Guide 4: Navigating the Wikipedia Interface
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Editing interfaces Guide 4: There are two different editing interfaces – Navigating wikitext and the visual editor. Each has its advantages and disadvantages and it is easy the Wikipedia to shift between them. Interface New users who are not familiar with coding are likely to find the visual editor easier to use, particularly when adding Wikipedia interfaces can appear citations and references. complicated at first, but don’t worry, you • Wikitext editor will get the hang of it quickly. This is the standard Wikipedia draft page Wikipedia provides a step-by-step tutorial and editing interface. It requires you to and there is a large amount of additional manually insert formatting commands, such material available to guide you through. as the heading hierarchy, formatted lists and tables, using wikitext. This guide provides a condensed overview, with links to further detailed information. • Visual editor Further reading and links This alternative editor interface is a ’visual‘ or : online rich-text editor that allows you to write • Wikipedia: Tutorial an article as it will appear on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial • Wikipedia: Cheatsheet 1. Using wikitext https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet Wikitext (also known as wiki markup or • Visual Editor: User Guide wikicode) is the syntax and keywords used https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ to format a page. Help:VisualEditor/User_guide The Wikipedia cheatsheet explains how to • Wikipedia Article Wizard access this, outlines the commands used, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ how these will appear in the final page, and Wikipedia:Article_wizard how to save and edit. You can preview the formatting, citations • Wikipedia: Inline citation/examples and inserted content of your draft article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ by clicking ‘show preview’ at the bottom of Wikipedia:Inline_citation/examples the draft page. • Wikipedia: Referencing for Beginners Refer to Wikipedia: Cheatsheet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ : Help:Referencing_for_beginners • Wikipedia: External Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wikipedia:External_links • Wikipedia: Editing Policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: Editing_policy wikiD guide #4: Navigating the Wikipedia Interface 1 2. Using visual editing 4. Adding citations The visual editing mode for draft and It is important to properly cite all sourced existing articles is activated as follows: information used to write your article. This helps establish the notability of the 1. Click ‘BETA’ in the top right corner of the page. topic and helps to avoid plagiarism. 3. Tick ‘Visual Editing’ See Guide 2: Selecting a Topic/Subject for a list of: appropriate and relevant sources. 4. Save the changes. Citations are semi-automated in the Visual Once visual editing is activated you can Editing mode. In the Wikitext editing choose to edit using this or wikitext. mode you need to manually cite your • Click on ‘edit’ to use the visual editor. sources and compile a reference list at the end of your article. • Click on ‘edit source’ to use wikitext. Adding citations in Visual editor Refer to Visual Editor: User Guide 1. Highlight the text that you wish to cite and click : the ‘Cite’ button in the toolbar. 2. Select one of the three options for adding Creating a new article citations: ‘Automatic’, ‘Manual’ and ‘Re-use’. • Automatic uses the URL. First-time contributors should consider • Manual provides a list of source formats using the Wikipedia Article Creation – including Website, Book, News, Journal Wizard. This takes you through key and other via Basic form – which prompt concepts, such as notability, sources and you to add the relevant information before plagiarism, and finishes on a page where automatically generating a correctly you can start your article. formatted citation. • Re-use is for citing sources that have already Refer to Wikipedia: Article Creation Wizard : been added to the article – you simply select this from the list of existing references rather 3. Getting started than resubmitting the details. Follow these steps to create an article in 3. To insert a reference list for the citations, the Article Creation Wizard. scroll to the end of your typed text and select ‘References list’ from the ‘Insert’ drop-down list 1. On the ‘Ready for Submission’ page enter your in the toolbar. article title and click the blue ‘create new article draft’ button. This takes you to the ‘Create Draft: Adding citations in wikitext [article name]’ page, where you can enter copy and save the page to create a draft. • To add citations and a reference list in Wikitext Refer to Wikipedia Referencing for Beginners 2. Activate Visual Editing (if you wish to use it) : • For a range of citation types, and how they will using the instructions on the previous page. appear in the published article 3. To return to your draft, click ‘Contributions’ (in Refer to Wikipedia:Inline citation/examples the top right corner of the page). Your draft you : have just created will be at the top of the list. 4. Click on your article and select ‘edit’ in the tool bar. Paste in your text and use the tool bar along the top to add formatting. wikiD guide #4: Navigating the Wikipedia Interface 2 5. Adding external links 8. Adding images In addition to citing information, it is Images are an important complement to useful to add external links within the Wikipedia articles. To add an image to body of your article. your article, you first need to upload it to Wikimedia Commons. Adding external links in visual editor 1. Highlight the text that you wish to turn into a Remember to ensure that you have link and click the link icon on the toolbar. copyright clearance on any image you upload. See Guide 2: Selecting and 2. Select the ‘external link’ tab, paste the URL researching a :topic/subject. address, then click done. Adding images in visual editor Adding external links in wikitext 1. Click the ‘insert’ button on the toolbar and • To add external links in Wikitext select ‘media’ from the drop down list Refer to Wikipedia External links : 2. Search using the title of the saved image 6. Adding Further Reading 3. Select the image and review it's details before clicking 'Use this image' The ‘Further Reading’ list at the end of an article reading allows you to provide links 4. Enter caption details and specify the format of to other websites relevant to the subject, the image in General and Advanced settings that may or may not be included in the 5. Drag the image into position. Clicking the reference list. image brings up the editing options if you wish • For instructions on how to format a ’Further to adjust the caption or format attributes. Reading‘ list, and criteria for suitable material : Refer to Wikipedia: Further reading Adding images in wikitext • To add an image in Wikitext Refer to Wikipedia Picture tutorial : 7. Adding internal links Internal links allow your article to be 9. Adding category links found on, and link to, related Wikipedia pages. It is important to link to as many It is important to link your article to Wikipedia pages as possible to avoid your relevant categories. This allows you to article being disconnected from others. connect your article to wider subject Adding internal links in visual editor groups and provides another route for 1. Highlight the text that you wish to hyperlink. Wikipedia readers to find your article. These lists are also important for 2. Click the ‘link’ icon from the toolbar. From here developing a stronger Wikipedia presence you can search and select relevant Wikipedia for women in architecture and the built pages and content based on the term selected. environment. Adding internal links in wikitext The following list should give you an idea • For instructions on linking to another Wikipedia of relevant categories for WikiD – use this page in wikitext : Refer to Wikipedia Manual to explore other relevant categories for of Style: Linking your region and topic. wikiD guide #4: Navigating the Wikipedia Interface 3 • 20th century German architects 10. Use the WikiD hashtag • Australian architects Please put #wikiD in the edit summary of • American architects any article you write or edit (this is at the bottom of the page). • Women architects • Australian women architects This means your work will register through Wikipedia metrics as part of the • American women architects #wikiD project. This is a condition of our • Queensland architects (& other regions) funding from the Wikimedia Foundation and allows us to understand the flow-on effects of the project and training. It is important to add women to general ‘architect’ categories as well as to ‘women architect’ categories. You can also link to other non-architectural Editing existing pages categories, for example • 19XX births and/or 19XX deaths (add the Wikipedia is an ongoing project and relevant year for your subject) everyone is encourages to edit existing articles, either to resolve ambiguity or to • Academics add to or correct existing articles. • Australian academics (& other regions) 1. Log into your Wikipedia account. • Living people 2. Search for the existing article. • Members of the Order of Australia (& other awards) 3. Select ‘edit’ from the toolbar above the article. • University of Sydney faculty (& other universities) 4. Before making any change, open ‘page history’ to assess previous edits. If this has a lot of • Urban planners discussion between editors, the page may be considered ‘controversial’ – you should be • Designers aware of this before proposing further changes. If you are a new user, a less controversial article might be a better place to start. Adding category links in visual editor 1. Select the icon with three horizontal lines at the 5. If you wish to proceed, edit the article using the far right of the toolbar.