Help:Editing
This page covers the basics of editing Marspedia. For a guided, step-by-step introduction see the Marspedia Tutorials; to create a brand-new page see Help:Creating an article.
Two ways to edit
Every page has two edit buttons at the top:
- Edit — opens the VisualEditor, a word-processor-style editor where formatting works like it does in a normal document. This is the easiest way to start. (MediaWiki's VisualEditor user guide.)
- Edit source — opens the raw wikitext editor, where you type the markup codes shown below. This gives you full control.
When you are done, add a short summary of your change (a few words) and click Save. Use Show preview first to check your work.
Text formatting
Wikitext uses apostrophes for emphasis:
| What you type | What you get |
|---|---|
''italic'' |
italic |
'''bold''' |
bold |
'''''bold italic''''' |
bold italic |
Section headings
Wrap a heading in equals signs; more signs means a deeper level. MediaWiki builds the table of contents from these automatically.
== Section == === Subsection === ==== Sub-subsection ====
Links
| What you type | What you get |
|---|---|
[[Mars]] |
an internal link to the Mars article |
[[Mars|the Red Planet]] |
a link with different display text ("piped" link) |
[https://www.marssociety.org The Mars Society] |
an external link |
A link to a page that does not exist yet shows up red — click it to create that page.
Lists
* bullet item * another bullet # numbered item # second numbered item
References
Cite your sources with <ref>...</ref> tags and a <references/> list at the bottom of the page. See Using ref tags for a worked example.
Categories
Add a page to a category by placing [[Category:Name]] at the bottom of the page. Every article should carry one to three categories from the category hierarchy.
Images
Upload a file with Special:Upload, then place it with:
[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A caption]]
More help
- Help:Contents — the full help index
- Complete MediaWiki formatting reference
- Practice edits are welcome in the Sandbox.