Heading
, and subsections are Sub-heading 1
, Sub-heading 2
, and so on. The normal format for text is Paragraph
.
Formatting: Pressing the "A" opens a menu.
Bold
item (B) bolds the selected text.Italic
item (I) italicizes the selected text.Superscript
item (x2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and to be slightly higher than the surrounding text.Subscript
item (x2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and to be slightly lower than the surrounding text.Strikethrough
item (S) adds a solid bar through the selected text.Computer code
item (a set of curly brackets: {}
) changes the font of the selected text to a monospaced font, which sets it apart from surrounding (proportionally spaced) text.Underline
item (U) adds a solid line beneath the selected text.Language
item (文A) allows you to label the language (for example, Japanese) and direction (for example, right-to-left) of the selected text.Remove
, removes all character formatting from the selected text, including links.If you have not selected any text, then when you press the "A" to open the menu, and then select an item, that formatting will apply to the text that you start typing, from wherever your cursor is located.
Linking tool: The chain icon is the linking tool. Pressing on it (usually after selecting some text) opens the link dialog. Cite menu: TheCite
menu is used to add inline citations (also called "footnotes" or "references"). All projects have access to basic reference formatting and the ability to reuse citations by using this menu. Cite button: If the Citoid service and/or citation tool is enabled on your wiki, you will see a Cite button instead of a Cite menu.
Instructions for adding local citation templates to the Manual
tab at a specific wiki are available at VisualEditor/Citation tool .
Instructions for enabling the Automatic tab are available at Enabling Citoid on your wiki
The Citoid service tries to fill out citation templates automatically.
Lists and indentation: The first two items allow you to format text as either aBullet list
or a Numbered list
. The last two items allow you to decrease or increase the indentation level of list items. Insert: The Insert
menu may be different on some projects. Below is a list of all options that may appear.
Images and media
icon (a picture of mountains) opens the media dialog.Template
icon (a puzzle piece) allows you to edit templates.Comment
item (a speech balloon) allows you to insert comments that are not visible to readers; these comments can be seen only when in edit mode, where they are indicated by an exclamation mark icon. In edit mode, pressing on the exclamation mark icon allows you to edit or delete the comment.Hieroglyphs
icon (an ankh symbol - ☥) allows you to enter the hieroglyphics inserter. (See below.)Gallery
icon (a set of photos) allows you to insert a gallery to the page.Math formula
icon (Σ) opens the formula inserter dialog.Your signature
item allows you to insert a signature that you use on the project. It will be greyed out (not selectable) when you are editing a type of page (a "namespace "), such as an article, where signatures should not be inserted.References list
icon (three books) opens a dialog in which you can specify where references will be displayed to the reader. Usually this needs to be done only once on a page.Special character
(Ω) icon is next to the Insert
menu. When pressed, it displays a dialog showing many special characters. By pressing on a specific character, you place it into the text. These special characters include some standard symbols, diacritics, and mathematical symbols. (This list may be customized locally. See VisualEditor/Special characters for instructions.)
Determining which system is in place
Your wiki may use one of three footnote systems. The one shown on the right is the simplest system, where the Cite
menu does not include any citation templates. If your wiki uses this system, then everything you need to know about footnotes is on this page. In the second system, you again start by pressing the Cite
button. Then a dialog box opens, which includes several popular citation templates set up for quick access in the Manual
tab. If your wiki uses this system, then you will find more details at Help:VisualEditor/User guide/Citation templates . In the third system, you again start by pressing the Cite
button. Then a dialog box opens, which includes an automatic citation process using the Citoid service under the Automatic
tab. If your wiki uses this system, you will find more details at Help:VisualEditor/User guide/Citations-Full
Editing an existing reference
To edit an existing reference, press on it where it appears in the text (usually as a bracketed number). You will see either a Reference
icon (bookmark) or an icon (and name) for the template that was used to create this reference. In either case, pressing on the Edit
button will open a dialog where you can edit the reference. For the Reference
icon, pressing Edit
opens the reference dialog. To start changing the reference information, press on it.
Many wikis use templates to format references. If a template is used in your reference, then when you move your pointer over the reference information, all the information in that field will be highlighted.
If a template was used and you press on the reference information, then the Template icon (puzzle piece) will appear with some information. Press on the Edit
button to edit the content of the template in the template editor dialog.
Edit
will open the template editor dialog. Inside the template editor, you can add or remove types of information or change current content. Only fields (template parameters) that have content will show, initially. To add fields, press on Add
at the bottom of the editor. Press on Apply changes
when you are done.
Re-using an existing reference
If the page already contains a citation that applies to the text you want to source, then you can choose to re-use that existing citation.
To re-use an existing reference, place your cursor in the body of the text where you want to add a new reference (number) for that citation. Then press on the Re-use
item from the Cite
menu.
(Note: If your wiki has the second or third footnote system described above, you'll see a Re-use
tab, in a dialog, instead of a Re-use
item on the Cite
menu.)
Search within current citations
) to list only those references that include certain text.
Adding a new reference
To add a citation using the Cite
menu, place your cursor where you want to add it in the text. Then click Basic
.
Using the Basic
citation
Shown here is what you will see if you select the basic references item. In the Reference editor, you can add your citation, including formatting.
You can make the reference belong to a given group, although normally this is left blank. (This option is used to display groups of references with the References list
tool.)
Insert
toolbar menu within the Reference editor. Then, look for the template you want to use, add it and edit it as you would any other template. (See the Editing templates section, below, if you need more information about templates.)
After you are done editing your new template, press on Apply changes
to return to the Reference editor, and Apply changes
again to return to the page you are editing.
Place the cursor where you want to display the references list (usually at the bottom of the page), open the Insert
menu and press the References list
icon (three books).
The final step in the References list dialog is to press Insert
.
Cite
menu. If so, you have quick access to the most-used citation templates for your wiki. (Instructions for adding extra citation templates to your local wiki are available at VisualEditor/Citation tool .) Pressing on a template icon such as "Cite book" will take you into the template editor for that template. Important information fields may be marked with an asterisk. While the most common fields will be shown, not all of them are required. To add more parameters, scroll down in the template editor and press on the Add
option.
Press on Insert
when you are done.
The powerful MediaWiki template system lets you insert dynamic content, text from other pages, and much more. For a detailed explanation and examples, see the Templates help page.
In the VisualEditor you can search for a relevant template, add an invocation or transclusion on the page you’re editing and, if needed, add custom content using parameters.
To add a template to a page, place your cursor at the position on the page where you want the template to be inserted. Then open the Insert menu and select " Template". Alternatively, type two curly brackets {{ to open the same dialog. Find the template you want to insert by typing either its name or a relevant keyword. Results containing the search term in either the name or description will display in a dropdown. This should help you find a relevant template, even if you don’t know its exact name.If you’re having trouble finding the kind of template you want by using keywords, you can look on other wiki pages with similar content and view or edit the page source to see which templates are in use. When you find the desired template’s name, you can type it into this field to insert it here.
You can also edit a template that’s already on a page. When you select the template you want to edit, it turns blue, and a box appears displaying Template
. Then select the Edit
link or double click on the template itself to open the template. Some templates are not visible to someone reading a page. In the visual editor, such hidden templates are still shown so that you can click and edit or delete them. The name of the template will be shown next to the puzzle icon and both will be grayed out.
Template parameters
You’ll see this dialog box when you’re adding a new template or editing one already in place. What you see in the box depends on whether the template in question contains TemplateData , helpful metadata added by other editors to make it easier to edit templates in the Visual Editor.
When a template contains TemplateData, the VisualEditor can use it to present annotated fields for you to fill in.
For templates that have some community-provided TemplateData, the VisualEditor displays a list of the named parameters and, often, descriptions and instructions explaining the meaning and required format for each parameter’s values.
When you insert a new template, you may find that some optional parameters are pre-selected. That means the author(s) of the template recommends the use of those parameters. It’s best to review all parameters that will be used in a template to ensure you understand their use.
Clicking an unchecked parameter adds it to the template. Clicking a parameter that’s already been added takes you to the parameter’s input field.
Some template parameters will show as “deprecated”. Don’t use deprecated parameters when inserting a template; they’re only visible to you because those parameters are in use on older pages where this template was included.
Interface for adding more parameters to a template in the VisualEditor Adding undocumented parameters If you’re inserting or editing a template whose author hasn’t laid out its parameters in TemplateData, it has what we call “undocumented” or “unnamed parameters”. In these cases, you should consult the page for the template itself. There you can learn how to correctly employ and work with all of the template’s parameters. This includes learning the exact names of the parameters as written by the template author.If you find in the documentation that the template expects parameters without names, fill in numbers as placeholders for the parameter names using the undocumented parameter input, then add text to the values you want to provide as you normally would.
Example:
If you accidentally include nonexistent, misspelled or erroneous parameters, the values you enter for those parameters won’t show up on the page you’re editing.
Template without TemplateData in the Visual Editor Autogenerated parameters In this example, the template in question lacks TemplateData but it was possible to autogenerate the parameters. This means that the undocumented parameters have already been added for you, but the names may not be easily understandable and the dialog cannot display any directions or descriptions. As a result the dialog box provides a link to the template’s documentation, which should help you deduce and fill in the template’s various parameters. Editing multi-part template content During editing, you may open template content consisting of multiple templates or a single template linked to some wikitext. This differs from the nested templates described below. In this case, the templates are better visualized as being stacked or connected.This content often contains “unbalanced templates,” templates which are incomplete on their own and need to be paired with some wikitext or another template in order to function.
These related pieces of template content must be created in wikitext, but can be edited in the VisualEditor. In these cases you will see a notice at the top of the dialog to signal the situation and a specialized toolbar will be visible at the bottom of the sidebar. There you can use the icon buttons to add additional templates, additional wikitext, delete elements or change their order.
Editing multi-part template content in the VisualEditor Nested templates Templates can include other templates as the value for parameters. You’ll recognize it when you see a parameter whose value contains the double curly braces ( {{ }} ) denoting a template.The VisualEditor can’t present this template within a template (a nested template) using the editor’s easy-to-use interface, so if you want to nest a template yourself, you’ll need to understand how to add the template by hand in wikitext into the appropriate parameter field.
Embedded template in the VisualEditor Completing your edit When you have finished editing a template, you can clickApply changes
. Then you can preview your edit and make sure it looks the way you want and expect.
You may also see an error message, which (like the other TemplateData mentioned above) is community-provided content and may vary in usefulness. You may need to consult the template’s own documentation to get to the bottom of some errors. If you’re still having trouble, consider posting about your problem on the template’s talk page.
Removing a template To remove a template in the VisualEditor, click the template box. Press the Del or ← Backspace key on your keyboard. The template will disappear from the page. Removing a template in the VisualEditor Editing on mobile When editing a template on a page using the VisualEditor on a mobile device, you’ll see that the sidebar starts out hidden. You can make it visible by pressing the “Show/hide options” button. Editing a template on mobile in the VisualEditor Substituting templates When you insert a template in a wiki page, its content and appearance are reevaluated every time the page loads, based on the template code and the values of its parameters. This means if someone updates the code of a template, then every page which uses that template will also get updated when they publish.There’s another, much less common way to use templates, though, and that’s to substitute a template. Doing this permanently includes the template content just as it appears at the moment you insert it. It will not update if the template code is later changed.
Most users won’t ever need to resort to substitution. Substitution is typically only useful when you need to capture the exact appearance of one version of a template, such as when content is under development and needs evaluation.
To substitute a template in the VisualEditor, insert a template using the name syntax subst:<template name>
. Then press the blue “Add” button.
When you’re finished, press “Insert”, which will insert the template content as you see it.
Adding a template using SUBST in the VisualEditorMany editors are used to entering wikitext directly, especially bold, italics and wikilinks. Keyboard shortcuts allow to quickly apply formatting without having to use toolbar items. Here are some of the most common shortcuts in the visual editor:
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