Wikipedia:How to edit a page (concise)

This page is intended to provide a concise and printable guide (even though the idea of printing on Wikipedia is mildly blasphemous) for users hoping to use English-only wikipedia in a controlled manner. As such, it focuses only on the common editing functions used in Wikipedia and cuts many of the more arcane details such as math functions, foreign language characters, etc. For a more detailed guide, see Wikipedia:How to edit a page. Basically anyone can edit Wikipedia. It's a simple and easy way to share your knowledge!

General

Wiki is freaking gay, because everyone keeps editing things. For example: Me editing this now! :3 Great Job Ward Cunningham!

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The wiki markup

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.

Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines

What it looks like	What you type
Start your sections with header lines: Note: Single equal signs work for formatting headings, however as a convention for this wiki, do not use them. New section Subsection Sub-subsection	== New section == === Subsection === ==== Sub-subsection ====
A line break (i.e. pushing the enter key) needs to be done twice to create a new paragraph. A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph.	A single newline has no effect on the layout. But an empty line starts a new paragraph.
Lists are easy to do: start every line with a star more stars means deeper levels A newline in a list marks the end of the list. Of course you can start again.	* Lists are easy to do: start every line with a star * more stars means deeper levels A newline in a list marks the end of the list. Of course you can *start again.
Numbered lists are also good very organized easy to follow A newline in a list marks the end of the list. New numbering starts with 1.	# Numbered lists are also good ## very organized ## easy to follow #A newline #in a list marks the end of the list. #New numbering starts #with 1.
You can even do mixed lists and nest them like this or have newlines inside lists	* You can even do mixed lists # and nest them #* like this<br>or have newlines<br>inside lists
You can also break lines inside lists like this	* You can also **break lines<br>inside lists<br>like this
Definition list list of definitions item the item's definition	; Definition list : list of definitions ; item : the item's definition
A colon indents a line or paragraph. A manual newline starts a new paragraph. This is primarily for displayed material, but is also used for discussion on Talk pages.	: A colon indents a line or paragraph. A manual newline starts a new paragraph.
IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a fixed-width font; lines won't wrap; ENDIF this is useful for: * pasting preformatted text; * algorithm descriptions; * program source code * ASCII art; * chemical structures; WARNING If you make it wide, you force the whole page to be wide and hence less readable. Never start ordinary lines with spaces. (see also below)	IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a fixed-width font; lines won't wrap; ENDIF this is useful for: * pasting preformatted text; * algorithm descriptions; * program source code * ASCII art; * chemical structures;
Centered text.	<center>Centered text.</center>
A horizontal dividing line: above and below. (However, in most cases a section header is more useful. The horizontal dividing line should only be used if what follows is logically part of the same section; otherwise that part would be hidden in the TOC.)	A ''horizontal dividing line'': above ---- and below.

Links, URLs

What it looks like	What you type
Sue is reading the video policy. First letter of target is automatically capitalized. Internally spaces are automatically represented as underscores (typing an underscore has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended). Thus the link above is to http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_policy, which is the page with the name "Video policy".	Sue is reading the [[meta:video policy\|]].
Link to a section on a page, e.g. List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco; when section linking does not work the link is treated as link to the page, i.e. to the top; this applies for: links to non-existent sections links in redirects	[[List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco]].
Link target and link label are different: answers. (This is called a piped link).	Same target, different name: [[User:Larry Sanger\|answers]]
Endings are blended into the link: official positions, genes	Endings are blended into the link: [[official position]]s, [[gene]]s
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom. Automatically hide namespace: Village pump. The server fills in the part after the \| when you save the page. Next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. A preview interprets the abbreviated form correctly, but does not expand it yet in the edit box. Press Save and again Edit, and you will see the expanded version. The same applies for the following feature.	Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[kingdom (biology)\|]]. Automatically hide namespace: [[Wikipedia:Village pump\|]].
When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name: Example or four for user name plus date/time: Example 08:10 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC) or five for just the date/time: 08:10 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)	When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name: : ~~~ or four for user name plus date/time: : ~~~~ or five for date/time: : ~~~~~
A red link (like this one) points to a page that doesn't exist yet. You could create it by clicking on the link (but please do not create this particular page). To create a new page: Create a link to it on some other page. Save that page.	The weather [[in and for a few miles around]] 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]]
"What links here" and "Related changes" can be linked as: Special:Whatlinkshere/Wikipedia:How to edit a page and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia:How to edit a page	[[Special:Whatlinkshere/ Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked/ Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]
External links: Nupedia, [1]	External links: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia], [http://www.nupedia.com]
Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. In the URL all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 ._\/~%-+&#?!=()@ \x80-\xFF. If a URL contains a different character it should be converted; for example, ^ has to be written %5E (to be looked up in ASCII). A blank space can also be converted into an underscore.	Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com.
To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link. Sound	[[media:Classical guitar scale.ogg\|Sound]]
Use links for dates, so everyone can set their own display order. Use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting.	[[July 20]], [[1969]] , [[20 July]] [[1969]] and [[1969]]-[[07-20]] will all appear as 20 July 1969 if you set your date display preference to 1 January 2001.

Images

What it looks like	What you type
A picture: For many projects, only images that have been uploaded to the same project or the Commons can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list	A picture: [[Image:Wiki.png]] or, with alternative text (strongly encouraged) [[Image:Wiki.png\|Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia]] Web browsers render alternative text when not displaying an image -- for example, when the image isn't loaded, or in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud. See Alternative text for images for help on choosing alternative text. See Extended image syntax for more options.
Clicking on an uploaded image displays a description page, which you can also link directly to: Image:Wiki.png	[[:Image:Wiki.png]]
To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link. Image of a Tornado	[[media:Tornado.jpg\|Image of a Tornado]]

Character formatting

What it looks like	What you type
Emphasize, strongly, very strongly. These are double and triple apostrophes, not double quotes.	''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''.
You can also write italic and bold if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulas: F = ma However, the difference between these two methods is not very important for graphical browsers, and many people choose to ignore it.	You can also write <i>italic</i> and <b>bold</b> if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulas: :<b>F</b> = <i>m</i><b>a</b>
You can use small text for captions.	You can use <small>small text</small> for captions.
You can ~~strike out deleted material~~ and underline new material.	You can <strike>strike out deleted material</strike> and <u>underline new material</u>.
Commenting page source: not shown in page Used to leave comments in a page for future editors.	<!-- comment here -->

Templates

Some part of a page may correspond in the edit box to just a reference to another page, in the form {{name}}, referring to the page "Template:name" (or if the name starts with a namespace prefix, it refers to the page with that name; if it starts with a colon it refers to the page in the main namespace with that name without the colon). This is called a template. For changing that part of the page, edit that other page. Sometimes a separate edit link is provided for this purpose. A convenient way to put such a link in a template is with a template like m:Template:ed. Note that the change also affects other pages which use the same template.

Separating edits

When moving or copying a piece of text within a page or from another page, and also making other edits, it is useful to separate these edits. This way the diff function can be usefully applied for checking these other edits.