Help:Editing

General
To edit a MediaWiki page, click on the "Edit this page" (or just "edit") link at one of its edges. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the wikitext: the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage.

The edit link of a page showing an old version leads to an edit page with the old wikitext. This allows restoring the old version. However, the edit link of a diff page gives the current wikitext, even if the diff page shows an old version below the table of differences.

After adding to or changing the wikitext it is useful to press "Show preview", which produces the corresponding webpage in your browser but does not make it publicly available yet (not until you press "Save"). Errors in formatting, links, tables, etc., are often much easier to discover from the rendered page than from the raw wikitext.

If you are not satisfied you can make more changes and preview the page as many times as necessary. Then write a short edit summary in the small text field below the edit-box and when finished press "Save". Depending on your system, pressing the "Enter" key while the edit box is not active (i.e., there is no typing cursor in it) may have the same effect as pressing "Save".

You may find it more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite text editor, edit and spell check it there, and then paste it back into your web browser to preview. This way, you can also keep a local backup copy of the pages you have edited. It also allows you to make changes offline, but before you submit your changes, please make sure nobody else has edited the page since you saved your local copy (by checking the page history), otherwise you may accidentally revert someone else's edits. If someone has edited it since you copied the page, you'll have to merge their edits into your new version (you can find their specific edits by using the "diff" feature of the page history). These issues are handled automatically by the MediaWiki software if you edit the page in your web browser.
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Commenting articles and talk pages
Commenting directly in an article is usually done when making useful or important notes about an article, typically in cases in which such information is subject to change and easily removed. While commenting directly in an article can sometimes be necessary in this way, it is generally not recommended and you should instead leave your comments on the discussion page of the article or edit the information into the article directly. Leaving a comment in an article, on a discussion page, or in a user's talk page, is most often done by creating a new sub-section (or sub-subsection) and then typing out your comment below it, followed by leaving your signature. Often times you'll want to comment on another user's comment(s). To do so, simply begin your own comment with a colon ( : ). Using multiple colons in succession will result in a further indented comment. This essentially formats a discussion, or succession of comments, into a branch-like structure.

After you've left a comment, especially on a user's talk page, it's always polite to leave your name and the date/time. There are a few ways to format your signature in this way, but the most common is to leave two hyphens ( -- ) four tildes ( ~ ) at the very end of your comment, which provides your user name plus the date and time. Further examples of options for signatures are provided in the Links, URLs, Signatures section of this article.

Dummy edit and null edit
If the wikitext is not changed no edit will be recorded and the edit summary is discarded.

A dummy edit is a change in wikitext that has no effect on the rendered page, such as changing the number of newlines at some position from 0 to 1 or from 2 to 3 or conversely (changing from 1 to 2 makes a difference, see below). This allows an edit summary, and is useful for correcting a previous edit summary, or an accidental marking of a previous edit as "minor" (see below).

To refresh the cache of some item in the database a lesser kind of dummy edit, called a null edit, may be sufficient: one that does not cause any change in the wikitext, and no entry in the history, in Recent Changes, etc.: this can be done by opening the edit window and saving; a section edit is sufficient.

Minor edits
When editing a page, a logged-in user has the option of flagging the edit as a "minor edit". This feature is important, because users can choose to hide minor edits in their view of the Recent Changes page, to keep the volume of edits down to a manageable level.

When to use this is somewhat a matter of personal preference. The rule of thumb is that an edit of a page that consists of spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text should be flagged as a "minor edit". A major edit is basically something that makes the entry worth revisiting for somebody who wants to watch the article rather closely. So any "real" change, even if it is a single word, should be flagged as a "major edit".

The reason for not allowing a user who is not logged in to mark an edit as minor is that vandalism could then be marked as a minor edit, in which case it would stay unnoticed longer. This limitation is another reason to log in.

The wiki markup
In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.

You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox.

Sections, paragraphs, lists and lines
Summarizing the effect of a single newline: no effect in general, but it ends a list item or indented part; thus changing some text into a list item, or indenting it, is more cumbersome if it contains newlines, they have to be removed.

Page protection
In a few cases the link labeled "" is replaced by the text "" (or equivalents in the language of the project). In that case the page cannot be edited.

Separating edits
When moving or copying a piece of text within a page or from another page, and also making other edits, it is useful to separate these edits. This way the diff function can be usefully applied for checking these other edits.

Categorizing
Usually added at bottom of page code. Use:

For multiple categories, list each category separately:
 * [category:name of category 2]] ...

Speedy Deletion
If you want to propose a page for speedy deletion, insert at the top of the page. This places the page in Category:Deleteme.

Criteria for speedy deletion could include:


 * 1) No meaningful content or history. This includes test edits (eg, "asdf" or "Can I really create a page here?"), obvious nonsense, corrupt images, legitimately blanked pages, or simple vandalism.
 * 2) Reposted content previously deleted according to this deletion policy, unless it was significantly rewritten in a manner that calls into question the deletion reason.
 * 3) Redundant: A page that is identical to another, with no significant differences between them.
 * 4) Copyright violation: Content which is a clear and proven copyright violation, or content previously deleted as a copyright violation.
 * 5) Author's request: Deletion per request of the author, if the author is the only significant contributor, the request is not in bad faith, and the content is not to the benefit of the Wiki.
 * 6) Pages clearly irrelevant to Dreamhost, unless they have some other redeeming value acceptable to Dreamhost.