Wikipedia talk:How to edit a page

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This is the Talk page for the How to edit a page page.

Talk pages allow you to discuss how to improve a page: see Talk Page.

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See also Wikipedia talk:How to edit a page/Archive (to Dec 2006), Wikipedia talk:How to edit a page/Archive2 (to Feb 2007).

[edit] can I change an article's title?

can I change an article's title? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.231.248.122 (talk) 10:09, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Points?

How come when you edit something and add that article to your watchlist it shows your edit and says (+1.250)? --Casey S (talk) 17:52, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, that shows the change in size of the document in bytes. If you delete material, the number will be negative. Mind matrix 13:55, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Linking pdf files

How can I create links ( or upload ) the pdf files on the Wikipedia pages? The upload menu seems to only suggest that we can add images with few extensions ( like .jpg & .svg )? Pushkal 07:01, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

This can be done by first uploading the pdf file ( use the "upload file" in the toolbox ) and then adding a Media file link to the uploaded file.--Pushkal 12:02,45 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fractions

How do you represent fractions like this, 32¼? I copied this from an infobox. Justin Foote 00:14, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

If you are in "MonoBook" skin (see your "Preference" page) you should be able to see a whole lot of special symbols underneath the "Save page", your "symbols" should include the fraction ¼, just click on that (in conjunction with "32") and it will show up in your editing. Dieter Simon 02:04, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fixed some graffiti

Removed some random expletives, stupid comments, and four-captial-letter-inserted-gunk.

--209.157.158.183 17:45, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Missed the Pam Anderson bit...Best thing to do is revert to the version before the vandalism so you don't miss additional text. --I already forgot 17:55, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Banner

Someone really should make a banner for the top of this page, to make it clear to new users that this page is neither the Wikipedia:Introduction nor the Wikipedia:Sandbox, as it seems like a lot of people confuse this page with the Introduction Text--VectorPotential^Talk 16:51, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] links to HTML anchors containing spaces

I tried to make an external link to a URL containing a space, thus:

[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit13/unit13.html#de Abaco]

The URL within the square brackets is exactly as used by the page's creator in one of his own internal links, complete with the space between "de" and "Abaco", and the link works on his site. The link above is rendered like this by the wiki software: Abaco, which obviously isn't going to work. The anchor in the external page looks like this:

<A HREF="#de Abaco">

I wouldn't dream of creating an anchor with a space in it, but somebody did. Replacing the space with a %20 doesn't work either: try it. Apparently the %20 doesn't work if it's after the # sign. Is there any way to make it work, or should I give up? --Heron 21:07, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I think this is correct: For an external link, replace each space anywhere in the URL (including a page anchor) with one underscore; that is how it should appear in your browser's address bar if you have followed a link that includes the page anchor. For wiki-links, on the other hand, spaces are permitted in page anchors for the same reason they are permitted elsewhere in wiki-links: the media-Wiki software was written to handle spaces in links. When you follow a wiki-link, even with a page anchor, you will see that spaces in the wiki-link correspond with underscores in the URL as it appears in the address bar. Wiki-links work equally well with underscores in place of spaces, but are a bit less aesthetically pleasing, which is probably why the media-Wiki software was written to permit spaces in wiki-links. Finell (Talk) 04:31, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

You mean, like this?

[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit13/unit13.html#de_Abaco de Abaco]

Result: de Abaco. No, it doesn't work. As you can see, MediaWiki renders it on the page correctly with a space, but it doesn't translate the underscore back into a space before creating the external URL, so the URL points to a nonexistent anchor called "de_Abaco". The external web server doesn't recognise "de_Abaco" as matching "de Abaco", so it doesn't go to the anchor. MediaWiki does indeed support spaces in anchors, but only for internal links, I think. Thanks for trying, but we haven't cracked it yet. --Heron 10:10, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Do not copy text from other websites without a GFDL license. It will be deleted.

The above should really read "Do not copy text from other sources..." - its better than the previous one, though.MadMaxDog 11:37, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm referring to the new warning below the edit summary, in case people are confused. MadMaxDog 11:38, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Date markup not working

Can someone tell me why the [[XXXX-XX-XX]] date format has not worked at Battle of Slater's Knoll? Thanks, Grant | Talk 05:21, 13 June 2007 (UTC) maybe you should figure it out for yourself?

[edit] Subcategories

You should add a little discussion about how to edit using subcategories. What makes the list of subcategories appear on the category page, for example.

[edit] Backgrounds

How do you set a page's background color? chris 23:29, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Title Changes

How can I change an article's title? I neglected to capitalize one word of a podcast's title in an article I created, and now I can't figure out how to fix the problem. Fakesalt 04:11, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism. Please Restore Introduction

I came here to learn how to better edit a page, and there's some strange graffiti under the Introduction header. Also, the Intro text is missing. tharsaile 11:28, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
Someone fixed it, thank you. tharsaile 14:38, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Have re-entered the vandalised "introduction" section in the article, however its header is now 'hung up' somewhere at the top, while the text itself is far below. Don't seem to be able to reconnect the two. It seems the "Guidance" section on the right has something to do with it. Has anyone any ideas how this has happened? As it is, it looks bloody awful. Dieter Simon 23:40, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I am sure the Guidance box on the right is in the wrong place and so causes the huge gap at the top of the article. Dieter Simon 23:53, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Previewing and showing changes

Is there any way one can both see a preview and the changes at the same time? Is it a possibility for an improvement in the software if not? Richard001 00:12, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

It does not seem possible. I would like that.--Patrick (talk) 01:12, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Protection

I've only been watching this page for a brief period of time, but I must say it gets more vandalism than most pages I've seen, and there sure isn't a lot of improvement to it going on. On the other hand, it seems slightly ironic to protect a page about editing, and it generally seems to be reverted quickly by a range of 'watchers'. Is it a protection case or not? Richard001 22:43, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

I say protect. Does it not say specifically in the article to go to the sandbox for testing? Just like you will not scrawl your stories over your English textbook, the "How to edit a page" should not be edited for testing either. --NovaDog 01:27, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree, this article should be protected. Since I'm watching this article, I've noticed, that it gets vandalized all the time. UserDoe 01:55, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Prot now! My watchlist is going to explode. NovaDog 02:53, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I'll file a request. Richard001 05:59, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why so long to update wikipedia

I updated an article at around 1am (about 17 hours ago) and it is not 6pm. i sent a friend a link and ask him to tell me what it said for him , and guess what, unupdated version. i understand this is not the right place but there is literally no other to ask. please respond here or to my email at "pleasegohere at gmail dot com" —Preceding unsigned comment added by Extremepilot (talk • contribs) 22:07, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It is now 6pm? Please link to the relevant diffs in the page history so we can understand what you mean. Richard001 22:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

OK, here is an example, last night at 11PM I added my own picture to the "GeForce 7 Series" article, it is the 7800 GS, of course added to the 7800GS section. its now 11:18am. now if you go to the article you can CLEARLY see it is NOT there, but if you hit edit, the text is all there. whats going on? --Extremepilot 14:59, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editing

Wikipedia should have an automated program that blocks edits that they can reconize as vandalism such as words repeating over and over and insults and curses and store them away until someone could look at it and delete it or let it in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.155.148.181 (talk) 00:48, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

That might be an idea to go with the flagged revisions proposal. Bots tend to revert such edits automatically though anyway, and some additions will have insults and offensive language while still being a valid contribution. Richard001 02:08, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] radiation

62.117.53.22 22:33, 6 November 2007 (UTC) Iwant to know about coblt 85 as an isotope in industry and if someone knows about the ionization curve of absorbed radiation in tissue I will be very thankful.62.117.53.22 22:33, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Did you read Cobalt or Radiation poisoning? If you can't find answers there, try Wikipedia:Reference desk This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Sbowers3 (talk) 19:15, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] line breaks

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between a normal line break and one with a slash . I see both of them around, used is slightly different contexts, but can't figure out the difference in how each of them works. Thanks. --Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 17:08, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

There is no functional difference. The modern thinking in markup languages is that tags should appear in one of these two ways:

<tag> ... </tag>
<tag/>

So is the modern format. is still allowed for backward compatibility (forever). Sbowers3 (talk) 19:11, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

My changers are here .... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mgprashanth (talk • contribs) 10:39, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Note about ISBNs

Since beginning of this year, two are two different types of ISBNs can be used: ISBN-10 and ISBN-13. In my opinion this should be noted here - and also the description how to use them. --Sophis 07:30, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia not being edited

In my humble opinion this is not a page on editing but on formatting. Editing is first and foremost correction of content. This should in the first place ensure the author has dealt with the subject by being relevant, focused and succinct. Wikipedia is not a literary contribution, but a literal one that deals with facts, rather then the story. The job of the editor is to prevent extraneous tangents forming the content. These aspects of Wikipedia form by far the largest part of activity, and also constitute the greatest development frictionby creating unstable content. So, the editing has to ensure

relevance
focus
brevity
literal meaning
non-digression

then there is of course the technical issue of style, language use and spelling, but these are far less of a problem then the five issues listed above So in reality there are several types of people that contribute to "editing". There are the authors who create the articles, there are the bureaucrats who race around tagging them for quality issues, there are the content editors that have the good intention to "improve" a created article, the technical editors that go around ,making cosmetic changes, and lastly the researchers that actually complete the articles to FA rating stage by adding the references and sources, checking for copyrights and content appropriateness, etc. While they may all have a place in the editing process, they have differing intentions, skills and intensity of participation in the overall process. Only the technical and cosmetic parts are addressed substantially by this article on editing.--Mrg3105 (talk) 22:43, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What you see is not what you get

I believe these pages are generated from a different source, so updating them here would not help me...

The section Wikipedia:Formatting#Character_formatting has in the 3rd row an example where the two columns certainly do not match. It may appear obvious to the skilled editor what is being done here, but I find it a bit confusing.

The point about formatting issues as a result of <pre> may need to be made (and more specific please), but not inside the example. Rvdheij (talk) 17:14, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] colour

how can i change the color of text? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Paradox King (talk • contribs) 02:48, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

like this or this MilesAgain (talk) 21:48, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Is changing the text color of articles a good way to get in trouble? Wanderer57 (talk) 22:22, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

For general text, yes. Color changes are for user pages and discussion pages (to highlight some text, for example, though this is rare). The goal for articles is to make sure that formatting doesn't get in the way of actually reading the article; coloring the text anything other than the normal color is disruptive.

The exception is for tables; there it's normal to use coloring of text to convey information (though, for accessibility purposes, that's not supposed to be the only way that information is conveyed). For example, you could say put the text "Smith (R)" in red, and "Jones (D)" in blue, indicating Republican and Democratic candidates. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:02, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Contents

how do i add that box that says "Contents" to a page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Underoathfan90 (talk • contribs) 05:45, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:TOC. It appears automatically when you have more than three section headings. There is a way to force it to appear when you have fewer headings. My guess is that you are asking about TVU Music channel. I would omit the TOC until the article becomes large - at which point it will happen automatically.

Please ask questions such as this at Wikipedia:Help desk. This page is for discussion about how to improve this article. More people monitor the Help desk page so you will get faster answers over there. Also please post comments/questions on any talk page at the bottom. That's where editors look for the latest comments. Sbowers3 (talk) 13:55, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Citation needed?

How to do a "citation needed" thingy? 84.59.122.123 (talk) 14:12, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Add a {{fact}} tag, like this.^{[citation needed]}

Please ask questions such as this at Wikipedia:Help desk. This page is for discussion about how to improve Wikipedia:How to edit a page. More people monitor the Help desk page so you will get faster answers over there. Sbowers3 (talk) 18:24, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Saving data on big edits

I occasionally loose data from an edit due to a machine crash or operator error. Is there a way of saving the data locally without saving the page to WP servers. I can do it using word processing programmes but I want some sort of automatic backup of my edits during the edit process. This is REALLY important on long or complex edits. I use Firefox and Win XP. Thanks. -- Alan Liefting- (talk) - 05:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Ok stop looking for an answer everyone :-) Got is sorted. See wikieditpuffer. Seems like a good thing. -- Alan Liefting- (talk) - 22:12, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Edit special page

hi how do i edit a special page i made the wiki and hosted it on my own [1] is there any way i can edit a special page and how do i put the box at the bottom of the leave a message page with all of the symbols
Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.158.160.14 (talk) 18:36, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

If you're hosting your own wiki, then these sort of questions are about the MediaWiki software; you might take a look at that topic in the editor's index. And, in general, you should ask questions about that software at the reference desk, if it's related to your own wiki. (To answer one question, partially, no, you can't edit special pages, except for the very top; those are transcluded MediaWiki pages (messages). -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:30, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Could someone please fix the printing?

At least with Firefox the floating box to the right messes up the 'printable page' so that it is of no use to anyone. --Johnmuir (talk) 13:39, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm running Firefox, and it looks fine. Equinox II (talk) 02:21, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm...I'm also running Firefox and the entire page looks fine. Try purging the page and see if that helps.¤~Persian Poet Gal ^(talk) 02:24, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Splitting out internal and external links

The section "Links and URLs" is lengthy and really covers two different matters - internal links and external links. It would (I think) be helpful to split it into two subsections, with those headings. (For example, I'd like to put a wikilink in the guideline Wikipedia:External links, which is primarily about the EL section in articles, not how to create external links, that goes directly to the relevant "how-to" details for external links, but I can't, because there is no such subsection at the moment). -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:26, 5 May 2008 (UTC)