Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2023 January 8

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January 8

Search on page belonging to two categories?

Is there a way to search for pages that belong to two categories? For example, the page belongs both to (random example) "Category:West Hmongic languages" and "Category:Languages of Laos". I'd expect that search to return a list of results which includes the page Hmong language, which belongs to both categories, but instead it returns "There were no results matching the query." Thisisnotatest (talk) 00:49, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

incategory:"Languages of Laos" incategory:"West Hmongic languages" is the correct query. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 00:53, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

@Thisisnotatest: The rendered page is searched by default so "Category:Languages of Laos" also gives no results. insource: searches the source text so insource:"Category:Languages of Laos" has results. It would have missed any cases where the category is added by templates or other special code, and it could give false positives if the text appeared for other reasons. incategory:"Languages of Laos" is the best method. It finds all cases and is efficient. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:20, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Confirmed. Thank you both! 157.131.197.203 (talk) 06:40, 9 January 2023 (UTC)

What the heck is this symbol?

I've been going through and copyediting / improving the quality of some random articles lately, one little issue I have stumbled upon along the way is this mysterious symbol, which only appears when you are editing the page, particularly in visual editor mode (?), and is not visible when in read mode.

The symbol looks like a "return arrow" or something you'd find on the enter key of a keyboard. Line goes down then left, arrowhead points to the left.

The symbol looks like this nevermind I can't even copy and paste it here.

So what does this symbol / "new line" arrow do? I guess it's safe to remove and replace with a normal line break that you type with enter key? AP 499D25 (talk) 08:19, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Please link to the page so we can see what you are discussing. Meters (talk) 08:23, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

I think I may have figured out what it is -- if I find such symbol on a page while in visual editor mode and then switch to source editing, the place where that symbol was has a single line break. Indeed, if I put more single line breaks on the page and switch to visual editor again, wherever I put those new line breaks, have this "new line" character.

For an example of what the symbol looks like, take a look at this page revision, switch to visual editor mode, and look for "Quad-core APU – Kyoto (X2150)". Next to the four equal signs on the right but before the word "released", there's a strange looking 'down then left' arrow symbol. AP 499D25 (talk) 08:34, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

If it's something that shows up on just one (or a few) pages then gives us an example. :If it's something that shows up in all the pages you edit then it probably is just the way Visual Editor displays a linefeed (I don't know because I don't use it) and you should leave it alone. Meters (talk) 08:29, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

@AP 499D25, @Meters: It's a new line character, often introduced when an editor copies text from elsewhere and pastes it in the article. Browsers usually convert it to a white space when articles are displayed for reading. If it annoys you, feel free to replace with a space. Bazza (talk) 10:11, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

include a photo

unfortunately it was not possible to include a photo; I did not change or add a text. Can you help? Reisegisa (talk) 11:34, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

I've added a welcome link on your user talk page. From Help:Introduction you'll find links to tell you about images. - David Biddulph (talk) 11:40, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Editing txt and sending photographs for inclusion where they don't exist.

Sirs I have been looking at Grade 2 listed building in the Lymington, New Forest area. There are several buildings which are either wrongly title with numbering, or do not have a photograph at all. I am in Lymington every day. I could take the4e pictures and send them to you with no trouble, and amend descriptors for some of the articles using memory. I have lived here for 60 years, and know every building in the High Street. I would be happy to contribute,BUT I AM NOT A COMPUTER WIZARD. THE EXISTING SYSTEM YOU HAVE IN PLACE IS A NIGHTMARE. IT IS EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IT SHOULD BE. THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE WHO COULD CONTRIBUTE, LIKE ME, ARE COMPLETELY OUT OF OUR DEPTH AND FRIGHTENING. WE OLDIES HAVE POTENTIALLY A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT TO CONTRIBUTE TO WIKIPEDIA, BUT ARE THWARTED AT EVERY TURN. PLEASE CONSULT AND FIND AN EASIER WAY. 2A00:23C7:EB8D:DE01:B1FD:7741:867F:6EBB (talk) 13:50, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello, IP user. I symphathise; but you are shouting your concerns (typing in CAPS is regarded as SHOUTING) to people who, for the most part, have no part in determining how th software works, and no more influence than anybody else on the procedures adopted.

If you have corrections to an article, you are very welcome to edit the article directly - provided you have a reliable published source for any information you want to add. Alternatively, you can make a suggestion on the article's talk page.

Adding pictures that you took yourself is reasonably easy: please see Help:Upload.

If you have suggestions about how things could be made easier, you are welcome to open a discussion at WP:VPP.

I too am an "oldie" who has taken photos of listed buildings, and have added them to Wikipedia. ColinFine (talk) 14:02, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Background on NIF laser fusion experiments in 2022, specifically prior work by John Holzrichter and Livermore Laboratory Teams .

in article by John Holzrichter , I referred to his and associates earlier laser fusion work at the Livermore Laboratory. Recently the largest of a sequence of fusion lasers, the NIF laser, irradiated a fusion target, when on Dec 13, 2022 it was used to conduct a net-gain fusion experiment. It irradiated a small DT fusion capsule with 2 Mega-Joules of UV laser light, yielding 3 MJ of DT fusion output . The science and technology of the series of prior fusion lasers (see names and on-target power: Janus 10 J, Cyclops 100J, Argus 500, Shiva 10,000 J 1 micron light , Novette produced 10,000 J UV light, and Nova about > 50,000 J of UV light). The knowledge gained by constructing and testing these systems and conducting target experiments was used to design the NIF laser, design fusion targets, and to conduct the recent fusion target experiment . This work is summarized in the following work by Dr Holzrichter, "LLNL's early laser program years" 2601:644:600:DC00:5004:C420:A1E6:3152 (talk) 19:57, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

I'm not clear on why this is being posted here. 331dot (talk) 20:05, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Italicizing title

I created Mars One (film) and realized the page name should be italicized. Do I dump everything on the new target and put a redirect over the old content or is there another method? Thanks! Greenbound (talk) 21:33, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

@Greenbound: Add {{italic title}} to the page. It's added automatically if {{Infobox film}} is used but an infobox is not mandatory. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:29, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: I added the infobox moments ago and problem solved. Thank you! Greenbound (talk) 22:36, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Hiding the left sidebar

It would be great if there were a simple way to hide and unhide the left sidebar on the Main Page to reclaim that screen space. I couldn't find anything, so if it exists maybe it could be placed in a more intuitive location. Or maybe the consensus is that the sidebar is so small, and its functionality so important, that hiding should not be an option. IrlSmith (talk) 22:36, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

Hello @IrlSmith. Personally, I like that the left sidebar is there so that way I can get to places like the Community Portal easily, but that's just personal preference. You can incubate this idea at Village Pump (Idea Lab) and see what comes out of it. Happy Editing! Helloheart (talk) 03:00, 9 January 2023 (UTC)

@IrlSmith: If you go to your preferences (Special:Preferences) under ”Appearances", you can change the "skin" for how you view Wikipedia; you might enjoy MinervaNeue or Timeless more than the default ”Vector Legacy (2010)". Umimmak (talk) 06:02, 9 January 2023 (UTC)

@IrlSmith You can also hide it in vector 2022. Note that in this skin if the article has a TOC then the TOC would be the whole sidebar if the sidebar is hidden. Aaron Liu (talk) 18:05, 10 January 2023 (UTC)