Wikipedia:Tips

Wikipedia's tips library Welcome! Here you can digest how to use Wikipedia, in bite-sized morsels. The tips listed below were created for the Tip of the day project, or the Styletips project, but are listed here by title and organized by subject area for your convenience. See also the Tip of the day talk page where most of the tips are written. Feel free to join in! Tip of the day... Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts Many of the pages in the Wikipedia namespace have specialized redirects called "shortcuts" that can be entered into the search box. Most shortcuts start with WP: followed by a capitalized abbreviation of the page name. Some common shortcuts are: WP:HELP, WP:WELCOME, WP:IMAGE, WP:5P, and of course, WP:TIP. A semi-complete list of shortcuts is available at Wikipedia:Shortcuts. A shortcut can be used in the search box or in a link. To jump to the talk page of a page with a shortcut, start with "WT:" instead of "WP:". Prior tip – Tips library – Next tip Read more: Wikipedia:Shortcut   Wikipedia:List of shortcuts   Become a Wikipedia tipster To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use {{totd2}} Tips about Wikipedia as a whole Wikipedia in brief How popular is Wikipedia? Do not believe everything you read How reliable is Wikipedia? What the world knows about us How does Wikipedia stack up? Advice for parents Wikipedia etiquette = Wikiquette Copyrights? Copyleft Welcome to Wikipedia! "Where do I begin?" Help Wikipedia help you The Wikipedia Adventure! Flashback to Wikipedia's past Spreading the WikiLove Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia What did they say? How to use Wikipedia offline: xowa Tips on accessing Wikipedia pages Explore Wikipedia's contents Digital audio support Spoken Wikipedia Screen readers for accessibility Wikipedia for your mobile... 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Tips on searching How to easily recall a username Wikipedia industrial-powered search Highlight text on any website, then search Wikipedia for it with a single click Power search Wikipedia using AutoWikiBrowser Searching Wikipedia with regular expressions (regex) Search Wikipedia from any website Using Wikipedia's search box: Wikipedia Search box - basic Wikipedia Search box - advanced Jump to the search box ⇧ Shift+Alt+F To search a specific namespace, include the prefix in searches Title searches Searching Wikipedia with Google: How to search Wikipedia with Google How to provide a Google search in a link Wikipedia-specific searching with Google When and how to exclude Wikipedia from your Google search Another way to search Wikipedia with Google Firefox search tips: Wikipedia-specific searching within Firefox Wikipedia Search Box for Firefox Tips on bookmarking, creating access points, etc. Wikipedia toolbar for Firefox Getting help Help for new contributors Where to look for help Go to the right desk Ask for help at Wikipedia's Help Desk Stop by the Reference Desk A comprehensive index for editors Getting real-time help via IRC (Internet Relay Chat) Come visit the Teahouse Visit the Village Pump for technical issues Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Ask intelligent questions Keep track of your questions Wikipedia's Manual of Style How to catch admin attention fast How to request help on your Talk page Where to post requests Please return the favor Tips for contributors on getting started Create a user account Why create an account? 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Citation Requests Acronyms and initialisms S.W.A.T., T.I.M, & the U.S.D.A How do you pronounce that? Link to Wiktionary word definitions using Wikt: Introduction to tables How to make a table on a page Pretty tables Using Math Footnotes Please fill in edit summaries Please summarize your work using the Edit summary box Abbreviating edit summaries Automatic edit summary reminder Spell Checkers Fix double redirects Collaborations Tips on editing Check your work before you save, using Preview Undoing edits Search and replace while editing an article Test-drive your edits using a sandbox Dates in Wikipedia articles Section editing Section edit button How to enable right-click section editing Double click editing Edit Wikipedia faster with AutoWikiBrowser Power-editing with AutoWikiBrowser Search & replace in thousands of articles with AWB A better wiki editor: WikEd Counting your edits Getting your edit count Editcountitis How to reduce or enlarge font sizes Style tips From Wikipedia:Styletips: Ampersand Block quotes Case in expanded abbreviations Circa Currency symbols Current Dashes in article titles Dates (I) Dates (II) Downcase the generics Emphasizing a word Formatting titles of literature and art Gender-neutral language Hanging hyphens Hyphens can avoid ambiguity Including Instructional and presumptuous language Italics for emphasis No hyphen after -ly adverbs No initial the or a in article and section titles Number signs Overlinking Percentage ranges Pluralizing abbreviations Points and spaces in abbreviations Quotations within quotations Quotations: allowable typographical changes Seasons Subset terms The year 1995 Unit symbols: figures Unit symbols: spacing US or U.S.? Within-text attribution Tips on creating and editing links How to make links to articles How to create a link to another article Linking articles: the internal link When not to use links How to make links look the way you want Create links faster using tricks Short link pipe trick Time-saving links: the "pipe trick" Time-saving links II How to use red links My link disappeared! 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Subject bar template Working on the Main Page Main page - Did you know Featured content Featured world of Wikipedia Articles about notable books Another way to read or share Wikipedia: Books World of fiction Using the Authority control template Beware of instruction creep Redirects Redirect synonymous topic names Fansites, forums, & other web page articles Band articles Editing projects for school and university classes List tips General topics lists The topic list Why have lists when there are categories? List building Alphabetical list of articles Disambiguation page tips Same titles, different meanings Formatting disambiguation pages Tips on working with images Image processing tools Graphics Lab How to find legal photographs and graphics Permission requests Where to upload images and media files Uploading Free Images Tag your image uploads Cite the source on all image uploads Where on the page to put images How to insert a picture into an article How to add a picture to an article Captions Brilliant pictures Boilerplate/template tips How to create reusable boilerplate What are templates used for? Using templates Placing templates Displaying one page within another = Transclusion How to transclude a page into the page you are editing Transclusion caveat Transclusion vs. Substitution Pick from a list of template parameter choices User page tips Your user page Are you jealous of others' user pages? (WP:UPDG) Calendar date display for your user pages Displaying Tip of the day on your user page Displaying tips on your user page Motto of the day... Your very own Wikipedia bookmark page User Sub Pages Userboxes Other ways to contribute Help reduce the Wikipedia backlog Wikipedia:Today's articles for improvement Translating content Join a WikiProject When is a Wikipedia project a WikiProject? Welcoming Committee Wikipedia needs pictures. How you can help... 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Breaking the 500-edit limit in "View History" Making the editbox more visually pleasing Shortcut for minor edit box Supercharge your browser Toolbar links to access the WP pages you use the most Article banner templates Templates for Age and Dates Archives for lengthy pages Search box bookmarklet for your browser Wikipedia search box focus Are your hands full? (Use search box as a small but convenient clipboard) Shortcuts Shortcuts Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts Work faster with keyboard shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts Navigation Use your browser's toolbar to navigate Wikipedia Your customizable Wikipedia navigation hub Navigation popups Power tool: Navigation Popups Become clairvoyant with Navigation Popups How to skip scrolling and clicking How to turn links to disambiguation pages orange so you can see them How to turn redirects green MetaTips Wikipedia's dozen most essential tips Wikipedia's top ten essential tips Wikipedia's top ten power tips Wikipedia's ten most powerful tips Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other These need sorting into the above categories Be sure to check for duplication - do not include them if they are already there! Note: this section is currently empty. Tip of the moment... How to provide a link to a specific Google Search On talk pages, it may be useful to provide a google search link directly in a discussion of a topic's notability or in debates about which name for a subject is the most common. The Wikimedia software that powers Wikipedia lets you make links to Google by including google: as the prefix for the link, like this: [[google:Tipster]]. Which looks like this: google:Tipster Note: It is important not to use spaces in the search. To add more parameters to the search, separate them by a plus sign, +. For a phrase search, use a hyphen (minus sign), -, between each word. E.g. to search for "Tip of the day", use Tip-of-the-day. To provide a link to a Wikipedia-specific search, include in the google-link +site:en.wikipedia.org (no spaces before or after), like this: [[google:Tip-of-the-day+site:en.wikipedia.org]]. Which looks like this: google:Tip-of-the-day+site:en.wikipedia.org To clean up the link so that only the part you want to show is presented, use the pipe, like this: [[google:Tipster+site:en.wikipedia.org|"Tip of the day"]] Which makes it look like this: "Tip of the day" Prior tip – Tips library – Next tip Read more: Using external search engines   Become a Wikipedia tipster To add this auto-randomizing template to your user page, use {{totd-random}} See also Help desk Tip of the day related Wikipedia:Tip of the day – main page Chronological list of tips Alphabetical list of tips Tip display template types Tip display template gallery Manual of Style related Wikipedia:Simplified Manual of Style – an overview of commonly used style guidelines. Wikipedia:Styletips – a list of advice for editors on writing style and formatting n a bullet-point format Help:Introduction to the Manual of Style – a quick introduction to the style guide for articles Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Reading schedule – a reading schedule designed to assist editors in becoming familiar with Manual of Style General formatting Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia – a page that provides information on the basics needed to edit Wikipedia. Wikipedia:Writing better articles – guidance on how to improve articles Help:Cheatsheet – a page that provides the most commonly used wiki markup Wikipedia:Dos and don'ts – summaries of Wikipedia's policies, guidelines, and formatting standards in a bullet-point format

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