The encyclopedia you can [edit]
Editing most Wikipedia pages is easy. Simply click on the "edit" button. These are always located at the top of the page and may also be found within specific sections of longer articles. This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the text of the current page. In this box, you can change the text, fix spelling mistakes, and even do more advanced things like inserting images or building tables.
Wikipedia has some special markup features, but the system is designed to help you. At the top of the edit "box" (the space into which you type), you'll see icons that will assist you in applying formatting easily — from bolding or italicizing text to inserting links to references. You can also right click on the document to the right of the screen if you'd like to print it out as a handy reminder of how to manually insert that markup as you go, but it certainly isn't essential.
When you have finished making the edits in the text box, you should write a short edit "summary" in the small field below, describing what you've done. To see how the page looks with your changes, 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 and press the "Save Page" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Wikipedia users.
Again, these simple steps are:
- Click "edit"
- Write the text
- Write an edit summary
- Click save
That's it. You've edited Wikipedia!
If you need help along the way, you can right click here to open a new window or tab where you can chat with a Wikipedia volunteer online.
