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Wikipedia-specific introduction

Wikipedia is a WikiWiki, meaning that anyone can easily edit any unprotected article and have those changes posted immediately. This page is the reference for Wiki markup. You may also want to learn about:

How to start a page
Informal tips on contributing to Wikipedia
Editing tasks in general at the Wikipedia:Editing FAQ
Why not to rename pages boldly, at Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page
Preferred layout of your article, at Guide to Layout (see also Wikipedia:Boilerplate text)
Style conventions in the Wikipedia:Manual of Style
General policies in Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines
Wikipedia:Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves
If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a chinese character...) check out if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly.
Finally, for a list of all articles about editing Wikipedia see List of pages in the Wikipedia namespace or same list sorted by topic. 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.

If during editing you want to see the current version again, open "Cancel" in a new window: this does not cancel your edit.

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. Some text editors can be specially adapted to edit Wikipedia articles: see Wikipedia:syntax highlighting.

After making a new page, it's a good idea to

With your page displayed, use What links here to check that articles already link to it, and make sure that they are all expecting the same meaning that you have supplied;
Use the Search button to launch a Google search of Wikipedia for your topic title (and possibly variants), to find articles that mention it, and make links from them if appropriate;
Check for corresponding articles in the Wikipedias of other languages that you can read.

Minor edits

See also Wikipedia:Minor edit

When editing a page, a logged-in user can mark that edit as "minor". Minor edits generally mean spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text. It is possible to hide minor edits when viewing Wikipedia:Recent Changes. Marking a real change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, and even more so if it involves the deletion of some text. If one has accidentally marked an edit as minor, make another edit (add an extra space between two words, or a line break), mark it major, and say "the previous edit was major" in the summary.

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.

The rest of this page is deprecated but will be updated periodically.

Please direct edits to the Meta-Wikimedia version of this page

Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines

What it looks like	What you type
Start your sections as follows: New section Subsection Sub-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	* 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	# Numbered lists are also good ## very organized ## easy to follow
You can even do mixed lists and nest them like this	* You can even do mixed lists # and nest them #* like this
Definition list list of definitions item the item's definition	; Definition list : list of definitions ; item : the item's definition One item per line, no hard NEWLINE.
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.
IF a line starts with a space THEN it will be formatted exactly as typed; in a fixed-width font; lines won't wrap; ENDIF this is useful for: * pasting preformatted text; * algorithm descriptions; * program source code; * [[ASCII art]] and 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 won't wrap; ENDIF this is useful for: * pasting preformatted text; * algorithm descriptions; * program source code; * [[ASCII art]] and chemical structures;
Centered text.	<center>Centered text.</center>
A horizontal dividing line: this is above it and this is below it. Mainly useful for separating threads on Talk pages.	A [[horizontal dividing line]]: this is above it ---- and this is below it.

Links, URLs, images

.

What it looks like	What you type
London has public transport. First letter of target is automatically capitalized. Internally spaces are automatically represented as underscores (typing an underscore has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended). Thus the link above is to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_transport, which is the article with the name "Public transport". See also Wikipedia:Canonization.	London has [[public transport]].
World Heritage Sites#New Zealand is an example link to a section name on a page, see == headers == above. Links to non-existent sections aren't broken, they are treated as links to the top of the page.	[[World Heritage Sites#New Zealand]]
Same target, different name: answers. (This is a piped link.)	Same target, different name: [[wikipedia 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: Village Pump. 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: [[Wikipedia:Village Pump\|]].
When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it. You can do this by adding three tildes for your user name: Montrealais or four for user name plus date/time: Montrealais 08:10 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)	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. You can create it by clicking on the link. To create a new page: Create a link to it on some other page. Save that page. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing. Have a look at how to start a page guide and Wikipedia's naming conventions. After creating a page, search for its title and make sure that everyone correctly links to it.	[[The weather in London]] is a page that doesn't exist yet.
Wikipedia:How to edit a page is this page. Self links appear as bold text when the article is viewed.	[[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] is this page.
Redirect one article title to another by putting text like this in its first line. Note that redirects to sections do not work yet. #REDIRECT [[United States#History]] will redirect to the United States page, but not to any particular section on it. It is possible this feature will be implemented in future, so such redirects could be used now for future compatibility.	#REDIRECT [[United States]]
Link to a page on the same subject in another language using a link like [[language code:Title]]. It does not matter where you put these links while editing as they always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended. See Wikipedia:Interlanguage links and list of languages and codes.	[[fr:Wikipédia:Aide]]
External link: Nupedia This is an unnamed link. [1] This is a plain URL: http://www.nupedia.com	External link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia] This is an unnamed link. [http://www.nupedia.com] This is a plain URL: http://www.nupedia.com
Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com. In the URL all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 ._\/~%-+&#?!=()@ \x80-\xFF. If a URL contains a different character it should be converted; for example, ^ has to be written %5E (to be looked up in ASCII).	Or just give the URL: http://www.nupedia.com.
A picture: 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. See Wikipedia:Image use policy and Image markup, extended image syntax for many more hints. Alternative text, used when the image isn't loaded, in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternate text for images for help on choosing it.	A picture: [[Image:Wiki.png]] or, with alternate text [[Image:Wiki.png\|jigsaw globe]] or, floating to the right side of the page. Place above the text to appear beside it. The caption is The Wikipedia logo. Use a width as wide as the image or a little wider. <div style="float:right;width:135px;margin:0 0 1em 1em"> [[Image:Wiki.png\|jigsaw globe]] <small>The Wikipedia logo</small> </div> More at Wikipedia:Image_markup.
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. Sound Image of a Tornado	[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg\|Sound]] [[media:Tornado.jpg\|Image of a Tornado]]
To link to books, you can use Wikipedia:ISBN links. ISBN 0123456789X	ISBN 0123456789X
"What links here" and "Related changes" can be linked as: Special:Whatlinkshere/Wikipedia:How to edit a page and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia:How to edit a page	[[Special:Whatlinkshere/Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked/Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]
Use links for dates, so everyone can set their own display order. Use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting.	[[July 20]], [[1969]] , [[20 July]] [[1969]] and [[1969]]-[[07-20]] will all appear as 20 July 1969 if you set your date display preference to 1 January 2001.

Character formatting

What it looks like	What you type
Emphasize, strongly, very strongly. These are double and triple apostrophes (single-quote marks), not double-quote marks. Note that on almost all browsers, these appear as italic and bold; for semantic reasons, <i> and <b> are preferable in mathematical formulas.	''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''.
A typewriter font for `technical terms`. For semantic reasons, <code> should be used instead when writing computer programs	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 ~~strike out deleted material~~ and underline new material.	You can <strike>strike out deleted material</strike> and <u>underline new material</u>.
Umlauts and accents: (See wikipedia:Special characters) è é ê ë ì í 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	è é ê ë ì í 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 &oelig; õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ
Punctuation: ¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ”	¿ ¡ § ¶ &dagger; &Dagger; • — &lsaquo; &rsaquo; « » ‘ ’ “ ”
Commercial symbols: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤	™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤
Subscript: x₂ Superscript: x² or x² The latter method of superscript can't be used in the most general context, but is preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it. ε₀ = 8.85 × 10⁻¹² C² / J m. 1 hectare = 1 E4 m²	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. 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 &sigmaf; τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω
Math characters: ∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ → × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ → ↔ (See also WikiProject Mathematics)	∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ &prop; &equiv; ≠ ≤ ≥ → × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ &permil; ° &there4; &alefsym; ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ &sube; &supe; ¬ &and; &or; ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔ → ↔
x² ≥ 0 true. To space things out, use non-breaking spaces - ` `. ` ` also prevents line breaks in the middle of text, this is useful in formulas.	<i>x</i><sup>2</sup>  ≥  0 true.
Complicated formulae: $\sum _{n=0}^{\infty }{\frac {x^{n}}{n!}}$ See Wikipedia:TeX markup	<math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>
Suppressing interpretation of markup: Link → (<i>to</i>) the [[Wikipedia FAQ]] Used to show literal data that would otherwise have special meaning. Escapes 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 → (<i>to</i>) the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]</nowiki>
Commenting page source: not shown in page Used to leave comments in a page for future editors.	<!-- comment here -->

Tables

Placement of the Table of Contents (TOC)

At the current status of the wiki markup language, at least four headers trigger the TOC in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). 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 MediaWiki User's Guide: Using tables)
with the usual HTML elements: <table>, <tr>, <td> or <th>.

For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see Wikipedia:How to use tables.

Variables

Code	Effect
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	01
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	January
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	January
{{CURRENTDAY}}	12
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Sunday
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2025
{{CURRENTTIME}}	03:06
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	6,938,789

NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, i.e. number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages).

Transclusion

The MediaWiki software used by Wikipedia has limited support for transclusion. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text) can be inserted into articles. For example, typing {{msg:stub}} will appear as This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. when the page is saved. Other commonly used ones are {{msg:disambig}} for disambiguation pages and {{msg:spoiler}} for spoiler warnings. See Wikipedia:MediaWiki custom messages for the complete list.