Help:Editing pages

Important note: When you edit this page, you agree to release your contribution into the public domain. If you don't want this or can't do this because of license restrictions, please don't edit. This page is one of the Public Domain Help Pages, which can be freely copied into fresh wiki installations and/or distributed with MediaWiki software; see Help:Contents for an overview of all pages. See Project:PD help/Copying for instructions.

It's very easy to edit the contents of a wiki. It only takes a few clicks.

Click the "Edit" page tab at the top of the page.
Make changes to the text.
Click the "Save page" button.

Simple as that!

Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting

The number one rule of wiki editing, is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There can be all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophy governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!

In general try to write clearly and concisely and make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the wiki contents. An edit might be to contribute whole paragraphs or pages full of information, or it could be as simple as fixing a typo or spelling mistake.

When you need to use some type of formatting e.g. new headings or bold text, you do this using wiki syntax. See Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.

Edit Summary

Before you save a change, you can enter a short note in the Summary: box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it, but try to give a little description of what you just changed e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".

The summary gets stored alongside your edit, and allows people to track changes in the wiki more effectively.

Preview

It's a good idea to use the "Show preview" button to see what your change will look like, before you save it. This is also related to tracking changes because every time you save, this is displayed to others as a separate change. This isn't something to worry about too much, but it's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving several minor corrections afterwards.

Show changes

Another option is the "Show changes" button which allows you to see the differences between the current version and your edited version.

Other types of editing

With wiki edits you can start a new page, move (or rename) a page, or even delete a page:

Remember you should always aim to improve the overall contents of the wiki with your edits.

Discussion

Every article has its own “talk page” where you can ask questions, make suggestions, or discuss corrections. See Help:Talk pages

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