Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

is a

wiki A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

, meaning anyone can edit nearly any page and improve articles immediately. You do not need to register to do this, and anyone who has edited is known as a ''

Wikipedian The Wikipedia community, collectively known colloquially as Wikipedians, is an informal community that volunteers to create and maintain Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia. Since August 2012, the word "Wikipedian" has been an '' Oxford Diction ...

'' or ''editor.'' Small edits add up, and every editor can be proud to have made Wikipedia better for all. There are two editing interfaces: the new

VisualEditor VisualEditor (VE) is an online rich-text editor for MediaWiki-powered wikis that provides a direct visual way to edit pages based on the "what you see is what you get" principle. It was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation in partnership with ...

(VE) and classic

wikitext A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

editing (wiki markup), which uses the Source Editor.

Editing articles

Content style and policies

An encyclopedic style with a formal tone is important: straightforward, just-the-facts, instead of essay-like, argumentative, or opinionated. The goal of a Wikipedia article is to create a comprehensive and neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge about a topic. Wikipedia does not publish original research. An encyclopedia is, by its nature, a

tertiary source A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sourcescited A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

and verifiable by reliable sources. Sourcing requirements are significantly stricter in articles on living persons.

Edit screen(s)

Editing most Wikipedia pages is simple. Wikipedia uses two interface methods: classic editing with the Source Editor through

(wiki markup), and a new

(VE). Wikitext editing using the Source Editor is chosen by clicking the Edit source tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link). This opens an editable copy of the page, showing all the wikitext used there, and the Source Editor toolbar offers simple menu options to add or change the formatting. Wikitext is used extensively throughout Wikipedia for such things as

hyperlinks In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to data that the user can follow or be guided by clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text wi ...

tables Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table d ...

and

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...

footnotes A note is a string of text placed at the bottom of a page in a book or document or at the end of a chapter, volume, or the whole text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of th ...

inline citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

special characters As of Unicode version 15.0, there are 149,186 characters with code points, covering 161 modern and historical scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets. This article includes the 1062 characters in the Multilingual European Character Set 2 (MES ...

and so on. The Source Editor lets users toggle on 'wikitext highlighting' which uses different colours to help differentiate article text from wikitext. The VisualEditor option is intended as a user-friendly, "What You See Is What You Get" (

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, is a system in which editing software allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed d ...

) editing aid, allowing one to edit pages without the need to learn wikitext markup. It is available only to registered, logged-in users through an opt-in choice available through personal preferences. See the VisualEditor user guide for more information. File:How to edit a page Edit box.png, alt=Text in a large rectangle below two toolbars and next to a scrollbar., Edit box showing the wikitext markup. You can change the formatting and contents of the page by changing what is written in this box. File:Wikipedia article in VisualEditor 2018-02-12.png, Screenshot showing the same article in

. Unlike the wikitext display, VisualEditor will show the text being edited almost as if it were already published. The Wikipedia community has developed style guidelines to make articles and facts appear in a standardized form, and Wikipedia easier to use as a whole. A basic list of

can be found on the

cheatsheet A cheat sheet (also ''cheatsheet'') or crib sheet is a concise set of notes used for quick reference. Cheat sheets were historically used by students without an instructor or teacher's knowledge to cheat on a test or exam. In the context of hig ...

. An " edit toolbar" is provided just above the edit box (pictured below), which allows logged-in users (by selecting the option in personal preferences) to automatically place and format various aspects of wiki code. See Help:Wikitext for more information, remember that you can't break Wikipedia, and, although there are many protocols, perfection is not required, as Wikipedia is a work in progress. WikiEditor-advanced menu-en

When you have finished editing, you should write a short

edit summary A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pu ...

in the small field below the edit box (pictured below). You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

. To see how the page looks with your edits, press the "Show preview" button. To see the differences between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page, press the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see,

be bold Be bold may refer to: * Boldness, the opposite of shyness * "Be bold", the first part of a quote attributed to Basil King William Benjamin Basil King (1859–1928) was a Canadian clergyman who became a writer after retiring from the clergy. H ...

and press the "Publish changes" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Wikipedia users. Note: Do not sign the edit summary line with your ~~~~ signature, as it does not work there.

Minor edits

A check to the "minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the version with your edit and the previous version: typo/grammar corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc. A ''minor edit'' is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. The "minor edit" option is one of several options available only to

registered users A registered user is a user of a website, program, or other systems who has previously ''registered.'' Registered users normally provide some sort of credentials (such as a username or e-mail address, and a password) to the system in order t ...

. Editors should not feel that marking a change as minor devalues their effort to edit.

Major edits

All editors are encouraged to

and strong, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, a user should consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period, the tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an

will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will help all to ensure that major edits are well received by the Wikipedia community. A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the ''meaning'' of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word. There are no necessary terms to which you have to agree when doing major edits, but the preceding recommendations have become best practice. If you do it your own way, the likelihood of your edits being reedited may be higher. When performing a large edit, it is suggested that you periodically, and before pressing "Publish changes", copy your edits into an external text editor (preferably one without formatting, such as

Windows Notepad Windows Notepad is a simple text editor for Windows; it creates and edits plain text documents. First released in 1983 to commercialize the computer mouse in MS-DOS, Notepad has been part of every version of Windows ever since. History In May ...

). This ensures that in the case of a browser crash, you will not lose your work. If you are adding substantial amounts of work, it is also a good idea to publish changes in stages.

Adding references

Generally, sources are added directly after the facts they support at the end of the sentence and after any punctuation. Wikipedia permits editors to use any citation system that allows the reader to understand where the information came from and strongly encourages the use of

inline citations A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

to do so. Common methods of placing inline citations include

, shortened footnotes and parenthetical references. Inline citations are most commonly placed by inserting a reference between tags, directly in the text of an article. The reference is a footnote, appearing as an inline link (e.g. ^2]) to a particular item in a collated, numbered list of footnotes, found wherever a template or tag is present, usually in a section titled "References" or "Notes". If you are creating a new page or adding references to a page that didn't previously have any, don't forget to add a references section with this display markup. There are a number of tools available to help with citation placement and formatting, some of which are internal tools and scripts, while others are available from external sites. For an example of the former, Wikipedia:RefToolbar, RefToolbar is a

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

toolbar displayed above the edit box that provides the ability to automatically fill out various citation templates and insert them in the text already formatted inside ... tags. For an example of the latter, th
Wikipedia DOI and Google Books Citation Maker
converts a

digital object identifier A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they a ...

(DOI) or

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

address (URL) into a filled-out or template ready to be pasted into an article. See Help:Citation tools for many others.

Adding images, sounds, and videos

A file that is already hosted on Wikipedia or the

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

can be inserted with the basic code . (Image: can be substituted for File: with no change in effect; the choice between the two is purely a matter of editorial preference.) Using thumb generates a

thumbnail Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and imag ...

of an image (the most common placement option), which is typically sized differently from the original image. The Wikimedia Commons'

File Upload Wizard __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ Thank you for offering to contribute an image or other media file for use on Wikipedia. This wizard will guide you through a questionnaire prompting you for the appropriate copyright and sourcing information for each file ...

and Wikipedia's

will guide you through the process of submitting media. There are various file formats available.

Article creation

Before starting a new article, please understand Wikipedia's notability requirements. In short, the topic of an article must have already been the subject of publication in reliable sources, such as books published by major publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed scholarly journals and websites that meet the same requirements as reputable print-based sources. Information on Wikipedia must be verifiable; if no reliable

third-party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a Ve ...

sources can be found on a topic, then it should not have a separate article. Wikipedia's concept of notability applies this basic standard to avoid indiscriminate inclusion of topics. An Article Wizard is available to help you create articles — it is not required but will help you construct better articles. Note: The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is restricted to autoconfirmed users, though non-confirmed users and non-registered users can submit a proposed article through the Articles for Creation process, where it will be reviewed and considered for publication. Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject, and please also review the article titling policy for guidance on what to name the article.

Talk pages

Every article on Wikipedia has a

talk page MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for Media ...

, reached by clicking the "Talk" tab just above the title (for example, Talk:Alexander the Great). There, editors can discuss improvements to the content of an article. If you ever make a change that gets reverted by another editor, discuss the change on the talk page! The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle is a popular method of reaching consensus. It is very important that you conduct yourself with civility and assume good faith on the part of others.

Edit warring A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

(repeatedly overriding or reimplementing contributions) is highly discouraged. Most other types of pages on Wikipedia also have associated talk pages, including the

User page A user profile is a collection of settings and information associated with a user. It contains critical information that is used to identify an individual, such as their name, age, portrait photograph and individual characteristics such as ...

each editor is assigned once they sign up. When other editors need to contact you, they will usually do this by leaving a message on your talk page. When someone has left you a message that way, you will see a notice the next time you log in or view a page on Wikipedia. :Sign your contributions to a Talk page by using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your username and a time/date stamp.

Protected pages and source code

Some pages are protected from editing. These pages have a "View source" tab instead of an "Edit" tab. You can still edit these pages indirectly by submitting an edit request—an editor with the permission to edit the protected page will respond to it. To submit an edit request, click on the protected page's "View source" tab and then the "Submit an edit request" link at the bottom right.

Policies and conventions

Policies,

guidelines A guideline is a statement by which to determine a course of action. A guideline aims to streamline particular processes according to a set routine or sound practice. Guidelines may be issued by and used by any organization (governmental or pri ...

, and formatting norms are developed by the community to describe the best practices, to clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goals. Make sure that you submit information that is relevant to Wikipedia's specific purpose, or your content might be deleted. You can always use the

talk pages MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for MediaWik ...

to ask questions or check to see if your idea will be accepted. Please make note of which license will cover your contributions.

Notes

Some pages are protected from editing and marked by a lock icon at the top right. If you are not allowed to edit the page, it will have a "View source" instead of an "Edit" tab. You can still edit these pages indirectly by submitting an edit request: click "View source", then "Submit an edit request" at the bottom right, and an editor that is authorized to edit the page will respond to your request. {{Wikipedia community Editing, Help Editing, Help