Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipack Africa Content/Help:How to edit a page

Editing most Wikipedia pages is easy. Wikipedia uses two methods of editing: classic editing through wiki markup(wikitext) and through a newer VisualEditor (VE).

To practice editing, go to the sandbox, and click the "Edit" tab. An editing window that contains the text for that page will be displayed. Type in something, or make changes to the text you'll find there. Then click the Save page button and see what the result looks like.

Edit tab

Wiki markup editing is chosen by clicking the Edit tab at the top of a Wikipedia page. This will take you to a new page containing the editable contents of the current page. Wiki markup is used extensively throughout Wikipedia for such things as hyperlinks, tables and columns, footnotes, inline citations, special characters and so on.

The VisualEditor option is intended as a user-friendly, "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editing aid allowing anyone to edit pages without the need to learn wikitext markup. It is only available to registered logged-in users through an opt-in choice available through your personal preferences.

Two editing environments: wikitext and VisualEditor
Edit box showing the wikitext markup. You can change the formatting and contents of the page by changing what is written in this box.
Screenshot showing the same article in VisualEditor. Unlike the wiki markup display, VisualEditor will show the text being edited almost as if it were already saved.

Edit summary

First, any time you edit a page, it is considered good etiquette (or "Wikiquette") to enter an explanation of your changes in the Edit summary box, which you will find below the edit window. It is okay for your explanation to be quite short. For example, if you are making a spelling correction, you might just type "typo." Also, if the change you have made to a page is minor, such as correcting a spelling or grammar error, check the box "This is a minor edit" (this box is only available if you have logged in).

Show preview

Second, you should always use the Show preview' button. After you have entered a change in the edit box, click the Show preview button instead of Save page. This lets you see what the page will look like after your edit, before you actually save. We all make mistakes; this feature helps you catch them before other people see them. Using Show preview before saving also lets you try format changes and other edits without cluttering up the page history.

The Show preview button is right next to the "save page" button and below the edit summary field.

Save the page

Provided an edit summary? Previewed the page? Then you are ready for the final step: Click the Save page button.

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Media files

A screencast that walks through how to upload files to Wikimedia Commons and add them to Wikipedia articles.

Images, sounds and videos make articles nice to look at and easier to understand.

A file that is already hosted on Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Commons can be inserted with the basic code "[[File:FILENAME|thumb|DESCRIPTION]]". ("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 of an image (the most common placement option), which is typically sized differently from the original image. Several options can affect a thumbnail's placement and size, and there are other methods for placing images not in a thumbnail format, such as in a frame, table or "infobox", which this summary page does not delve into.

Uploading your own image or media file

When you are working in WikiFundi, save your image or media files to a separate folder on your device. Then you can use the Upload tool to insert the image into your article. When you want to transfer your article to Wikipedia, you will need to upload the file separately to Wikimedia Commons.

Only logged in users can upload files under an appropriate title on Wikimedia Commons. The first step in uploading a file is to determine its copyright status. The Wikimedia Commons' File Upload Wizard and Wikipedia's File Upload Wizard, will guide you through the process of submitting media. All files uploaded are mirrored between Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and searchable from either one.

External links:

Creating articles

A screencast demonstrating how to create a Wikipedia article manually.

Before starting a new article, you should read about Wikipedia's notability guidelines. 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 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.

Only registered users may create articles directly. Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia online to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject you want to write about.

VisualEditor

VisualEditor is a way to edit pages without needing to learn wikitext markup. It works more like a word processing application and is only available to registered, logged-in editors who have opted in.