wikidoc:How to edit a page


 * See also Introduction, Manual of Style, Tutorial, Help:Editing, and Help:Starting a new page

Wikipedia is a wiki and this means anyone can easily edit any unprotected page and save those changes immediately to that page. After your first edit, you will be a Wikipedia editor!

Note: You can use the sandbox to experiment with page editing.

Introduction
Editing most Wikipedia pages is not difficult. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend, and when you see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and press the "Save page" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Wikipedia users.

You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Wikipedia users. Click on the "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.

You should also remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages, but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the MediaWiki software keeps track of which user makes each change.

Minor edits
A check to the "minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the version with your edit and the previous version: typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. The "minor edit" option is one of several options available only to registered users.

Major edits
All editors are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, a user should consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period of time, the tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will all help to ensure that major edits are well received by the Wikipedia community.

A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word.

There are no necessary terms to which you have to agree when doing major edits, but the recommendations above have become best practice. If you do it your own way, the likelihood of your edits being reedited may be higher.

Wiki markup
The wiki markup is the syntax system you can use to format a Wikipedia page; please see Help:Editing for details on it, and Help:Wikitext examples for a longer list of the possibilities of Wikitext.

Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.


 * }

See the Wikipedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Wikipedia.

For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the topic on Extended image syntax.

Headings
For a top-level heading, put it on a separate line surrounded by '=='. For example:

==Introduction==

Subheadings use '===', '====', and so on.

Character formatting
(see also: Chess symbols in Unicode)

No or limited formatting—showing exactly what is being typed
A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them—what you see, is what you get!

Invisible text (comments)
It's uncommon, but on occasion acceptable, to add a hidden comment within the text of an article. The format is this:

Table of contents
At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the table of contents (TOC) to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.

Tables
There are two ways to build tables:
 * in special Wiki-markup (see Help:Table)
 * with the usual HTML elements: &lt;table&gt;, &lt;tr&gt;, &lt;td&gt; or &lt;th&gt;.

For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see When to use tables.

Variables
(See also Help:Variable)

NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.

CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.

In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, means the same as.

Templates
The MediaWiki software used by Wikipedia has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text) can be inserted into articles. For example, typing stub will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: disambig for disambiguation pages and sectstub like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example: Geo-stub, Hist-stub, and Linux-stub. For a complete list of stubs see WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types.

More information on editing wiki pages
You may also want to learn about:
 * How to start a page
 * Informal tips on contributing to Wikipedia
 * Editing tasks in general at the Editing FAQ
 * Cheatsheet
 * Rename pages boldly, at How to rename (move) a page
 * Preferred layout of your article, at Guide to layout
 * Style conventions in the Manual of Style
 * An article with annotations pointing out common Wikipedia style and layout issues, at Annotated article
 * General policies in Policies and guidelines
 * Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves
 * Help on editing very large articles
 * If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a Chinese character...) check if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly.
 * Namespace

af:Wikipedia:Redigeer am:Help:Editing ang:Wikipedia:How to edit a page ar:مساعدة:تحرير az:Vikipediya:Məqalələrin redaktə qaydaları be:Вікіпэдыя:Як рэдагаваць існуючы артыкул bg:Уикипедия:Как се редактират страници bs:Wikipedia:Kako izmijeniti stranicu br:Skoazell:Penaos kemmañ ur bajenn ca:Ajuda:Com s'edita una pàgina cs:Nápověda:Jak editovat stránku de:Hilfe:Seite bearbeiten el:Βοήθεια:Πώς να επεξεργαστείτε μια σελίδα eo:Helpo:Kiel redakti paĝon es:Ayuda:Cómo se edita una página eu:Laguntza:Artikuluak nola aldatzen diren fa:ویکی‌پدیا:راهنمای ویرایش صفحات fi:Ohje:Kuinka sivuja muokataan fr:Aide:Comment modifier une page ga:Vicipéid:Conas alt a chur in eagar he:עזרה:עריכת דף hi:विकिपीडिया:लेख को कैसे बदलें hu:Wikipédia:Hogyan szerkessz lapokat? ia:Wikipedia:Como formatar texto id:Wikipedia:Menyunting sebuah halaman it:Aiuto:Modifica ja:Help:ページの編集 lb:Wikipedia:Regelen lt:Pagalba:Kaip redaguoti puslapį ms:Wikipedia:Menyunting nl:Help:Uitleg no:Hjelp:Hvordan man redigerer en side nn:Hjelp:Endring pt:Ajuda:Guia de edição/Formatação ro:Wikipedia:Cum modific o pagină ru:Википедия:Как править статьи simple:Help:How to edit sk:Pomoc:Prehľad editácie stránok sl:Wikipedija:Urejanje strani sr:Помоћ:Уређивање su:Wikipedia:Cara ngédit kaca sv:Wikipedia:Hur man redigerar en sida th:วิกิพีเดีย:การแก้ไขหน้า tr:Yardım:Sayfa nasıl yazılır صفحہ کس طرح ترميم کريں vi:Trợ giúp:Sửa đổi yi:הילף:רעדאקטירן zh:Wikipedia:如何编辑页面 zh-min-nan:Help:Pian-chi̍p zh-yue:Wikipedia:點樣編輯一頁