User:The Transhumanist/Tools

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(under construction - when completed, every entry will be linked) The final frontier: speed

There are many tools available to make working on Wikipedia faster and easier. This list is not intended to be comprehensive. Only the most useful and reliable tools (that I know of) are listed here - whether they are programs, extensions, commands, or methods.

The only criteria are whether they get the job done in the easiest and fastest way available. Tools are listed primarily by function, rather than by form or structure. The only exception to this is the multiple-purpose section at the bottom of the list.

Contents 1 General set-up 1.1 Browsers 2 Communicating 2.1 Signatures 2.2 Archiving talk pages 3 Editing 3.1 Editors 3.2 Editing links 3.3 Formatting 3.4 Search/Replace 3.5 Spellchecking 3.6 Where to find article components 4 Navigating 4.1 Navigation bars 4.2 Popups 4.3 Bookmarking and using bookmarks 4.4 Searching 4.4.1 Searching Wikipedia from within Wikipedia 4.4.2 Searching Wikipedia from the internet 4.4.2.1 Google site-specific searches of Wikipedia 4.4.2.2 Advanced searching 4.4.2.3 Boolean searches 4.4.2.4 Proximity searches 4.4.3 Searching the Internet from Wikipedia 4.4.4 Works for all of the above 4.5 Tabs and tabbing 4.6 Translation-integrated viewing 5 Page layout and graphical design 5.1 Borders 5.2 Sectioning / Tables 5.3 Colors 5.4 View checking 6 Wikipedia statistical tools 7 Vandalism fighting tools and places to patrol for vandalism 8 Multipurpose tools 8.1 Macro programs 8.2 Bots 8.3 Scripts 8.3.1 Scripting languages 8.4 Templates 9 See also

[edit] General set-up

My computer runs Windows XP, and I rely primarily on Firefox to browse the Web (and Wikipedia). I also use the other browsers (IE, Safari, Opera) for auxiliary and support purposes (all explained below).

IE is essential for using AutoWikiBrowser, a powerful editor designed for performing repetitive tasks on Wikipedia (and as a page queuer/autoloader).

Otherwise, IE, and Opera and Safari, are used primarily for checking graphical layouts, to make sure there are no glitches that make the pages look funny for people using those browsers.

[edit] Browsers

See also: Comparison of web browsers

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
  • AutoWikiBrowser
• Opera
• Safari

[edit] Communicating

Communications nav bar:

• To find Wikipedians with particular qualifications (to participate in discussions and help on specific projects, etc.), see Category:Wikipedians and Category:Wikipedia userboxes.
• WikiProject task boxes (e.g., see Template:PhilosophyTasksBox)
  • Place on userpage to keep up with project tasks
  • These can also be used for keeping project members informed (when you update the box, it is automatically updated on every page upon which it is displayed).
• To do templates
• Newsletters (subscriptions)
  • Displayed by template - Example:
    • {{Signpost-subscription|right}} (shown)
  • Posted by bot
• Notice boards
  • Administrators' notice board
  • Community bulletin board
  • Pages needing attention
  • Regional notice boards
• Notices
  • Template messages
    • Articles tagged with maintenance messages get displayed at Category:Wikipedia maintenance
• Notifying users
  • Use Linky to open a list of user links into tabs (or just middle click on each user link on a page), then in each tab use a macro (Autohotkey, Macro Express) to post the notice, then Ctrl-F4 to remove the tab and instantly display the next one.
  • Feed a list of userpage links into AutoWikiBrowser, and then use a macro (Autohotkey, Macro Express) to add the notice to each userpage in the list.

[edit] Signatures

• A customized signature stored in a macro may use less wikicode (Wikipedia's autosig chokes on certain coding methods, necessitating bloated code).

[edit] Archiving talk pages

• How to archive a talk page
• Auto archiving your user talk page - see Werdnabot archiving service

[edit] Editing

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

Wikipedia Guidelines
Content
Autobiography Don't copy sources Disambiguation Hoaxes Patent nonsense
Classification
Subpages Cats, lists, boxes Lists Categories
Editing
Be Bold Build the web Edit summary Article size
Discussion
Talk page guidelines Sign on talk pages Build consensus
Behavior
Etiquette Profanity Don't disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point Don't bite the newcomers User page
Style
Manual of style See also policies

[edit] Editors

• Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser - only runs in Internet Explorer, therefore run in a seperate Window.
• MWiki-Browser
• Notepad++
• Vim
• See Tabs and tabbing (aka rapid viewing) below on how to cycle through a set of pages fast. Works better than AutoWikiBrowser when the task is viewing-intensive (such as when you have to inspect or look at the pages first). AutoWikiBrowser goes straight into edit mode, so you can't see a damn thing.

[edit] Editing links

• Use the pipe ("|") to display different text than the actual link. [[This is an example|example]], shows up as "example" (without the quotes).
• Use the pipe ("|") by itself to get rid of namespace prefixes and parens. [[Wikipedia:Tools|]] is autocompleted by MediaWiki (the software the Wikipedia runs on) and shows up as Tools.

[edit] Formatting

• Help:Magic words

[edit] Search/Replace

• AutoWikiBrowser

[edit] Spellchecking

• See Wikipedia:Typo#Checking spelling
• My current method:
  • Cut and paste into MS Word, spellcheck, then cut and paste back again.
• Firefox 2 and up by default spellcheck text fields automatically with myspell.

[edit] Where to find article components

• Wikipedia:List of infoboxes
• Wikipedia:Navigational templates

[edit] Navigating

Contents nav bar:

[edit] Navigation bars

See: Userpage design: Navigation bars

[edit] Popups

See Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups.

• Popups watchlist trick - open "my watchlist" in another tab or window, and then view the diffs without even having to click, by hovering the mouse over them. Speeds up watchlist watching a lot!

[edit] Bookmarking and using bookmarks

Definition: Bookmarks are saved links.

• Bookmarks can be accessed:
  • From bookmark folders
  • From the toolbar
  • As hot keys (macros)
  • As smart keywords
• Bookmark files are in HTML format, and can be viewed directly in a browser window.
• In Wikipedia, links and lists of links can serve as bookmarks. The links on this page, for instance.

[edit] Searching

[edit] Searching Wikipedia from within Wikipedia

• "More info about" from bookmarklets.com - a bookmarklet. Highlight a term or phrase in Wikipedia (or wherever) and then click the bookmark.

[edit] Searching Wikipedia from the internet

[edit] Google site-specific searches of Wikipedia

[edit] Advanced searching

• Google advanced search operators
• Yahoo advanced search operators

[edit] Boolean searches

• Most search engines apply Boolean logic automatically, except for OR.
• OR is supported by Google and Yahoo.

[edit] Proximity searches

• Proximity analysis is built-in to most search algorithms and affects results ranking
• Can be specified explicitly on Google and Yahoo:
  • The asterisk is used on Google
  • The "a" is used on Yahoo

[edit] Searching the Internet from Wikipedia

• More

[edit] Works for all of the above

• Interiot's keymarks extension (for Firefox, but not yet released)

[edit] Tabs and tabbing

• Firefox (tab controls)
  • Middle-click on link - create new tab with linked page as its contents
  • Ctrl-T - Create new (emply) tab
  • Ctrl-Tab - Switch to next tab
  • Shift-Ctrl-Tab - Switch to previous tab
  • (Find this - Clone a tab (Firefox 2.0))
  • Rapid page viewing:
    • Middle-click (or use Linky, see below) to load 40 or more pages into tabs (Linky opens up to 99)
      • To skim through lots of random articles, middle-click on "Random article" 40+ times
    • Read or work on one
    • When done, press Ctrl-F4 or C-w to close tab and instantly go to the next one
    • Great for skimming sets of articles, where you are checking for a missing element, or looking for a particular kind of page or element. Just keep pressing Ctrl-F4 to instantly get rid of the current tab and go onto the next one, cycling through them fast until you find one you are looking for. Blam, blam, blam, blam, blam!
• Linky - tab/window creation/management extension
  • Select text and then right-click/Linky/Open selected links in tabs.
• Tab Mix Plus extension
  • Set italic titles, to show which tabs you haven't gone to yet.
• Mozillazine -

[edit] Translation-integrated viewing

[edit] Page layout and graphical design

[edit] Borders

[edit] Sectioning / Tables

[edit] Colors

[edit] View checking

Pages with graphical elements must be checked to see if they look right on all the major browsers. If you do a lot of page layout, in addition to Firefox you should also have the latest version of:

• IE
• - extension that shows the IE view within Firefox
• Opera
• Safari

[edit] Wikipedia statistical tools

• User talk:Voice of All/UsefulJS

[edit] Vandalism fighting tools and places to patrol for vandalism

an in-depth discussion and Q&A session on vandalism hunting can be found at User:The Transhumanist/Virtual classroom/Budgiekiller, on vandalism

Vandalism
Dealing with vandalism
Obvious vandalism Requests for investigation Long term abuse Open proxies
Resources & assistance
Counter-vandalism tools Cleaning up vandalism Counter-vandalism unit IP WHOIS tools
Further information
AOL and dynamic proxies ISP contact information Don't provoke vandals  v • d • e

VandalProof is useful for patrolling these pages:

• Special page:Newpages
• Wikipedia:New user log
• Wikipedia:RC patrol
• Wikipedia:New articles by topic
• Wikipedia:Request articles
• Category:Wikipedia new articles
• Some Wikipedia:WikiProjects maintain a list of frequently vandalized pages
• The lists presented on Lists of topics

User:Lupin/Anti-vandal tool - after you have installed this tool in your monobook.js page, you can use it to patrol the following pages:

• User:Lupin/Filter recent changes
• User:Lupin/All recent changes
• User:Lupin/Recent IP edits
• User:Lupin/Monitor my watchlist

[edit] Multipurpose tools

[edit] Macro programs

• AutoHotkey (open source, that is, free)
• Macro Express (the one I use).

[edit] Bots

• Wikipedia:Bots
  • Currently registered bots, see also: Category:Wikipedia bots
  • Types
  • History

[edit] Scripts

• Wikipedia:Scripts

[edit] Scripting languages

• Javascript (a scripting language, not to be confused with the Java programming language).
  • JavaScript syntax
  • Firebug - Javascript debugger (and more) for Firefox

[edit] Templates

• Wikipedia:Templates
  • Wikipedia:Navigational templates

[edit] See also

• Wikipedia:Tools