To search for a topic in a specific namespace, precede the topic with that namespace's prefix, followed by a colon. If the topic has a page with that name, pressing Enter will take you right to it. Otherwise, a list of relevant search results will appear.
For example, one way to get a listing of articles on ancient Greece is to type Category:Ancient Greece in the search box. To go to the portal for the Ancient Greeks, you would type: Portal:Ancient Greece.
The namespace prefixes are: Category:, Portal:, File:, User:, Talk:, Wikipedia:, Help:, Book:, Draft:, and Template:.
You can also search in sister projects by using the full name of the sister project, or its abbreviation (e.g.- Wiktionary: or wikt:).
Are you tired of having to type long links to targets, and then having to write out most of the link again to hide the namespace? Simply put a pipe ( "|" ) at the end of the link, like so: [[Wikipedia:Tip of the day|]], which turns Wikipedia:Tip of the day into Tip of the day. This trick also works with parentheses – [[colon (punctuation)|]] becomes colon, and comma – [[San Francisco, California|]] becomes San Francisco.
ProveIt is a user script (and gadget) that makes it easy to find, edit, add, and cite references in Wikipedia articles.
It provides a graphical interface for editing, adding, and citing references. The ProveIt toolbar displays at the bottom of the Wikipedia text editor (for articles only).
Sometimes you may be editing an article and want to link a plural to its singular form. For example, to link "Fred Foo was famous for his study of puddles" to puddle, you could link it like so: [[puddle|puddles]]. However, you can save time instead by writing [[puddle]]s.
This also works with adjectives (for example, [[Japan]]ese), regular verbs in present or past tense (for example, [[dance]]s or [[dance]]d) and any other suffixes or prefixes.
However, this method does not work with spelling changes, for example: [[try]]ied does not work; you have to enter [[try|tried]]. It also does not work with possessives, so you may want to use [[Fred Foo|Fred Foo's]] to get Fred Foo's. Using [[Fred Foo]]'s will look like Fred Foo's, i.e. the possessive suffix unlinked, in plain text, and black instead of blue.
Note: if a redirect exists from puddles to puddle you don't actually need to do any piping, it's fine to link [[puddles]] too.
If you would like to see what Mobile Wikipedia looks like on your desktop's or laptop's computer screen, see Official Mobile English Wikipedia.
Sometimes it is preferable to refer to a section of a page when linking, rather than to the whole page. You can create a link to any subheading on any page in Wikipedia by including a # followed by the subheading at the end of a link.
For example: Wikipedia:Community portal#Help out.
In all section links, be sure to use a piped link for readability.
Using a piped link, the previous example looks like this: Help out.
If a section title changes, rather than going red/inactive, the link will lead to the top of the linked page.
If you want to write a dictionary definition, recipe or quotation archive, consider using one of Wikipedia's sister projects, such as Wiktionary or Wikiquote. These are more specialised, as they focus on a particular type of page. Links can be made to these pages by adding the project name as a namespace ("Wikiquote:", "Wikibooks:", "Wiktionary:"), or using the shortcuts ("Q:", "B:", and "Wikt:", respectively). Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
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Commons
Free media repository -
MediaWiki
Wiki software development -
Meta-Wiki
Wikimedia project coordination -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikispecies
Directory of species -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Including the contents of a template page on a different page (by surrounding the page name with double braces, i.e. "{{}}" and leaving out the "Template:" prefix) is called transclusion.
This allows the other page to be automatically updated whenever the template page is updated.
Besides templates, pages in the following namespaces can be transcluded:
- Category:
- Help:
- Portal:
- User:
- Wikipedia:
The only difference between transcluding these and templates is that you must include the prefix (followed by a colon) with the page's name inside the double braces.
Images also can be transcluded, but this is done using double square brackets instead of braces.
Here are some examples of transclusion:
{{Pic of the day}} · {{Help:Contents}} · [[Image:Wikipedia-logo.png]]
Templates are a type of page that contain boilerplate text that is intended to be displayed on more than one page in Wikipedia.
This Tip of the day box is an example of a template (there are several versions actually), and besides being displayed here it is displayed on many userpages as well.
Template names start with the prefix "Template:" followed by the page name. The main version of the template you are reading right now is called "Template:totd".
To display a template on a page, go to the target page, click "edit", and add the template's name (with or without the prefix) surrounded by double curly brackets to the page's source text. (The text you see in the edit box when you click edit this page is called "source text", because it is a lot like programming code, which is called "source code").
Including a template on a page in this way is called "transclusion". Here's an example:
To include the Template:Philosophy topics, type this at the end of the philosophy article you wish to place it on::
- {{Philosophy topics}}
There are two types of general topics lists: Outlines and Indexes. Outlines are arranged hierarchically, while the topics in indexes are presented alphabetically.
The vast majority of lists on Wikipedia present the items of a class of things – those are item lists. The rest are general topics lists which are different than item lists because they present the subtopics of a given subject – their scope is an entire subject.
For example, for sharks, the item list is List of sharks and it presents shark species. A general topics list on sharks is the Outline of sharks, and its scope is everything about sharks.
Userbox in a box
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Userboxes are for decorating your userpage and to tell little details about yourself. They have become a fun tradition on Wikipedia. Userboxes help other Wikipedians to know a brief summary about you; you can tell other Wikipedians that you come from Switzerland, that you like classical music, etc.
There are hundreds of premade userboxes to choose from.
And it is easy to design new userboxes. They require just three things to make them: the userbox template, the name of an icon image page, and a blurb that you type in. To see the code for the userbox included here click "Edit" on the toolbar above.
There are three basic steps to building a topic list for Wikipedia: the first is to search Wikipedia to make sure it doesn't already have a list on the subject. The second step is to hunt down every word you can find on the subject, from your own memory, books, web directories, dictionaries, etc. Surround each term with double square brackets, and save the page.
Because Wikipedia has become so extensive, don't be surprised if most or even all of the links turn out blue (those are live links, each leading to an article on Wikipedia). Dead-end links are red, but don't remove them, because they show what articles Wikipedia is missing — anyone can click on a red link to create an article on that topic. The third step is checking each live article in the list for links to related topics. When you find one, add it to the list.
The term "WikiProject" is used for projects created for the purpose of managing a specific family of information within Wikipedia. For example, Wikipedia:WikiProject Economics organises articles related to Economics, including economic terms, theories, and economists.
A WikiProject is a resource to help coordinate and organize article writing. Its attached talk page is a convenient forum for those interested in a particular project. WikiProjects can also have associated Portals.
Some projects, like the Tip of the day project, coordinate internal Wikipedia processes rather than article content directly (though not all of these use the term "WikiProject").
When a project includes multiple operational pages, it is generally best to redirect their discussion pages to the main discussion page for the project. That way, participants remain aware of what is going on with the project without having to search out every nook and cranny where discussions may be taking place.
The exception to this strategy is when a task is delegated that would generate a great deal of discussion, and centralizing it with the project's other discussions would create a discussion page of unmanageable size.
A redirect is a page that has the sole purpose to automatically redirect readers to a differently named page; to take the reader where they really wanted to go. Redirects allow a topic to have more than one title. Redirects are used for synonyms, abbreviations (initialisms), acronyms, accented terms (diacritics), misspellings, typos, nicknames (pseudonyms), scientific names, etc.
To create a redirect for the term "Oof":
- Type
Oofin the search box, press ↵ Enter - Click on the redlink for Oof that it presents
- In the edit window that appears, type
#REDIRECT [[Foo]]on the first line to make it lead to the articleFoo - Redirects should be organized in to categories too. Each redirect can have up to seven redirect categories. Categories go on the third line of the redirect. (Note: Plant has a subcategory within the category of scientific name; enter plant after a pipe).
Here are two examples of a redirect category using a category template:
{{R from birth name}}{{R from scientific name|plant}}
Preview your new redirect before saving it. Make sure:
- There is a big right-facing arrow to the left of the bolded name of your target page name.
- That your target page is bolded in blue (if it is red, go back and double check your target name in the edit window).
- That your redirect category has rendered properly and that the boilerplate it presents makes sense.
Use the <ref> tag to add references to your articles presented as footnotes. This tag is easy and convenient because it allows you to cite your sources within your text and have them automatically numbered and added to your References section at the end of the article. To cite a source, simply type the <ref> tag after the statement the reference is for.
For example: Haliburton park is the largest park in the world.<ref>Bill Harton (2005). http://www.linkhere.com. Retrieved March 3, 2005.</ref> Then, at the end of your article, add the following template to include all of the citations in your article: {{Reflist}} directly under the References or Notes section title.
Have you ever needed to post an important message to all editors about an article, on the article itself, but thought it would stick out like a sore thumb and ruin the article if you did? Are you reverting many edits on an article because editors just aren't seeing the important message or special instructions on the talk page?
The solution is that you can insert hidden text in the article! That way, only the people editing the page will see your message! Here is how to insert a hidden comment:
- First, begin the comment by typing
<!-- - Once you have done that, type what you need the editors to read
- Then, end the comment by typing
-->
Once you have completed those 3 easy steps, you won't be reverting as many mistakes!
For example, the following hidden comment has been used in the Meaning of life article, in the Popular views section:
<!--Please do not add 42 in this section. It is covered under the section titled "Popular culture treatments". Thank you.-->
Some more examples of pages that have hidden messages include:
To see a list of a user's contributions, go to their user page or user talk page. When you do that, the menu item "User contributions" will appear in the Toolbox menu on the sidebar. This link will show you all the edits that user has ever made (except deleted edits), up to 500 per page. This is useful for tracking vandalism in progress.
Edits with a "top" link are the most recent ones to their respective articles.
You have your own contributions list, which is particularly useful for tracking your conversations on talk pages. If you are logged in, you can access the list from the "Contributions" link at the top of the page.
To help keep track of your discussions on talk pages, you may wish to place the {{Discussion tracker}} template to your talk page.
To create a link to the current page on your browser's toolbar, copy and paste its URL onto the toolbar. This will create an accessible bookmark that you can access anytime regardless of where you are on the Web. Do this for multiple pages to create your own customized Wikipedia navigation bar.
Since topics with the same name don't share article pages, we have disambiguation pages to inform readers what the articles for those topics are called. Disambiguation pages list topics referred to by the same name. Like the city Chicago and the band Chicago. (See Chicago (disambiguation)).
To keep search results the most relevant, disambiguation pages should never link to pages other than the search terms. Nor should they have pipes ( " | " ) in the wikilinks which conceal the actual topic name. Also, avoid including distracting information. Definitions should be concise.
The Wikipedia community decides whether articles meet certain criteria to be selected as Featured articles, representing the best that Wikipedia has to offer. A different featured article is chosen to appear on the Main Page every day. Any user can nominate an article as a Featured article candidate, or comment on any of the existing candidate articles.
Similar processes select Featured lists, Featured pictures, Featured portals, Featured topics and Featured sounds.
Any article with more than three headings automatically gets a table of contents (TOC). The TOC is placed above the first section heading. All text above the first section heading is commonly referred to as the lead section. Depending on the overall length of the article, this introduction should not exceed one to four paragraphs in length and should summarize the article's key points.
If you do not like the TOC placement in an article, you can move it by inserting __TOC__ where you would like it placed. If you do not want a TOC on a particular page, add the text __NOTOC__ anywhere on the page; if you, personally, do not like the TOC feature, you can disable it in your user preferences.
When you transclude a page (that is, automate the display of a page's content on another page), all its tags (like {{TOCRight}}) go with it, which will be implemented on the host page. Just add the following code if you want to add a right-aligned TOC to a page, but do not want it to be displayed on "derivative" pages:
<noinclude> {{TOCright}} </noinclude>
For a more detailed explanation, see Help:Wiki markup#Templates and transcluding pages.
- The Teahouse is primarily for newer editors' questions about topics such as creating pages, citing sources, and approval of articles.
- The Help desk is for more experienced editors' questions about how to use Wikipedia.
- Village pump (technical) is for more technical questions about Wikipedia.
- The Reference desk is for questions about life, the universe, and everything (other than about Wikipedia). It's a virtual version of the reference desk at a library. Wikipedians are very knowledgeable, and if they don't know the answer, they can probably find it pretty quickly.
When you make use of Wikipedia's desks (Help desk, Village pump, and the Reference desk), please consider putting some time in as a volunteer by reading and answering some questions at whichever desk you think you will be the most helpful. Remember: the Help desk always needs help, and questions asked at the Reference desk span the breadth of all human knowledge. You're likely to know the answer to some of the questions.
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.
When adding images to an article, be careful where you place them. See the picture tutorial for ideas on image placement.
Template messages vary in their placement. For example, a {{merge}} notice goes at the top of the article, but the {{stub}} message goes at the bottom. Read the documentation at the bottom of a template for instructions on how to make use of it.
An External links section, if any, should always be placed at the end of the article. It should always be spelled that way, never "External Links" or "external links". The term should be used even if there is only one external link.
Wikipedia:Did you know... is a section you can see on the Main Page. Wikipedia:Did you know (WP:DYK) is the project page for the "Did you know" section.
The DYK section showcases new or expanded articles that are selected through an informal review process. It is not a general trivia section. For the discussion page see WT:DYK.
Beginners should consult this Did You Know glossary if they don't understand any of the terms used. Beginners may like to start by looking at a summary of our many rules: this provides links to pages with more detailed explanations (which in turn may link to even more detailed pages).
A shortcut is a redirect that assigns an abbreviated title to a page in Wikipedia's behind-the-scenes namespaces. This lets you get to a page with fewer keystrokes.
Shortcuts to pages in the Wikipedia namespace start with "WP:". For example, the shortcut to Wikipedia:Department directory is WP:DIR.
When a page has one or more shortcuts to it, those shortcuts should be displayed on that page using the shortcut template.