In this tutorial I'll be showing you the basics of editing Wikipedia using the Visual Editor.
I'll be showing you how to create section headers, how to add content,
how to link to internal Wikipedia pages,
how to automatically generate a table of contents, and how to reference outside sources.
This is my sandbox page.
Everyone who creates an account with Wikipedia is given a sandbox page.
It does not return on any searches, making it the perfect environment to experiment and play
without changing any actual Wikipedia pages.
The basic structure of a WIkipedia page begins with the title.
Beneath the title there is a synopsis paragraph, giving a brief explanation of what the page is about.
I've written something in advance.
I'm going to copy it, and paste it in.
Beneath that I'm going to create a section header.
Section headers are useful because when you generate your table of contents you'll be able
to link to specific parts of the page using these section headers.
To create a section header, press equals equals.
You'll notice that it created a horizontal rule.
Anything typed above the horizontal rule will be part of the section title.
Anything below it will be deemed content in that section.
I'll type:
"Excerpt from Dracula"
and hit enter to move beneath the horizontal rule.
I have some material that I've taken from Dracula.
I'm going to copy it and paste it to make it seem like the section is more populated.
I'm going to create a few more sections.
This is because, to automatically generate the table of contents, you need at least four sections.
So I'll type equals equals Vampires
Hit enter to move below it, enter again to create some space.
Equals equals Monsters
Enter to move below the section header, enter again to create some space.
And then equals equals Coffins.
Enter to beneath, to move beneath the section.
So now, if I go Save Changes. I'll be prompted with an Edit Summary window.
It is best practice to describe any edits that you've made.
You don't have to be too verbose, just briefly explain what you did.
I might put: "Added sections
...
Excerpt from Dracula, Vampires, and Monsters and Coffins
added content to those sections."
And then hit Save Changes to display the page.
Now we notice our table of contents has automatically been generated for us.
And we can click on Coffins to automatically be brought to that part of the page.
Now we'll go back to Edit This Page to continue our edits.
Suppose in the Vampires section we wanted to type "Dracula is a vampire."
and we wanted the text "vampire." to link to the vampire page on Wikipedia.
To do so, all we need to do is highlight the text, and up at the top there is an image of linked chains.
Click this to create a link.
This will automatically do a Wikipedia search for the text that you've highlighted.
Find the page that you're looking for and click it.
Now we notice that "vampire" is linked text.
If I right-click View Link in a New Tab:
it redirects me to the vampire page on Wikipedia.
If you wanted to make a reference to acknowledge that this excerpt if from the book Dracula,
here's how you would do so.
Up at the top click Cite
I pulled this excerpt in particular from Project Gutenberg, which is an online...
...
Online resource for ebooks.
So I'm going to cite them as my source.
I'll click Website.
And here it asks for the URL.
I have the Gutenberg tab for Dracula here.
I'm going to copy and paste the URL.
Under Title I'll type "Dracula".
I'll put "Stoker" for the last name.
"Bram" for the first name.
Dracula was written in ... 1897.
The website is Gutenberg.
And the access date is two, twenty-five, seventeen.
Now I'll click Insert.
Something to bear in mind is that this citation will hover above, but you can also generate a
automatic reference by simply creating a References section.
So now, any, of the references that you make will display under the References section
and simply appear as super-script numerals where you've cited them in the text.
This helps not to clutter the content section with the actual content of the references.
Keeping all of the content from the references neatly tucked under the references setion.
So now if I hit Save Changes.
I'll put: "Added reference", hit Save Changes.
Now we look, we have our super-script number one and underneath our references section
under one we have the reference that we added.
Bram Stoker from 1897, Dracula from Gutenberg.
That is basics of editing Wikipedia using the Visual Editor.
Good luck and happy editing!