Help:Editing
This Editing Overview is meant as a quick reference, with some "getting started" help. It has a lot of wikitext examples. Each of the topics covered here is covered somewhere else in more detail. Please look in the box on the right for the topic you are interested in. You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference while you edit.
Editing Basics
- Start editing
- To start editing a MediaWiki page, click on the "Edit this page" (or just "edit") link at one of its edges. This will bring you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext: the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox, not here.
- Summarize your changes
- 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.
- Preview before saving
- When you have finished, press preview to see how your changes will look -- before you make them permanent. Repeat the edit/preview process until you are satisfied, then click "Save" and your changes will be immediately applied to the article.
Null edits, Minor Edits, and Dummy Edits
- null edit
- Opening the edit window and saving without changing the wikitext. The null edit (and the edit summary) are discarded. A null edit may be useful for refreshing the cache of some item in the database.
- Adding newlines to the end of the article is a null edit -- the change will not be saved.
- minor edit
- A logged-in user can mark an 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 Wikipedia:Recent Changes. Marking a significant change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, and even more so if it involves the deletion of some text. If one has accidentally marked an edit as minor, the person should create a dummy edit (being sure the "This is a minor edit" check-box is not checked) and, in the summary, state that the previous change was a major one.
- See also Wikipedia:Minor edit
- dummy edit
- A change in wikitext that has little or no effect on the rendered page. A dummy edit is saved with its edit summary. It is useful for correcting a previous edit summary, or an accidental marking of a previous edit as "minor" (see below).
- Examples:
- Changing the number of newlines at some position from 0 to 1 or from 2 to 3 (or vice versa) has no effect on the rendered page
- Adding a newline followed by "." to the end of the article. The change is almost unnoticeable. It can be removed in future edits.
- See also A category tag in a template; caching problem.
Wikitext markup -- making your page look the way you want it
If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox.
Organizing your writing: Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
Start sections with header lines Note: Single equal signs give the highest level heading, like the page title; usually projects have the convention not to use them.
New section Subsection Sub-subsection |
== New section == === Subsection === ==== Sub-subsection ==== |
|
A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph, or ends a list or indented part. (<p> disables this paragraphing until </p> or the end of the section) (in Cologne Blue two newlines and a div tag give just one newline; in the order newline, div tag, newline, the result is two newlines) You can make the wikitext more readable by putting in newlines. You might find this causes future problems -- see w:Wikipedia:Don't use line breaks for details. |
A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
| You can break lines without starting a new paragraph. (The HTML tag <br> is sufficient. The system produces the XHTML code <br />.) |
You can break lines<br> without starting a new paragraph. |
marks the end of the list.
|
* Unordered Lists are easy to do: ** start every line with a star *** more stars means deeper levels *A newline *in a list marks the end of the list. *Of course *you can *start again. |
marks the end of the list.
|
# Numbered lists are also good ## very organized ## easy to follow #A newline #in a list marks the end of the list. #New numbering starts #with 1. |
|
* You can even do mixed lists *# and nest them *#* or break lines<br>in lists |
|
Definition list
|
; word : definition of the word ; longer phrase : phrase defined |
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.
|
: A colon indents a line or paragraph. A manual newline starts a new paragraph. |
IF a line of plain text starts with a space it will be formatted exactly as typed in a fixed-width font lines won't wrap ENDIF 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. Never start ordinary lines with spaces. |
IF a line of plain text starts with a space
it will be formatted exactly
as typed
in a fixed-width font
lines won't wrap
ENDIF
this is useful for:
* pasting preformatted text;
* algorithm descriptions;
* program source code
* ASCII art;
* chemical structures;
|
<center>Centered text.</center> |
|
| A horizontal dividing line: above
and below. If you don't use a section header, you don't get a TOC entry. |
A horizontal dividing line: above ---- and below. |
Links, URLs
More information at Help:Link
Internal Links
General notes:
- Enclose the target name in double square brackets -- "[[" and "]]"
- First letter of target name is automatically capitalized
- Spaces are represented as underscores (but don't do underscores yourself)
- Links to nonexistant pages are shown in red -- MediaWiki User's Guide: Starting a new page tells about creating the page.
- When the mouse cursor "hovers" over the link, you see a "hover box" containing...
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
Sue is reading the official position (or Official positions). |
Sue is reading the [[official position]]s (or [[Official position]]). |
A link to the page on another wiki (e.g. the same subject in another language)
|
*For more info see [[m:Help:Interwiki linking]]. *[[:fr:Wikipédia:Aide]]. |
If the section doesn't exist, the link goes to the top of the page |
*[[List of cities by country#Morocco]]. *[[List of cities by country#Sealand]]. |
|
Use a pipe "|" to create a link label: |
*[[Help:Links|About Links]] *[[List of cities by country#Morocco| Cities in Morocco]] |
|
"blank" pipes hide stuff:
After you save, the server automatically fills in the link label. |
*In parentheses: [[kingdom (biology)|]]. *Namespace: [[Wikipedia:Village pump|]]. |
The weather in London is a page that doesn't exist yet.
|
[[The weather in London]] is a page that doesn't exist yet. |
You should "sign" your comments on talk pages: The server will fill in the link after you save. |
You should "sign" your comments on talk pages: : Your user name: ~~~ : Or your user name plus date/time: ~~~~ |
|
one article title to another with this special link. |
#REDIRECT [[United States]] |
|
ISBN 0123456789X RFC 123 |
To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link.
|
[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]] |
Use links for dates, so everyone can set their own display order. Use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting. |
[[July 20]], [[1969]] , [[20 July]] [[1969]] and [[1969]]-[[07-20]]will all appear as 20 July-1969 if you set your date display preference to 1 January 2001. |
"What links here" and "Related changes" can be linked as: |
[[Special:Whatlinkshere/ Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked/ Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] |
External Links
| Nupedia, [1] | [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia], [http://www.nupedia.com] |
| Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. | Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. |
Images, Video, and Sounds
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
|
A picture: [[Image:Wiki.png]] or, with alternative text (strongly encouraged) [[Image:Wiki.png| Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia]] Web browsers render alternative text when not displaying an image -- for example, when the image isn't loaded, or in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud. See Alternative text for images for help on choosing alternative text. See Extended image syntax for more options. There is more information on resizing and other formatting tricks. |
|
[[:Image:Wiki.png]] [[media:Wiki.png|Wikipedia]] |
| Other Media Links -- Video and Sounds
Use a "media" link: Sound
|
[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]] |
Character formatting
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
|
Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.
|
''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''. |
|
You can also write italic and bold if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulas:
|
You can also write <i>italic</i> and <b>bold</b> if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulas: :<b>F</b> = <i>m</i><b>a</b> |
| A typewriter font for technical terms. | A typewriter font for <tt>technical terms</tt>. |
| You can use small text for captions. | You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. |
| You can and underline new material. |
You can <strike>strike out deleted material</strike> and <u>underline new material</u>. |
|
Umlauts and accents: (See MediaWiki User's Guide: Creating special characters) |
è é ê ë ì à À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ |
|
Punctuation: |
¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • - – — |
|
Commercial symbols: |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
| Subscript: x2 Superscript: x2 or x²
|
Subscript: x<sub>2</sub>
Superscript: x<sup>2</sup> or x²
or in projects with the templates sub and sup:
Subscript: x{{sub|2}}
Superscript: x{{sup|2}}
ε<sub>0</sub> =
8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup>
C² / J m.
1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]]
|
| Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ |
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω |
|
Math characters: |
∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ → ↔ ↑ |
| x2 ≥ 0 true. | <i>x</i><sup>2</sup> ≥ 0 true. |
|
Complicated formulae:
|
<math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>
|
|
For comparison for the following examples: arrow → italics link |
arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
|
Use <nowiki> to suppress interpretation of wiki markup, but interpret character references and remove newlines and multiple spaces: arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
<nowiki>arrow → ''italics'' [[link]]</nowiki> |
|
Use <pre> to suppress interpretation of wiki markup and keep newlines and multiple spaces, and get typewriter font, but interpret character references: arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
<nowiki><pre>arrow → ''italics'' [[link]]</nowiki> |
|
Use leading space on each line to keep newlines and multiple spaces, and get typewriter font: arrow → italics link |
arrow → ''italics'' [[link]] |
|
Use typewriter font: arrow → italics link |
<tt>arrow →</tt> <tt>''italics''</tt> <tt>[[link]]</tt> |
|
Show character references: → |
&rarr; |
|
Commenting page source:
|
<!-- comment here --> |
Tables, formulas, html
Help:Images_and_other_uploaded_files
Spacing things out
To space things out, use non-breaking spaces -- " " (they also prevent line breaks in the middle of text -- useful in formulas).
To align rows and columns, use table syntax. You can control the width of a cell (as in template Template:Tim), or insert space using empty cells (as in templates Template:Tim and Template:Tim).
Tips and Tricks
Templates and Transclusion
Changing a transcluded file will change every file that transcludes it.
|
{{:Transclusion Demo}} |
|
A special kind of page designed for transclusion. These pages are found in the Template: namespace Templates can even take parameters. When you edit a page, all the templates used on the page are listed below the edit box. |
{{Title|demo|Here's an underlined title}} |
Hover box
A hover box without a link is possible: <span title="2.54 cm" style="border-bottom:1px dotted">inch</span> gives inch. With Template:Tcw one can use {{title|2.54 cm|inch}}.
Combined with a link, with an independent hover box text: inch *
Since it depends on the browser whether the hover box appears, it should only be used for non-essential information, for example information one can also find by following the link.
Some browsers show the hover box only a number of seconds. Even though it reappears when the cursor is moved away and back, this makes the hover box unsuitable for long or complicated text. Template:Title
Details of what the browser shows may vary, e.g. "Title:" in front, indentation, code like "</p><p>" being shown, with or without newline, etc.
Page protection
In a few cases the link labeled "MediaWiki:Editthispage" is replaced by the text "View source" (or equivalents in the language of the project). In that case the page cannot be edited. Protection of an image page is automatically also protection of the image itself.
Separating edits
When moving or copying a piece of text within a page or from another page, and also making other edits, it is useful to separate these edits. This way the diff function can be usefully applied for checking these other edits.
Error message
If, due to server problems, a save command results in an error message, either the saving has failed, or just the confirmation. Check e.g. My Contributions to find out.
Edit in your favorite Editor
You may find it more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite text editor, edit and spell check it there, and then paste it back into your web browser to preview. This way, you can also keep a local backup copy of the pages you have edited. It also allows you to make changes offline, but before you submit your changes, please make sure nobody else has edited the page since you saved your local copy (by checking the page history), otherwise you may accidently revert someone else's edits. If someone has edited it since you copied the page, you'll have to merge their edits into your new version (you can find their specific edits by using the "diff" feature of the page history). These issues are handled automatically by the MediaWiki software if you edit the page in your web browser.
Differences
For a redirect page the preview and the rendered page may show the contents differently: the latter shows the canonical form of the target, while the preview renders the link in the usual way, compare [2] with the preview of [3].
See also MediaWiki architecture.
The edit link of a page showing an old version leads to an edit page with the old wikitext. This allows restoring the old version. However, the edit link of a diff page gives the current wikitext, even if the diff page shows an old version below the table of differences.
Composition of the edit page
- edit toolbar (optional)
- edit box
- edit summary box
- save/preview/cancel links
- list of templates used
- preview (optionally either on every edit page or just after pressing "Show preview"; optionally the first item)
Position-independent wikitext
Wikitext for which the result does not depend on the position in the wikitext page:
- interlanguage links (see also above) - the mutual order is preserved, but otherwise the positions within the page are immaterial
- category specification - ditto
- __NOTOC__, __FORCETOC__, see Help:Section
See also
- Help:Automatic conversion of wikitext
- Help:Calculation
- Help:Editing toolbar
- Help:Html in wikitext
- Protecting pages
- Help:Starting a new page
- Help:Variable
- Parser testing
- UseModWiki and Wikipedia:PHP script.
- HTML tag.
- Live preview - i.e., by the local computer without the need of the server.