Help:How to edit a page
Wikibooks is a WikiWiki, meaning that anyone can easily edit any module and have those changes posted immediately. This page is the reference for Wiki markup. You may also want to learn about:
- Quick Edit Guide
- How to start a page
- Informal tips on contributing to Wikibooks
- Editing tasks in general at the Wikibooks:Editing FAQ
- Style conventions in the Wikibooks:Manual of Style
- General policies in Wikibooks:Policies and guidelines
- Wikibooks:Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves
It's very easy to edit a Wiki page. Simply click on the "Edit this page" link at the top or bottom (also on the sidebar) of a Wiki page to change the page itself, or click on "Discuss this page" link and then on "Edit this page" to write on the corresponding talk page. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the editable text of that Wiki page.
Then type away, write a short edit summary on the small field below the edit-box and when finished press "Save"! You can also preview your changes before saving if you like. Depending on your system, pressing Enter while the edit box is not active (there is no typing cursor in it) may have the same effect as pressing Save.
Please use a neutral point of view, and please cite your sources so others can check and extend your work.
It is often more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite text editor, edit and spell check there, and then paste back into the browser to preview. This way, you can also keep a local backup copy of the pages you authored so that you can make changes offline.
Minor edits
When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option of flagging the edit as a "minor edit". When to use this is somewhat a matter of personal preference. The rule of thumb is that an edit of a page that is spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text should be flagged as a "minor edit". A major edit is basically something that makes the entry worth relooking at for somebody who wants to watch the article rather closely, so any "real" change, even if it is a single word. This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.
The reason for not allowing a user who is not logged in to mark an edit as minor is that vandalism could then be marked as a minor edit, in which case it would stay unnoticed longer. This limitation is another reason to log in.
The wiki markup
In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.
You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox.
Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
|
Start your sections with header lines: New sectionSubsectionSub-subsection |
== New section == === Subsection === ==== Sub-subsection ==== |
|
A single newline has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the diff function. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
A single [[newline]] has no effect on the layout. These can be used to separate sentences within a paragraph. Some editors find that this aids editing and improves the ''diff'' function. But an empty line starts a new paragraph. |
| You can break lines without starting a new paragraph. |
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 |
|
# Numbered lists are also good ## very organized ## easy to follow |
|
* You can even do mixed lists *# and nest them *#* like this |
|
; Definition list : list of definitions ; item : the item's definition |
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.
|
: A colon indents a line or paragraph. A manual newline starts a new paragraph. |
IF a line starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines won't wrap;
it gets its own dotted-line box;
ENDIF
this is useful for:
* pasting preformatted text;
* algorithm descriptions;
* program source code
* ascii art;
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 starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines won't wrap;
it gets its own dotted-line box;
ENDIF
this is useful for:
* pasting preformatted text;
* algorithm descriptions;
* program source code
* ascii art; |
<center>Centered text.</center> |
|
| A horizontal dividing line: above
and below. Mainly useful for separating threads on Talk pages. |
A horizontal dividing line: above ---- and below. |
Links, URLs, images
.| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
Sue is studying discrete mathematics.
Thus the link above is to http://www.Wikibooks.org/wiki/Discrete_mathematics, which is the article with the name "Discrete mathematics". |
Sue is studying [[discrete mathematics]]. |
|
Link to a section on a page, e.g. List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco (links to non-existent sections aren't really broken, they are treated as links to the page, i.e. to the top) | [[List_of_cities_by_country#Morocco]] |
| Same target, different name ("piped link"): answers. | Same target, different name: [[Wikibooks FAQ|answers]] |
| Endings are blended into the link: testing, genes |
Endings are blended into the link: [[test]]ing, [[gene]]s |
|
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom. Automatically hide namespace: Staff lounge. 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: [[Wikibooks:Staff lounge|]]. |
| 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:
|
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: : ~~~~ |
| The weather in London is a page that doesn't
exist yet.
|
[[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]] |
|
For a special way to link to the article on the same subject in another language, see Wikibooks:Interlanguage links. |
|
| External link: Nupedia | External link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia] |
| Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. | Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. |
|
Link to an article in another Wikimedia project:
This is a special shortcut so you don't have to write out the whole URL. |
Link to an article in another Wikimedia project: *[[w:Main Page|Wikipedia]] *[[m:Main Page|Meta]] *[[wikt:Main Page|Wiktionary]] *[[wikisource:Main Page|Wikisource]] *[[commons:Main Page|Wikimedia Commons]] *[[q:Main Page|Wikiquote]] *[[n:Main Page|Wikinews]] *[[wikispecies:Main Page|Wikispecies]] *[[w:de:Hauptseite|German language Wikipedia]] |
A picture: Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia
|
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. |
|
Percent completed images: |
[[Image:100%.png]] [[Image:75%.png]] [[Image:50%.png]] [[Image:25%.png]] |
|
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 non-image uploads such as sounds, or to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
|
[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]] [[media:Tornado.jpg|Image of a Tornado]] |
|
To link to books, you can use Wikibooks:ISBN links. ISBN 0123456789X |
ISBN 0123456789X |
Character formatting
| What it looks like | What you type |
|---|---|
|
Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.
|
''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:
|
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 technical terms. | A typewriter font for <tt>technical terms</tt>. |
| You can use small text for captions. | You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. |
| You can and underline new material. |
You can <strike>strike out deleted material</strike> and <u>underline new material</u>. |
|
Umlauts and accents: (See Wikibooks:Special characters) |
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: |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
| Subscript: x2 Superscript: x2 or x²
ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m. |
Subscript: x<sub>2</sub> Superscript: x<sup>2</sup> or x² ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. |
| Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ |
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 ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ → ↔ |
x2 ≥ 0 true.
|
<i>x</i><sup>2</sup> ≥ 0 true. |
|
Complicated formulae: |
<math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>
|
|
Suppressing interpretation of markup:
|
<nowiki>Link → (<i>to</i>) the [[Wikibooks FAQ]]</nowiki> |
|
Commenting page source:
|
<!-- comment here --> |
Tables
HTML tables can be quite useful as well, as you can see above. For details on how to use them and discussion about when they are appropriate, see Wikibooks:How to create tables.