Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September
And the winners are...
- Create a user account (how and why)
- Please sign your name on talk pages
- How to start a new article
- How to make links to articles
- How to insert a picture into an article
- A better wiki editor: wikEd
- Check your work before you save, using Preview
- Automatic edit summary reminder
- How to move/rename a page
- Redirects
If you know even more important tips than these, please come to Tip of the day and add them to our tip collection. Enlighten us with your wisdom, and make Wikipedia a better place for everyone.
Here are some spelling checkers to assist you in your Wikipedia editing. Please spell check before you save an article. (Also nice for spot checking articles).
- Mozilla Firefox add-on for U.S English, also British, Canadian, Australian and South African.
- Google Toolbar offers spell checking in various languages for Internet Explorer.
- A well-designed spell checker for Internet Explorer is ieSpell.
- For Mozilla Firefox textboxes, there's SpellBound.
- Konqueror uses Aspell if it's installed and set up in your KDE Control Center.
- A good stand-alone spell checker for English Wikipedia pages is Inspyder InSite. (The free version is good enough for fixing Wikipedia articles.)
- The macOS universal spell checker is available in Wikipedia's "edit this page" mode while using Safari and in theory any other Cocoa-based browser.
Navigation popups is a script, written in JavaScript (source), that offers easy access to article previews and several Wikipedia functions in popup windows which appear when you hover the cursor over links.
- Quick installation: Enter Special:Preferences and click "Gadgets", check the box to enable Navigation Popups, under the "Browsing" section, then click save. Follow the instructions on the page to bypass your browser's cache.
- Other installation method: add
{{subst:navpop}}to your current skin's .js page.
Wikipedia Guestbooks, according to Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales, "can help build a spirit of friendliness and co-operation, and help people get to know each other as human beings". All Wikipedia users are welcome to create a guestbook and give permission to other users to sign it. However, creating a guestbook is also a privilege; many users have been blocked just due to begging for someone to sign their guestbook.
Guestbook cautions
- Do not beg others to sign your guestbook. Users eventually will come to see your user page, and many will click your guestbook and sign it without being asked.
- Never ask a user to sign your guestbook by posting that message on a talk page.
- Be patient. Users will eventually come. After all, you should not be here only to see who signed your guestbook...
- You are here to build an encyclopedia: Do not spend your WikiTime only signing guestbooks. It may be fun, but users may see you as a person not here to contribute.
- Guestbooks are not a soapbox.
There is a way to have Wikipedia loaded on your computer so that you can view it when you don't have access to the Internet. It's called XOWA, and it's compatible with Microsoft Windows, OSX, Linux and Android.
XOWA allows users to download and import their own copy of Wikipedia using official database dumps, or by special hosted database files specifically created for use within XOWA. The application is designed to accurately display Wikipedia content through its own built-in browser, or by an internal hosted web server which allows users to access content using a browser of their own choice.
XOWA can load and display multiple wikis. It is not limited to just Wikipedia.
For instructions on how to download and install it, see the official XOWA webpage.
The Subject bar template is intended to be placed at the end of an article, after the References or External links and before any navboxes and categories. It offers a variant to several floating box templates that link to books, portals, and Wikipedia's sister projects but that typically cause formatting issues because of their size and alignment.
The template's documentation contains several examples where links to books, portals and sister projects are shown in various combinations, all within the one Subject bar template. It offers an alternative to the multiple variations of portal templates that may appear in the article's "See also" section.
There are Wikipedia editors who prefer to begin writing a new article "offline" using a text editor on their own local device prior to posting the content to Wikipedia.
In a nutshell, the article construction stages would follow this path:
- Write new article content offline.
- Post article into Userspace draft and improve.
- If you need help, ask at the Teahouse or Help desk.
- Submit your work to Articles for creation where your userspace draft is moved into draftspace for further review.
- Continue improving the draft article until it can be moved to Wikipedia's mainspace.
There are numerous advanced Search engine features available to help locate what you are looking for within Wikipedia.
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Syntax
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Parameters
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Read more:
Special:PrefixIndex
Wikipedia:Good article reassessment (GAR) is a process primarily used to determine whether an article that is listed as good article (GA) still merits its good article status according to the good article criteria, and to delist it if not.
There are two types of reassessment: individual reassessment and community reassessment. Where possible, editors should conduct an individual reassessment, while community reassessment should be used if delisting is likely to be controversial.
For a biography article that needs improvements, on the article's talk page, add the attention parameter to the "WikiProject Biography".
For example:
- {{WikiProject Biography |living=no |class=Stub
- |attention=yes
- |listas=Franklin, Benjamin }}
This places the article into Category:Biography articles needing attention.
The Wikipedia article deletion process can be accomplished several ways, after validating the reason for deletion and trying alternatives to deletion. Deletion of articles from Wikipedia occurs through one of four processes.
- So-called speedy deletion involves the scrutiny of only a few people before an article is deleted. The allowable criteria for speedy-deletion are deliberately very narrow. The list of candidates for speedy deletion can be viewed at Category:Candidates for speedy deletion.
- Another quick method is the use of proposed deletion: simply add {{subst:prod|reason goes here}} to the top of the article. This is meant for articles where the deletion is believed to be uncontroversial, yet does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion. A proposed deletion can be contested by any user by removing the {{prod}} tag within seven days, and if anyone still wants the article deleted the full Articles for deletion process is required.
- For unsourced articles about living persons created after 18 March 2010, adding
{{subst:prod blp}}will propose the BLP for deletion. If sources are not added within 10 days, the article may be deleted. - Articles which do not meet the narrow criteria for speedy deletion and whose deletion is (or might be) contested are discussed by the community through the Articles for deletion (AfD) process.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) answers the most common questions about all aspects of Wikipedia. You can type a question and click on Search the FAQs button to view related FAQs.
In addition to the main FAQ, you can browse additional FAQ pages.
To ask a question not covered in any of the FAQ pages, see Wikipedia:Questions.
WikiProject Copyright Cleanup addresses copyright concerns anywhere on Wikipedia. Among its primary activities are tagging potential copyright problems for further action, assisting contributors who do not understand copyright policies, following up on contributors who have mishandled copyrighted materials, and coordinating cleanup of largescale copyright problems.
Everyone is welcome to join the project and contribute.
The Wikipedia Database reports are produced from the search queries of MediaWiki.
These reports help users by providing them with utility reports, used by community members to improve the encyclopedia (e.g., Untagged stubs (configuration)) and statistical reports, which have past and present informational value (e.g., Page count by namespace (configuration)).
Please discuss the current reports or suggest a new report on the talk page.
For copyright cleaners click HERE for CopyPatrol, a tool from Community Tech, powered by EranBot. The tool monitors recent changes and identifies possible copyright violations.
Login with your Wikimedia account to get started. Use "Page fixed" after removing the copyright violation (or tagging for speedy deletion, if needed), or "No action needed" if there is no violation or it has already been resolved.
You can provide CopyPatrol feedback here.
While browsing through Wikipedia, you may have clicked on Featured content from the left menu. Featured content represents the best of Wikipedia, including articles, pictures, and other contributions that showcase excellent results of the collaborative efforts of Wikipedia. Here is the list for each of these features.
You can do this with bookmarklets, such as the one you can download on this page.
Follow the above link, and drag the Wikipedia search bookmarklet provided there to your browser's toolbar. This creates a bookmark called Wikipedia search which is actually the activation button for a useful javascript program. The next time you want to look something up while browsing any given web-page, highlight the term and then click on your Wikipedia search bookmark.
What is the difference between WikiProjects and portals?
- WikiProjects are groups of editors who team up to collaborate on developing and maintaining articles or other features or aspects of Wikipedia. There is a Portals WikiProject, for example. WikiProjects are linked to from article talk pages with WikiProject banners like {{WikiProject Politics}} for example, but not from within articles.
- Portals are mainly for readers, providing an alternative doorway into a subject, and can be linked to from articles using the {{Portal}} template in an article's See also section. There may or may not be a WikiProject and a portal on the same subject.
By the way...the WikiProject Portals is currently redesigning and revamping the entire portals system, and could use all the help it can get. New participants are welcome.
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Stale/Archival |
The Graphics Lab is a project to improve the graphical content of the Wikimedia projects. Requests for image improvements can be added to the workshop pages: Illustrations, Photographs and Maps.
The Graphics Lab helps improve all graphical content stored on Wikimedia Commons and the English Wikipedia. For examples of work done by the Graphics Lab, see the archives of past work. For questions or suggestions, use the talk pages: Talk:Graphics Lab, Talk:Illustrations, Talk:Photographs and Talk:Maps.
Interested in helping out? Check out the uploading standards, then go to one of the workshops you are skilled at, and lend a hand. You can also add your entry to Wikigraphist abilities and yourself to Category:Wikigraphists. You can also add {{User Wikigraphist}} or {{Mbox Wikigraphist}} to your user page.
The Wikipedia extension makes editing of Wikipedia pages in Mozilla or Firefox easier by adding a new toolbar to your browser and by providing new menu items in the context menu.
It is helpful for Wikipedia readers to include pronunciation for words with unusual or difficult spelling. For our English Wikipedia this is especially helpful for foreign names and locations.
The {{Pronunciation needed}} template shows as [pronunciation?] and is used to request the audio or textual pronunciation. This template puts pages into Category:Articles needing pronunciation.
- For a guide to adding pronunciations to Wikipedia articles, see the {{IPA}} template.
- For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation#Entering IPA characters.
- Wikipedia:Pronunciation respelling key (For example, article: Fuchsia (color))
Wikipedia is not a web directory; no page should consist solely of a collection of external links. Wikipedia prefers internal links (wikilinks) over external links. However, adding a limited number of relevant external links is of valuable service to our readers.
Instead of counting your edits 500 at a time in your contributions list, you can use X's tools Edit counter which tallies your edits of each area of Wikipedia, and displays subtotals and total as well as general statistics, year counts, month counts and top edited pages.
Wikipedia:Did you know... is a section you can see on the Main Page. It showcases new or recently expanded articles that are selected through an informal review process. It is not a general trivia section.
Wikipedia:Did you know (WP:DYK) is the project page for the "Did you know" section. For the discussion page see WT:DYK.
Beginners should consult this Did You Know glossary if they don't understand any of the terms used. Beginners may like to start by looking at a summary of our many rules: this provides links to pages with more detailed explanations (which in turn may link to even more detailed pages).
Wikipedia has a sister project that presents hundreds of thousands of word definitions. It's called Wiktionary. Let's say you are writing a sentence and you want to create a link to the definition of a word, the understanding of which is crucial to understanding that article. But in this hypothetical situation, you don't want to link to the Wikipedia page for that word because doing so would be overkill. So, using our Source Editor, here's how you would provide a link to the definition of "understanding" on Wiktionary:
both [[wiktionary:understanding|]] and [[wikt:understanding|]] will display like this:
and will link to the definition of the word "understanding".
Notice that the "pipe trick" (|) was used in the links above.
"Tags" are often used to indicate problems. Some Wikipedia editors object to the practice of tagging instead of fixing, but there is value in pointing out an article's problems. Tagging allows editors to specialize, teaches editors and warns readers about subpar or problematic content. It is better if people solve the problems they encounter themselves, but not everyone may be able to. Editors are sometimes obliged to justify inclusion of tags, such as in the case of Template:POV.
Constructive criticism given in a civil, respectful manner is a vital part in a collaborative project like Wikipedia, and it should be welcomed rather than discouraged. Wikipedia values contributions from everyone—novices and experts alike. It is important to listen to readers who find an article biased, confusing or unconvincing. They might not have the expertise to fix those problems, but the fact that they report them probably means that an article needs improvement.
The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle
The BOLD is where making bold edits is encouraged, as it will result in either improving an article, or stimulating discussion. If your edit gets reverted, do not revert again. Instead, begin a discussion with the person who reverted your change to establish consensus.
The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle (BRD) is an optional method of reaching consensus. It can sometimes be useful for identifying objections, keeping discussion moving forward and helping to break deadlocks. Care and diplomacy should be exercised. Some editors will see any reversion as a challenge, so be considerate and patient.
BRD doesn't work well in all situations. It is ideally suited to disputes that involve only a small number of people, all of whom are interested in making progress. There are other options, and some more suitable for other situations.
With its own link at the top of every page, your user page is as accessible as Wikipedia's Main Page. Because of this, it is your very own Wikipedia bookmark page: just place your favorite Wikipedia and external reference links on your user page, and you can access them from anywhere on Wikipedia.
In Firefox, you can also get there instantly by typing Alt+⇧ Shift+. (Other browser's access keys for your user page are covered in Wikipedia:Keyboard shortcuts, but they all include a period).
Topic lists link to articles on a particular subject. There are two types of topic lists on Wikipedia: outlines, and alphabetical article indexes. Outlines differ from categories found in Wikipedia's category system in that categories are usually limited to one level each in a tree, while an outline can be an entire tree, with many branches and many levels. This gives the benefit of having all the topics on a given subject in one place - this allows you to scroll down and read the whole tree, and every topic in that tree's subject. Indexes are single-level topic lists, with topics ordered alphabetically.
Topic lists allow for centralized management of all the links on a subject, as opposed to the decentralized approach of the category system.
You can make links that lead to Wikipedia's sister projects, and a few other places, without the arrow that accompanies external links. Here's how:
| Prefix | Example | Shortcut |
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[[wikibooks:]]
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wikibooks: | [[b:]] b:
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[[meta:]]
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meta: | [[m:]] m:
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[[mediawikiwiki:]]
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mediawikiwiki: | [[mw:]] mw:
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[[wikinews:]]
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wikinews: | [[n:]] n:
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[[wikiquote:]]
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wikiquote: | [[q:]] q:
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[[wikisource:]]
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wikisource: | [[s:]] s:
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[[wikipedia:]]
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[[wikipedia:]] | [[w:]] w:
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[[wiktionary:]]
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wiktionary: | [[wikt:]] wikt:
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[[commons:]]
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commons: | [[c:]] c:
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[[wikidata:]]
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wikidata: | [[d:]] d:
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[[wikispecies:]]
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wikispecies: | [[species:]] species:
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[[google:]]
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google: | used for google queries |
[[mediazilla:]]
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mediazilla: | used with bug numbers |