Help:How to edit a page

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.

== 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.

• 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

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.

• Please note the American spelling of "center."

<center>Centered text.</center>

A horizontal dividing line: this is above it

and this is below it.

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

UMass is home to the W.E.B. DuBois Library.

• A link to another UMassWiki 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.umasswiki.com/Public_transport, which is the UMassWiki article with the name "W.E.B. DuBois Library". See also Wikipedia:Canonicalization.

UMass is home to the [[W.E.B. DuBois Library]].

The library is the tallest in the world.

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

The [[W.E.B. DuBois Library|library]] is the tallest in the world.

San Francisco 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 has
[[public transport]]ation.

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

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 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").
• 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.

#REDIRECT [[United Nations]]

• 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 . _ \ / ~ % - + & # ? ! = ( ) @ \x80-\xFF
• URLs must start with the protocol (eg. [http://www.nupedia.com], not [www.nupedia.com])
• 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.
• 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="plainlinksneverexpand"> [http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/winobj.shtml WinObj]</span>
  • Display: WinObj
• See Wikipedia:External links for style issues.

Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources:
# Bare URL: http://www.nupedia.com/ (bad style)
# Unnamed link: [http://www.nupedia.com/]
      (only used within article body for footnotes)
# Named link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia]

A picture: 
[[Image:wiki.png]]

With alternative text:
[[Image:wiki.png|jigsaw globe]]

• Alternative text, used when a mouse hovers over the image or when the image is not loaded in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternate text for images for help on choosing it.

Floating to the right side of the page and with a caption:
[[Image:wiki.png|frame|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]

• The frame tag automatically floats the image right.
• The caption is also used as alternate text.
• to cancel a float at a certain text point, see Forcing a break,

Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption:
[[Image:wiki.png|right|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]

• The help topic on Extended image syntax explains more options.

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

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.

Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.

• These are double, triple, and quintuple apostrophes (single-quote marks), not double-quote marks.

''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''.

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 &rarr; use &amp;rarr;

<nowiki>Link &rarr; (''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.

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