Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 March 9

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[edit] March 9

[edit] Inserting Images?

Ok, this should be simple to answer, even though I should know where to find it. Anyways, could someone please give me the link to the page that tells me how to take a picture from Wikipedia Commons and put it on another wiki site? It'd be very helpful if you could help.--Fruit Boy 00:03, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Fruit Boy. I'm not sure where the instructions are, but just take the file name on commons and use it normally here on wikipedia as though it were already on wikipedia. The software will handle the "transfer" automatically. If there is already an image here on wikipedia with the exact same name as the image on commons, then there's a conflict, and I'm not sure which image "wins". Let me know if you are having this problem and I'll look into it further. Hope that helps, — coelacan — 02:06, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Try the section "Embedding Commons’ media in Wikimedia projects" for some guidance. Good luck!--Vbd (talk) 02:10, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Searching for images

Hi!

There is an image [[Image:Crossroads baker explosion.jpg]] (Cool! You know what happens when I don't "nowiki" that? :-) and I'm trying to find other images tagged "Crossroads". But when I search for "Crossroads" in the "Special:Allpages" "Image:" namespace or google "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image: Crossroads", I find other images but not this one.

What other images aren't they letting me see and why aren't they letting me see them???  :-)

Thanks. --Saintrain 00:21, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Saintrain! You're not finding the image because it's not on Wikipedia. It's actually on Wikimedia Commons, right over here. The general URL for commons is commons.wikimedia.org, and the purpose of Commons is to share images and other files easily across the many language Wikipedias (and other projects like Wikispecies). So if you go over to Commons and search, you'll find this image and hopefully other related images. There's a new search engine over there called Mayflower, by the way, it's more powerful and better at finding what you need. Hope that helps, — coelacan — 02:12, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Hi Coelacan: Thanks for the quick response. Found it and bookmarked it. Nice interface, too. Thanks, Saintrain 05:38, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
If you want to link to an image without displaying it, put a colon before the word "image" in the link, resulting in a link like this: Image:Crossroads baker explosion.jpg --Teratornis 18:20, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Thanks Teratornis, very handy. Is there a "cheatsheet" for the "sophisticated" user? Or a page where all (well most (well some)) of the tricks&tips are? Or a "List of WP editing features" Or "Category:...."? Or ...
Also are "Image:" and "Commons:" 2 separate databases? Are there others that Image: links to that can be searched? Thanks, Saintrain 14:29, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] page diff syntax

[[1] is confusing to me. It seems like the page is almost being blanked looking at the diff, but everything is still there. What is going on? TonyTheTiger (talk/cont/bio) 00:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

You may need to try scrolling across. For some reason, this diff was very wide on my screen. I can see that there is an edit on line 44. Good luck!--Vbd (talk) 01:58, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
(Edit conflict) Hi Tony. It's really weird. Somehow, a copy of the entire article had been inserted inside the infobox template. You can see that by clicking "edit" here. Another editor came along and deleted the copy that was inside the infobox,[2] making the diff look like the whole article was being deleted, but leaving behind the copy that was outside the infobox. — coelacan — 02:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MILITARY PAST INENTIONS DUCKSFEET

I'M LOOKING FOR INFORMATION AND POSSIBLE IMAGES ABOUT A THING CALLED DUCKSFEET USED ON TANK TREADS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR.

First, please turn off your caps lock, that makes things very difficult to read. Thank you.
Next, the Help Desk is for questions about how to use Wikipedia. Your question would be best directed at the reference desk.
Finally, please sign your posts with four tildes (~~~~). Thanks. Hersfold (talk/work) 01:39, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] author

who is the author of this site and do you have valid credentials to present this info.do you have affiliations that might create a built in bios toward the information? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.2.14.53 (talk) 01:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

Hi! Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia that anyone can edit. That means that you can, as well. The site was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, but they are not the primary authors of any pages on the site. There are over three million registered user accounts (see Special:Statistics) although most of those are not very active. Ideally, everyone's biases cancel each other out. That might not be true in every case, but I don't know a whole lot about the demographics of Wikipedia so I can't tell you what the systemic biases might be. You can assume that Wikipedia has a general bias toward the things that people who can afford Internet access might care about; beyond that, I'm not sure. If you're interested in helping out, see Wikipedia:Introduction to get started. — coelacan — 01:54, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, there's not much need for credentials. We only repeat already published information by other sources. If you want to know if an article is reliable, you should check its references. Mgm|(talk) 05:46, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] capitalization workaround?

I would like to create the page ReelTime.com. But, it keeps coming up as Reeltime.com. I realize there are some rules in place to aid case-sensitive searches, but is there anyway around this? I figure there is, because, for example, the CinemaNow page uses a second capitalized letter in the title. I just can't find the info unfortunately. Any help would be appreciated.

Zosopedia 04:32, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Click on this link: ReelTime.com or ReelTime if you think that's a better title. *Mishatx*-In\Out 04:44, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Reeltime.com is a redirect to ReelTime.com. Perhaps that adds to the confusion. Read Help:Redirect to learn how redirects work, if you have not already. --Teratornis 18:30, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
It is now, since Zosopedia set up the redirect after creating ReelTime.com *Mishatx*-In\Out 00:49, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Uploading SVG images...

I recently uploaded an SVG image Image:Pressure plot.svg. However it is not showing up properly on my browser. It works fine if I open it with an SVG editor (Inkscape, for example). Is that a problem with my browser (I tried using Firefox 2 and IE 7) ? Here is the PNG version Image:Pressure plot.png of the same image. -- Myth (Talk) 07:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

What is the problem? Is it distorted or not showing at all? Transparency not showing? --TV-VCR watch 07:54, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
I can see the problem in my browser (firefox). For anybody that can't see a problem then the problem I have is that none of the labels show up in Firefox. However, they do show up in Inkscape. I have seen this before and managed to fix it (more by luck than judgement). The way I did it before was to edit the XML in Inkscape. If you find the text labels then there is sometimes a node just before which seems to contain a rectangle. I assume the browser gets confused and draws the text and then a rectangle on top. Last time I had this I deleted the rectangles and the problem went away. However, I tried that here and it didn't work. My best guess is that something else is also being draw on top of the labels but I'm not sure what. I don't know anything about SVG (I just make educated guess on ways to try and fix something) so I'm not sure I can help much further. --MarkS (talk) 14:25, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
I do not have much knowledge of SVG or XML format. This is the first time I have tried to upload a SVG image. On my browser I am not able to see the text and the arrow heads for the axes. I have noticed the same problem on IE 6 / 7. btw I am able to see other SVG images (those uploaded by other people). So could it be a problem with the editor (Inkscape) I am using to edit these images. -- Myth (Talk) 20:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
I've tried opening it up in a few other editors to see what happened:
  • GLIPS Graffiti opened the file but didn't display anything
  • Batik (software) threw an error whilst opening the file. This suggests there might be something unusual in the file. The odd thing is that GLIPS Graffiti uses Batik (or at least that is my understanding).
  • GIMP displayed the graph but no labels (ie. same as the PNG version).
Inkscape is well supported and gets new releases regularly so I would hope it doesn't support errors in what it produces. My best guess is that Inkscape is producing valid SVG but that it the rendering engines in the browsers and other applications are not as up to date and can't display properly some of the latest SVG elements. I'd try either (a) starting again in Inkscape and checking the output in a browser after adding each element or (b) try a different package. --MarkS (talk) 07:43, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
Have you tried saving it as a Plain SVG in Inkscape instead of an Inkscape SVG, or vice versa? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:43, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
I tried saving it as plain SVG, after you suggested, but I am still not able to see the text. Though I can now see the arrow heads. The text is also missing when I open the file (both plain and inkscape svg format) in Gimp. -- Myth (Talk) 04:10, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
Ohh, text issues. That might be fixed by converting the text to paths, or by changing the font used. I recall experiencing a similar issue before. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 17:32, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki code help

User:TV-VCR

I am already very good with the code, but I've ran into a problem. As you can see on the user page, The second row ("bio", "admin", "contrib", "programme"), is split in the middle. I've tried several things but it results in causing a box to go below one of the others. Can a kind editor make it to where there is no opening there and the disclaimer below it touches the four boxes above? Thank you. --TV-VCR watch 07:52, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

  • If you want 4 boxes to span the entire screen they should add up to 100%. I've edited it so the break is gone, but I'm currently using a pretty high-res screen. If it didn't work, please post to my talk page and I'll check again when I'm on another computer. - Mgm|(talk) 08:24, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I can't talk on your talk page because it is semi-protected! But this is what I get:

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9938/83496532683dt6.jpg --TV-VCR watch 09:24, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

  • Semi-protected? Wonder why no one told me. I'll look into that. In the mean time: what is the pixel-width of your desktop and what version of firefox do you use? - Mgm|(talk) 09:36, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
  • According to the logs, my talk page is not protected at all and I haven't seen any change since an IP last posted there. What message are you getting? Perhaps you can post a screenshot of that too? - Mgm|(talk) 09:38, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
I am a new user, perhaps that is why. My resolution is 1280x960, ans my firefox is latest (2. something...) --TV-VCR watch 09:44, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Even if you're new, you should be able to edit an unprotected pre-existing page without any problems. Since I am an admin, I find it especially important all sorts of people can reach me to ask for help. I think the issue you are having with your userpage is either due to your screen resolution or a Firefox 2 bug. Can you try making the window smaller and see if it has any effect on your userpage? If that doesn't do anything, could you try another browser to see if it is indeed a browser issue? - Mgm|(talk) 10:07, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
    MacGyverMagic's talk page is unprotected at the moment. --ais523 11:10, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I get the same as you have shown in your image in FF (but it fixes itself if you edit and then preview the page), but it's fine in IE. Maybe if you try using one table with 100% width and four columns with 25% width each instead of four separate tables, then it shouldn't break and stack like it is at the moment. mattbr30 11:16, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I just tried that and it didn't work. It it isn't fixed in IE. --TV-VCR watch 20:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HEALTH/BLOOD

WHAT IF SOMEONE HAS 78400000mm3 OF ERYTHROCYTES? DOES IT INDICATE TO SOME INFECTION IN BODY? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 63.243.163.202 (talk) 12:03, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

Have you tried the Science section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here's the link to post a question there: click here. Please note that Wikipedia does not give medical advice, and you may wish to consult a medical professional. I hope this helps. mattbr30 12:18, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Organism Articles in Biology

Is there any unified policy in Wikipedia, as to the taxonomic level which deserves a separate article? Do all species deserve a separate article each, no matter how short these articles are? Or should we only describe the species in the article of the genus, in cases where there isn't enough information for a separate article about the species? Gidip 14:12, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

  • There isn't a unified policy per se, although there are some style guidelines that may offer direction. For example, the guideline on merging two pages into one suggests that editors consider either expanding or merging very short articles. In the case of species, it's likely that most species have enough verifiable, reliable outside sources that the individual species articles could be expanded; whether to leave them short for now in the hope that someone will expand them soon or to merge them to a genus article and spin out later is probably an issue for the sound judgment of the interested editors such as yourself. You might want to take a look at the "Tree of Life" wikiproject, which is a group of editors working on organizing the articles on organisms, and to the various subprojects listed there. The talk page for the appropriate project is probably the best place to suggest merging some of the short species articles, and the editors there are likely to have a lot of expertise on the subject. Thanks, TheronJ 14:37, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
Many thanks, Gidip 14:51, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Tools page needs proofreading

I'm trying to make Wikipedia's most effective tools as easy to understand and as useful as possible. Please take a look at it and let me know on its talk page how I can improve it. And if there's an especially useful tool that I've missed, please let me know! Thank you. The Transhumanist   17:27, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I'd place the Editing section further up the manual. That's a lot of effort you put in there. Xiner (talk, email) 00:03, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Okay to delete spam sections?

The passive optical network article has several sections of spam at the end of it. Is it okay to just delete these sections? Riick 19:42, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure you do not mean Spamalot rofl. Cheers Lethaniol 00:20, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Article on Oplan Bojinka

I'm a newbie who has enjoyed using Wikipedia.

I wanted to contribute additional information to the article but did not want to upset the writer. How do I do this?

Is their perhaps an old hand you could guide me?

Thank you.

RajaMudaRajaMuda 20:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

As far as upsetting the writer goes, no one owns an article. Any information you add, as long as it is factual and properly cited, it should not be a problem. Be Bold! Mr.Z-mantalk¢Review! 20:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
  • You could always look into the article history page to see who wrote most of the article and talk with them about the additions you want to make. If you want some guidance from a veteran user, I can recommend WP:ADOPT. - Mgm|(talk) 21:31, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thumbnail question

How can a non logged in user request mediawiki to view a specific thumbnail size of an image (even making it generate the thumbnail is it's not even there) without using show preview and just doing something like how http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=myskin will make mediawiki user a certain skin?

To put it another way, Is there a way to alter thumbnail preferences using a GET comment with the & options like how you can alter skins with http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Main_Page&useskin=myskin ? SakotGrimshine 22:11, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Only logged in users can change the size in which images can display on screen, simply go to Special:mypreferences and click files and change the appropriate settings to how you would like it and click save and that shoud solve your problems. Regards - Aquasplash 22:14, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] tag <categorytree>

Where can I find documentation on using this tag? Nashville Monkey 22:49, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Looking like it is a type of html for wiki - see explanation on its use here [3]. Cheers Lethaniol 00:24, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
Actually this is quite a cool function (I suppose it is to be used in talk/wikipedia space as a tool for east navigation). Note you need javascript enabled - then <categorytree>Pharmacy</categorytree> produces:
[–] Pharmacy
[+] Dosage forms
[+] Pharmacy organizations
[+] Pharmaceuticals policy
[+] Pharmaceutics
[+] Pharmacies
[+] Pharmacists
[+] Pharmaconomists
[+] Pharmacy education


Clicking on the +/- expands or collapses the category tree. Cool Cheers Lethaniol

Thanks! Nashville Monkey 00:40, 10 March 2007 (UTC)