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Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2016 July 2

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July 2

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Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer

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Citation number 6 is not looking right on this page and I am too afraid to alter it - with my limited skills. Please help. This is a serious concernSrbernadette (talk) 09:30, 2 July 2016 (UTC) Thanks so much[reply]

What is the exactly wrong with citation 6? Ruslik_Zero 09:46, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  Resolved
There wasn't a lot wrong with it but I've linked the publisher and moved the date into its own parameter. Eagleash (talk) 10:01, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry - but I can no longer get a link to the Olive Middleton section (specifically) on the Lupton family page when I engage the Olive Middleton link on the Albert Spencer page. Please help.101.182.117.21 (talk) 10:08, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

  Resolved
The page name (before the #) had gone missing. Eagleash (talk) 10:26, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

For the title "Sihcao Wetlands", shouldn't it use the Pinyin transliteration instead of the English spelling?

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  Resolved
 – Lourdes

I only followed the advice of another user, Pbdragonwang, because he said the traslated English title from the Chinese is not the official and claimed that should be changed to pinyin transliteration (just like he said "Hanyu Pinyin"). As far as I know, Wikipedia does not title articles by an official name. The main trouble now is with names by spelling. Is the Taiwanese Mandarin word "四草" pronounced as English word "Sicao" while speaking in any English-speaking country? I think we'd be wise to hold out for a better spelling of the Chinese name.

In English, "四" isn't pronounced like in 'si', but like in "sih". Since that can be viewed as us stating that the Pinyin editions are not equal to the English version. Whereas in must Taiwan, they would be pronounced as "si". Kind of how in Taiwanese Mandarin the word "四草" is spelled with an "Sicao" but pronounced as a "Sihcao". In addition, he has said "Hanyu Pinyin" and "Tongyong Pinyin", you can see here. Why should there be two pronounciations?--Liji6085 (talk) 10:18, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Lupton family

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  Resolved
 – Lourdes

Before ref number 102, there is a mess. Sorry. I have tried to put in a verifiable citation form the Daily Express UK.. Please fix. I am only get confused. (later) I have tried since but there is still a funny sign after ref number 102. Sorry 101.182.117.21 (talk) 10:40, 2 July 2016 (UTC) Thanks[reply]

  • I've resolved the issue. However, you've written a considerably long description within the citation, which describes the citation. Not required. You may consider removing it. Read Wikipedia:Citing sources to understand how to cite properly. Don't hesitate to shout back for more help. Lourdes 11:05, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Number of characters in a Wikipedia article

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  Resolved
 – Lourdes

Hi, I'm not sure if this is a right place to ask this question. But I want to know how can I count number of characters is any given article in Wikipedia. Thanks. Pedrambehroozi (talk) 11:10, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

  • A simple way is to copy the contents of the Wikipedia article, take it to a word processing editor and use the tool provided within that for counting the characters. Do note that when you copy the article contents, there would be a few additional characters (for example, the citation numbers, aka [1], [2] etc) which you will have to discount. Lourdes 11:11, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
"View history" shows how many characters are in the source for the page - one Byte is one character. For example this page (now) says "68,160 bytes".
That does include any 'code' in the source though, such as – as 7 characters instead of the one character it makes (–).
As X said, for anything more accurate you could copy/paste it to any application that shows a character count (MS Word, or Notepad++, whatever). But maybe remove the refs, and links, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.20.193.222 (talk) 15:24, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Editing in English & French on Wikipedia

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A confirmed writer on French version of Wikipedia & bilingual, May I have access to English Wikipedia, so as to help on partial improvements ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Volcan6400 (talk • contribs) 12:25, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Your account has already made fifteen edits on articles in the English wikipedia (see them here), so I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Rojomoke (talk) 12:44, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Please just remember not to put French text in the English Wikipedia or English text in the French Wikipedia. I think it is really a matter of knowing where you are. Do you have a specific question about privileges? Robert McClenon (talk) 13:51, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  • @Volcan6400: Pretty much everyone has access and can edit the English Wikipedia, and I do not see you having particular editing rights on the fr:WP that you would request to carry to en. Maybe your question is related to m:Help:Unified login?
On a side note, on the English WP only modifications that do not change meaning should be marked minor, see WP:MINOR. This and that are not minor. (Merci de lire WP:MINOR; sur WP en anglais, seules des modifications n'altérant pas le sens peuvent être marquées comme mineures.) TigraanClick here to contact me 09:17, 4 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Archive Question

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Some time ago, someone set up a box on my talk page, User talk: Robert McClenon, using the {{archives}} template. What I now can't figure out is how to change it so that as to add an extra archive for future use. (I may note that this question as asked and answered if I answer it.) Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 13:55, 2 July 2016 (UTC)   Done Robert McClenon (talk) 14:01, 2 July 2016 (UTC) . But any expert advice on the user of the archive template or its libraries would be appreciated.[reply]

Hi Robert, I couldn't understand the original question. Didn't the archive template work for you appropriately? I'm pinging PrimeHunter who is, imo, really wonderful with such stuff. He might be able to assist your query very well. Lourdes 17:10, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I'm also unsure what you want. {{archives}} automatically detects and links existing archives but doesn't create new archives or link to a non-existing archive. If you want archives to be created automatically then see Help:Archiving a talk page#Automated archival for how to request it. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:19, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I was able to create an additional archive by doing a null edit for the next archive to be. That was what I was trying to do, to create an empty archive for the next archive. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:14, 4 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Making either a pdf or html file out of sandbox content

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  Resolved
 – With Maproom's brilliant inputs, and help from other editors. Lourdes

Sorry for beating a dead horse. I posted on June 25th 2016 on the same issue [1] although differently phrased. I appreciate all contributions but I still have the main issue unresolved. OK, here is my sandbox. In the left hand panel there is a tab: "Download as pdf." I click on it and get an error message: "Generation of the document file has failed. Status: Rendering process died with non zero code: 1." Now if you look carefully, and when you do it first time, the conversion goes on until almost the end of the document when the error message appears. I can explain it. At the end of the document the math formulas become more complicated and I use subscripts of subscripts and subscripts of superscripts. If I remove this part (a few paragraphs) the conversion will be successful!

Is it a bug? and if so, can it be corrected?

The second question is addressed to @@Maproom:. I wonder how he made an html file out of my sandbox. I could not find any buttons at tabs for that. The html conversion works perfectly with all subscripts and superscripts.

And the third question: How can I make a decent publishable document out of my sandbox? I don't want Wikipedia logos and other internal headers appear on it.

Thank you, - --AboutFace 22 (talk) 17:06, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi AboutFace 22. I am sure Maproom reply to your query. But I just wanted to put a small query to you. Is this a personal project that you are doing or are you working on some Wikipedia article? Thanks. Lourdes 17:17, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
User:AboutFace 22: I didn't use any of Wikipedia's facilities. I right-clicked on the page, which in my browser (Chrome) and I think some others produces a menu with an option "View page source". I selected that option. In the new tab which appeared, I clicked ctrl-A, which in my Windows system selects the entire contents. I then copied all this selected html source into my cut-and-paste buffer with ctrl-Ins (ctrl-C would work with some other systems); opened a text editor (such as Notepad); pasted the contents of the buffer into it (with shift-Ins, or ctrl-V); saved the resulting document as an html file; and uploaded the file onto a web server where you see it now. Maproom (talk) 17:33, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Or just use Ctrl+s? —  crh 23  (Talk) 17:34, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that works! Thanks for the tip. AboutFace 22: use Ctrl+s instead of Ctrl+a and the following steps in my procedure. Maproom (talk) 17:39, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Can't say I know why it still exists as a shortcut, guess for media. —  crh 23  (Talk) 17:56, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, everyone. @Lourdes, It is a personal project but a part of it, I've been thinking making a Wikipedia article because there is no separate article on Bipolar Spherical Harmonics and these functions are not even mentioned anywhere in Wikipedia as far as I know. @@Maproom: I understand what you did but I have no server at this point, but perhaps I don't even need it. I think I can do it with my resources. Thank you much, --AboutFace 22 (talk) 23:24, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Maproom:, you are a genius! It worked for me! I just went through the whole process. It is so elementary, hard to believe. It would take a long paragraph for me to describe the circuitous way I came to this result, with your help of course. Thank you very much. My journey appears to be over. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 14:07, 3 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Referencing errors on Draft:Untold News

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Reference help requested. Please help. See note, below, from Reference Bot. NOT SURE what 'cite error' I have created, and need help both fixing the error and resubmitting. Thanks. 1185Park (talk) 19:05, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply] 

Hello, I'm ReferenceBot. I have automatically detected that an edit performed by you may have introduced errors in referencing. It is as follows:

On the Draft:Untold News page, your edit caused a cite error (help). (Fix | Ask for help) Please check this page and fix the errors highlighted. If you think this is a false positive, you can report it to my operator. Thanks, ReferenceBot (talk) 00:16, 10 June 2016 (UTC)


Thanks, 1185Park (talk) 19:05, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You had added <ref><ref><ref></ref></ref></ref> to the start of the draft. Another user has now deleted it for you. Maproom (talk) 19:46, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Citing a newspaper article where one of the words in the title is illegible

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  Resolved
 – By Iridescent. Lourdes

I've recently been making a lot of improvements to the Bixby letter article. In it I've cited an 1864 Boston Evening Traveller article. However I cannot make out one of the words of the title by looking at the image scan of the article by GenealogyBank.com, the website I used to view/read the article. (The website doesn't seem to have, or I can't find, permanent links I can use to add a url to the citation.) Is there some Wikipedia policy/suggestion for this problem? I tried looking for one and couldn't find anything that seemed to relate. For now I've just omitted the illegible word, but should something like [illegible] be written in it's place? Any advice on this matter would be much appreciated Libertybison (talk) 20:42, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If someone can dig up a rule or precedent for this, fine, but I suspect there isn't one -- in which case, "do what you think would best serve the reader" would be operative. Speaking for myself, I would replace the illegible word(s) with [illegible] (like that, in square brackets). Using ----- might lead the reader to believe that the dashees are in the title, simply omitting it without space would give an incorrect title, using several spaces would be confusing, and omitting the title altogether is unnecessary redaction of useful data. That's my opinion, though; you're doing the work, you get to decide. Herostratus (talk) 20:53, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I would then probably follow up by contacting the BPL or the Massachusetts Historical Society to see if they have microfilm or originals which could be consulted to determine the missing word. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:53, 2 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, Orangemike and Herostratus. I've decided to use a [?] to designate the illegible word. I'll also note it on the article talk page. If you'd like, I can copy this conversation here to the article talk page for future reference. Libertybison (talk) 01:50, 3 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, please do. --Orange Mike | Talk 02:11, 3 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
According to this book, the missing word is "Israel", if that's any help. It makes sense in context; it's a reference to Judges 5:7. ‑ Iridescent 18:30, 3 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
This is wonderful. I had tried to search for the missing word yesterday and couldn't find it. Never thought of searching google books. Thanks. Lourdes 16:27, 4 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]
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