Help:Editing

On a wiki, it is customary to allow readers to edit content and structure. This is a brief overview of the editing and contributing process. The editing table of contents to the right contains more information on editing functions.

Editing basics

Review policy and conventions

Make sure that you submit information which is relevant to the specific purpose of the wiki, or your content might be deleted. You can always use the talk pages to ask questions or check to see if your idea will be accepted. Please make note of the license your contributions will be covered with.

Start editing

To start editing a MediaWiki page, click the Edit this page (or just edit) link at one of its edges. This brings you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext - the editable code from which the server produces the finished page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox, not here.

Type your changes

You can just type your text. However, also using basic wiki markup (described in the next section) to make links and do simple formatting adds to the value of your contribution. Wikimedia wikis have style guidelines available. If you follow these, your contributions will be more valuable as they won't need to be cleaned up later.

Summarize your changes

Write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the edit summary legend.

Preview before saving

When you have finished, click Show preview to see how your changes will look before you make them permanent. Repeat the edit/preview process until you are satisfied, then click Save page and your changes will be immediately applied to the article.

Most frequent wiki markup explained

Here are the 6 most frequently used types of wiki markup. If you need more help see Wikitext examples.

What it looks like	What you type
You can italicize text by putting 2 apostrophes on each side. 3 apostrophes will embolden the text. 5 apostrophes will embolden and italicize the text. (4 apostrophes doesn't do anything special -- there's just 'one left over'.)	You can ''italicize text'' by putting 2 apostrophes on each side. 3 apostrophes will embolden '''the text'''. 5 apostrophes will embolden and italicize '''''the text'''''. (4 apostrophes doesn't do anything special -- there's just ''''one left over''''.)
You should "sign" your comments on talk pages: - Three tildes give your user name: Karl Wick - Four tildes give your user name plus date/time: Karl Wick 07:46, 27 November 2005 (UTC) - Five tildes give the date/time alone: 07:46, 27 November 2005 (UTC)	You should "sign" your comments on talk pages: <br> - Three tildes give your user name: ~~~ <br> - Four tildes give your user name plus date/time: ~~~~ <br> - Five tildes give the date/time alone: ~~~~~ <br>
Section headings Headings organize your writing into sections. The Wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. Subsection Using more equals signs creates a subsection. A smaller subsection Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs. Start with 2 equals signs not 1 because 1 creates H1 tags which should be reserved for page title.	== Section headings == ''Headings'' organize your writing into sections. The Wiki software can automatically generate a table of contents from them. === Subsection === Using more equals signs creates a subsection. ==== A smaller subsection ==== Don't skip levels, like from two to four equals signs. Start with 2 equals signs not 1 because 1 creates H1 tags which should be reserved for page title.
Unordered lists are easy to do: Start every line with a star. More stars indicate a deeper level. Previous item continues. A newline in a list marks the end of the list. Of course you can start again.	* ''Unordered lists'' are easy to do: ** Start every line with a star. *** More stars indicate a deeper level. *: Previous item continues. ** A new line * in a list marks the end of the list. * Of course you can start again.
Numbered lists are: Very organized Easy to follow A new line marks the end of the list. New numbering starts with 1.	# ''Numbered lists'' are: ## Very organized ## Easy to follow A new line marks the end of the list. # New numbering starts with 1.
Here's a link to the Main Page.	Here's a link to the [[Main Page]].
The weather in London is a page that doesn't exist yet. You could create it by clicking on the link.	[[The weather in London]] is a page that doesn't exist yet. You could create it by clicking on the link.
You can link to a page section by its title: List of cities by country#Morocco. If multiple sections have the same title, add a number. #Example section 3 goes to the third section named "Example section".	You can link to a page section by its title: * [[List of cities by country#Morocco]]. If multiple sections have the same title, add a number. [[#Example section 3]] goes to the third section named "Example section".

Permitted HTML

The following HTML elements are currently permitted:

<b> <big> <blockquote> <br> <caption> <center> <cite> <code> <dd> <div> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1>

<h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr> <i> <li> <ol> <p> <pre> <rb> <rp> <rt> <ruby>

<s> <small> <span> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul> <var> <!-- ... -->

For many HTML elements, more convenient wikitext code is available, see metawikipedia:Help:Editing. On the other hand, HTML tags allow an id that can be referenced in one's user style css, and allows the tag to be used as link target.

For example, the anchor element <a> is not allowed, so the wikitext

<a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/">Main Page</a>

is treated like the wikitext

<a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/">Main Page</a>

and is therefore displayed as

<a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/">Main Page</a>

which is unlikely to be what the editor intended. Instead of using the anchor element (<a>) the wiki markup for external reference is recommended (enclosed in square brackets with the URL separated from the contents by a single space):

[http://meta.wikimedia.org/ Main Page]

displays as:

Main Page

The following excerpt from Sanitizer.php additionally shows which attributes are allowed.

<source lang=php> $htmlpairs = array( # Tags that must be closed

'b', 'del', 'i', 'ins', 'u', 'font', 'big', 'small', 'sub', 'sup', 'h1',
'h2', 'h3', 'h4', 'h5', 'h6', 'cite', 'code', 'em', 's',
'strike', 'strong', 'tt', 'var', 'div', 'center',
'blockquote', 'ol', 'ul', 'dl', 'table', 'caption', 'pre',
'ruby', 'rt' , 'rb' , 'rp', 'p', 'span' );

$htmlsingle = array(

'br', 'hr', 'li', 'dt', 'dd' );

$htmlsingleonly = array( # Elements that cannot have close tags

'br', 'hr' );

$htmlnest = array( # Tags that can be nested--??

'table', 'tr', 'td', 'th', 'div', 'blockquote', 'ol', 'ul',
'dl', 'font', 'big', 'small', 'sub', 'sup', 'span' );

$tabletags = array( # Can only appear inside table

'td', 'th', 'tr' );

</source>

Further reading

Editing help

• Help:Editing FAQ
• Help:Editing toolbar
• Help:Editing tips and tricks
• Help:Minor edit

Wiki markups and codes

• Help:Wikitext examples
• Help:Reference card - a one-page summary of important commands, to be printed out and used next to the computer
• Help:HTML in wikitext
• HTML elements - introduction to HTML

Page management

• Help:Starting a new page
• Merging and moving pages