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Tips on using and contributing to Wikipedia

Shortcut: WP:TIPS

This is Wikipedia's tip library. Here you can digest how to use Wikipedia in bite-sized morsels. The tips listed below were created for the Tip of the day project, but are listed here by title and organized by subject area for your convenience.

See also Tip of the day and the Tip of the day talk page(where the tips are written). Wikipedia also has an introduction for aspiring contributors that provides information and resources on the basics needed to comprehend, comment on, and edit Wikipedia. For other useful directories, see the navigation bar above.

Tip of the day...
Beware of instruction creep

Also called instructionitis, instruction creep is the tendency for instructions to grow and grow, until they become so long and complex that nobody wants to read them. When editing help pages, or instructions for Wikipedia's departments, please make them clear and concise, reducing them whenever possible.

Read more: Instruction creep (from Meta-Wiki)

Prior tip - Next tip

To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use {{Tip of the day}}. Become a Wikipedia tipster



WikiGnomes are welcome here. Please proofread our tips!

Tips about Wikipedia as a whole

Don't believe everything you read

Help Wikipedia help you

How reliable is Wikipedia?

Accuracy, quality and peer review

What the world knows about us

How popular is Wikipedia?

Copyrights? Copyleft

Wikipedia etiquette = Wikiquette

The Wikipedia Curriculum

"Where do I begin?"

Tips on accessing Wikipedia pages

Wikipedia for your cell phone or PDA

Finding your way around Wikipedia and beyond

"Where do I begin?"

To see everything on Wikipedia about a subject area...

Wikipedia has 20 sections, called namespaces

Namespace entry points

How to see a list of the pages in a namespace

Wikipedia's alphabetical index of articles

Getting a subpage listing

How to get a list of a page's subpages

When to use subpages

Wiki-exploration: beyond Wikipedia...

Wikimedia links and shortcuts

Linking to non-Wikimedia wikis

Can't find what you are looking for?

Tips on searching

Highlight text on any website, then search Wikipedia for it with a single click

Wikipedia-search with auto-completion

How to search Wikipedia with Lycos

Using Wikipedia's search box:

When a search fails, check your spelling

How to jump to the search box

When "Go" doesn't work, try "Search"

Using the prefix in searches

Searching Wikipedia with Google:

Search Wikipedia from any website

Searching Wikipedia from any website

Search Wikipedia faster with Google search tricks

Wikipedia-specific Google searchbox

Wikipedia-specific searching with Google

Search Wikipedia with Google's site-specific search feature

Wikipedia-specific Google searchbox

When and how to exclude Wikipedia from your Google search

Another way to search Wikipedia with Google

Search Wikipedia and Google at the same time

Google Toolbar Current Site Search Button

Firefox search tips:

Wikipedia-specific searching within Firefox

Wikipedia Search Box for Firefox

Tips on bookmarking, creating access points, etc.

How to change your default Main Page

Wikipedia toolbar for Firefox

Getting help

Are you looking for help?

Go to the right desk

Ask intelligent questions I

Ask intelligent questions II

Keep track of your questions

Do you need administrator assistance?

Where to post requests

Tips for contributors on getting started

Create a user account

Why create an account?

The five pillars

Please read department instructions

Where to begin?

How to improve Wikipedia's reliability

Speed up your learning curve...

Create your sister accounts now

How to sign your name on talk pages

To sign a message, type ~~~~

Advanced Signatures I

Advanced Signatures II

How to customize your signature

How to add hidden editor notes in an article

Watching for changes

How to look at the changes to an article

How to review user contributions

Where to write about current events

What can be included in Wikipedia?

Freedom of speech and profanity

Tips on working with articles

Be neutral, like Wikipedia

Be neutral when editing Wikipedia

Look before you leap

What writing style to use

No copies of primary sources

Not everything that's true is verifiable

Avoid trademarks

Avoid using neologisms

Preventing markup glitches

How to start a new article

How to create a new page

SuggestBot is a fun way to pick pages to edit

A fun way to pick pages to edit

The three revert rule

List the things to do for an article

The lead section

Lead section edit trick

Lead section size

Placing a page's Table of Contents

Cite your sources

Where did that fact come from?!

Don't use forums or emails as sources

Forums and emails are not acceptable sources

If you have privileged access to web pages...

Citation Requests

Acronyms and initialisms

S.W.A.T., T.I.M, & the U.S.D.A

Working with table formatting

How to create reusable boilerplate

Placing external links sections

Please fill-in edit summaries

Remember: fill-in the edit summary

Abbreviating edit summaries

Edit summary memory trick

Spellcheck before you hit "Save"

Use "Show preview" to check your work before you hit "Save"

Fix double redirects

Tips on editing

Check your work before you save, using Preview

Section edit button

Section editing

The edit toolbar

How to enable right-click section editing

Double click editing

Fast Wikipedia editing with AutoWikiBrowser

Power-editing with AutoWikiBrowser

Search and replace while editing an article

Search & replace in thousands of articles with AWB

Tips on creating and editing links

Using Special:MyPage to make private links

When not to use links

Linking to another article

How to create a link to another article

Linking articles: the internal link

Linking to a section

How to link to a section of an article

When to use external links

Placing "External links" sections

How to link to a category

How to link to a category without categorizing the page

Short link pipe trick

Interwiki links and shortcuts

Create links faster with link tricks

Time-saving links

Time-saving links: the "pipe trick"

Time-saving links II

How to make links look the way you want

My link disappeared!

How to use red links

Google search link

How to provide a link to a specific Google Search

Sister projects & interwiki linking

How to link to word definitions

Wikimedia links and shortcuts

Placing interlanguage links

Link articles to their foreign-language counterparts

Linking to non-Wikimedia wikis

Category tips

How to add an article to a category

Placing category tags

Sorting entries in the categories

How to create a category

How to create a subcategory

Find stubs and expand them

Tips on working with specific types of pages

Redirect synonymous topic names

Fansites, Forums, & other Webpage Articles

Working on the Main Page

Featured content

World of fiction

Beware of instruction creep

List tips

Why have lists when there are categories?

Alphabetical list of articles

Disambiguation page tips

Same titles, different meanings

Formatting disambiguation pages

Tips on working with images

Image processing tools

How to find legal photographs and graphics

Permission Requests

Uploading Free Images

Tag your image uploads

Cite the source on all image uploads

Inserting a picture in an article

How to add a picture to an article

Brilliant pictures

Boilerplate/template tips

What are templates used for?

Placing templates

How to transclude a page into the page you are editing

Transclusion caveat

Inclusion vs. Transclusion

Pick from a list of template parameter choices

User page tips

Displaying Tip of the day on your user page

How to display the tip of the day on your user page

Need ideas for your user page design?

Your very own Wikipedia bookmark page

Other ways to contribute

Be a Help Desk volunteer

Welcoming Committee

Join the fight against vandalism

WikiDefcon (Vandalism level indicator)

Intruder alert! Intruder alert! (Vandalism-level warning)

Wikipedia needs pictures. How you can help...

Become an Administrator

Help test the MediaWiki software

When is a Wikipedia project a WikiProject?

Spoken Wikipedia

Digital audio editors

Communicating with other editors

Talking to Wikipedians

What to do about unsigned comments

What did he say?

Be forgiving to new users

Gain feedback on your editing from other editors

Posting on the Wikipedia Community Bulletin Board

How to catch admin attention fast

Love thy neighbor

Try to see it my way!

In conflicts, reach consensus

Mediation Cabal

Explaining Wiki markup to other users

Wikimedia-wide issues

Strikeout button

Centralizing project discussion

Wikimedia has mailing lists

Watchdogging (monitoring) Wikipedia

Preview tomorrow's featured article

Use your watchlist

How to make your watchlist easier to read

How to watch for pages that don't exist yet

How to enable the Enhance recent changes setting

Join the Recent Changes Patrol!

Join Wikipedia's Counter Vandalism Unit

To count your edits, use Essjay's Edit Counter

Configuring and customizing your account

How to change your username

Reserve your username on the sister projects, before it gets taken

Customize appearance of dates

Keeping track of time

Troubleshooting Wikipedia's look and feel with skins

Double click editing

How to adjust the height of your edit window

How to enable right-click section editing

How to disable the section edit links

Making the edit summary input field larger

How to enable the Enhance recent changes setting

Upgrade Recent Changes in my preferences

Install your first javascript

Tips on working faster

Think outside the box

Think outside the box

Wikipedia search box focus

Viewing Persondata

Making the editbox more visually pleasing

Change text size quickly (with Ctrl-mouse wheel)

Automating tasks on Wikipedia

Are your hands full? (Use search box as a small but convenient clipboard)

Shortcuts: Shortcuts; Navigate fast using shortcuts; Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts; Use Wikipedia shortcuts to navigate faster; Work faster with keyboard shortcuts; Keyboard shortcuts

Navigation: Navigation popups; Power tool: Navigation Popups; Your customizable Wikipedia navigation hub; How to skip scrolling and clicking; How to make redirects turn green so you can see them

MetaTips

Wikipedia's dozen most essential tips

Wikipedia's dozen most powerful tips

Wikipedia's top ten essential tips

Wikipedia's top ten power tips

Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other

These need sorting into the above categories

Be sure to check for duplication - don't include them if they are already there!

Dynamic date conversion

Find this page confusing? Just use this link to ask for help on your talk page; a volunteer will visit you there shortly!

Wikipedia help pages

Help Menu (?) Noticeboards (?) Frequently asked questions (FAQs) (?) Reference desks (?) The Missing Manual (?)

About Wikipedia	Principles (Wikipedia in brief) Policies and guidelines What Wikipedia is not Disclaimer (parental advice) Making requests where to ask questions contact Wikipedia directly Who writes Wikipedia Why create an account?

Help for readers	Books Copyright Glossary Mobile access Navigation Other languages Searching Students Viewing media

Contributing to Wikipedia	A plain and simple overview A primer for newcomers Asking for help Advice for young editors Avoiding common mistakes Etiquette (community expectations) Learning the ropes Instructional material Simplified Manual of Style Simplified rule-set "Ignore all rules" "The rules are principles" Style-tips Tip of the day Your first article (article wizard) Vandalism

Introductions & tutorials	Wikipedia intro Wikipedia tutorial The Wikipedia Adventure Newcomers' training Manual of Style intro Graphics tutorials Picture tutorial (Uploading intro) IRC (live chat) tutorial Navigating intro Policies intro Referencing intro Tables intro Talk pages intro VisualEditor user guide

How-to pages & information pages	Appealing blocks Article deletion Categories Citations / references Referencing for beginners Citation Style 1 Cite errors References and page numbers Diff Editing toolbar edit conflict Email confirmation Find sources Files Footnotes Image deletion Infoboxes Linking (link color) Logging in Merging Namespaces Page name Redirect Renaming pages Passwords Reverting Talk pages (archiving) URL User contributions

Coding wiki markup	Wiki markup (cheatsheet) Barcharts Calculations Characters Citation templates Columns HTML Lists Magic words (introduction) Music symbols Sections Sounds Tables (introduction) Templates documentation messages Transclusion Visual files Wiki tools

Directories	Abbreviations Departments Editor's index Essays FAQs Glossary Guidelines Help directory Manual of Style Policies Shortcuts Tips

Visit the Teahouse if you are a new editor looking for interactive help, or the Help desk for an interactive Q & A forum Ask for help on your talk page

Categories

Table of Contents