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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Chuck Marean (talk | contribs) at 16:44, 7 May 2009 (→Character formatting: Added intro & contents. Replaced “pre” with “code” for wrapping. Nested for right-left alignment. Blue with dotted vertical. Numbered entities. LaTeX e.g., chess & amp use.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Misplaced Pages is a wiki, meaning that anyone can easily edit any unprotected page, and save those changes immediately to that page, making the alterations visible to every other reader. You do not even need to register to do this. After your first edit, you will be a Misplaced Pages editor!
Note: You can use the sandbox to experiment with page editing.
Introduction
Editing most Misplaced Pages pages is easy. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a Misplaced Pages page (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you add information to a page, please provide references, as unreferenced facts are subject to removal. When you are finished with an edit, you should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend. To see how the page looks with your edits, press the "Show preview" button. To see the differences between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page, press the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and press the "Save page" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Misplaced Pages users.
You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Misplaced Pages users. Click on the "new section" tab to start a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.
You should also remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages with four tildes (~~~~), but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page history, the MediaWiki software automatically keeps track of which user makes each change.
Minor edits
Further information: ]
A check to the "minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the version with your edit and the previous version: typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. The "minor edit" option is one of several options available only to registered users.
Major edits
All editors are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, a user should consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period, the {{Inuse}} tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will all help to ensure that major edits are well received by the Misplaced Pages community.
A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word.
There are no necessary terms to which you have to agree when doing major edits, but the recommendations above have become best practice. If you do it your own way, the likelihood of your edits being reedited may be higher.
Occasionally your browser will crash. When doing a large edit it is suggested you copy the code of the article you are working on and placing it in a text editor (perferabbly one without formatting, such as MS Notepad) periodically. This ensures that in the case of a browser crash you will not lose your work. It may also be a good idea to save the page after performing a substantiall amount of work before adding additional content to the article.
The wiki markup is the syntax system you can use to format a Misplaced Pages page; please see Editing for details on it, and Wikitext examples for a longer list of the possibilities of Wikitext.
Links and URLs
The anchor element, <a>, is not allowed. The following is used instead: ], , ~~~~, ~~~, http, ISBN, RFC & {{ }}. See the table below.
Internally, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended).
Thus the link above is to the URL en.wikipedia.org/Public_transport, which is the Misplaced Pages article with the name "Public transport". See also Canonicalization.
#Links and URLs is a link to another section on the current page.
Italics is a piped link to a section within another page.
The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case, and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections are not broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page.
Include "| link title" to create a stylish (piped) link title.
] is a link to a section within another page.
] is a link to another section on the current page.
] is a piped link to a section within another page.
The server fills in the part after the pipe character (|) when you save the page. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page (see previous entry).
Self links appear as bold text when the article is viewed.
Do not use this technique to make the article name bold in the first paragraph; see Article titles.
] is a link to this page.
(Signing comments)
The character tilde (~) is used when adding a comment to a Talk page.
You should sign your comment by appending four tildes (~~~~)
to the comment so as to add your user name plus date/time:
and adding five tildes (~~~~~) gives the date/time alone:
13:40, Jan 14, 2007 (UTC)
The first two both provide a link to your user page.
The character '''tilde''' (~) is used when adding a comment to a Talk page. You should sign your comment by appending four tildes (~~~~) to the comment so as to add your user name plus date/time: :~~~~ Adding three tildes (~~~) will add just your user name: : ~~~ and adding five tildes (~~~~~) gives the date/time alone: : ~~~~~
(Redirects)
Redirect one article title to another by placing a directive like the one shown to the right on the first line of the article (such as at a page titled "USA").
It is possible to redirect to a section. For example, a redirect to United States#History will redirect to the History section of the United States page, if it exists.
#REDIRECT ]
#REDIRECT ] will redirect to the ] page, to the History section, if it exists
(Wikimedia link)
To connect, via interwiki link, to a page on the same subject in another language, put a link of the form: ] near the bottom of the article.
For example, in article "Plankton", which is available on a lot of other wikis, the interwiki link to the German Misplaced Pages looks like:
]
where the "de" is the language-code for "Deutsch" (the German language).
It is recommended interwiki links be placed at the very end of the article.
Interwiki links are not visible within the formatted article but, instead, appear as language links on the extreme left-margin column of a Misplaced Pages page (under menu section "languages").
'''What links here''' and '''Related changes'''
pages can be linked as:
[[Special:
WhatLinkshere/Wikipedia: How to edit a page]]
and
[[Special:
RecentChangeslinked/ Misplaced Pages: How to edit a page]]
A user's '''Contributions''' page can be linked as: ] or ]
(Categorize)
To put an article in a category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. As with interlanguage links, it does not matter where you put these links while editing as they will always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended.
]
(Category page link)
To link to a category page without putting the article into the category, use a colon prefix (":Category") in the link. The formatted text link will appear as: Category:Character sets.
]
(External links)
Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources:
Square brackets indicate an external link. Note the use of a space (not a pipe) to separate the URL from the link text in the "named" version.
In the URL, all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ \ / ~ % - + & # ? ! = ( ) @
If a URL contains a character not in this list, it should be encoded by using a percent sign (%) followed by the hex code of the character, which can be found in the table of ASCII printable characters. For example, the caret character (^) would be encoded in a URL as %5E.
If the "named" version contains a closing square bracket "]", then you must use the HTML special character syntax, i.e. ] otherwise the MediaWiki software will prematurely interpret this as the end of the external link.
There is a class that can be used to remove the arrow image from the external link. It is used in Template:Ref to stop the URL from expanding during printing. It should never be used in the main body of an article. However, there is an exception: wikilinks in Image markup. An example of the markup is as follows:
Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: # Bare URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/ (bad style) # Unnamed link: (only used within article body for footnotes) # Named link:
Linking to other wikis: # ] link: ] # Interwiki link without prefix: ] # Named interwiki link: ]
Linking to another language's wiktionary:
# ] # ] # ]
(Book sources)
ISBN 012345678X
ISBN 0-12-345678-X
Link to books using their ISBN. This is preferred to linking to a specific online bookstore, because it gives the reader a choice of vendors. However, if one bookstore or online service provides additional free information, such as table of contents or excerpts from the text, then a link to that source will aid the user and is recommended.
ISBN links do not need any extra markup, provided you use one of the indicated formats.
ISBN 012345678X
ISBN 0-12-345678-X
(RFC number)
Text mentioning an RFC number anywhere, e.g. RFC 4321.
Link directly to edit for an existing page, or apply other link attributes.
use {{fullurl:}}
or use {{template:edit}} which conceals the edit label for page printing
{{fullurl:page name|action=edit}}
Images
Only images that have been uploaded to Misplaced Pages can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.
What it looks like
What you type
A picture:
A picture:
]
With alternative text:
With alternative text:
]
Alternative text, used when the image is unavailable or when the image is loaded in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternative text for images for help on choosing it.
Floating to the right side of the page using the frame attribute and a caption:
Floating to the right side of the page
using the ''frame'' attribute and a caption:
]
The frame tag automatically floats the image right.
The caption is also used as alternate text.
Floating to the right side of the page using the thumb attribute and a caption:
Floating to the right side of the page
using the ''thumb'' attribute and a caption:
]
The thumb tag automatically floats the image right.
The caption is also used as alternate text.
An enlarge icon is placed in the lower right corner.
Floating to the right side of the page without a caption:
Floating to the right side of the page
''without'' a caption:
]
Linking directly to an image
without displaying it:
]
To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
Using the span and div tag to separate images from text (note that this may allow images to cover text):
Example:
<div style="display:inline;
width:220px; float:right;">
Place images here </div>
Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers):
Example: {| align=right
|-
|
Place images here
|}
See the Misplaced Pages's image use policy as a guideline used on Misplaced Pages.
For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the topic on Extended image syntax.
Headings
For a top-level heading, put it on a separate line surrounded by '=='. For example:
== Introduction ==
Subheadings use '===', '====', and so on.
Character formatting
Symbols not on the keyboard can be rendered if the browser supports them. Copy and paste can be utilized with many of the symbols themselves, including in text editors.
(Delete and insert)
You can strike out deleted material and underline new material.
You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>.
You can also mark deleted material and inserted material using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new logical with the old physical markup.
You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new <del>logical</del> with the old <s><del> physical </del></s> markup.
When editing regular Misplaced Pages articles, just make your changes and do not mark them up in any special way.
When editing your own previous remarks in talk pages, it is sometimes appropriate to mark up deleted or inserted material.
The "x&# . . ." method is not used, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. The Manual of Style prefers the x<sub>1</sub> format because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.
Copy and paste does not work for subscript and superscript characters, although it does for others such as β.
Ordinary text should use for emphasis wiki markup like ( ''Italic text'' ), and should not use HTML markup like <i>. However, mathematical formulae use HTML italics and sometimes bold (for reasons unrelated to emphasis). Formulae with LaTeX markup use <math>, and simple formulae may use <math> or the template {{math}} with either HTML's <i> and <b> or wiki markup's ''Italic text'' and '''Bold text'''. Be sure to replace = with {{=}}.
(Spacing in simple math formulae)
x ≥ 0
x ≥ 0
To space things out, you can use non-breaking space: .
You can use line break (<br />) if you need a line break inside a formula.
A formula displayed on a line by itself can be indented by using the colon (:) character.
: <math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>
(Chess symbols)
♔ ♕ ♖
♗ ♘ ♙
♚ ♛ ♜
♝ ♞ ♟
<font size=5>
♔ ♕ ♖
♗ ♘ ♙
♚ ♛ ♜
♝ ♞ ♟
</font>
(Showing character entities)
→
To show a character entity, replace its ampersand (&) with the entity for ampersand (&).
&rarr;
No or limited formatting—showing exactly what is being typed
A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them—what you see, is what you get!
What it looks like
What you type
<nowiki> tag:
The nowiki tag ignores ] ''markup''.
It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces.
It still interprets special characters: →
<nowiki>
The nowiki tag ignores ] ''markup''.
It reformats text by removing newlines
and multiple spaces.
It still interprets special
characters: →
</nowiki>
<pre> tag:
The pre tag ignores ] ''markup''.
It also doesn't reformat text.
It still interprets special characters: →
<pre>
The pre tag ignores ] ''markup''.
It also doesn't reformat text.
It still interprets special characters:
→
</pre>
Leading space:
Leading spaces are another way
to preserve formatting.
Putting a space at the beginning of each line
stops the text from being reformatted.
It still interprets Wikimarkup and
special characters: →
Leading spaces are another way
to preserve formatting.
Putting a space at the beginning of each line
stops the text from being reformatted.
It still interprets ] ''markup'' and
special characters: →
It's uncommon, but on occasion acceptable, to add a hidden comment within the text of an article. The format is this:
<!-- This is an example of text that won't normally be visible except in "edit" mode. -->
Table of contents
At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the table of contents (TOC) to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also Compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.
NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.
CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.
In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like {{grammar:case|word}} to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, {{grammar:genitive|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}} means the same as {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}.
Templates
The MediaWiki software used by Misplaced Pages has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text), can be inserted into articles. For example, typing {{stub}} will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: {{disambig}} for disambiguation pages and {{sectstub}} like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example: {{Geo-stub}}, {{Hist-stub}}, and {{Linux-stub}}. For a complete list of stubs see Stub types.