This page provides information and resources needed to comprehend, comment on, and edit

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

. If you just want help with searching and browsing the encyclopedia, see Help:Navigation. If you want to contribute financially, see the donation page.

Wikipedia's purpose

Our purpose is to create a web-based, free content

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

of all branches of knowledge, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

. The goal of a Wikipedia article is to create a comprehensive and neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge about a topic. Editors are encouraged to '' be bold'' in editing in a fair and accurate manner with a straightforward, '' just-the-facts style''. Articles should have an encyclopedic style with a formal tone instead of essay-like, argumentative, promotional, or opinionated writing. The

five pillars Five Pillars or five pillars may refer to: *Five Pillars of Islam, often regarded as basic religious acts of Muslim life * Five pillars puzzle, a mechanical puzzle also known as ''Baguenaudier'' and ''five pillars problem'' *''Five Pillars'' of ...

is a popular summary of the most pertinent Wikipedia principles.

Getting started

As a new editor, also known as a contributor, you may feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer size and scope of this project called Wikipedia. Don't worry too much if you don't understand everything at first, as it is acceptable to use common sense as you go about editing. Wikipedia not only allows you to create, revise, and edit articles, but it wants you to do so. You just need to remember that you can't break Wikipedia and although there are many protocols, perfection is not required, as Wikipedia is a work in progress. Collaborative editing means that incomplete or poorly written first drafts can evolve over time into excellent articles.

Introductions and tutorials

:''For a listing of introductions and tutorials by topic, see: Help:Getting started'' To achieve our goals, a wide range of how-to and information pages are made available. Aside from this page, there are some other introductions (tutorials) to the project. The module introduction is a step-by-step guide explaining what this place is all about and how to contribute. The Wikipedia Adventure is a comprehensive 7-mission interactive guided tour, which covers all the essentials about editing and the expectations and norms of the Wikipedia community. For an extensive textbook see Help: Wikipedia: The Missing Manual.

Creating an account

You do not have to

log in In computer security, logging in (or logging on, signing in, or signing on) is the process by which an individual gains access to a computer system A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic o ...

to read Wikipedia. You do not even have to log in to edit articles on Wikipedia. Just about anyone can edit almost any article at any given time, even without logging in. However, creating an account is free of charge and has several benefits (for example, the ability to create pages, upload media and edit without one's IP address being visible to the public). To create an account in seconds, click Create account and fill out the few required fields. This will be logged, your account will be created, and you will be provided with a link back to this page.

Community protocols and conventions

:''Policy and Guideline: Wikipedia:Civility and Wikipedia:Etiquette'' :''How to pages: Help:Introduction to policies and guidelines and Wikipedia:Simplified ruleset'' Wikipedia does not employ hard-and-fast rules, and there is no need to read any page before editing. However, some standards and behavioural expectations may be enforced. General social norms should be followed by all Wikipedia editors. The Wikipedia community is made up of people from different countries and cultures, with different views, perspectives, opinions, and backgrounds, sometimes varying widely. Editors should treat each other respectfully, work together collegially, and avoid behaviour that would be widely seen as unacceptable, disruptive, tendentious, or dishonest.

Policies Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...

guidelines A guideline is a statement by which to determine a course of action. A guideline aims to streamline particular processes according to a set routine or sound practice. Guidelines may be issued by and used by any organization (governmental or pri ...

, and formatting norms are developed by the community to describe the best practices, to clarify principles, resolve conflicts, and otherwise further our goals. These rules are principles, not laws, on Wikipedia. To varying degrees, policies, and guidelines exist as rough approximations of their underlying principles. They are intended as inflexible, controlling statutes on any set of norms or practices under all circumstances, nor to exhaustively define all matters within their ambit. They must be understood in context, using

common sense ''Common Sense'' is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine collected various moral and political arg ...

and

discretion Discretion has the meaning of acting on one's own authority and judgment. In law, discretion as to legal rulings, such as whether evidence is excluded at a trial, may be exercised by a judge. Some view discretion negatively, while some view it ...

. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia and, as a means to that end, an online community of individuals interested in building and using a high-quality encyclopedia. Therefore, there are certain things that Wikipedia is not and common mistakes that should be avoided.

Discussion and consensus

:''Guideline page: Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines'' :''How to pages: Help:Introduction to talk pages and Help:Using talk pages'' Behind the scenes of Wikipedia articles, there is a large community of volunteer editors working to build the encyclopedia. It is not uncommon for editors to disagree about the way forward. That is when discussion and attempts to reach consensus should take place. Every article on Wikipedia has a

talk page MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for Media ...

, reached by clicking the Talk tab just above the title (for example, Talk:Evolution). There, editors can discuss improvements to the content of an article. You can participate too! If you ever make a change that gets reverted by another editor, discuss the change on the talk page! The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle is a popular method of reaching consensus and may be useful for identifying objections, keeping discussion moving forward and helping to break deadlocks. Some editors will see any reversion as a challenge, so be considerate and patient. While discussing matters, it is very important that you conduct yourself with

civility Civility comes from the word ''civis'', which in Latin means "citizen". Merriam Webster defines civility as civilized conduct (especially: courtesy or politeness) or a polite act or expression. Historically, civility also meant training in the hum ...

and

assume good faith In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case ...

on the part of others.

Edit warring A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

(repeatedly overriding or reimplementing contributions) is highly discouraged. There is a bright-line rule called the '' three-revert rule'', the violation of which may lead someone to be blocked from editing to prevent further disruption.

Disruptive editing Disruption, disruptive, or disrupted may refer to: Business * Creative disruption, disruption concept in a creative context, introduced in 1992 by TBWA's chairman Jean-Marie Dru * Disruptive innovation, Clayton Christensen's theory of industry di ...

is not always intentional, as new editors may simply not understand the ins and outs of Wikipedia. Most other types of pages on Wikipedia also have associated talk pages, including the user page each editor is assigned once they sign up. When other editors need to contact you, they will usually do this by leaving a message on your user ''talk'' page. When someone has left you a message that way, you will see a notice the next time you log in or view a page on Wikipedia. There are many other types of discussions that take place on Wikipedia. For example:

Articles for deletion Volunteer editors of Wikipedia delete articles on the online encyclopedia on a regular basis, following processes that have been formulated by the Wikipedia community, site's community over time. The most common route is outright deletion of arti ...

is where editors discuss whether or not an article should be deleted (or kept,

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

or redirected to another article, etc.); requested moves is the launching point for debating the retitling of pages; and the village pump is a centralized area for discussion where editors debate various aspects of the encyclopedia project, such as proposals for new features, policy changes and technical issues.

The basics of contributing

:''Policy page: Wikipedia:Editing policy'' Wikipedia is the product of thousands of editors' contributions, each one bringing something different to the table, whether it be: researching skills, technical expertise, writing prowess or tidbits of information, but most importantly a willingness to help. Nobody owns articles, so if you see a problem that you can fix, do so. Everyone is encouraged to copyedit articles, add content and create new articles if they have knowledge about the topic at hand or are willing to do the necessary research to improve it. Although you should use a broad vocabulary of regular, non-technical terms, do not use words or expressions that many readers may not know. If an article is written in a highly technical manner, but the material permits a more understandable explanation, then editors are strongly recommended to rewrite it.

Article development and content protocols

Articles make up the bulk of Wikipedia's mainspace. Each article is on one topic (rather than a word and its definition, which usually belong in Wikimedia's dictionary project called

Wiktionary Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a num ...

). Wikipedia does not publish

original research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...

. An encyclopedia is, by its nature, a

tertiary source A tertiary source is an index or textual consolidation of already published primary and secondary sourcesverifiable in reliable sources. Ideally, all information should be '' cited'' to reliable sources and to evidence that is verifiable. However, we only mandate citations for quotations, material whose verifiability has been challenged or is likely to be challenged and contentious material, whether negative, positive, or neutral, about living persons. Sourcing requirements are significantly stricter in such articles on living persons. Please note though that we strongly discourage people from writing about themselves, their friends, bands, websites, companies or organizations, pet projects, personal vendettas, campaigns and any other topic in which they have a

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

. The quality of Wikipedia articles varies widely; many are very good, but some lack depth and clarity, contain bias or are out of date. In general, high-quality articles have the following elements: a lead section that gives an easy-to-understand overview, a clear structure, balanced coverage, neutral content, and are based upon verifiable information found in reliable sources. Wikipedia:Featured content represents the best of what Wikipedia has to offer. These are the articles, pictures, and other contributions that showcase the polished result of the collaborative efforts that drive Wikipedia. All "featured" content undergoes a thorough review process to ensure that it meets the highest standards summarized at featured article standards, and can serve as an example of our end goals. A " featured article" or "

list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

" is indicated by the symbol () in the top right corner of a page. "

Good articles __NOTOC__ Click any of the topics above for a list of good articles on that topic. Good Articles ...

" are those that are considered to be of fairly high quality, having undergone a similar but less rigorous review process to meet the good article criteria. The symbol () in the top right corner of a page indicates "good article" status. Some of Wikipedia's most important topics are listed at Wikipedia:Vital articles. You can look at the table of contents on that page to choose a subject category you know about or are interested in. Choose an article, try to improve it so it matches the good article criteria or even better yet the featured article criteria, which provide models for ideal content and structure. An important way you can help is by creating requested articles.

How to edit

:'' Introductions: Editing with VisualEditor and Editing with wiki markup'' Editing most Wikipedia pages is relatively simple. Wikipedia uses two methods of editing: classic editing through

wiki markup A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

(wikitext) and through a newer

VisualEditor VisualEditor (VE) is an online rich-text editor for MediaWiki-powered wikis that provides a direct visual way to edit pages based on the "what you see is what you get" principle. It was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation in partnership with ...

(VE). Wiki markup editing is chosen by clicking the Edit tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link – if these links are missing, click the Edit tab and remove the code __NOEDITSECTION__). This will take you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the page you were viewing. In this box, you can type in the text that you want to add, using wiki markup to format the text and add other elements like images and tables. You should then press the Show preview button to review your contributions for any errors. When you have finished editing, you should write a short

edit summary A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the ...

in the small field below the edit box describing your changes before you press the Publish changes button. This will help others to understand the intention of your edit. To avoid accidentally leaving edit summaries blank, you can select "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" on the Editing tab of your personal preferences. The VisualEditor option is intended as a user-friendly, "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editor, allowing one to edit pages without the need to learn wikitext markup. Logged-in users can opt in through personal preferences, see the VisualEditor user guide for more information. Anonymous editors get the classic editor by default, but can switch. File:How to edit a page Edit box.png, alt=Text in a large rectangle below two toolbars and next to a scrollbar., Edit box showing the

. You can change the formatting and contents of the page by changing what is written in this box. File:Wikipedia article in VisualEditor 2018-02-12.png, alt=, Screenshot showing the same article in

. Unlike the wiki markup display, VisualEditor will show the text being edited almost as if it were already published. Some pages are protected from direct editing, at differing levels of restriction. The three chief types, in order from most to least common, are: * Semi-protected pages, which cannot be edited directly by unregistered users (

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

es), as well as accounts that are not autoconfirmed (accounts that are at least four days old and have made at least ten edits to Wikipedia), or that are not confirmed. This is normal for pages which would otherwise be vandalized particularly frequently. * Extended confirmed-protected pages, also known as 30/500 protection, which only allows direct edits by editors with the extended confirmed user access level, granted automatically to registered users with at least 30 days tenure and 500 edits. Articles about major, contentious events are likely to get this protection level for a short period. * Fully-protected pages, which can only be edited directly by

administrators Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * ...

. It is very unusual for an article to need this level of protection, but you can see it on key internal pages like the citation system. When you are subject to any of these three levels of protection, you will see a View source tab instead of an Edit tab. You can still seek changes to these pages, by submitting an " edit request" – a user with the ability to edit the protected page will respond to your request. You can submit a request by clicking on the View source tab on that page and using the "Submit an edit request" link at the bottom right. See Help:Protection for more information.

Documenting sources

:''Guideline pages: Wikipedia:Citing sources and Wikipedia:References dos and don'ts '' :'' Introductions: Help:Introduction to referencing (wiki markup) and Help:Introduction to referencing (VisualEditor)'' :'' How to pages: Help:Footnotes and Help:Find sources '' This is an encyclopedia, so remember that it's a necessity to include

references Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a ''name'' ...

listing reliable websites, newspapers, articles, books and other sources you have used to write or expand articles. Please understand that these sources should

verify CONFIG.SYS is the primary configuration file for the DOS and OS/2 operating systems. It is a special ASCII text file that contains user-accessible setup or configuration directives evaluated by the operating system's DOS BIOS (typically residing ...

the information but you must not copy and paste text you find anywhere, except for short quotations, marked as such with quote marks and carefully cited to the source the quote was taken from. New articles and statements added to existing articles may be deleted by others if unreferenced or referenced poorly or if they are

copyright violations Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

. Generally, sources are added directly after the facts they support at the end of the sentence and after any punctuation. Wikipedia permits editors to use any citation system that allows the reader to understand where the information came from, and strongly encourages use of inline citations to do so. Common methods of placing inline citations include

footnotes A note is a string of text placed at the bottom of a page in a book or document or at the end of a chapter, volume, or the whole text. The note can provide an author's comments on the main text or citations of a reference work in support of t ...

, shortened footnotes and parenthetical references. Inline citations are most commonly placed by inserting a reference between tags, directly in the text of an article. After publishing changes, it will ''display'' in the article as a footnote (e.g.^/sup>), and the source you keyed in will appear on the page in a collated, numbered list corresponding to the footnote numbers in the text, wherever a template or tag is present, usually in a section titled "References" or "Notes". If you are creating a new page or adding references to a page that didn't previously have any, don't forget to add a references section with this display markup. There are a number of tools available to help with citation placement and formatting, some of which are internal tools and scripts, while others are available from external sites. For an example of the former, RefToolbar is a

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

toolbar displayed above the edit box that provides the ability to automatically fill out various

citation templates Citation templates are used to format citations in a consistent way, as an alternative to formatting the citations by hand. The use of citation templates is neither encouraged nor discouraged. Templates may be used or removed at the discretio ...

and insert them in the text already formatting inside ... tags. For an example of the latter, th
Wikipedia DOI and Google Books Citation Maker
converts a

digital object identifier A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; the ...

(DOI) or

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

address (URL) into a filled-out or template ready to be pasted into an article. See Help:Citation tools for many others. At the moment, there are over articles that have statements that need citations. The too
Citation Hunt
makes referencing those statements easier by suggesting random articles which you can work on. Practice adding references to Wikipedia by helping us solve a "Citation needed":

Markup, formatting, and layout

:''Guideline pages: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout and Wikipedia:Styletips'' :''How to pages: Help:Wiki markup, Help:Cheatsheet and Help:HTML in wikitext'' Complicated articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure and topic.

Wiki markup A wiki ( ) is an online hypertext publication collaboratively edited and managed by its own audience, using a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages for the subjects or scope of the project, and could be either open to the pub ...

is the syntax and keywords used by the

MediaWiki MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki software. It is used on Wikipedia and almost all other Wikimedia websites, including Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata; these sites define a large part of the requirement set for Media ...

software to format a page. Wiki markup is used extensively throughout Wikipedia for such things as

hyperlinks In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to data that the user can follow or be guided by clicking or tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text wi ...

, tables and

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression membe ...

inline citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

, special characters and so on. An "edit toolbar" (''as pictured below'') is provided just above the edit box, which will allow logged in users (by selecting the option in personal preferences) to automatically place and format various aspects of wiki code. Many

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaS ...

tags can be used in wiki markup. You can check your HTML by using

markup validation Markup or mark-up can refer to: * Markup language, a standardized set of notations used to annotate a plain-text document's content to give information regarding the structure of the text or instructions for how it is to be displayed ** Lightwei ...

Article creation and notability

Before

starting a new article Start can refer to multiple topics: * Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air *Starting lineup in sports * Standing start, and rolling start, in an auto race Acronyms * ...

, please read and try to understand Wikipedia's notability requirements. In short, the topic of an article must have already been the subject of publication in reliable sources, such as books published by major publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed scholarly journals and websites that meet the same requirements as reputable print-based sources. Information on Wikipedia must be verifiable; if no reliable third-party sources can be found on a topic, then it should not have a separate article. Wikipedia's concept of notability applies this basic standard to avoid indiscriminate inclusion of topics. An Article Wizard is available to help you create articles — it is not required but will help you construct better articles. The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is now restricted to autoconfirmed users , though non-confirmed can submit a proposed article through the

Articles for Creation Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

process, where it will be reviewed and considered for publication. Before creating an article, please

search Searching or search may refer to: Computing technology * Search algorithm, including keyword search ** :Search algorithms * Search and optimization for problem solving in artificial intelligence * Search engine technology, software for find ...

Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not ''already exist'' on the subject, and please also review the article titling policy for guidance of what to name the article. Further information is provided at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article's content before creation.

Renaming and page deletion

Wikipedia pages can be renamed by ''moving the page'' to a new title. This is done by clicking on the Move tab at the top of the page (you need to be registered and an 'autoconfirmed' user to be able to do this). Before you do so, please carefully review this checklist of things to consider before a page move. The main principles for choosing an article title are described at Wikipedia:Article titles. Do not move or rename a page by copying and pasting its content to a different title. Doing so fragments the edit history and Wikipedia's copyright licenses requires attribution of all contributors. You may not always be able to move a page yourself and should refrain from doing so even if there is no technical impediment, where the rename would be considered controversial and thus should be discussed first. Technical limitations restricting direct moves include where the page is move protected, the target page is at a title protected from creation, or already exists and cannot be moved over a redirect. In such cases, and to list potentially controversial moves for discussion, please see Wikipedia:Requested moves for more information. While almost anyone can edit and move articles, to keep things manageable, only

can delete them. Note that removing all text from a page does not delete it, it just leaves a blank page, which is discouraged as it is confusing to readers. For all the gritty details, see the deletion policy and how to delete a page. Please remember that the deletion process is about the appropriateness of the article for inclusion in Wikipedia. Therefore, please do not take it personally if an article you've contributed to or created is currently nominated for deletion or is already deleted. For the reasons why and the options available for retrieving data from deleted articles, see why was the page I created deleted? If the page is in your own user space (for example, starts with "User:YourName/" or "User talk:YourName/"), then you can request immediate deletion of the page at any time. Simply edit the page while logged in and put the template at the top of the page. An administrator will see that you added the template to a page in your user or user talk namespace and will delete it in most cases.

Images, sounds, and videos

:'' Overview: Wikipedia:Image dos and don'ts'' :'' How to pages: Wikipedia:Media help and Wikipedia:Picture tutorial'' :'' Introductions: Help:Introduction uploading images and Help:Introduction to images (VisualEditor)'' :'' See also: Help:Visual file markup'' Images, sounds, and videos enhance articles greatly. A file that is already hosted on Wikipedia or the

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

can be inserted with the basic code "". ("Image:" can be substituted for "File:" with no change in effect; the choice between the two is purely a matter of editorial preference.) Using "thumb" generates a

thumbnail Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and imag ...

of an image (the most common placement option), which is typically sized differently from the original image. Several options can affect a thumbnail's placement and size, and there are other methods for placing images not in a thumbnail format, such as in a frame, table or "infobox", which this summary page does not delve into. Only logged in users can upload files under an appropriate title. The first step in uploading a file is to determine its

copyright status A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

. If a file is in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

, or bears a type of free copyright license compatible with the non-restrictive licenses we require for free reuse, then it can and should be uploaded to the Commons rather than locally to Wikipedia, so that all Wikimedia sites, including Wikipedias in other languages, have access to it. If the image is non-free then it cannot be uploaded to the Commons, but you may be able to upload it directly here at Wikipedia, if it meets our stringent standards for a claim of fair use in a particular article. Please ensure that the copyright status of any file you upload has been specified and we are allowed to use it on Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Commons' File Upload Wizard and Wikipedia's File Upload Wizard, will guide you through the process of submitting media. All files uploaded are mirrored between Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and searchable from either one. There are various file formats available. For images,

SVG Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium s ...

, PNG,

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and imag ...

, XCF, GIF and

TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word process ...

formats are recognized (other image formats may be as well). For audio, use

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

, or Ogg with

FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference softwa ...

Speex Speex is an audio compression codec specifically tuned for the reproduction of human speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm.Xiph.OrIntro ...

, or

Vorbis Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder ( codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in con ...

codecs. For video, use Ogg with the

Theora Theora is a free lossy video compression format. It is developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and distributed without licensing fees alongside their other free and open media projects, including the Vorbis audio format and the Ogg container ...

video codec. Wikipedia has a Graphics Lab, which aims to improve graphical content already stored on Wikimedia Commons and English Wikipedia. There is also Wikipedia:Requested pictures – a collection of wanted images. High-quality images may be submitted for consideration as featured pictures if they meet the featured picture criteria. To help with sounds, go to Wikipedia:Requested recordings and see if you can fulfill any of the requests while trying to meet the featured sound criteria. There is also spoken Wikipedia project, which aims to produce recordings of Wikipedia articles being read aloud.

Lists, tables, and templates

:''Guideline page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists'' :'' How to pages: Help:List, Introduction to tables and Help:Template'' Lists are essential to the organization and presentation of content on Wikipedia. Lists in articles and stand-alone lists are subject to Wikipedia's content policies and guidelines if they contain any of the four kinds of material absolutely required to have citations. Outlines on Wikipedia are a specific type of stand-alone lists designed to help a reader learn about a subject quickly, by showing what topics it includes, and how those topics are related to each other. Tables on Wikipedia are a commonly-used way of displaying information, particularly in articles that contain data. Tables are also subject to Wikipedia's policies of verifiability and established facts. The simplest way to insert a table is with the editing toolbar. Although HTML table syntax also works, special wikicode can be used as a shortcut to create a table. The pipe (

vertical bar The vertical bar, , is a glyph with various uses in mathematics, computing, and typography. It has many names, often related to particular meanings: Sheffer stroke (in logic), pipe, bar, or (literally the word "or"), vbar, and others. Usage ...

) codes function exactly the same as HTML table markup, so a knowledge of HTML table code helps in understanding pipe code. Templates are used throughout Wikipedia pages to promote consistency, display enriched content with ease, and avoid the necessity of duplicating material that is used over and over across numerous articles and pages. At its most basic, a template is a Wikipedia page created to be included in other pages. Common uses include to display notices, infoboxes, navigational boxes, standard warnings, special text formatting, unit conversions, calculations and many other purposes. The most common method of inclusion is called transclusion, where the wikitext of the target page contains a reference to the template, using the syntax. To help improve Wikipedia's lists, first find one that interests you at Portal:Contents/Lists of topics or Portal:Contents/Outlines and then help it match the featured list criteria. Ideas for creating a list may be explored at Wikipedia:Requested lists. See Wikipedia:Lists article alerts for details of ongoing tasks and talks about lists. To help with templates see Wikipedia:Template standardisation.

Collaboration groups

WikiProjects are social groups of contributors (anyone may join them), who work together as a team to improve Wikipedia. These groups often focus on a specific topic area (for example,

women's history Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievement over a period of ...

) or a specific kind of task (for example, checking newly created pages). WikiProjects function as a central hub for editor collaboration and the organization of specific topics. Many large WikiProjects have collected some advice about how to apply Wikipedia's policies, guidelines, and essays to their specific subject area (for example, military history notability guide). The English Wikipedia currently has over 2,000 WikiProjects and they all have a variety of tasks to get done (for example, Canadian articles to improve).

Maintenance tasks, news, and discussions

The

community portal A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

is a central location to find (and list) collaborations, tasks, and news about the English Wikipedia. The

Wikipedia Signpost ''The Signpost'' (formerly ''The Wikipedia Signpost'') is the Wikimedia movement's online newspaper. Managed by the volunteer community, it is published online with contributions from Wikimedia editors. The newspaper reports on the Wikimedia co ...

is a monthly, community-written and edited newspaper that covers stories, events, and reports related to Wikipedia. Contribute your opinions to WP:noticeboards in order to have a say in decisions and help come to consensus on certain issues. Posting a message to a noticeboard can also be an appropriate early step in resolving disputes on Wikipedia. For a listing of ongoing discussions, see the Wikipedia:Dashboard. Helpful editorial maintenance tasks include reviewing new pages, creating requested articles, responding to edit requests and assisting with translation requests. Other maintenance tasks includ
fixing unreferenced statements
fixing original research, fixing vandalism, welcoming newcomers, link recovery,

categorization Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...

, fixing spelling and grammar errors, and numerous behind the scenes tasks like moving free images to Wikimedia Commons and helping others. See Wikipedia:Maintenance for maintenance and related collaboration resources, and the Task Center for a newcomer-friendly list of tasks.

Editing aids

In addition to the previously mentioned editing aids and edit toolbar, there are many other "Gadgets", "Tools", "Scripts" and "Bots" intended to simplify, make more efficient, or provide additional functionality to Wikipedians. " Wikipedia Gadgets" are

and/or a

CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technolo ...

snippets that can be enabled by checking an option in your preferences. Many of the " Wikipedia Tools" are hosted on external sites and perform a variety of task such a
reFill
that edits references by adding basic information to bare URLs in citations. " Wikipedia User scripts" is a collection of JavaScript tools that, after installation in a user's common.js file, allow users to change Wikipedia's interface beyond the options available in preferences. "

Wikipedia Bots Wikipedia bots are Internet bots (computer programs) that perform simple, repetitive tasks in Wikipedia. One prominent example of an internet bot used in Wikipedia is Lsjbot, which generated millions of short articles across various language edit ...

" are automated or semi-automated programs that perform repetitive and/or mundane tasks; they require approval before they may operate.

Help resources and interactive assistance

The help resource system of Wikipedia consists of a wide variety of how-to and information pages, written to differing levels of technical expertise and in widely varying styles. This variety, however, has its flaws: it is easy to navigate to a page that regurgitates the same information, contains concepts that have not already been covered, or is overly complicated for one's needs. In short, the effects can be quite frustrating at times. To browse help related pages see the help menu or help directory. Or you can use the search box at Help:contents (accessed at any time by clicking "Help" displayed on the left side of all pages). As mentioned above there is also a copy of a comprehensive published book, at Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. Don't worry if you do get stuck, witness disruptive editing or are involved in a dispute; there are volunteers available to assist you. There are a number of help forums and services which allow users to ask questions, seek assistance, ask for administrative intervention and similar matters. For general matters related to using and editing Wikipedia, forums include the

help desk A help desk is a department or person that provides assistance and information usually for electronic or computer problems. In the mid-1990s, research by Iain Middleton of Robert Gordon University studied the value of an organization's help desks ...

, the

Teahouse A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whi ...

, posting the template to your talk page or to an article's talk page, as well as a live assistance IRC channel at #wikipedia-en-help. More specific help forums include Wikipedia:Media copyright questions, Wikipedia:Requested templates, and requests for translation. To seek administrative assistance, Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents is for reporting serious incidents requiring administrative assistance and Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism is for reporting continuing simple vandalism, after appropriate warnings have been given without the conduct stopping. Finally, general knowledge questions (i.e., those unrelated to Wikipedia) are welcome at the various sections of the reference desk. See Wikipedia:Requests for a listing of services and assistance that can be requested on Wikipedia.