Help:Contents/Editing Wikipedia

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Help:Contents
Help:Contents
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 the project.
Tutorial - a tutorial on how to edit Wikipedia
Cheatsheet - an editing reference card.
Simplified ruleset - essential information to understand when editing articles (for new editors).
Glossary - understand Wikipedia jargon.

Editing - how to:

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.

Edit a page, including markup details.
Help:Editing - annotated cheatsheet
Bite sized tips for the most common tasks.
Create links - (Change the title of a link (piped link))
Use sections in an article
Use categories
Insert a picture
Use redirect pages
Create infoboxes
Create templates - (Quick guide, List of available templates)
Create lists
Use footnotes and references
Use tables
Use mathematical formulae
Use special characters. The display of fonts and other character sets in your browser.
Use easy timeline syntax
Valid HTML codes in wikitext
Use "Magic words" and Variables. These allow you to change default behaviour or automate text. For example, you can disable a Table of Contents or move its position, or insert constants and timestamps.

Saving - how to:

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

Creating pages - how to:

Start a new article
Start a new page - for pages that are not articles
Name a page
Naming conventions in general - (full list of specific naming conventions)
Disambiguation, create pages for topics with several different definitions
Create subpages

Article maintenance - how to:

Merge two or more pages, or move (rename) a page - (Requested moves)
Delete pages/images/categories
Categorize
Stub articles - (List of Stub Styles)
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
Archive Current Events
Do a purge
Edit with a text editor
Test edits, and other things
Editing shortcuts

Style

Style and formatting
Manual of Style and its subpages
Related policies and guidelines
Related help, tutorials and proposals
Related to specific cultures
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. See a full list of the submanuals on the right, or a concise list below.

Main Manual of Style
Abbreviations
Biographies
Dates & numbers
Disambiguation
Headings
Links
Mathematics
Pronunciation
Titles
Trademarks
Sister projects

Life cycle of an article

Article development - lists the stages in an article's development and offers ways to help improve articles.
Perfect articles - a checklist of components required to make a "perfect" article.
Start a new article
Start a new page - for pages that are not articles
Guide to writing better articles

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