Editing

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General

To edit a page, click on the "Edit this page" (or just "edit") link at one of its edges. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the : the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage. For the special codes, see below.

After adding to or changing the wikitext it is useful to press "Preview", which produces the corresponding webpage in your browser but does not make it publicly available yet (not until you press "Save"). Errors in formatting, links, tables, etc., are often much easier to discover from the rendered page than from the raw wikitext.

If you are not satisfied you can make more changes and preview the page as many times as necessary. Then write a short in the small text field below the edit-box and when finished press "Save". Depending on your system, pressing the "Enter" key while the edit box is not active (i.e., there is no typing cursor in it) may have the same effect as pressing "Save".

You may find it more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite , edit and spell check it there, and then paste it back into your 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 ), otherwise you may accidentally 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 "" feature of the page history). These issues are handled automatically by the Mediawiki software if you edit the page online, retrieving and submitting the wikicode in the same text box.

See also .

Minor edits

When editing a page, a user has the option of flagging the edit as a "minor edit". When to use this is somewhat a matter of personal preference. The rule of thumb is that an edit of a page that is spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text should be flagged as a "minor edit". A major edit is basically something that makes the entry worth relooking at for somebody who wants to watch the article rather closely, so any "real" change, even if it is a single word. This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the , to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.

The reason for not allowing a user who is not logged in to mark an edit as minor is that vandalism could then be marked as a minor edit, in which case it would stay unnoticed longer. This limitation is another reason to log in.

The wiki markup

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 .

Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines

What it looks like What you type

Start your sections with header lines:


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.

(<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)

 
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.

Sufficient as wikitext code is <br>, the XHTML code <br /> is not needed, the system produces this code.

 
You can break lines<br>
without starting a new paragraph.
  • 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.
 
* 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.
  1. Numbered lists are also good
    1. very organized
    2. easy to follow
  2. A newline
  3. in a list

marks the end of the list.

  1. New numbering starts
  2. with 1.
 
# 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
    1. and nest them
      • like this
        or have newlines
        inside lists
 
* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this<br>or have newlines<br>inside lists
  • You can also
    • break lines
      inside lists
      like this
 
* You can also
**break lines<br>inside lists<br>like this
Definition list 
list of definitions
item 
the item's definition
 
; Definition list : list
of definitions
; item : the item's definition
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 .
 
: A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.

IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN
  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 and hence less readable. Never start ordinary lines with spaces.

(see also below) 
 IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN
   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;
Centered text. 
<center>Centered text.</center>
A : above

and below.

Mainly useful for separating threads on Talk pages.

 
A horizontal dividing line: above
----
and below.

Summarizing the effect of a single newline: no effect in general, but it ends a list item or indented part; thus changing some text into a list item, or indenting it, is more cumbersome if it contains newlines, they have to be removed; see also .

Links, URLs

What it looks like What you type
Sue is reading the .
  • First letter of target is automatically capitalized.
  • Internal spaces are automatically represented as underscores (typing an underscore has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended).

Thus the above is to http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_policy, which is the page with the name "Video policy".

 
Sue is reading the [[video policy]].

Link to a section on a page, e.g. ; when section editing does not work the link is treated as link to the page, i.e. to the top; this applies for:

  • links to non-existent sections
  • links in redirects
  • interwiki links
 
[[List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco]].
Link target and link label are different: .

(This is called a ).

 
Link target and link label are different: 
[[User:Larry Sanger|answers]]
Endings are blended into the link: , 
Endings are blended
into the link: [[official position]]s, [[gene]]s

Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: .

Automatically hide namespace: Village pump.

The server fills in the part after the | when you save the page. Next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. A preview interprets the abbreviated form correctly, but does not expand it yet in the edit box. Press Save and again Edit, and you will see the expanded version. The same applies for the following feature.

 
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses:
[[kingdom (biology)|]]. 

Automatically hide namespace:
[[Wikipedia:Village pump|]].
When adding a comment to a Talk page,

you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name:

or four for user name plus date/time:

08:10 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)
 
When adding a comment to a Talk page,
you should sign it. You can do this by
adding three tildes for your user name:
: ~~~
or four for user name plus date/time:
: ~~~~
is a page that doesn't exist yet.
  • You can create it by clicking on the link.
  • To create a new page:
    1. Create a link to it on some other page.
    2. Save that page.
    3. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
  • Have a look at guide and the naming conventions page for your project.
 
[[The weather in London]] is a page
that doesn't exist yet.

one article title to another by putting text like this in its first line.

 
#REDIRECT [[United States]]

A link to the page on the same subject in another language or, more generally, to a page on another wiki: [[:fr:Wikip�dia:Aide]]. For more info see .

 
[[fr:Wikip�dia:Aide]], [[:fr:Wikip�dia:Aide]]
"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

 
[[Special:Whatlinkshere/
Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] and
[[Special:Recentchangeslinked/
Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]
External links: Nupedia, [1] 
External links:
[http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia],
[http://www.nupedia.com]
Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com.
  • In the all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 ._\/~%-+?!=()@ \x80-\xFF. If a URL contains a different character it should be converted; for example, ^ has to be written %5E (to be looked up in ). A blank space can also be converted into an underscore.
 
Or just give the URL:
http://www.nupedia.com.

To link to books, you can use links. ISBN 0123456789X See

 
ISBN 0123456789X

Link to : RFC 123 (URL specified in mediawiki:Rfcurl)

 
RFC 123

To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link.
Sound

 
[[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 if you set your date display preference to 1 January 2001.
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