Help:How to edit

This page tells you how to edit (edit = change or make new) pages in Wikipedia. Anyone can make pages. If you are learning how to make pages, it is a good idea to begin in the Sandbox.

Click on "change this page", then write something. When you are ready, tell people what you wrote in the small "edit summary" box. For example, if you wrote a new article about dogs, write "new article about dogs" in the box.

Next, press "show preview" and you can see what the page will look like. When you are all ready, and you want to keep the page, press "save page" - and your page is in Wikipedia.

To make a new page, find or make a link with that name on Simple Wikipedia, for example Poodle, if you want to write about poodles. Or write the page name in the "search" box on any page, then click "Go". If there is no page with that name, you can read: "You can create an article with this title or ask for someone to write it". Click on "create an article" to make a new page, or click on "ask for someone to write it" to ask other people to make a new page.

The page name should be singular, for example "Poodle" not "Poodles". The first word can have a capital letter at the start, for example "Poodle", not "poodle". If the next words are a name, they can have a capital letter too, for example "Elvis Presley" not "Elvis presley". If the words are not a name, do not use capital letters, for example "Big cat" not "Big Cat".

At the start of the new page you make, write the name of the page in the first sentence, and in bold (fat) writing.

Making an encyclopedia page

Bold text

These words are in "bold" (fat, heavy) text: one, two, three

To make text bold, use three apostrophes (') before and after the word. (An apostrophe is also called a single quote or an inverted comma.)

For example: '''Bold text''' = Bold text

Italics

These words are in "italics" (slanted): one, two, three

To make text in italics, use two apostrophes (') before and after the word.
For example: ''Italic text'' = Italic text

Links to other Wikipedia pages

To make a link to another Wikipedia page, put the name of the page inside two square brackets ([).
For example: [[London]] = London

You can also give the same link a different name:
The wonderful city of London (this link is also to "London"). To do this, write: [[London|The wonderful city of London]]

If the link is part of the name, you can make the link in this way:
There are three [[London]]s = There are three Londons.
[[London]]ers = Londoners.

Links to other language Wikipedia pages

This page has links to other languages, for example German ("Deutsch") and Catalan (Català). Make this sort of link in this way:

[[de:Handbuch - Artikel bearbeiten]]

Here, "de" is the language code for Germany, and "Handbuch - Artikel bearbeiten" is the name of this page in German.

When you make this sort of link, you can write them anywhere when you edit, but they are always in the same place on the finished page. But it is better to write them at the end, because then other people can find them better.

Links to other pages not on Wikipedia

To make a link to other pages which are not on Wikipedia, write the address inside one square bracket ([), then write a name for the page.
For example: [http://www.google.co.uk Google] = Google

Minor (very small) edits

When you save a page you can also say it is a "minor edit". This is a very small change, for example changing one or two words or making a new title. When you look at Newest changes, you can say if you want to see minor edits or not.

If you make a big change but say it is a minor edit, people think this is bad. If you make a mistake and say a big change is a minor edit, make a new edit and say what you did.

Headings (titles)

The page you are reading now, "How to edit", has headings (titles). The first heading is "Making an encyclopedia page". Under that heading there is a smaller heading, "Bold (thick) text".

To make a big heading, write it in this way:

==Big Heading==

To make a smaller heading, write it in this way:

===Smaller Heading===

When you make headings, Wikipedia automatically makes a table of contents - a list of all the headings - at the start of the page. You do not need to make the table, you only need to make the headings. Do not start the page by writing a heading. Write some general information first.

Lists

This is a list:

Dogs
Cats
Birds

To make a list, write it in this way:
* Dogs
* Cats
* Birds

You can make different sorts of lists:

Dogs
- big dogs
- small dogs
  - poodles

Write different lists in this way:
* Dogs
** big dogs
** small dogs
*** poodles

Making a space at the start of a line

You can also make a space at the start of a line.

For example:

Dogs

big dogs

small dogs

Cats

You can make a space in this way:

:big dogs

If you write more colons (:) the space is bigger.

Putting text in the centre of the page

This text is in the centre.

You can put text in the centre in this way:

<center>This is in the centre</center>

Making a line across the page

Here is a line going across the page:

You can make a line in this way:

----

What are talk pages?

One example of a talk page is Talk:Light. On this page, people are talking about the page Light. On a talk page we talk to other people about Wikipedia pages.

If you have a problem with a page and you want to talk about it, click on "Talk about this page".

When you write on a talk page, write your name. You can write your name automatically; write three tildes (~):

for example: ~~~ = Saintswithin (that's my name)

When you write four tildes, you also get the time:

for example: ~~~~ = Saintswithin 21:45, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)

When you write five tildes, you get the time without your name:

for example: ~~~~~ = 14:23, 4 May 2006 (UTC)