Help:Editing

Start your sections as follows:

New section

Subsection

Sub-subsection

• Start with a second-level heading (==); don't use first-level headings (=).
• Don't skip levels (for example, second-level followed by fourth-level).
• A table of contents will automatically be added to an article that has four or more sections.
• If appropriate, place subsections in an appropriate order. If listing countries, place them in alphabetical order rather than, say, relative to population of OECD countries, or some random order.
• If you want to keep headings out of the TOC you have to use html heading tags and close them without using a slash e.g. <h4>heading too low level to be in the toc of large page<h4>.

== New section ==

=== Subsection ===

==== Sub-subsection ====

===== Sub-sub-subsection =====

A single newline generally 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 function diff (used internally to compare different versions of a page).

But an empty line starts a new paragraph.

• When used in a list, a newline does affect the layout (see below).

A single [[newline]]
generally 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 function ''diff'' 
(used internally to compare
different versions of a page).

But an empty line
starts a new paragraph.

You can break lines
without starting a new paragraph.

• Please use this sparingly.
• Close markup between lines; do not start a link or italics or bold on one line and close it on the next.

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

• It's easy to create a list:
  • Start every line with a star (asterisk).
    • More stars means deeper levels.
      • A newline in a list

marks the end of a list item.

• An empty line starts a new list.

* It's easy to create a list:
** Start every line with a star.
*** More stars means deeper levels.
**** A newline in a list
marks the end of a list item.

* An empty line starts a new list.

1. Numbered lists are also good
   1. very organized
   2. easy to follow
      1. easier still

# Numbered lists are also good
## very organized
## easy to follow
### easier still

• You can even create mixed lists
  1. and nest them
     • like this

* You can even create mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this

Definition list 

list of definitions

item 

the item's definition

another item

the other item's definition

• One item per line; a newline can appear before the colon, but using a space before the colon improves parsing.

; Definition list : list of definitions
; item : the item's definition
; another item
: the other 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.

When there is a need for separating a block of text

the blockquote command will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does.

This is useful for (as the name says) inserting blocks of quoted (and cited) text.

<blockquote>
The '''blockquote''' command will indent 
both margins when needed instead of the 
left margin only as the colon does.  
</blockquote>

IF a line starts with a space THEN
   it will be formatted exactly
   as typed;
   in a fixed-width font;
   lines will not wrap;
ENDIF

For larger preformatted text passages you can use the <pre>a lot of text</pre> tag.

• 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, especially for people who use lower resolutions. 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 will not wrap;
 ENDIF

• Please note the American spelling of "center."

<center>Centered text.</center>

A horizontal dividing line: this is above it...

...and this is below it.

• Mainly useful for
  • disambiguation - but to be used sparsely--only when separating completely different, unrelated (groups of) meanings
  • separating threads on Talk pages.

A [[horizontal dividing line]]:
this is above it...
----
...and this is below it.

London has public transport.

• A link to another Wikipedia 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 www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport, which is the Wikipedia article with the name "Public transport". See also Wikipedia:Canonicalization.

London has [[public transport]].

San Francisco also has public transportation.

• Same target, different name.
• This is a piped link.
• The "piped" text must be placed first, the text that will be displayed, second.

San Francisco also has
[[public transport|public transportation]].

San Francisco also has public transportation.

Examples include buses, taxis, and streetcars.

• Endings are blended into the link.
• Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible.

San Francisco also has
[[public transport]]ation.

Examples include [[bus]]es, [[taxi]]s,
and [[streetcar]]s.

See the Wikipedia:Manual of Style.

• A link to another namespace.

See the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]].

Economics#See also is a link to a section within another page.

#Links and URLs is a link to a section on the current page.

#example is a link to an anchor that was created using an id attribute

• 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.
• Identifiers may be created by attaching an id="..."> attribute to almost any HTML element.

[[Economics#See also]] is a link
to a section within another page.

[[#Links and URLs]] is a link
to a section on the current page.

[[#example]] is a link to an
anchor that was created using
<span id="example">an id attribute</span>

Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom.

Automatically hide namespace: Village Pump.

Or both: Manual of Style

• 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).

But not: [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]]

• In such a case the server does not fill in the part after the pipe character (|) even when you save the page.

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|]]

The weather in London is a page that does not exist yet.

• You can create it by clicking on the link (but please do not do so with this particular link).
• To create a new page:
  1. Create a link to it on some other (related) page.
  2. Save that page.
  3. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
• For more information, see How to start a page and check out Wikipedia's naming conventions.
• Please do not create a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.

[[The weather in London]] is a page 
that does not exist yet.

Wikipedia:How to edit a page is 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 the Manual of Style.

[[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] is this page.

When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name:

Ben Brockert

or four to add user name plus date/time:

Ben Brockert 00:18, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)

Five tildes gives the date/time alone:

00:18, Nov 19, 2004 (UTC)

• The first two both provide a link to your user page.

When adding a comment to a Talk page,
you should sign it by adding
three tildes to add your user name:
: ~~~
or four for user name plus date/time:
: ~~~~
Five tildes gives the date/time alone:
: ~~~~~

#REDIRECT United Nations

• 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 "UN").

 #REDIRECT [[United Nations]]

NO USE!
#REDIRECT United Nations#International_Years

• Note that, while it is possible to link to a section, it is not possible to redirect to a section. For example, "#REDIRECT [[United Nations#International_Years]]" will redirect to the United Nations page, but not to any particular section on it. This feature will not be implemented in the future, so such redirects should not be used.

 NO USE!
 #REDIRECT [[United Nations#International_Years]]

• In the article link to a page on the same subject in another language by using a link of the form: [[:language code:Title]].
  • [[:fr:Encyclopedia]] produces a link like this: fr:Encyclopédie
    
  • [[:fr:Encyclopedia|Read in french!]] produces a link like this: Read in french!
• On the sidebar link to a page on the same subject in another language by using a link of the form: [[language code:Title]].
  • 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.
  • Only [[fr:Encyclopédie]] adds a french language link to the side menu for the article.
    
• Please see Wikipedia:Interlanguage links and the list of languages and codes.

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

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]]

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]]

• To put an article in a Wikipedia: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]]

• To link to a Wikipedia:Category page without putting the article into the category, use an initial colon (:) in the link.

[[:Category:Character sets]]

Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources:

1. Bare URL: http://www.nupedia.com/ (bad style)
2. Unnamed link: [1] (only used within article body for footnotes)
3. Named link: Nupedia

See MetaWikiPedia: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 . _ \ / ~ % -