You might want to learn simply how to start a page, and you might want informal tips on contributing to Wikipedia. If you want the details about how to edit a Wikipedia page, though, you've come to the right place.
pako is a bosss ;)
It's very easy to edit a Wiki page. Simply click on the "Edit this page" link at the top or bottom of a Wiki page to change the page itself, or click on the "Other Namespaces: Talk" link at the bottom to discuss it. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the editable text of that Wiki page.
Then type away, and press "Save" when finished! (You can also preview your changes before saving if you like.)
It is often more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite text editor, edit and spell check there, and then paste back into the browser to preview. This way, you can also keep a local copy of the pages you authored so that you can make changes offline and for backup purposes.
In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.
You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox.
Sections, Paragraphs, Lists and Lines
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Start your sections with header lines: New SectionSubsection |
=== New Section === or <h3>New Section</h3> ==== Subsection ==== or <h4>Subsection</h4> |
|
A single newline has no effect. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
A single newline has no effect. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
| You can break lines without starting a new paragraph. |
You can break lines<br> without starting a new paragraph. |
|
* Lists are good: ** they organize material ** they look clean |
|
# Numbered lists are also good ## Very organized ## easy to follow |
|
; Definition lists : lists with definitions ; item to be defined : the item's definition |
For mixing list types, you need to use HTML:
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<ul> <li>A numbered list: <ol> <li>First item <li>Second item </ol> <li>more bullets </ul> |
|
:Lines can be ::indented :::several levels |
IF (a line starts with whitespace) THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a technical looking font; lines won't wrap; ENDIF this is useful for: * pasting preformatted text; * algorithm descriptions; * ascii art; WARNING If you make it wide, you force the whole page to be wide and hence less readable. You can see this happening on this page. |
IF (a line starts with whitespace) THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a technical looking font; lines won't wrap; ENDIF this is useful for: * pasting preformatted text; * algorithm descriptions; * ascii art; WARNING If you make it wide, you force the whole page to be wide and hence less readable. You can see this happening on this page. |
<center>Text can be centered.</center> |
|
| A horizontal dividing line: above
and below. |
A horizontal dividing line: above ---- and below. Or use <hr>. |
Links, URLs, Images
| Link to the Wikipedia FAQ. (First letter of target is automatically capitalized. |
Link to the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]. |
| Same target, different name: answers. | Same target, different name: [[Wikipedia FAQ|answers]] |
| The weather in London is a page that doesn't
exist yet. |
[[The weather in London]] is a page that doesn't exist yet. |
| Redirect one article title to another by putting text like this in its first line. |
#REDIRECT [[United States]] |
| External link: Nupedia | External link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia] |
| Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. (Good idea since it makes a printout more useful.) |
Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. |
| A picture: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki.png To upload images, use the tool from Special pages. |
A picture: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki.png |
Character formatting
| Emphasize, strongly, very strongly. Use also in formulas: F = m a. |
''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''. Alternatively: <i>Emphasize</i>, <b>strongly</b> '''F''' = ''m'' '''a'''. These are double and triple apostrophes, not double quotes. |
| Funny fonts But == ... == is better for separating sections. |
<font size="+2" color="red">Funny fonts</font> |
| A typewriter font for technical terms. | <tt>technical terms</tt> |
| You can and insert new stuff. Useful for editing. |
You can <strike>strike out</strike> stuff and <u>insert new stuff</u> |
| Umlauts and accents: (See wikipedia:Special characters) À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ |
À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ |
| Punctuation: ¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • — |
¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • — |
| Evil stuff: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ | ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
| Subscript: x2 Superscript: x2 | Subscript: x<sub>2</sub> Superscript: x<sup>2</sup> |
| Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ |
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω |
| Math characters: (See wikipedia:Special characters) ∫ ∑ ∏ √ – ± ∞ |
∫ ∑ ∏ √ – ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ → × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∋ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ |
| More space than usual, no line break: x2  ≥ 0 true. This is useful in formulas. |
x<sup>2</sup> ≥ 0 true. |
Ascii art integrals (start every line with a blank):∞ -x2 ∫ e dx = √π -∞The square root sucks though. |
∞ -x<sup>2</sup> ∫ e dx = √π -∞ |
Tables
| First header | Second header | Third header |
|---|---|---|
| upper left | upper middle | right side |
| lower left | lower middle | |
| bottom row | ||
<table border="1"> <caption>An example table</caption> <tr> <th>First header</th> <th>Second header</th> <th>Third header</th> </tr> <tr> <td>upper left</td> <td>upper middle</td> <td rowspan=2>right side</td> </tr> <tr> <td>lower left</td> <td>lower middle</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" align="center">bottom row</td> </tr> </table>
If your table doesn't look right, make sure that all <tr> and <td> tags are closed with corresponding </tr> and </td> tags. Do not indent lines, and do not include empty lines within a table. Otherwise, you will get spurious space above the table or even a browser crash.