 | This page is a how-to guide detailing a practice or process on the English Wikipedia. | |
Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning that anyone can easily edit any unprotected page, and save those changes immediately to that page, making the alterations visible to every other reader. You do not even need to register to do this. After your first edit, you will be a Wikipedia editor!
Note: You can use the
sandbox to experiment with page editing.
Editing
Editing most Wikipedia pages is easy. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page.
Edit box showing the
wikimarkup for this page. You can see the markup for a level-two heading, and bold-face.
If you add information to a page, please provide references, as unreferenced facts are subject to removal. When you are finished with an edit, you should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend. To see how the page looks with your edits, press the "Show preview" button. To see the differences between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page, press the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and press the "Save page" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Wikipedia users.
Edit commands
You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Wikipedia users. Click on the "new section" tab to start a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.
You should also remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages with four tildes (~~~~), but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page history, the MediaWiki software automatically keeps track of which user makes each change.
Minor edits
A check to the "minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the version with your edit and the previous version: typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. The "minor edit" option is one of several options available only to registered users.
Major edits
All editors are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, a user should consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period, the {{Inuse}} tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will all help to ensure that major edits are well received by the Wikipedia community.
A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word.
There are no necessary terms to which you have to agree when doing major edits, but the recommendations above have become best practice. If you do it your own way, the likelihood of your edits being reedited may be higher.
Occasionally your browser will crash. When doing a large edit it is suggested you copy the code of the article you are working on and placing it in a text editor (preferably one without formatting, such as Notepad) periodically. This ensures that in the case of a browser crash you will not lose your work. It may also be a good idea to save the page after performing a substantial amount of work before adding additional content to the article.
Sections
Editors are advised to divide any article which is more than a few paragraphs long into sections and subsections. These appear in the table of contents of the article if this is visible and enable easier navigation of an article. Sections are created in the edit window using a line beginning with '==' followed by the section title, and ending in '=='. Subsections are denoted with an increasing number of '='s. For instance, this paragraphs heading looks like this ==Sections== and ===Subsection levels=== produces:
Subsection levels
The wikimarkup supports six levels of headings although level one headers are not used. Most articles only use level two and level three headers ( for sections, and subsections respectively), occasionialy a further level of subsections may be helpful.
Wiki markup
Wiki markup is the markup language you use to write a Wikipedia page; please see Editing for details on it, and Wikitext examples for a longer list of the possibilities of Wikitext.
Links and URLs
The anchor element, <a>, is not allowed. The following are used instead: [[ ]], [ ], ~~~~, ~~~, http, ISBN, RFC & {{ }}. See the table below.
| What it looks like | What you type |
| London has public transport. (Article link) - A link to another Wiki article.
- Internally, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended).
- Thus the link above is to the URL en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport, which is the Wikipedia article with the name "Public transport". See also Canonicalization.
| London has [[public transport]]. |
| San Francisco also has public transportation. (Renamed link) - Same target, different name.
- The target ("piped") text must be placed first, then the text to be displayed, second.
| San Francisco also has [[public transport|public transportation]]. |
| San Francisco also has public transportation. (Blend link) Examples include buses, taxicabs, and trams. - Endings are blended into the link.
- Exception: a trailing apostrophe (') and any characters following the apostrophe are not blended.
- Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible.
- Blending can be suppressed by using <nowiki></nowiki> tags, which may be desirable in some instances. Example: a micro-second.
| San Francisco also has [[public transport]]ation. Examples include [[bus]]es, [[taxicab]]s, and [[tram]]s. a [[micro-]]<nowiki>second</nowiki> |
| See the Wikipedia:Manual of Style. (Other page link) | See the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]]. |
| Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics is a link to a section within another page. #Links and URLs is a link to another section on the current page. Italics is a piped link to a section within another page. - The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case, and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections are not broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page.
- Include "| link title" to create a stylish (piped) link title.
| [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Links and URLs]] is a link to another section on the current page. [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Italics|Italics]] is a piped link to a section within another page. |
| (Example renamed links) Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom. Automatically hide namespace: Village pump. Or both: Manual of Style But not: [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]] - The server fills in the part after the pipe character (|) when you save the page. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page (see previous entry).
- See Pipe trick for details.
| Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[kingdom (biology)|]].
Automatically hide namespace: [[Wikipedia:Village pump|]].
Or both:[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)|]]
But not:[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]] |
| (Create page link) Links to pages that don’t exist yet look red: Wikipedia:Community portal/Opentask/Requested articles - You can create it by clicking on the link.
- To create a new page:
- Create a link to it on some other (related) page.
- Save that page.
- Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
- For more information, see starting an article and check out Wikipedia's naming conventions.
- Please do not create a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.
| Links to pages that don’t exist yet look red: [[Wikipedia:Community portal/Opentask/Requested articles]] |
| (Navigation links) Wikipedia:How to edit a page is a link to this page. - Self links appear as bold text when the article is viewed.
- Do not use this technique to make the article name bold in the first paragraph; see Article titles.
| [[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] is a link to this page. |
| (Redirects) - Redirect one article title to another by placing a directive like the one shown to the right on the first line of the article (such as at a page titled "USA").
- It is possible to redirect to a section. For example, a redirect to United States#History will redirect to the History section of the United States page, if it exists.
| #REDIRECT [[United States]]
#REDIRECT [[United States#History]] will redirect to the [[United States]] page, to the History section, if it exists |
| (Wikimedia link) To connect, via interwiki link, to a page on the same subject in another language, put a link of the form: [[language code:Title]] near the bottom of the article. For example, in article "Plankton", which is available on a lot of other wikis, the interwiki link to the German Wikipedia looks like: - [[:de:Plankton]]
where the "de" is the language-code for "Deutsch" (the German language). - It is recommended interwiki links be placed at the very end of the article.
- Interwiki links are not visible within the formatted article but, instead, appear as language links on the extreme left-margin column of a Wikipedia page (under menu section "languages").
- Please see Interlanguage links and the Complete list of language wikis available.
| [[:de:Plankton]] [[:es:Plancton]] [[:ru:Планктон]] [[:simple:Plankton]] |
| (Linked and why) What links here and Related changes pages can be linked as: Special: Whatlinkshere/Wikipedia: How to edit a page and Special: Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia: How to edit a page | '''What links here''' and '''Related changes''' pages can be linked as: [[Special: WhatLinkshere/Wikipedia: How to edit a page]] and [[Special: RecentChangeslinked/ Wikipedia: How to edit a page]] |
| (User edits) A user's Contributions page can be linked as: Special:Contributions/UserName or Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0 | A user's '''Contributions''' page can be linked as: [[Special:Contributions/UserName]] or [[Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0]] |
| (Categorize) - To put an article in a category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. As with interlanguage links, it does not matter where you put these links while editing as they will always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended.
| [[Category:Character sets]] |
| (Category page link) - To link to a category page without putting the article into the category, use a colon prefix (":Category") in the link. The formatted text link will appear as: Category:Character sets.
| [[:Category:Character sets]] |
| (External links) Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: - Bare URL: http://www.wikipedia.org/ (bad style)
- Unnamed link: [1] (only used within article body for footnotes)
- Named link: Wikipedia
- See meta:interwiki map for the list of shortcuts.
- Square brackets indicate an external link. Note the use of a space (not a pipe) to separate the URL from the link text in the "named" version.
- In the URL, all symbols must be among:
A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ \ / ~ % - + & # ? ! = ( ) @ - If a URL contains a character not in this list, it should be encoded by using a percent sign (%) followed by the hex code of the character, which can be found in the table of ASCII printable characters. For example, the caret character (^) would be encoded in a URL as %5E.
- If the "named" version contains a closing square bracket "]", then you must use the HTML special character syntax, i.e. ] otherwise the MediaWiki software will prematurely interpret this as the end of the external link.
- There is a class that can be used to remove the arrow image from the external link. It is used in Template:Ref to stop the URL from expanding during printing. It should never be used in the main body of an article. However, there is an exception: wikilinks in Image markup. An example of the markup is as follows:
- Markup: <span class="plainlinks neverexpand"> [http://www.sysinternals.com/ ntw2k/freeware/winobj.shtml WinObj]</span>
- Display: WinObj
- See External links for style issues.
| Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: # Bare URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/ (bad style) # Unnamed link: [http://en.wikipedia.org/] (only used within article body for footnotes) # Named link: [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]
|
| (Wikimedia text link) Linking to other wikis: - InterWiki link: Wiktionary:Hello
- Interwiki link without prefix: Hello
- Named interwiki link: Wiktionary definition of 'Hello'
Linking to another language's wiktionary: - Wiktionary:fr:bonjour
- bonjour
- fr:bonjour
| Linking to other wikis: # [[InterWiki]] link: [[Wiktionary:Hello]] # Interwiki link without prefix: [[Wiktionary:Hello|]] # Named interwiki link: [[Wiktionary:Hello|Wiktionary definition of 'Hello']]
Linking to another language's wiktionary:
# [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour]] # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|bonjour]] # [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|]]
|
| (Book sources) ISBN 012345678X ISBN 0-12-345678-X Link to a book using alternate text, such as its title. - Link to books using their ISBN. This is preferred to linking to a specific online bookstore, because it gives the reader a choice of vendors. However, if one bookstore or online service provides additional free information, such as table of contents or excerpts from the text, then a link to that source will aid the user and is recommended. ISBN links do not need any extra markup, provided you use one of the indicated formats.
- To create a link to Book Sources using alternate text (e.g. the book's title), use the internal link style with the appropriate namespace.
| ISBN 012345678X ISBN 0-12-345678-X [[Special:BookSources/0670037818|alternate text, such as its title]] |
| (RFC number) Text mentioning an RFC number anywhere, e.g. RFC 4321. | Text mentioning an RFC number anywhere, e.g. RFC 4321. |
| (“As of” tag) “As of” tags like "As of April 2009" and "as of April 2009" categorize info that will need updating. | “[[WP:As of|As of]]” tags like "{{As of|2009|4|df=us}}" and "{{As of|2009|4|df=us|lc=on}}" categorize info that will need updating. |
| (Media link) Sound - To include links to non image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link. For images, see next section.
Some uploaded sounds are listed at Commons:Sound. | [[media:Classical guitar scale.ogg|Sound]] |
| (Edit links) Link directly to edit for an existing page, or apply other link attributes. - use {{fullurl:}}
- or use {{template:edit}} which conceals the edit label for page printing
| {{fullurl:page name|action=edit}} |
Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.
| What it looks like | What you type |
| A picture:  | A picture: [[Image:wiki.png]] |
| With alternative text:  | With alternative text: [[Image:wiki.png|alt=Puzzle globe logo]] - Alternative text, used when the image is unavailable or when the image is loaded in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternative text for images for help on choosing it.
|
Floating to the right side of the page using the frame attribute and a caption: Wikipedia Encyclopedia
| Floating to the right side of the page using the ''frame'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|frame|alt=Puzzle globe logo|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]] - The frame tag automatically floats the image right.
- The last paramaeter is the caption that appears below the image.
|
Floating to the right side of the page using the thumb attribute and a caption:
| Floating to the right side of the page using the ''thumb'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|thumb|alt=Puzzle globe logo|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]] - The thumb tag automatically floats the image right.
- An enlarge icon is placed in the lower right corner.
|
| Floating to the right side of the page without a caption: | Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption: [[Image:wiki.png|right|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]] |
| A picture resized to 30 pixels...  | A picture resized to 30 pixels... [[Image:wiki.png|30 px|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]] |
| Linking directly to the description page of an image: Image:wiki.png | Linking directly to the description page of an image: [[:Image:wiki.png]] - Clicking on an image displayed on a page (such as any of the ones above) also leads to the description page.
|
| Linking directly to an image without displaying it: Image of the jigsaw globe logo | Linking directly to an image without displaying it: [[Media:wiki.png|Image of the jigsaw globe logo]] - To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
|
| Using the span and div tag to separate images from text (note that this may allow images to cover text): | Example: <div style="display:inline; width:220px; float:right;"> Place images here </div> |
| Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers): | Example: {| align=right |- | Place images here |} |
See the Wikipedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Wikipedia.
For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the picture tutorial.
Headings
For a heading, put it on a separate line. A level-two heading, the highest level editors use in an article, for example:
== Introduction == Editing most Wikipedia pages is easy.
Subheadings use '===', '====', and so on, down to level-six.
Level-one headings are automatically generated for the article's title, which is not available in the edit box.
Character formatting
| What it looks like | What you type |
| Italicized text Bold text Italicized & Bold text | ''Italicized text'' '''Bold text''' '''''Italicized & Bold text''''' |
| Syntax highlighting for source code. Computer code has a colored background and more stringent formatting. Suppose we want to define int main(): #include <iostream> int main ( int argc, char **argv ) { std::cout << "Hello World!"; return 0; } | Computer code has a colored background and more stringent formatting. Suppose we want to define <code>int main()</code>: <source lang=cpp>#include <iostream> int main ( int argc, char **argv ) { std::cout << "Hello World!"; return 0; }</source> |
| You can use small text for captions. | You can use <small>small text</small> for captions. |
| Better stay away from big text, unless it's within small text. | Better stay away from <big>big text</big>, unless <small> it's <big>within</big> small</small> text. |
| You can strike out deleted material and underline new material. (Double underlining is also possible.) You can also mark deleted material and inserted material using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new logical with the old physical markup. - When editing regular Wikipedia articles, just make your changes and do not mark them up in any special way.
- When editing your own previous remarks in talk pages, it is sometimes appropriate to mark up deleted or inserted material.
| You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new <del>logical</del> with the old <s><del>physical</del></s> markup. |
| Suppressing interpretation of markup: Link → (''to'') the [[Wikipedia FAQ]] - Used to show literal data that would otherwise have special meaning.
- Escape all wiki markup, including that which looks like HTML tags.
- Does not escape HTML character references.
- To escape HTML character references such as → use &rarr;
|
<nowiki>Link → (''to'') the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]</nowiki> |
| Commenting page source: not shown when viewing page - Used to leave comments in a page for future editors.
- Note that most comments should go on the appropriate Talk page.
|
<!-- comment here --> |
| Extra spacing within text can best be achieved using the pad template: Mary had a little lamb. |
Mary {{pad|4em}} had a little lamb. |
| Diacritical marks: 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 |
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: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤ |
| Subscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ Superscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ Combined: ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m. 1 hectare = 1 E4 m² - The Manual of Style prefers the x<sub>1</sub> format.
- The latter methods of sub/superscripting cannot be used in the most general context, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. For the 1-2-3 superscripts, it is nevertheless preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.
|
x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ ε<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 × 10<sup>−12</sup> C² / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]] |
| Greek characters: 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 |
| Mathematical characters: ∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔
|
∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔ |
| Mathematical formulae:  sin x + ln y  x = 0 - Complex formulae should use
<math> markup. - Simple formulae may use either
<math> markup or HTML/wiki markup using the {{math}} template with <i> and <b> or '' and ''' for formatting. Make sure to replace = with {{=}}. - Ordinary text should use wiki markup for emphasis. However, mathematical formulae often use italics, and sometimes use bold, for reasons unrelated to emphasis. Per Wikipedia:Manual of Style (mathematics), wiki markup (
'' and ''') is preferred over HTML markup (<i> and <b>), but both are allowed. |
<math>\,\! \sin x + \ln y</math><br> {{math|sin ''x'' + ln ''y''}} <math>\mathbf{x} = \mathbf{0}</math><br> {{math|<b>x</b> {{=}} <b>0</b>}} |
| Spacing in simple math formulae: Obviously, x2 ≥ 0 is true when x is a real number. - Using
to prevent linebreak is not needed; the {{math}} template will prevent line breaks anyway; you can use <br> if you need an explicit line break inside a formula. |
Obviously, {{math|''x<''<sup>2</sup> ≥ 0}} is true when {{math|<VAR >x</VAR >}} is a real number. |
| Complicated formulae:
 - See Help:Displaying a formula for how to use <math>.
- A formula displayed on a line by itself should probably be indented by using the colon (:) character.
|
: <math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math> |
(see also: Chess symbols in Unicode)
No or limited formatting—showing exactly what is being typed
A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them—what you see, is what you get!
| What it looks like | What you type |
<nowiki> tag: The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: → | <nowiki> The nowiki tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: → </nowiki> |
<pre> tag: The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: → | <pre> The pre tag ignores [[Wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: → </pre> |
Leading space: Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting.
Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets Wiki markup and special characters: → | Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets [[Wiki]] ''markup'' and special characters: → |
It's uncommon, but on occasion acceptable, to add a hidden comment within the text of an article. The format is this:
<!-- This is an example of text that won't normally be visible except in "edit" mode. -->
Table of contents
At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the table of contents (TOC) to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also Compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.
Tables
There are two ways to build tables:
- in special Wiki-markup (see Table)
- with the usual HTML elements: <table>, <tr>, <td> or <th>.
For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see When to use tables.
Variables
(See also Variable)
| Code | Effect |
| {{CURRENTWEEK}} | 46 |
| {{CURRENTDOW}} | 2 |
| {{CURRENTMONTH}} | 11 |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} | November |
| {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}} | November |
| {{CURRENTDAY}} | 10 |
| {{CURRENTDAYNAME}} | Tuesday |
| {{CURRENTYEAR}} | 2009 |
| {{CURRENTTIME}} | 10:39 |
| {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} | 3,090,452 |
| {{NUMBEROFUSERS}} | 10,953,231 |
| {{PAGENAME}} | How to edit a page |
| {{NAMESPACE}} | Wikipedia |
| {{REVISIONID}} | 324724031 |
| {{localurl:pagename}} | /wiki/Pagename |
| {{localurl:Wikipedia:Sandbox|action=edit}} | /w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Sandbox&action=edit |
| {{fullurl:pagename}} | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagename |
| {{fullurl:pagename|query_string}} | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pagename&query_string |
| {{SERVER}} | http://en.wikipedia.org |
| {{ns:1}} | Talk |
| {{ns:2}} | User |
| {{ns:3}} | User talk |
| {{ns:4}} | Wikipedia |
| {{ns:5}} | Wikipedia talk |
| {{ns:6}} | File |
| {{ns:7}} | File talk |
| {{ns:8}} | MediaWiki |
| {{ns:9}} | MediaWiki talk |
| {{ns:10}} | Template |
| {{ns:11}} | Template talk |
| {{ns:12}} | Help |
| {{ns:13}} | Help talk |
| {{ns:14}} | Category |
| {{ns:15}} | Category talk |
| {{SITENAME}} | Wikipedia |
NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.
CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.
In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like {{grammar:case|word}} to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, {{grammar:genitive|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}} means the same as {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}.
Templates
The MediaWiki software used by Wikipedia has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text), can be inserted into articles. For example, typing {{stub}} will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: {{disambig}} for disambiguation pages and {{sectstub}} like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example: {{Geo-stub}}, {{Hist-stub}}, and {{Linux-stub}}. For a complete list of stubs see Stub types.
More information on editing wiki pages
You may also want to learn about:
Getting started
Helpful tips
Naming and moving
Style and layout
Tools
See also
- WikiProjects, if you are writing an article about something that belongs to a group of objects, check here first!