, Help:Starting a new page, m:Help:Editing

Wikipedia is a wiki, which means that anyone can easily edit any unprotected page and have those changes posted immediately to that page. To request a change to a protected page, you may use the Editprotected template.

Editing a Wikipedia page is very easy. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a wiki page (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox; not here. You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend, and when you have finished, press the Show preview button to see how your changes will look. You can also see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the Show changes button. If you're happy with what you see, be bold and press the Save page button. Your changes will immediately be visible to other Wikipedia users.

You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Wikipedia users. Click on the "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.

You should remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages, but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the MediaWiki software keeps track of which user makes each change.

Tips on editing Wikipedia articles
Always use a neutral point of view, as Wikipedia is not a soapbox.

Cite your sources, so others can check and extend your work. Most Wikipedia articles currently lack good references, and this contributes to Wikipedia's single greatest criticism—that it is not a reliable source. Please help by researching online and print resources to find references for the article you are working on, then cite them in proper form, and consider in-text citation for contentious facts. There is no consensus on the best way to do that, but anything is better than nothing.

Link to your article from other Wikipedia articles. After making a new page, it's a good idea to use the What links here feature to check the pages that already link to your new page. Make sure that all the links are referring to your page in the right context. For example, a link to the Mercury article in an astronomy-related article should direct readers to Mercury (planet) rather than Mercury (mythology). You should also use the search feature to find occurences of the title of your new page—and possible variants thereof—so that you can create appropriate links.

Minor edits
See also Minor edit

When editing a page, a logged-in user can mark that edit as being "minor". Minor edits generally mean spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearrangement of text. It is possible to hide minor edits when viewing the recent changes. Marking a significant change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, especially when it involves the deletion of some text. If you accidentally mark an edit as minor, you should edit the source once more, mark it major (or, rather, ensure that the check-box for "This is a minor edit" is not checked), and, in the summary, state that the previous change was a major one.

Wiki markup
The wiki markup is the syntax system you can use to format a Wikipedia page.

In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.

You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox. Try opening the Sandbox in a separate window or tab and keeping this page open for reference.

Examples
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" ! What it looks like ! What you type Start your sections as follows:
 * - valign="top"

New section 

Subsection 

Sub-subsection 


 * Start with a second-level heading ( == ); don't use first-level headings (=).
 * Don't skip levels (for example, second-level followed by fourth-level).
 * A Table of Contents will automatically be added to an article that has four or more sections.
 * If appropriate, place subsections in an appropriate order. If listing countries, place them in alphabetical order rather than, say, relative to population of OECD countries, or some random order.

Sub-subsection
A single newline generally has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the function diff (used internally to compare different versions of a page).
 * - valign="top"

But an empty line starts a new paragraph.

A single newline generally has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the function diff (used internally to compare different versions of a page).
 * When used in a list, a newline does affect the layout (see below).

But an empty line starts a new paragraph. You can break lines without starting a new paragraph.
 * - valign="top"

You can break lines without starting a new paragraph. marks the end of a list item.
 * Please use this sparingly.
 * Close markup between lines, do not start a link or italics or bold on one line and close it on the next.
 * - id="lists" valign="top"
 * It's easy to create a list:
 * Start every line with a star (asterisk).
 * More stars means deeper levels.
 * A newline in a list
 * A newline in a list

marks the end of a list item.
 * An empty line starts a new list.
 * It's easy to create a list:
 * Start every line with a star.
 * More stars means deeper levels.
 * A newline in a list


 * An empty line starts a new list.
 * - valign="top"
 * 1) Numbered lists are also good
 * 2) very organized
 * 3) easy to follow
 * 4) easier still
 * 1) easier still
 * 1) Numbered lists are also good
 * 2) very organized
 * 3) easy to follow
 * 4) easier still
 * - valign="top" id="definition"
 * Definition list : list of definitions
 * item : the item's definition
 * another item
 * the other item's definition
 * the other item's definition


 * Begin with a semicolon. One item per line; a newline can appear before the colon, but using a space before the colon improves parsing.
 * Definition list : list of definitions
 * item : the item's definition
 * another item
 * the other item's definition


 * - valign="top"
 * You can even create mixed lists
 * and nest them
 * like this
 * can I mix definition list as well?
 * yes
 * how?
 * it's easy as
 * a
 * b
 * c
 * c
 * You can even create mixed lists
 * and nest them
 * like this
 * can I mix definition list as well?
 * yes
 * how?
 * it's easy as
 * a
 * b
 * c
 * - valign="top"
 * A colon indents a line or paragraph.
 * A colon indents a line or paragraph.

A manual newline starts a new paragraph.


 * This is primarily for displayed material, but is also used for discussion on Talk pages.
 * A colon indents a line or paragraph.

A manual newline starts a new paragraph. When there is a need for separating a block of text the blockquote command will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does. This is useful for (as the name says) inserting blocks of quoted (and cited) text. The blockquote command will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does. (See formula on right):
 * - valign=top
 * - valign=top

IF a line starts with a space THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a fixed-width font; lines will not wrap; ENDIF Centered text.
 * This is useful for:
 * pasting preformatted text;
 * algorithm descriptions;
 * program source code;
 * ASCII art;
 * chemical structures;
 * WARNING: If you make it wide, you force the whole page to be wide and hence less readable, especially for people who use lower resolutions. Never start ordinary lines with spaces.
 * - valign="top"

Centered text. A horizontal dividing line: this is above it
 * Please note the American spelling of "center."
 * - valign="top"

and this is below it.

A horizontal dividing line: this is above it
 * Mainly useful for
 * disambiguation - but to be used sparsely, only when separating completely different, unrelated (groups of) meanings
 * separating threads on Talk pages.

and this is below it.
 * }

Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.


 * }

See the Wikipedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Wikipedia.

For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the topic on Extended image syntax.

Character formatting
(see also: Chess symbols in Unicode)

Table of Contents
At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the TOC to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.

Tables
There are two ways to build tables:
 * in special Wiki-markup (see Help:Table)
 * with the usual HTML elements: &lt;table&gt;, &lt;tr&gt;, &lt;td&gt; or &lt;th&gt;.

For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see How to use tables.

Variables
(See also Help:Variable)

NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.

CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.

In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, means the same as.

Templates
The MediaWiki software used by Wikipedia has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text) can be inserted into articles. For example, typing will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: for disambiguation pages,  for spoiler warnings and  like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example:, , and. For a complete list of stubs see WP:WSS/ST.

Hiding the edit links
Insert   into the document to suppress the edit links that appear next to every section header.

More information on editing wiki pages
You may also want to learn about:


 * How to start a page
 * Informal tips on contributing to Wikipedia
 * Editing tasks in general at the Editing FAQ
 * Why not to rename pages boldly, at How to rename (move) a page
 * Preferred layout of your article, at Guide to layout (see also Boilerplate text)
 * Style conventions in the Manual of Style
 * An article with annotations pointing out common Wikipedia style and layout issues, at Annotated article
 * General policies in Policies and guidelines
 * Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves
 * Help on editing very large articles
 * If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a Chinese character...) check if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly.
 * Help:Formula
 * Mediawiki user's guide to editing
 * MediaWiki
 * Finally, for a list of articles about editing Wikipedia consult Style and How-to Directory.