Editing an article at the Psychology Wiki is simple. With practice, you will be able to confidently and efficiently edit articles, a great contribution to the Psychology Wiki.
To begin, simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of the page. This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox, not here.
After making the desired changes, it is best to write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. The purpose of this is to politely inform other editors of the changes you made. If you simply added a comma or a period, however, you may simply check the "Minor Edit" box. Please DO NOT check this box if what you changed will greatly affect the meaning of the article. When in doubt, write a summary.
After writing your summary, press the "Show Preview"button to see how your changes will look. You can also see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the "Show Changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, press the "Save page" button. Your changes will immediately be visible to other users.
Congrats! You just made your first edit! Thanks for contributing to the Psychology Wiki!
You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page which contains comments about the page from other users. It is also a good idea to check the talk page before editing an article. Doing so will give you an idea of the page's history. Some articles, for example, have lots of dialogue concerning their layout, etc. You don't want to be the kind of editor that barges in and changes what people just spent weeks to plan!
Note: Please sign all posts on talk pages by writing four tildas after your post. This will inform all who read what you wrote of whom you are, and when you made the post. Please do not sign what you write in the edit box.
Tips on editing Wikipedia articles
Always use a neutral point of view (NPOV)
When there are conflicting views on an article, it is especially important to write it fairly.
Debates are described and characterized, but not engaged in. (Please see the Debating Chamber if this is your cup of tea.)
NPOV requires views to be represented without bias.
The Psychology Wiki is NOT a place to advertise or promote a certain point of view. Let the facts speak for themselves!
Cite your sources
We do this so others can check and extend your work. Many articles currently lack good references.
Please help by researching online and print resources to find references for the article you are working on, then cite them in proper form, and consider in-text citation for contentious facts.
Link to your article from other articles
After making a new page, it's a good idea to use the "What links here" feature to check the pages that already link to your new page. Make sure that all the links are referring to your page in the right context.
For example, a link to the Mercury article in an astronomy-related article should direct readers to "Mercury (planet)" rather than "Mercury (mythology)". You should also use the search feature to find occurrences of the title of your new page—and possible variants thereof—so that you can create appropriate links.
Minor edits
When editing a page, a logged-in user can mark that edit as being "minor". Minor edits generally mean spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearrangement of text. Marking a significant change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, especially when it involves the deletion of some text. If you accidentally mark an edit as minor, you should edit the source once more, mark it major (or, rather, ensure that the check-box for "This is a minor edit" is not checked), and, in the summary, state that the previous change was a major one.
Wiki markup
"Wiki markup" is the syntax system you can use to format a Psychology Wiki page.
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. Try opening the Sandbox in a separate window or tab and keeping this page open for reference.
A single newline
generally has no effect on the layout.
These can be used to separate
sentences within a paragraph.
Some editors find that this aids editing
and improves the function diff
(used internally to compare
different versions of a page).
But an empty line
starts a new paragraph.
When used in a list, a newline does affect the layout (see below).
A single newline
generally has no effect on the layout.
These can be used to separate
sentences within a paragraph.
Some editors find that this aids editing
and improves the function ''diff''
(used internally to compare
different versions of a page).
But an empty line
starts a new paragraph.
You can break lines
without starting a new paragraph.
Please use this sparingly.
Close markup between lines, do not start a link or italics or bold on one line and close it on the next.
You can break lines<br>
without starting a new paragraph.
It's easy to create a list:
Start every line with a star (asterisk).
More stars means deeper levels.
A newline in a list
marks the end of a list item.
An empty line starts a new list.
* It's easy to create a list:
** Start every line with a star.
*** More stars means deeper levels.
**** A newline in a list
marks the end of a list item.
* An empty line starts a new list.
Numbered lists are also good
very organized
easy to follow
easier still
# Numbered lists are also good
## very organized
## easy to follow
### easier still
Definition list
list of definitions
item
the item's definition
another item
the other item's definition
Begin with a semicolon. One item per line; a newline can appear before the colon, but using a space before the colon improves parsing.
; Definition list : list of definitions
; item : the item's definition
; another item
: the other item's definition
You can even create mixed lists
and nest them
like this
can I mix definition list as well?
yes
how?
it's easy as
a
b
c
* You can even create mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this
*#*; can I mix definition list as well?
*#*: yes
*#*; how?
*#*: it's easy as
*#*:* a
*#*:* b
*#*:* c
A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.
This is primarily for displayed material, but is also used for discussion on talk pages.
: A colon indents a line or paragraph.
A manual newline starts a new paragraph.
When there is a need for separating a block of text
the blockquote command will indent both margins when needed instead of the left margin only as the colon does.
This is useful for (as the name says) inserting blocks of quoted (and cited) text.
<blockquote>
The '''blockquote''' command will indent
both margins when needed instead of the
left margin only as the colon does.
</blockquote>
(See formula on right):
This is useful for:
pasting preformatted text;
algorithm descriptions;
program source code;
ASCII art;
chemical structures;
WARNING: If you make it wide, you force the whole page to be wide and hence less readable, especially for people who use lower resolutions. Never start ordinary lines with spaces.
IF a line starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines will not wrap;
ENDIF
Centered text.
Please note the American spelling of "center."
<center>Centered text.</center>
A horizontal dividing line:
this is above it
and this is below it.
Mainly useful for
disambiguation - but to be used sparsely, only when separating completely different, unrelated (groups of) meanings
separating threads on Talk pages.
A horizontal dividing line:
this is above it
----
and this is below it.
Links and URLs
What it looks like
What you type
London has public transport.
A link to another Wikipedia article.
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/wiki/Public_transport, which is the Wikipedia article with the name "Public transport". See also Wikipedia:Canonicalization.
London has [[public transport]].
San Francisco also has
public transportation.
Same target, different name.
This is a piped link.
The "piped" text must be placed first, the text that will be displayed, second.
San Francisco also has
[[public transport|
public transportation]].
#example is a link to an
anchor that was created using
an id attribute
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.
Identifiers may be created by attaching an id="..."> attribute to almost any HTML element.
[[Economics#See also]] is a link
to a section within another page.
[[#Links and URLs]] is a link
to a section on the current page.
[[#example]] is a link to an
anchor that was created using
<div id="example">an id attribute
</div>
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).
Automatically hide stuff
in parentheses:
[[kingdom (biology)|]].
Automatically hide namespace:
[[Wikipedia:Village Pump|]].
Or both:
[[Wikipedia:
Manual of Style (headings)|]]
But not:
[[Wikipedia:
Manual of Style#Links|]]
Agriculture in London is a page
that does not exist yet.
You can create it by clicking on the link (but please do not do so with this particular link).
To create a new page:
Create a link to it on some other (related) page.
Save that page.
Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
The first two both provide a link to your user page.
When adding a comment to a Talk page,
you should sign it by adding
three tildes to add your user name:
: ~~~
or four for user name plus date/time:
: ~~~~
Five tildes gives the date/time alone:
: ~~~~~
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").
Note that, while it is possible to link to a section, it is not possible to redirect to a section. For example, "#REDIRECT [[United States#History]]" will redirect to the United States page, but not to any particular section on it. This feature may be implemented in the future - see feature request 1837 (it appears as a bug).
#REDIRECT [[United States]]
Link to a page on the same subject in another language by using a link of the form: [[language code:Title]].
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.
'''What links here''' and
'''Related changes'''
pages can be linked as:
[[Special:Whatlinkshere|
Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]
and
[[Special:Recentchangeslinked|
Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]
A user's '''Contributions''' page
can be linked as:
[[Special:Contributions/UserName]]
or
[[Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0]]
To put an article in a Wikipedia: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:Character sets]]
To link to a Wikipedia:Category page without putting the article into the category, use an initial colon (:) in the link.
[[:Category:Character sets]]
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 . _ \ / ~ % - + & # ? ! = ( ) @ \x80-\xFF
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://www.nupedia.com/
(bad style)
# Unnamed link:
[http://www.nupedia.com/]
(only used within article
body for footnotes)
# Named link:
[http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia]
Linking to other wikis:
# [[Interwiki]] link:
[[Wiktionary:Hello]]
# Named interwiki link:
[[Wiktionary:Hello|Hello]]
# Interwiki link without prefix:
[[Wiktionary:Hello|]]
Linking to another
language's wiktionary:
# [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour]]
# [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|bonjour]]
# [[Wiktionary:fr:bonjour|]]
Link dates in one of the above formats, so that everyone can set their own display order. If logged in, you can use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting.
All of the above dates will appear as "20 July1969" if you set your date display preference to "15 January 2001", but as "July 20, 1969" if you set it to "January 15, 2001", or as "1969-07-20" if you set it to "2001-01-15".
Only images that have been uploaded to Wikipedia 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:
[[Image:wiki.png]]
With alternative text:
With alternative text:
[[Image:wiki.png|jigsaw globe]]
Alternative text, used when a mouse hovers over the image or when the image is not loaded in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternate text for images for help on choosing it.
Floating to the right side of the page and with a caption:
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Floating to the right side of the page
and with a caption:
[[Image:wiki.png|frame|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]
The frame tag automatically floats the image right.
The caption is also used as alternate text.
Floating to the right side of the page without a caption:
Floating to the right side of the page
''without'' a caption:
[[Image:wiki.png|right|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]
The help topic on Extended image syntax explains more options.
Linking directly to the description page of an image:
Ordinary text should use wiki markup for emphasis, and should not use <i> or <b>. However, mathematical formulas often use italics, and sometimes use bold, for reasons unrelated to emphasis. Complex formulas should use <math> markup, and simple formulas may use <math>; or <i> and <b>; or '' and '''. According to WikiProject Mathematics, wiki markup is preferred over HTML markup like <i> and <b>.
A typewriter font for monospace text
or for computer code: int main()
For semantic reasons, using <code> where applicable is preferable to using <tt>.
A typewriter font for <tt>monospace text</tt>
or for computer code: <code>int main()</code>
You can use small text for captions.
You can use <small>small text</small> for captions.
You can strike out deleted material
and underline new material.
You can also mark deleted material and
inserted material using logical markup
rather than visual markup.
When editing regular Wikipedia 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.
You can <s>strike out deleted material</s>
and <u>underline new material</u>.
You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and
<ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup
rather than visual markup.
Diacritical marks:
À Á Â Ã Ä Å
Æ Ç È É Ê Ë
Ì Í
Î Ï Ñ Ò
Ó Ô Õ
Ö Ø Ù
Ú Û Ü ß
à á
â ã ä å æ
ç
è é ê ë ì í
î ï ñ ò ó ô
œ õ
ö ø ù ú
û ü ÿ
The latter methods of sub/superscripting cannot be used in the most general context, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. For the 1-2-3 superscripts, it is nevertheless preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.
Spacing in simple math formulas:
Obviously, x² ≥ 0 is true.
To space things out without allowing line breaks to interrupt the formula, use non-breaking spaces: .
Obviously, ''x''² ≥ 0 is true.
Complicated formulas:
See Help:Formula for how to use <math>.
A formula displayed on a line by itself should probably be indented by using the colon (:) character.
: <math>\sum_{n=0}^\infty \frac{x^n}{n!}</math>
Suppressing interpretation of markup:
Link → (''to'') the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]
Used to show literal data that would otherwise have special meaning.
Escape all wiki markup, including that which looks like HTML tags.
Does not escape HTML character references.
To escape HTML character references such as → use &rarr;
<nowiki>Link → (''to'')
the [[Wikipedia FAQ]]</nowiki>
Commenting page source: not shown when viewing page
Used to leave comments in a page for future editors.
Note that most comments should go on the appropriate Talk page.
<!-- comment here -->
(see also: Chess symbols in Unicode)
Table of Contents
At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the 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 Wikipedia 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 Wikipedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Wikipedia:Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: {{disambig}} for disambiguation pages, {{spoiler}} for spoiler warnings 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 WP:WSS/ST.
Hiding the edit links
Insert __NOEDITSECTION__ into the document to suppress the edit links that appear next to every section header.
If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a Chinese character...) check if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly.
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