Help:Editing

Start your sections with header lines:

New section

Subsection

Sub-subsection

== New section ==

=== Subsection ===

==== Sub-subsection ====

Newline:

A single newline has no effect on the layout.

But an empty line starts a new paragraph.

(<p> disables this paragraphing until </p> or the end of the section)

(in Cologne Blue two newlines and a div tag give just one newline; in the order newline, div tag, newline, the result is two newlines)

A single
newline
has no
effect on the
layout.

But an empty line
starts a new paragraph.

Sufficient as wikitext code is <br>, the XHTML code <br /> is not needed, the system produces this code.

You can break lines<br>
without starting a new paragraph.

• Lists are easy to do:
  • start every line with a star
    • more stars means deeper levels
• A newline
• in a list

marks the end of the list.

• Of course
• you can
• start again.

* Lists are easy to do:
** start every line with a star
*** more stars means deeper levels
*A newline
*in a list  
marks the end of the list.
*Of course
*you can
*start again.

1. Numbered lists are also good
   1. very organized
   2. easy to follow
2. A newline
3. in a list

marks the end of the list.

1. New numbering starts
2. with 1.

# Numbered lists are also good
## very organized
## easy to follow
#A newline
#in a list  
marks the end of the list.
#New numbering starts
#with 1.

• You can even do mixed lists
  1. and nest them
     • like this
       or have newlines
       inside lists

* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this<br>or have newlines<br>inside lists

• You can also
  • break lines
    inside lists
    like this

* You can also
**break lines<br>inside lists<br>like this

Definition list 

list of definitions

item 

the item's definition

; Definition list : list
of definitions
; item : the item's definition

A colon indents a line or paragraph.

A manual newline starts a new paragraph.

• This is primarily for displayed material, but is also used for discussion on Talk pages.

: A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.

IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN
  it will be formatted exactly
    as typed;
  in a fixed-width font;
  lines won't wrap;
ENDIF
this is useful for:
  * pasting preformatted text;
  * algorithm descriptions;
  * program source code
  * ASCII art;
  * chemical structures;

WARNING If you make it wide, you force the whole page to be wide and hence less readable. Never start ordinary lines with spaces.

 IF a line of plain text starts with a space THEN
   it will be formatted exactly
     as typed;
   in a fixed-width font;
   lines won't wrap;
 ENDIF
 this is useful for:
   * pasting preformatted text;
   * algorithm descriptions;
   * program source code
   * ASCII art;
   * chemical structures;

<center>Centered text.</center>

and below.

Mainly useful for separating threads on Talk pages.

A horizontal dividing line: above
----
and below. 

• First letter of target is automatically capitalized.
• Internally spaces are automatically represented as underscores (typing an underscore has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended).

Thus the link above is to http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_policy, which is the page with the name "Video policy".

Sue is reading the [[video policy]].

Link to a section on a page, e.g. List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco; when section editing does not work the link is treated as link to the page, i.e. to the top; this applies for:

• links to non-existent sections
• links in redirects
• interwiki links

[[List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco]].

(This is called a piped link).

Same target, different name:
[[User:Larry Sanger|answers]]

Endings are blended
into the link: [[official position]]s, [[gene]]s

Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom.

Automatically hide namespace: Village pump.

The server fills in the part after the | when you save the page. Next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. A preview interprets the abbreviated form correctly, but does not expand it yet in the edit box. Press Save and again Edit, and you will see the expanded version. The same applies for the following feature.

Automatically hide stuff in parentheses:
[[kingdom (biology)|]]. 

Automatically hide namespace:
[[Wikipedia:Village pump|]].

you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name:

Karl Wick

or four for user name plus date/time:

Karl Wick 08:10 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)

When adding a comment to a Talk page,
you should sign it. You can do this by
adding three tildes for your user name:
: ~~~
or four for user name plus date/time:
: ~~~~

• You can create it by clicking on the link.
• To create a new page:
  1. Create a link to it on some other page.
  2. Save that page.
  3. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
• Have a look at how to start a page guide and the naming conventions page for your project.

[[The weather in London]] is a page
that doesn't exist yet.

Redirect one article title to another by putting text like this in its first line.

#REDIRECT [[United States]]

A link to the page on the same subject in another language or, more generally, to a page on another wiki: fr:Wikipédia:Aide. For more info see MediaWiki User's Guide: Interwiki linking.

[[fr:Wikipédia:Aide]], [[:fr:Wikipédia:Aide]]

Special:Whatlinkshere/Wikipedia:How to edit a page and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia:How to edit a page

[[Special:Whatlinkshere/
Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] and
[[Special:Recentchangeslinked/
Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]

External links:
[http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia],
[http://www.nupedia.com]

• In the URL all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 ._\/~%-+&#?!=()@ \x80-\xFF. If a URL contains a different character it should be converted; for example, ^ has to be written %5E (to be looked up in ASCII). A blank space can also be converted into an underscore.

Or just give the URL:
http://www.nupedia.com.

To link to books, you can use ISBN links. ISBN 0123456789X See Help:ISBN links

ISBN 0123456789X

Link to Request for Comments: RFC 123 (URL specified in mediawiki:Rfcurl)

RFC 123

To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link.
Sound

[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]]

[[July 20]], [[1969]] , [[20 July]] [[1969]]
and [[1969]]-[[07-20]]

• For many projects, only images that have been uploaded to the same project can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list

A picture: [[Image:Wiki.png]]

or, with alternate text (strongly encouraged)

[[Image:Wiki.png|Wikipedia 
- The Free Encyclopedia]] 

Web browsers render alternate text when not displaying an image -- for example, when the image isn't loaded, or in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud. See Alternate text for images for help on choosing alternate text. See Extended image syntax for more options.

Clicking on an uploaded image displays a description page, which you can also link directly to: Image:Wiki.png

[[:Image:Wiki.png]]

To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
Image of a Tornado

[[media:Tornado.jpg|Image of a Tornado]]

Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.

• These are double and triple apostrophes, not double quotes.

''Emphasize'', '''strongly''',
'''''very strongly'''''.

You can also write italic and bold if the desired effect is a specific font style rather than emphasis, as in mathematical formulae:

F = ma

• However, the difference between these two methods is not very important for graphical browsers, and many people choose to ignore it.

You can also write <i>italic</i>
and <b>bold</b> if the desired effect is a 
specific font style rather than emphasis, as 
in mathematical formulas:
:<b>F</b> = <i>m</i><b>a</b>

A typewriter font for 
<tt>technical terms</tt>.

You can use <small>small text</small> 
for captions.

and underline new material.

You can <strike>strike out deleted material</strike>
and <u>underline new material</u>.

Umlauts and accents: (See MediaWiki User's Guide: Creating special characters)
è é ê ë ì í

À Á Â Ã Ä Å
Æ Ç È É Ê Ë
Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò
Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù
Ú Û Ü ß à á
â ã ä å æ ç
è é ê ë ì í
î ï ñ ò ó ô
œ õ ö ø ù ú
û ü ÿ

è é ê ë ì í

À Á Â Ã Ä Å
Æ Ç È É Ê Ë
Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò
Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù
Ú Û Ü ß à á
â ã ä å æ ç
è é ê ë ì í
î ï ñ ò ó ô
œ õ ö ø ù ú
û ü ÿ

Punctuation:
¿ ¡ « » § ¶
† ‡ • —

¿ ¡ « » § ¶
† ‡ • —

Commercial symbols:
™ © ® ¢ € ¥

™ © ® ¢ € ¥
£ ¤

Superscript: x² or x²

• The latter method of superscript can't be used in the most general context, but is preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.

ε₀ = 8.85 × 10⁻¹² C² / J m.

1 hectare = 1 E4 m²

Subscript: x<sub>2</sub>
Superscript: x<sup>2</sup> or x&sup2;

or in projects with the templates sub and sup:

Subscript: x{{sub|2}}
Superscript: x{{sup|2}}

&epsilon;<sub>0</sub> =
8.85 &times; 10<sup>&minus;12</sup>
C&sup2; / J m.

1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]]

α β γ δ ε ζ
η θ ι κ λ μ ν
ξ ο π ρ σ ς
τ υ φ χ ψ ω
Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π
Σ Φ Ψ Ω

α β γ δ ε ζ
η θ ι κ λ μ ν
ξ ο π ρ  σ ς
τ υ φ χ ψ ω
Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π
Σ Φ Ψ Ω

Math characters:
∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞
≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ →
× · ÷ ∂ ′ ″
∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø
∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇
¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔
→ ↔

∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞
≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ →
× · ÷ ∂ ′ ″
∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø
∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇
¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔
→ ↔

• To space things out, use non-breaking spaces - &nbsp;.
• &nbsp; also prevents line breaks in the middle of text, this is useful in formulas.

<i>x</i><sup>2</sup>&nbsp;&nbsp;&ge;&nbsp;&nbsp;0 true.

Complicated formulae:
  <math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>

• See TeX markup

<math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>

For comparison for the following examples:

arrow →

italics link

arrow      →

''italics''
[[link]]

Use <nowiki> to suppress interpretation of wiki markup, but interpret character references and remove newlines and multiple spaces:

arrow → ''italics'' [[link]]

<nowiki>arrow      &rarr;

''italics''
[[link]]</nowiki>

Use <pre> to suppress interpretation of wiki markup and keep newlines and multiple spaces, and get typewriter font, but interpret character references:

arrow      →

''italics''
[[link]]

<pre>arrow      &rarr;

''italics''
[[link]]</pre>

Use leading space on each line to keep newlines and multiple spaces, and get typewriter font:

arrow      →

italics
link

</pre>

 arrow      →

 ''italics''
 [[link]]

Use typewriter font:

arrow →

italics link

<tt>arrow      &rarr;</tt>

<tt>''italics''</tt>
<tt>[[link]]</tt>

Show character references:

&rarr;

&amp;rarr;</pre>

Commenting page source:
not shown in page

• Used to leave comments in a page for future editors.

<!-- comment here -->