User:Siroxo/Tips

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Tips

Here are some tips for using Wikipedia, mostly based on my style of wikiing. If you see something here that you think can be done better or differently, don't hesitate to let me know.

Contents

Wikipedia scripts

Check out these scripts:

  • Navigation Popups - Hover over internal links to see what lies on the other side
  • Live Preview - Quick preview of your edits, without sending it to the server

Browser choice

Use a tabbed browser. I use Mozilla Firefox, but there are others. Tabs (especially with gestures or mouse-over tab-switching) will allow you to easily have several wikipages open at once, making it easier to check links as you write articles, and similar tasks that are easier with many pages open at once. If you do choose Firefox, I recommend also installing the "All-in-One Gestures", "Tabbrowser Preferences", and "undoclosetab" extensions, they give many excellent options to mold the browser.

In addition, I highly recommend using a browser that allows you to set up keywords/shortcuts to URLs that take variables, Firefox lets you do this as well.

Quick wiki bookmark shortcuts

Set up a keyword/shortcut to topics in wikipedia, this is one way of reducing your server load on wikipedia, and saving yourself some time by leaving old tabs that you need open.

In Firefox:

  1. Bookmark http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s ¹
  2. Set its keyword to "w" or "wiki" or something short.
  3. Type in the addressbar: 'w Some topic'
  4. You arrive at the page entitled 'Some topic' in wikipedia.

Copyvio and fact checking

If you use a browser that allows keywords/shortcuts to URLs you can make a quick one to help perform fact-checks and copyvio-checks wikipedia.

In Firefox:

  1. Bookmark http://www.google.com/search?q=-wikipedia%20-dictionary%20-encyclopedia%20%s ¹
  2. Set its keyword to 'check',
  3. In the address bar, type 'check "some text in Wikipedia I think is a copyvio"', it searches google for '-wikipedia -dictionary -encyclopedia "some stuff I think is a copyvio."'
  4. See your results, not containing any wikipedia or wikipedia mirror results!

Firefox Wikipedia extension

There is also a Wikipedia extension for Mozilla Firefox, located here. It provides a toolbar and context menu for editing Wikipedia. I actually don't use it, but you might find it useful.

¹ The %s in the URL is browser dependant, so if you use something else, check on it.
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