Wikipedia:Tips
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is Wikipedia's tip library. Here you can digest how to use Wikipedia in bite-sized morsels. The tips listed below were created for the Tip of the day project, but are listed here by title and organized by subject area for your convenience.
- See also: Tip of the day and the Tip of the day talk page (where the tips are written).
Another Tip of the moment...
 There are two main ways to use templates on articles: transclusion (accomplished by using Inclusion is the preferred method for long-term, permanent notices because it is less confusing, and it even helps to lighten the load on the database. Inclusion has a further advantage in that a template's content may be de-linked from any associated category or slightly modified to suit the circumstances, such as when the template is used on a talk page. Transclusion is preferred when it is possible that the template will be edited or replaced at a later date. Read more: Templates: what they are and how to use them |
[edit] Tips about Wikipedia as a whole
- Don't believe everything you read
- Help Wikipedia help you
- Copyrights? Copyleft
- How reliable is Wikipedia?
- What the world knows about us
- How popular is Wikipedia?
- "Where do I begin?"
[edit] Web browser tips
[edit] Tips on accessing Wikipedia pages
[edit] Finding your way around Wikipedia and beyond
- "Where do I begin?"
- To see everything on Wikipedia about a subject area...
- Wikipedia has 20 sections, called namespaces
- Wikipedia's alphabetical index of articles
- Getting a subpage listing
- Wikimedia links and shortcuts
- Linking to non-Wikimedia wikis
[edit] Tips on searching
- Highlight text on any website, then search Wikipedia for it with a single click
- Wikipedia-search with auto-completion
- How to search Wikipedia with Lycos
- Using Wikipedia's search box:
- Searching Wikipedia with Google:
- Search Wikipedia faster with Google search tricks
- Wikipedia-specific Google searchbox
- Wikipedia-specific searching with Google
- Search Wikipedia with Google's site-specific search feature
- Wikipedia-specific Google searchbox
- When and how toexclude Wikipedia from your Google search
- Another way to search Wikipedia with Google
- Search Wikipedia and Google at the same time
- Firefox search tips:
[edit] Tips on bookmarking, creating access points, etc.
- How to change your default Main Page
- Your very own Wikipedia bookmark page
- Wikipedia toolbar for Firefox
[edit] Getting help
- Are you looking for help?
- Go to the right desk
- Do you need administrator assistance?
- Where to post requests
- Do you have the WikiBlues?
[edit] Tips for contributors on getting started
- Create a user account
- How to sign your name on talk pages
- Please read department instructions
- Displaying Tip of the day on your user page
- Create your sister accounts now
- The five pillars
- Are you lost?
- Speed up your learning curve...
[edit] Tips on working with articles
- Be neutral, like Wikipedia
- Look before you leap
- How to create a new page
- SuggestBot is a fun way to pick pages to edit
- The three revert rule
- List the things to do for an article
- The lead section
- Placing a page's Table of Contents
- Section edit button
- Avoid trademarks
- Avoid using neologisms
- Cite your sources
- Placing images
- Acronyms and initialisms
- Preventing markup glitches
- Working with table formatting
- Using Math
- Placing "External links" sections
- How to create reusable boilerplate
- Footnotes
- Please fill-in edit summaries
- Spellcheck before you hit "Save"
- Use "Show preview" to check your work before you hit "Save"
- Moving pages
- Collaborations
[edit] Tips on creating and editing links
- Linking to another article
- How to create a link to another article
- Time-saving links: the "pipe trick"
- Time-saving links II
- Linking to a section
- Linking articles: the internal link
- Link tricks
- When not to use links
- External links
- Interwiki links and shortcuts
- Create links faster with link tricks
- Placing interlanguage links
- How to provide a link to a specific Google Search
- Short link pipe trick
- How to link to word definitions
- How to link to a category
- Sister projects & interwiki linking
- Time-saving links
- How to make links look the way you want
- Google search link
- My link disappeared!
- How to link to a section of an article
- How to link to a category without categorizing the page
- How to use red links
- Placing "External links" sections
- Wikimedia links and shortcuts
- Linking to non-Wikimedia wikis
[edit] Category tips
- How to add an article to a category
- How to create a category
- How to create a subcategory
- Category tips
- Placing category tags
- Sorting entries in the categories
[edit] Tips on working with specific types of pages
- Redirects
- Band articles
- Working on the Main Page
- Featured content
- Beware of instruction creep
- When to use subpages
[edit] List tips
- Topic list
- The topic list
- Why have lists when there are categories?
- List building
- Alphabetical list of articles
[edit] Disambiguation page tips
[edit] Tips on working with images
- Placing images
- How to find legal photographs and graphics
- Tag your image uploads
- Cite the source on all image uploads
- Uploading Free Images
- Inserting a picture in an article
[edit] Boilerplate/template tips
- Templates
- What are templates used for?
- Transclusion
- Placing templates
- How to transclude a page into the page you are editing
- Transclusion caveat
- Inclusion vs. Transclusion
[edit] User page tips
- Your very own Wikipedia bookmark page
- Need ideas for your user page design?
- How to display the tip of the day on your user page
- Displaying Tip of the day on your user page
- Displaying tips on your userpage
- Userboxes
[edit] Other ways to contribute
- Be a Help Desk volunteer
- Welcoming Committee
- Join the Recent Changes Patrol!
- Join the fight against vandalism
- Become an Administrator
[edit] Communicating with other editors
- Talking to Wikipedians
- What to do about unsigned comments
- What did he say?
- Be forgiving to new users
- Gain feedback on your editing from other editors
- Posting on the Wikipedia Community Bulletin Board
- How to catch admin attention fast
- Love thy neighbor
- In conflicts, reach consensus
- The three revert rule
- Explaining Wiki markup to other users
- Wikimedia-wide issues
- Strikeout button
- Centralizing project discussion
- Screenshots
[edit] Watchdogging (monitoring) Wikipedia
- Preview tomorrow's featured article
- Use your watchlist
- How to enable the Enhance recent changes setting
- Join the Recent Changes Patrol!
- Join Wikipedia's Counter Vandalism Unit
- To count your edits, use Essjay's Edit Counter
[edit] Configuring and customizing your account
- How to change your username
- Keeping track of time
- Edit summary memory trick
- How to enable right-click section editing
- Double click editing
- How to disable the section edit links
- How to enable the Enhance recent changes setting
- Customize appearance of dates
- User scripts
- Install your first javascript
[edit] Tips on working faster
- Your customizable Wikipedia navigation hub
- Think outside the box
- Think outside the box
- Wikipedia search box focus
- The edit toolbar
- How to enable right-click section editing
- Double click editing
- Shortcuts
- Navigate fast using shortcuts
- Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts
- Use Wikipedia shortcuts to navigate faster
- Work faster with keyboard shortcuts
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Fast Wikipedia editing with AutoWikiBrowser
- Power-editing with AutoWikiBrowser
- Navigation popups
- Power tool: Navigation Popups
[edit] MetaTips
- Wikipedia's dozen most essential tips
- Wikipedia's dozen most powerful tips
- Wikipedia's top ten essential tips
- Wikipedia's top ten power tips
- Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other
