Help:Contents/Editing Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Help:Contents
Editing Wikipedia

To learn how to keep track of your (or other people's) edits, see Keeping track of changes.
For lists of stub types, categories, infoboxes etc., see Resources and lists.
For image use, see Images and media.
To learn the rules of Wikipedia, see policies and guidelines.


Contents

Contributing to Wikipedia a guide on ways to get involved in editing.
Introduction to editing.
Tutorial
Cheatsheet, an editing reference card.
Simplified ruleset, essential information to understand when editing articles (for new editors).
The Glossary can help you understand Wikipedia jargon.
Bite sized tips for the most common tasks.

Editing - how to:

Edit a page, including markup details.
Experiment with editing pages in the sandbox
You can also carry out editing experiments "in situ" by editing the page itself and using the Show Preview button. Be careful not to accidentally save the page though! If you do, then Revert your changes.
Help:Editing (extended cheat sheet - Hint: keep this open in another window)
Use sections in an article
Use categories
Insert a picture
Use redirect pages
Create lists
Use footnotes
Use tables
Use mathematical formulas

Saving - how to:

Report your change in the edit summary
Handle an edit conflict
Use minor edits
Use the preview button

Creating links - how to:

Link Wikipedia articles
Change the title of a link (the piped link)
Create links to external pages

Creating pages - how to:

Start a new page
Name a page
Create pages for topics with several different definitions (disambiguation)
Naming conventions in general (full list of specific naming conventions)
Stub articles (List of Stub Styles)
User page design

Article maintenance - how to:

Merge two or more pages or move (rename) a page (Requested moves)
Delete pages/images/categories
Categorize
Use talk pages (discussion pages)
Archive a talk page
Revert a page to an earlier version
Deal with vandalism
Protect and unprotect pages (Administrators only)
Link together Wikipedia articles in different languages
Link words in articles to articles on sister projects
Use page names
Use namespaces
Use headings as anchors to link to
Translate articles
Create subpages
Archive Current Events
Do a purge
Edit with an external editor
Test edits, and other things

Templates

A quick guide to templates
Templates
List of available templates

The Wikipedia syntax

Tables
Infobox
Redirect
"Magic words" allow you to change default behaviour or automate text eg. you can disable a Table of Contents or move its position, or insert & automatically update the current date, month etc. See also: Variables.
Editing shortcuts
Valid HTML codes in wikitext
Use special characters
Use easy timeline syntax
Edit mathematical formulae using TeX

Life cycle of an article

Article development Lists the stages in an article's development and ways to help improve articles.
Perfect articles Checklist of components required to make a "perfect" article.
Start a new page
Write your first article
Write better articles Advice on how to write Wikipedia articles.
Guidance on style
Manual of Style
Supplementary manuals

Abbreviations
Biographies
Capital letters
Command-line examples
Dashes
Dates and numbers
Headings
Links
Mathematics
Pronunciation
Sister projects
Text formatting
Titles
Trademarks

Special article styles

Disambiguation pages
Arabic transliteration
China-related articles
Ethiopia-related articles
Indic-related articles
Ireland-related articles
Islam-related articles
Japan-related articles
Korea-related articles

Other guidance

How to edit a page
Guide to layout
Captions
Categorization
Categorization of people
Cite sources
Explain jargon
Footnotes
Writing better articles
Lists
Music samples
Naming conventions
Overlinking
Picture tutorial
Proper names
Sections
Technical terms
and definitions

Words to avoid
Writing about fiction

Style

List of style guidelines
Layout How to structure Wikipedia articles.
Naming conventions
Disambiguation (pages which resolve ambiguity for articles with similar titles)
Captions
Image use
When to use tables
Use proper names
Creating an article series
Using Summary style on the overview page

Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is a comprehensive style guide for Wikipedia articles.

Main Manual of Style
Abbreviations
Biographies
Command-line examples
Dashes
Dates & numbers
Disambiguation
Headings
Links
Mathematics
Pronunciation
Titles
Trademarks
Sister projects

The Wikipedia interface

Find your way around the screen.

Editing toolbar
Using Page History
Using User Contributions pages
Using Talk pages
Using the Recent Changes page
Using the Related Changes page
Using Diff pages
Edit conflicts

Sources for Citation

Cite the sources: How | Why | What is a reliable source?
Sources for articles
List of Resources for researchers
Public domain resources
Newspapers and magazines request service
Standard letters requesting permission to use copyright works