Here you can digest how to use Wikipedia in bite-sized morsels. The tips listed below were created for the Tip of the day project, or the Styletips project, but are listed here by title and organized by subject area for your convenience.
Signatures in Wikipedia are identifying information that you put after writing a comment on a talk page. They tell other editors who wrote the comment and when. This can be done by writing ~~~~.
Signatures can optionally be spruced up with colors. To add color to your signature, go to the Preferences link at the top of the page. In the nickname box, enter [[User:MYUSERNAME|<font color="MYCOLOR">MYUSERNAME</font>]]. Replace "MYCOLOR" with a color you like, such as "red" or "green". Replace MYUSERNAME with your username. Finally, check the "raw signature" box, and save your preferences. Now, when you type four tildes ~~~~ in a talk page, your new signature will appear.
The color names that can be used in standard HTML are given in the standards document here. Using the hexadecimal RGB-style colors (such as #008000) you can choose any color you like from about sixteen million, not just the 140 colors that have names in standard HTML.
More complex signatures are possible; however, your signature as typed into the box above should not be unnecessarily long. Long signatures make pages larger and harder to edit, and are discouraged.
When you edit a page, you can use the Preview button (located right next to the Save page button) to see in advance what your edits will look like. This lets you check your work periodically without filling up the page history by making lots of smaller edits. The preview function can also help you avoid mistakes, such as when using an unfamiliar type of wiki markup. The preview will appear together with the edit box you have been working in (either above or below it, however you prefer).
An even faster way to preview a page is with the keyboard shortcut ⇧ Shift+alt+P.
For a listing of current collaborations, tasks, and news, see the Community portal. For a listing of ongoing discussions and current requests, see the Dashboard.