Help:How to edit a page

From Fresh Dictionary

(Redirected from Editing Help)

I guess we'll start with the "Edit" tab. Just click on it and you will be presented with the code from which the page was generated. When finished with editing fill in the "Edit summary" field for future reference. Tick "This is a minor edit" if appropriate and tick "Watch this page" if you want the page on your watchlist. You are advised to use the "Show preview" button to check that your changes will display as desired. Then hit "Save page". The sandbox is the page for first attempts.

1 Formatting text
2 Links
3 Special characters
4 Templates
5 Signing
6 See also

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Formatting text

Almost any edit you are going to make will involve typeface modifications and the addition of layout elements.

Italicise text by enclosing it with two apostrophes on either side.

''italicised text'' displays as italicised text

Embolden text by enclosing it with three apostrophes on either side.

'''emboldened text''' displays as emboldened text

Create a bullet (like the one to the left) by entering an asterisk (*) at the beginning of a line.
Force an indentation by beginning a line with a colon (:).
Automatically number lines by beginning them with a number sign (#). The numbering stops after an empty line. It also stops when a line begins with a bullet or colon, but you can force the numbering to continue by putting a hash before them.

Headers are the basic structural element for Wiktionary entries. You create them by enclosing the title of the heading in equal signs (=). You will usually need the headers from level 2 (two equal signs on either side) through to level 5 (five equal signs on either side). The header of this section for example is a level 3 header and is generated by ===Formatting text===. Note that headers up to level 3 have their own edit tab next to them.

Further formatting options are available through HTML tags. They mostly exist in pairs, the first one being of the form <xyz>, the second one of the form </xyz>. They affect everything enclosed by them.

forces a line break.
<nowiki> and </nowiki> disable the interpretation of characters. For example

<nowiki> </nowiki> displays as

<pre> and </pre> create pre-formatted text.
<s> and </s> strike through text.
and shrink text.
A comprehensive list can be found on m:Help:HTML_in_wikitext.

Further information on wiki markup and layout can be found at m:Help:Editing and m:Help:Lists.

Please also read our style guide and have a look at Wiktionary:Entry layout explained for information on page layout.

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Links

You can link (we say "wikify") a word to its own entry in Wiktionary by simply enclosing it in double square brackets. You also have the option to link a term to some other Wiktionary page by using the pipe symbol (|):

[[Wiktionary:Beer parlour|Wiktionary's forum]] produces the follwing link: Wiktionary's forum

The page you would like to link to goes first, then comes the term you want to have displayed as a link. It is also possible to link to the English Wikipedia. This is done by prefixing the linked word with "w:" For example w:Romano Prodi or, more elegantly by using the pipe symbol, Romano Prodi.

For links to other websites a slightly different syntax is used. The double square brackets become single square brackets, and the pipe symbol is replaced by a space. Hence

[http://www.etymonline.com online etymological dictionary] produces a link to an online etymological dictionary.

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Special characters

You might also want to add characters you can't type because they aren't on your keyboard. You will almost certainly find any character you need in the box below the "Save page" button in editing mode. Just select the set of characters you need and have your pick. For a complete list of unicode characters look here: http://home.att.net/~jameskass/INDEXUNI.HTM

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Templates

One often encounters cryptic abbreviations enclosed by double curly brackets in the code. These are templates and automatically substitute text into the code. So if you need the same piece of code on many pages, creating a template might be a good idea. The string {{xyz}} will cause the page to be displayed as if the content of the page Template:xyz had been in its place. An example is Template:rfc which indicates that a page has been marked for clean-up on Wiktionary:Requests for cleanup. See Wiktionary:Index to templates.

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Signing

If you are involved in a discussion, be it on a talk page or on a page such as Wiktionary:Requests for deletion, it is considered bad manners not to sign your (user) name. Signing is most easily done by typing four tildes (~~~~), which will automatically be converted into your user name (linked to your user page) and a UTC time stamp.

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Help:How to edit a page

From Fresh Dictionary

Contents

Formatting text

Links

Special characters

Templates

Signing

See also

Views

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