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{{Wikipedia-The Missing Manual - TOC|updated=yes}}

Most of this book is aimed at folks who want to edit Wikipedia articles and become more active in the Wikipedia community. But this appendix is all about appreciating Wikipedia as a ''reader''. It gives you some background on what Wikipedia is and how to get the most out of it even if you have no intention of editing an article.

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== Navigating within Wikipedia ==

There are two basic ways to find interesting articles in Wikipedia: Do a search, or browse, starting from the Mainlinks Pageon the left of every page. Wikipedia has lots of organizing features depending on how you want to browse, like overviews, portals, lists, indexes, and categories. But for a bit of amusement, you can also try a couple of unusual ways to go from article to article, as discussed in this section.

=== Searching Wikipedia ===

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[[File:Top of Wikipedia-Contents.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-5''' The page [[Wikipedia:Contents]] is accessible via a single click from any other page in Wikipedia. It provides many links to starting points within Wikipedia that provide different top-down views, some of which are discussed later in this appendix.]]

==== Categories ====

Any article may belong to one or more categories ([[Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Building a Stronger Encyclopedia/Categorizing Articles|Chapter 17: Categorizing articles]]), which you'll find listed at the bottom of the article. Like everything else in an article, editors add the categories, so categories are only as accurate as the people who enter them; like everything else, if someone sees a mistake, shethey can fix it. When you click the Categories link shown in '''Figure B-5''', you'll see the master index (see '''Figure B-6''').

[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29590.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-6''' Here's the top-level list of categories. It's the starting point for drilling down to find all articles in any particular subcategory.]]

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==== Portals ====

From [[Wikipedia:Contents]], you can instead click the [[Wikipedia:Contents/Portals|Portals" link]] and go to the main page for portals ('''Figure B-8'''). Like categories, portals can be a great way to narrow down the number of articles you're particularly interested in reading, or to lead you to articles that you otherwise might never have known existed.

[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29638.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-8''' Portals are probably one of the least known ways to find articles on Wikipedia. If you're particularly interested in a topic, one of the 500 or so existing portals can be a great page to bookmark.]]

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==== The A-Z index ====

Another link shown in '''Figure B-5''' is the [[Wikipedia:Contents/A–Z index|A–Z index]]. It's equivalent to browsing the shelves of a library, with the books in alphabetical order on the shelves. '''Figure B-9''' shows what you'll see if you click the "A-Z index" link at the top of the Main Page.

[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29668.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-9''' ''The A-Z index'' (also called the ''Quick Index'') lets you go directly to a list of articles beginning with any two characters: El or Na or Tr or whatever.]]

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=== Categories ===

You can view Wikipedia's entire hierarchy of categories by clicking the Categories link near the top of the MainContents Page, as shown in '''Figure B-6'''. But you can also use the category system to browse Wikipedia in a number of other ways, using tools both inside and outside of Wikipedia. For example, there are links at the bottom of each article that let you find articles in related categories. You can also find articles that fall into two different categories. You can even narrow your search by category when you're using an external search engine.

==== Category links at the bottom of articles ====

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==== Articles in two different categories ====

One of Wikipedia's most requested features is "category intersection"—the ability to get a list of all articles that fall into two or more categories. Wikipedia still lacks that ability, but you can find it at an off-Wikipedia page called CatScanPetScan at http://toolspetscan.wmflabs.org/catscan2/catscan2.php. '''Figure B-12''' shows how to use it to find, for example, baseball players that have been members of both the [[Seattle Mariners]] and the [[Washington Nationals]]. When you search for articles by category using CatScanPetScan, you can choose how many levels of sub- and sub-sub-categories you want to search. This search shows a depth of 3, butmeaning sinceup thereto were3 levels of subcategories will be searched. (In this case, [[:Category:Seattle Mariners players]] has no subcategories, and [[:Category:Washington Nationals players]] has only one subcategory, [[:Category:Montreal Expos players]], which has no subcategories, so the results are onlyequivalent forto a depth of 1). But ifIf you were using the category ''[[:Category:Architects|Architects]]'' instead, you'd see results in subcategories such as ''[[:Category:American Architectsarchitects|American architects]]'' (level 2) and ''[[:Category:Architects from Cincinnati|Architects from Cincinnati]]'' (level 3). [[File:Wikipedia-ThePetScan Missingsports Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29745players.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-12''' When you search for articles by category using CatScan, you can choose how many levels of sub- and sub-sub-categories you want to search. This search shows a depth of 3, but since therewas wereonly noone level of subcategories, the results are only for a depth of 1. But if you were using the category ''Architects'', you'd see results in subcategories such as ''[[:Category:American Architectsarchitects|American architects]]'' (level 2) and ''[[:Category:Architects from Cincinnati|Architects from Cincinnati]]'' (level 3).]]

{{WTMM-warning|When using CatScanPetScan, capitalization—except for the very first letter—is critical. For example, in '''Figure B-1312''', if you had searchsearched on the category "Seattle Mariners Players" instead of "Seattle Mariners players," you'd have gotten no matches.}}

==== Searching for categories ====

You can search for categories using the standard Wikipedia search engine by modifying the "Search in" box shown in '''Figure B-3''' (see [[#Searching Wikipedia|the section about searching]]). However, external search engines often have additional options, so it may be better to use one.

External search engines often have options that Wikipedia's search feature lacks, as discussed on [[#Searching Wikipedia|earlier in this chapter]]. When you use an external search engine, you simply restrain your search results to Wikipedia pages and apply any other options you like. If you use Google, for example, you can search just Wikipedia category pages by typing ''site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category'' in the search box. '''Figure B-13''' shows how to use this site restriction in Google. This Google search restricts results to category pages, since "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category" was typed into the search box. It furthermore requires that the title of the category page contain the word "spy"; note "intitle:spy" at the beginning of the search term. There are 16 categories with "spy" in the title. Searching for "spy" instead of "intitle:spy" would turn up category pages with "spy" anywhere on the page (of which there are about 500).[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29765.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-13''' This Google search restricts results to category pages, since "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category" was typed into the search box. It furthermore requires that the title of the category page contain the word "spy"; note "intitle:spy" at the beginning of the search term. There are 16 categories with "spy" in the title. Searching for "spy" instead of "intitle:spy" would turn up category pages with "spy" anywhere on the page (of which there are about 500).]]

External search engines often have options that Wikipedia's search feature lacks, as discussed on [[#Searching Wikipedia|earlier in this chapter]]. When you use an external search engine, you simply restrain your search results to Wikipedia pages and apply any other options you like. If you use Google, for example, you can search just Wikipedia category pages by typing ''site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category'' in the search box. '''Figure B-13''' shows how to use this site restriction in Google. This Google search restricts results to category pages, since "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category" was typed into the search box. It furthermore requires that the title of the category page contain the word "spy"; note "intitle:spy" at the beginning of the search term. There are 16 categories with "spy" in the title. Searching for "spy" instead of "intitle:spy" would turn up category pages with "spy" anywhere on the page (of which there are about 500).[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29765.png|frame|center|'''Figure B-13''' This Google search restricts results to category pages, since "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category" was typed into the search box. It furthermore requires that the title of the category page contain the word "spy"; note "intitle:spy" at the beginning of the search term. There are 16 categories with "spy" in the title. Searching for "spy" instead of "intitle:spy" would turn up category pages with "spy" anywhere on the page (of which there are about 500).]]

You can also use the technique shown in '''Figure B-13'''—finding category pages of interest—before you use the category intersection tool CatScan, to avoid having to guess the exact names of categories that you want to use in CatScan.

You can also use the technique shown in '''Figurethis B-13'''—findingsection—finding category pages of interest—before you use the category intersection tool CatScanPetScan, to avoid having to guess the exact names of categories that you want to use in CatScan.

=== Other ways of navigating ===

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If you see an image in a Wikipedia article that you'd like to have, just click it. You'll see a new page showing a larger image, as shown in '''Figure B-16'''.

The file Image:Fujisan from Motohakone.jpg is used in the article ''[[Tokyo]]''. Clicking the thumbnail image in the article shows you this larger image, though not necessarily a full-sized image. Click "fullOriginal resolutionfile" to see the full-sized version. Right-click the full-sized image to save it to your computer. You can also save the image as your new desktop background image.[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29885.png|frame|right|'''Figure B-16''' The file [[:ImageFile:Fujisan from Motohakone.jpg]] is used in the article ''Tokyo''. Clicking the thumbnail image in the article shows you this larger image, though not necessarily a full-sized image. Click "full resolution" to see the full-sized version. Right-click the full-sized image to save it to your computer. You can also save the image as your new desktop background image.]]

The vast majority of images on Wikipedia are free content—they're in the public ___domain or have Creative Commons licenses, for example. If you come across an image labeled as a "fair use" or "non-free" image (a screenshot of a commercial software program, for example), don't treat it as free content. Don't download it unless you're sure you're not infringing a copyright by doing so.

=== Commons ===

A long time ago, the Wikimedia Foundation realized that it didn't make sense to have images stored on language-specific Wikipedias, so it created Commons ([http://commons.wikimedia.org http://commons.wikimedia.org]) as a central storage area available to all language Wikipedias. Think of it as a stock media site for Wikpedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects (it has sounds and other media files as well as images). In fact, the image in '''Figure B-16''' is actually on Commons, not the English Wikipedia.

==== Finding pictures on Commons ====

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Because Commons is a media storage site, you'll find a table of contents right on its Main Page ('''Figure B-17'''). With more than 4 million images, you may find something you really like—and it's all free content.

Commons' Main Page offers a number of ways to view its content—by starting with featured pictures, by drilling down through categories, or by choosing a topic area. If you choose a topic, you'll arrive at a category page similar to '''Figure B-4''' with one interesting difference—the page has a tab labeled CatScan. Yep—that's the category intersection tool mentioned [[#Articles in two different categories|earlier in this chapter]], and it works for Commons as well as Wikipedia.

[[File:Wikipedia-The Missing Manual_I_mediaobject_d1e29909.png|frame|right|'''Figure B-17''' Commons' Main Page offers a number of ways to view its content—by starting with featured pictures, by drilling down through categories, or by choosing a topic area. If you choose a topic, you'll arrive at a category page similar to '''Figure B-4''' with one interesting difference—the page has a tab labeled CatScan. Yep—that's the]]

The category intersection tool mentioned [[#Articles in two different categories|earlier in this chapter]], and it works for Commons as well as Wikipedia.]]

==== Picture of the day ====

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:If so, you don't need to post anything; you're done.

:But if you're looking at something that looks like an error message, which starts, "Wikipedia does not have a talk page with this exact title. Before creating this page, please verify that an article called ... ", ''don't worry''—this message means that your question couldn't possibly have been previously asked, because the talk page didn't even exist. You can go on to step 3.

3. Assuming your issue or question is new, click the "+New section" tab at the top of the talk page to start a new comment.

:You're in edit mode, with two boxes where you can type information.