Help:Menu

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Go for it! (talk | contribs) at 01:43, 14 January 2006 (formatting). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Wikipedia is a free content encyclopedia that is being written collaboratively worldwide in over 200 languages. The following articles contain useful tips and information about reading, authoring, and participating in the Wikipedia community.

You can edit pages right now. If you have trouble editing, or you would like to ask questions about Wikipedia, see the Help Desk. You can also ask the Helping Hand Group if you want a tutorial or help file to be improved or created. Don't know where to jump in and contribute? Find out where your help is needed at the Community Portal.

Warning: Wikipedia may contain false information and offensive content. Read our disclaimer for more information.

Getting Started

Browsing Wikipedia

Changing your settings
and account maintenance

More about Wikipedia

Finding Answers
(to frequently asked questions)

Communication

Requests for administrator attention, to get help from an administrator.
Reference desk, request an article or information you can't find. See also Requested articles.
Help desk for users with questions about Wikipedia or editing.
Each article has a Talk page — click on the article's discussion link — to read or take part in discussions about the article.
General Complaints, for discussing problems with the way Wikipedia is designed and making suggestions for improvement.
Village pump is the place for technical and policy issues.
The Helping Hand Group is the place for requests for improvement or creation of Wikipedia tutorials or help files.

Getting in touch

Contact us
Discussion pages
User pages

Babel - multi-lingual Wikipedians

Wikipedia mailing lists
Chat with other users on IRC
Get involved at the Community Portal
Village pump

News
Policy
Technical
Proposals
Assistance
Miscellaneous

Bug reports and feature requests
Wikipedians
Surveys
Meta Wikipedia, a site that works alongside the main Wikipedia project. Here you can post essays and discussions about topics related to Wikipedia.
Contingency page for when the main Wikipedia server is down
Instant Messaging
In person meetings

Keeping informed: News

The Signpost - Wikipedia's newspaper
Wikipedia in the media
Goings-on
Announcements
Press releases
Stats
Milestones
Regional notice boards

Tracking changes

Editing Wikipedia

Tutorial
Simplified ruleset, essential information to understand when editing articles (for new editors). See also the Five Pillars.
How to:
edit a page, including markup details.

experiment with editing pages in the sandbox. (You can also carry out editing experiments "in situ" by editing the page itself and using the Show Preview button. Be careful not to accidentally save the page though! If you do, then revert your changes.)

cheat (editor's cheat sheet - keep this open in another window)
use sections in an article
test edits, and other things
revert a page to an earlier version
use categories
use redirect pages
do a purge
edit an article so long that you can't edit
edit with an external editor

Formatting - how to:

use Wiki markup codes
use tables
use special characters
use easy timeline syntax
edit mathematical formulae using TeX
link Wikipedia articles
use an alternate link descriptor (the piped link)
link together Wikipedia articles in different languages
link words in articles to articles on sister projects
create links to external pages
use page names
use namespaces

File management - how to:

start a new page
move and merge a page
delete pages/images/categories
protect and unprotect pages (sysops only)

Creating pages - how to:

start a new page
name a page
create pages for topics with several different definitions

Templates

A quick guide to templates
How to:

add boilerplate text

List of available templates

Using images

image use policy
Images and multimedia
How to:

use images
upload files to Wikipedia
create graphics for pages

Image list

Resolving conflicts

Stay cool!
Be nice to newcomers
Alert others
Request assistance from a members' advocate
Dispute resolution
Arbitration policy

Advanced editing

Help:Editing shortcuts
Tools
Variables

Contributing to Wikipedia

Common procedures

Policies, conventions and guidelines

Technical information

About Wikimedia

The MediaWiki software
MediaWiki User's Guide (links to another website) For those who have installed the MediaWiki software that runs this site, and need help using it.
Requests and bug reports

Browser notes
Bots
How to download Wikipedia content

Database download

Export page(s) in XML

Public relations

Wikipedia:Press Kit, resources for press enquiries


Wikipedia's sister projects

Template:WikipediaSister (main page)