Help:How to edit a page

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

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To start editing, click the edit tab at the top of a Wiktionary entry (but, obviously, not until you've finished reading this).

The software that powers Wiktionary is designed to make editing as easy as possible, but there are going to be a few strange things. That's because you can create far more than just plain text.

Contents

Formatting

  • Italic text is generated by typing ''Italic text''.
  • Bold text is generated by typing '''Bold text'''.
  • You can of course combine the two to get bold italic text by using '''''bold italic text'''''
    Or, as is used in our example sentences, you can have an italic sentence with a bold word.

Basic Lines

Looking at a dictionary entry, you can see that a lot of lines are different. For example definitions are numbered, translations have a bullet point, example sentences are indented...

  • Numbered lines are got by # Starting the line with a #
    1. Starting the line with a #
    2. They should be used only for definitions
  • Bullet pointed lines are created for lines * Starting with a *
    • Starting with a *
    • They are used for any kind of list, in particular in translations.
  • Indented lines are those : Starting with a :
    Starting with a :
    These are used for example sentences in conjunction with # in the definitions section
  • It is possible to combine these, to create lists within lists - as I have done here, by putting two characters together.
    1. #An example definition
      #:With an example sentence.

Links

Although I haven't used many on this page, you will often see blue text around, or occasionally red text. These are both links, the blue indicates that an entry exists (though not necessarily in the right language), the red that the entry needs creating. Words in lists always get linked, otherwise there is little point in having the list. Deciding when to use links in prose requires a bit of judgment, I tend to link in two situations.

  1. I have used an unusual word in a definition.
  2. The context requires the use of a technical term.

Although basic links are simple, linking effectively can be much neater, so a quick whiz through how to link.

  • A general link is created [[thusly]] and rendered thusly
  • Links should point to the main form of a word, and not its plurals or past tenses. In many cases this is easy:
    To get wanted to link to want you type [[want]]ed
  • In other cases, the word will not fit nicely like that, and so you have to tell it exactly what you want:
    For idioms like help yourself Wiktionary uses the neutral pronoun 'one' so [[help oneself|help yourself]]

Headings

As you will see, on every entry there are numerous headings of different sizes, these are generated by typing ==Heading==. The more equals signs are included, the smaller the heading will be. Wiktionary has very strict Guidelines about the use of headings, which I would advise you to read through, when you have the time. But, as an introduction

==English==
===Noun===
====Synonyms====

English

Noun

Synonyms

Special characters

You might also want to add characters you can't type because they aren't on your keyboard. You will almost certainly find any character you need in the box below the "Save page" button in editing mode. Just select the set of characters you need and have your pick. For a complete list of unicode characters look here: http://www.unicode.org/charts/

Templates

One often encounters cryptic abbreviations enclosed by double curly brackets in the code. These are templates and automatically substitute text into the code. So if you need the same piece of code on many pages, creating a template might be a good idea. The string {{xyz}} will cause the page to be displayed as if the content of the page [[Template:xyz]] had been in its place. An example is Template:rfc which indicates that a page has been marked for clean-up on Wiktionary:Requests for cleanup. See Wiktionary:Index to templates.

Signing

If you are involved in a discussion, be it on a talk page or on a page such as Wiktionary:Requests for deletion, it is considered bad manners not to sign your (user) name. Signing is most easily done by typing four tildes (~~~~), which will automatically be converted into your user name (linked to your user page) and a UTC time stamp.

See also

Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Help:How_to_edit_a_page"
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