Help:Editing

This page is about how to edit Wikipedia in general. For the editing policy, see Wikipedia:Editing policy. For information on how and where you can contribute, see Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia. For getting help from someone, see Wikipedia:Questions.

File:Wikipedia video tutorial-1-Editing-en.ogv

Editing tutorial for Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning anyone can edit almost any page and improve articles immediately. You do not need to register to do this, and anyone who has edited is known as a Wikipedian or editor. Small edits add up, and every editor can be proud to have made Wikipedia better for everyone. There are two editing interfaces: the new VisualEditor (VE) and classic wikitext editing (wiki markup), which uses the Source Editor.

Editing articles

See also: Wikipedia:FAQ/Editing, Help:Introduction to editing with VisualEditor, and Help:Introduction to editing with Wiki Markup

Content style and policies

See also: Wikipedia:Core content policies

Wikipedia is a human-driven endeavor, created, edited, and administered with minimal assistance from artificial intelligence. The goal of a Wikipedia article is to create a comprehensive and neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge about a topic. Wikipedia does not publish original research. An encyclopedia is, by its nature, a tertiary source that provides a survey of information already published in the wider world. Ideally, all information should be cited and verifiable by reliable sources. Sourcing requirements are significantly stricter in articles on living persons. An encyclopedic style with a formal tone is important: straightforward, just-the-facts, instead of essay-like, argumentative, or opinionated.

Edit screen(s)

Editing most Wikipedia pages is simple. Wikipedia uses two interface methods: classic editing with the Source Editor through wikitext (wiki markup), and a new VisualEditor (VE).

Wikitext editing using the Source Editor is chosen by clicking the "Edit" or "Edit source" tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link). This opens an editable copy of the page, showing all the wikitext used there, and the Source Editor toolbar offers simple menu options to add or change the formatting. Wikitext is used extensively throughout Wikipedia for such things as hyperlinks, tables and columns, footnotes, inline citation, special characters and so on. The Source Editor lets users toggle on "wikitext highlighting", which uses different colours to help differentiate article text from wikitext.

The VisualEditor (VE) option is intended as a user-friendly, "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editing aid, allowing one to edit pages without the need to learn wikitext markup. Desktop editors can choose VE upon their first edit, and switch using the pencil icon on each article. Logged-in users can further choose to use the Visual Editor as a default in their personal preferences. See the VisualEditor user guide for more information.

• Two editing environments: Source Editor (wikitext) and VisualEditor
• Text in a large rectangle below two toolbars and next to a scrollbar.
  Edit box showing the wikitext markup. You can change the formatting and contents of the page by changing what is written in this box.
• Edit box showing the wikitext markup with syntax highlighting and realtime preview turned on.
  Edit box showing the wikitext markup with syntax highlighting and realtime preview turned on.
• Screenshot showing the same article in VisualEditor. Unlike the wikitext display, VisualEditor will show the text being edited almost as if it were already published.
  Screenshot showing the same article in VisualEditor. Unlike the wikitext display, VisualEditor will show the text being edited almost as if it were already published.

The Wikipedia community has developed style guidelines to make articles and facts appear in a standardized form, and make Wikipedia easier to use as a whole. A basic list of wikitext can be found on the cheatsheet. An "edit toolbar" is provided just above the edit box (pictured below), which allows logged-in users (by selecting the option in personal preferences) to automatically place and format various aspects of wiki code. See Help:Wikitext for more information; remember that you can't break Wikipedia, and, although there are many protocols, perfection is not required because Wikipedia is a work in progress.

File:WikiEditor-advanced menu-en.png

When you have finished editing, you should write a short edit summary in the field underneath those words (pictured below). You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend. To see how the page looks with your edits, press the "Show preview" button. To see the differences between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page, press the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and click on the "Publish changes" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Wikipedia users.

Summary:

 

☐ This is a minor edit ☑ Watch this page

By publishing changes, you agree to the Terms of Use, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the CC BY-SA 3.0 License and the GFDL. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.

Publish changes Show preview Show changes Cancel

Note: Do not sign the edit summary line with your ~~~~ signature, as it does not work there.

Minor edits

Further information: Help:Minor edit

File:Minor edit.png

The "minor edit" checkbox (circled) in the wikitext editor

A check to the "minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the version with your edit and the previous version: typo/grammar corrections, fixing a formatting problem, etc. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. Marking a change as minor does not mean that the edit is unimportant.

The "minor edit" option is one of several options available only to registered users. Editors are never required to use this button. When in doubt, consider your work to be a normal edit.

Major edits

Further information: Wikipedia:Editing policy § Talking and editing

All editors are encouraged to be bold when improving articles, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that potentially disruptive edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, a user should consider discussing proposed changes on the article's discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period, the {{in use}} tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will help all to ensure that major edits are well-received by the Wikipedia community.

A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word.

There are no necessary terms to which you have to agree when doing major edits, but the preceding recommendations have become best practice. If you do it your own way, the likelihood of your edits being re-edited or simply reverted may be higher.

When making particularly large or complex changes, you may want to copy the article to your sandbox so you can make changes without being interrupted by other editors. It is also a good idea to publish changes frequently, so that a browser crash or electrical failure will not result in the loss of all your work.

Adding references

Further information: Help:Referencing for beginners and Wikipedia:Citing sources

See also: Help:Introduction to referencing with Wiki Markup and Help:Introduction to referencing with VisualEditor

File:Citing sources tutorial, part 1.ogv

A screencast that walks through the essentials needed in citing your sources. (2:01 min)

File:RefTools rework.ogv

A screencast that walks through how to use the various features of RefTools. (5:03 min)

Generally, sources are added directly after the facts they support at the end of the sentence and after any punctuation. Wikipedia permits editors to use any citation system that allows the reader to understand where the information came from, and strongly encourages the use of inline citations to do so. Common methods of placing inline citations include footnotes, shortened footnotes and parenthetical references.

Inline citations are most commonly placed by inserting a reference between <ref> ... </ref> tags, directly in the text of an article. The reference is a footnote, appearing as an inline link (e.g. ^[1][2]) to a particular item in a collated, numbered list of footnotes, found wherever a {{reflist}} template or <references /> tag is present, usually in a section titled "References" or "Notes". If you are creating a new page or adding references to a page that didn't previously have any, don't forget to add a references section with this display markup.

There are a number of tools available to help with citation placement and formatting, some of which are internal tools and scripts, whereas others are available from external sites. For an example of the former, RefToolbar is a JavaScript toolbar displayed above the edit box that provides the ability to automatically fill out various citation templates and insert them in the text already formatted inside <ref> ... </ref> tags. For an example of the latter, the Citer converts a digital object identifier (DOI) or Google Books address (URL) into a filled-out {{cite journal}} or {{cite book}} template ready to be pasted into an article. See Help:Citation tools for many others.

Adding images, sounds, and videos

Main page: Help:Creation and usage of media files

See also: Help:Introduction to images with Wiki Markup and Help:Introduction to images with VisualEditor

A file that is already hosted on Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Commons can be inserted with the basic code [[File:FILENAME|thumb|DESCRIPTION]]. Using thumb generates a thumbnail of an image (the most common placement option), which is typically sized differently from the original image. The Wikimedia Commons' File Upload Wizard and Wikipedia's File Upload Wizard will guide you through the process of submitting media. There are various file formats available.

Article creation

Main page: Help:Your first article

File:How to create a Wikipedia article - Right to science and culture.ogv

A screencast demonstrating how to create a Wikipedia article manually. (7:50 min)

Before starting a new article, please understand Wikipedia's notability requirements. In short, the topic of an article must have already been the subject of publication in reliable sources, such as books published by major publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed scholarly journals and websites that meet the same requirements as reputable print-based sources. Information on Wikipedia must be verifiable; if no reliable third-party sources can be found on a topic, then it should not have a separate article. Wikipedia's concept of notability applies this basic standard to avoid indiscriminate inclusion of topics.

An Article Wizard is available to help you create articles — it is not required but will help you construct better articles. Note: The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is restricted to autoconfirmed users, though non-confirmed users and non-registered users can submit a proposed article through the Articles for Creation process, where it will be reviewed and considered for publication. Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject, and also review the article titling policy for guidance on what to name the article.

Talk pages

Further information: Help:Talk pages, Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines, and Help:Notifications

File:Editing basics - Talk pages.webm

A screencast demonstrating how to use a talk page. (2:43 min)

Every article on Wikipedia has a talk page, reached by clicking the "Discussion" tab just above the title (for example, Talk:Alexander the Great). There, editors can discuss improvements to the content of an article. If you ever make a change that gets reverted by another editor, discuss the change on the talk page! The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle is a popular method of reaching consensus. You must conduct yourself with civility and assume good faith on the part of others. Edit warring (repeatedly overriding or reimplementing contributions) is highly discouraged.

Most other types of pages on Wikipedia also have associated talk pages, including the User page each editor is assigned once they sign up. When other editors need to contact you, they will usually do this by leaving a message on your talk page. When someone has left you a message that way, you will see a notice the next time you log in or view a page on Wikipedia.

Sign your contributions to a Talk page by using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your username and a time/date stamp.

Protected pages and source code

Further information: Wikipedia:Protection policy

Some pages are protected from editing. These pages have a "View source" tab instead of an "Edit" tab. You can still edit these pages indirectly by submitting an edit request and an editor with permission to edit the protected page will respond to it.

To submit an edit request, click on the protected page's "View source" tab and then the "Submit an edit request" button at the bottom right.

Policies and conventions

See also: Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset and Wikipedia:Simplified Manual of Style

Policies, guidelines, and formatting norms are developed by the community to describe the best practices, to clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goals. Make sure that you submit information that is relevant to Wikipedia's specific purpose, or your content might be deleted. You can always use the talk pages to ask questions or check to see if your idea will be accepted. Please make note of which license will cover your contributions.

See also

File:Information icon.svg Help desk

Helpful tips

• Wikipedia:The Missing Manual—Editing for the first time
• Wikipedia:Article size#If you have problems editing a long article
• Smartphone editing (User essay): a Wikipedia administrator's personal experiences and advice about phone editing

Naming and moving

• Wikipedia:Article titles
• Moving a page to a new name
• Wikipedia:Namespace

Style and layout

• Wikipedia:Annotated article
• Wikipedia:Layout
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style

Tools

• Draft:Sandbox
• Help:Text editor support
• Wikipedia:Tools

Related

• Wikipedia:WikiProject: if you are writing an article about something that belongs to a group of topics, check here first!
• Wikimedia Bookshelf: learning materials, videos, and handouts
• Wikipedia:Glossary: a glossary for Wikipedia editors

Notes

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