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.
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 "Talk page" link and then on "Edit this page" 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 backup copy of the pages you authored so that you can make changes offline.
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
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
|
Start your sections with header lines: New SectionSubsectionSub-subsection |
== New Section == === Subsection === ==== Sub-subsection ==== |
|
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 |
|
* You can even do mixed lists *# and nest them *#* like this |
|
; Definition lists : list of definitions ; item : the item's definition |
|
:Lines can be ::indented :::several levels |
IF a line starts with a space 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 a space 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; |
<center>Centered text.</center> |
|
| A horizontal dividing line: above
and below. |
A horizontal dividing line: above ---- and below. |
Links, URLs, Images
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
Link to the Wikipedia FAQ.
|
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 [[United States]] |
| External link: Nupedia | External link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia] |
Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com.
|
Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. |
| A picture: File:Us flag medium.png
External image: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki.png |
A picture: [[Image:Us_flag_medium.png]] External image: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki.png |
|
[[:Image:Us_flag_medium.png]] |
|
[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]] [[media:Tornado.jpg|Link to image]] |
Character formatting
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
| Emphasize, strongly, very strongly. Use also in formulas: F = m a. |
''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''. '''F''' = ''m'' '''a'''.
|
| A typewriter font for technical terms. | A typewriter font for <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 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: |
¿ ¡ « » § ¶ † ‡ • — |
|
Commercial symbols: |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
| Subscript: x2 Superscript: x2 | Subscript: x<sub>2</sub> Superscript: x<sup>2</sup> |
| Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ |
α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο 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 ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ |
x2  ≥ 0 true.
|
x<sup>2</sup> > 0 true. |
|
Ascii art integrals (start every line with a blank): ∞ -x<sup>2</sup> ∫ e dx = √π -∞ |
∞ -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.
Here's a more advanced example, showing some more options available for making up tables. You can play with these settings in your own table to see what effect they have. Keep in mind that though colors are possible, it's best to use them sparingly. Check the above tables to see what can be done to the text inside the cells.
| First header | Second header | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| upper left | right side | |||||
| lower left | lower middle | |||||
|
||||||
<table border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center"> <caption>'''An example table'''</caption> <tr> <th style="background:#efefef;">First header</th> <th colspan="2" style="background:#ffdead;">Second header</th> </tr> <tr> <td>upper left</td> <td> </td> <td rowspan=2 style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;">right side</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;">lower left</td> <td style="border-bottom:3px solid grey;">lower middle</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3" align="center"> <table border="0"> <caption>''A table in a table''</caption> <tr> <td align="center" width="150px">http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki.png</td> <td align="center" width="150px">http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki.png</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" colspan="2" style="border-top:1px solid red; border-right:1px solid red; border-bottom:1px solid red; border-left:1px solid red;">Two Wikipedia logos</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table>