Wikipedia:Help

Start your sections as follows:

New section

Subsection

Sub-subsection

• Start with a second-level heading (==); do not use first-level headings (=).
• Do not skip levels (e.g., second-level followed by fourth-level).
• A Table of Contents will automatically be added to an article that has four or more sections.

==New section==

===Subsection===

====Sub-subsection====

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 diff function (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 ''diff'' function
(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.

You can break lines<br>
without starting a new paragraph.

• Lists are easy to do:
  • 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.

* Lists are easy to do:
** 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.

1. Numbered lists are also good
   1. very organized
   2. easy to follow

# Numbered lists are also good
## very organized
## easy to follow

• You can even do mixed lists
  1. and nest them
     • like this

* You can even do mixed lists
*# and nest them
*#* like this

Definition list 

list of definitions

item 

the item's definition

another item

the other item's definition

• 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

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.

IF a line starts with a space THEN
it will be formatted exactly
as typed;
in a fixed-width font;
lines won't wrap;
ENDIF
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 won't wrap;
 ENDIF
 this is useful for:
 * pasting preformatted text;
 * algorithm descriptions;
 * program source code;
 * [[ASCII art]];
 * chemical structures;

Note the American spelling of "center" (not "centre").

<center>Centered text.</center>

A horizontal dividing line: this is above it

and this is below it.

• Mainly useful for separating threads on Talk pages.
• Also used to disambiguate within an article without creating a separate page.

A [[horizontal dividing line]]:
this is above it
----
and this is below it.

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 http://www.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.

San Francisco also has
[[public transport|public transportation]].

San Francisco also has public transportation.

Examples include buses, taxis and streetcars.

• Endings are blended into the link.
• Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible.

San Francisco also has
[[public transport]]ation.

Examples include [[bus]]es, [[taxi]]s
and [[streetcar]]s.

See the Wikipedia:Manual of Style.

• A link to another namespace.

See the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]].

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

• The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page, or an identifier created in some other way. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections aren't 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>

Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: kingdom.

Automatically hide namespace: Village Pump.

Or both: Manual of Style

But not: [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Links|]]

• 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|]]

The weather in London is a page that doesn't exist yet.

• You can create it by clicking on the link (but please don't do so with this particular link).
• To create a new page:
  1. Create a link to it on some other (related) page.
  2. Save that page.
  3. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing.
• For more information, see How to start a page and check out Wikipedia's naming conventions.
• Please do not create a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.

[[The weather in London]] is a page 
that doesn't exist yet.

Wikipedia:How to edit a page is this page.

• 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 the Manual of Style.

[[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]] is this page.

When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name:

Montrealais

or four to add user name plus date/time:

Montrealais 08:10 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)

These both provide a link to your user page.

Five tildes gives the date/time alone:

12:57, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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 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 will not be implemented in the future, so such redirects should not be used.

#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.
• Please see Wikipedia:Interlanguage links and the list of languages and codes.

[[fr:Wikipédia:Aide]]

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

'''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

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:

1. Bare URL: http://www.nupedia.com/ (bad style)
2. Unnamed link: [1] (bad style)
3. Named link: Nupedia

See MetaWikiPedia:Interwiki_map for the list of shortcuts.

• 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.
• See Wikipedia:External links for style issues.

Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources:
# Bare URL: http://www.nupedia.com/
# Unnamed link: [http://www.nupedia.com/]
# Named link: [http://www.nupedia.com Nupedia]

Linking to other wikis:

1. Interwiki link: Wiktionary:Hello
2. Named interwiki link: Hello
3. Interwiki link without prefix: Hello

• All of these forms lead to the URL http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hello
• Note that interwiki links use the internal link style.
• See MetaWikiPedia:Interwiki_map for the list of shortcuts; if the site you want to link to isn't on the list, use an external link (see above).
• See also Wikipedia:How to link to Wikimedia projects.

Linking to another language's wiktionary:

1. Wiktionary:fr:Bonjour
2. Bonjour
3. fr:Bonjour

• All of these forms lead to the URL http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bonjour

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|]]

ISBN 012345678X

ISBN 0-123-45678-X

• Link to books using their ISBN numbers. This is preferred to linking to a specific online bookstore, because it gives the reader a choice of vendors.
• ISBN links do not need any extra markup, provided you use one of the indicated formats.

ISBN 012345678X

ISBN 0-123-45678-X

Date formats:

1. July 20, 1969
2. 20 July 1969
3. 1969-07-20

• 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 July 1969" if you set your date display preference to "15 January 2001", but as "July 20, 1969" if you set it to "January 15, 2001".

Date formats:
# [[July 20]], [[1969]]
# [[20 July]] [[1969]]
# [[1969]]-[[07-20]]

Sound

• To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link. For images, see next section.

Some uploaded sounds are listed at Wikipedia:Sound.

[[media:Sg_mrob.ogg|Sound]]

• 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.
• See the image use policy, extended image markup/syntax (also possibly image HTML markup) for more hints.
• Alternative text, used when the image isn't loaded, in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternate text for images for help on choosing it.

A picture: [[Image:Wiki.png]]

or, with alternative text

[[Image:Wiki.png|jigsaw globe]]

or, floating to the right side of the page and with a caption.

A picture: [[Image:Wiki.png|frame|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]

or, floating to the right side of the page without a caption.

[[Image:Wiki.png|right|Wikipedia Encyclopedia]]

The frame tag automatically floats the image right. Always add alternative texts to images, even if it has no caption.

Clicking on an uploaded image displays a description page, which you can also link directly to: Image:Wiki.png

[[:Image:Wiki.png]]

To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.

Image of a Tornado

[[media:Tornado.jpg|Image of a Tornado]]

Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.

• These are double and triple apostrophes (single-quote marks), not double-quote marks.

''Emphasize'', '''strongly''', '''''very strongly'''''.

sinx + lny
sinx + lny

x = 0

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>.

<math>\sin x + \ln y</math>
sin''x'' + ln''y''

<math>\mathbf{x} = 0</math>
'''x''' = 0

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 don't 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:
è é ê ë ì í

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

• See Wikipedia:Special characters.

è é ê ë ì í

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

Punctuation:
¿ ¡ § ¶
† ‡ • – —
‹ › « »
‘ ’ “ ”

¿ ¡ § ¶
† ‡ • – —
‹ › « »
‘ ’ “ ”

Commercial symbols:
™ © ® ¢ € ¥
£ ¤

™ © ® ¢ € ¥ 
£ ¤

Subscripts:
x₁ x₂ x₃

Superscripts:
x¹ x² x³ or x¹ x² x³

• The latter method of superscripting can't be used in the most general context, but is preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it.

ε₀ = 8.85 × 10⁻¹² C² / J m.

1 hectare = 1 E4 m²

x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub>

<nowiki>
x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup>
or x&sup1; x&sup2; x&sup3;
</nowiki>

&epsilon;<sub>0</sub> =
8.85 &times; 10<sup>&minus;12</sup>
C&sup2; / J m.

1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m²]]

Greek characters:
α β γ δ ε ζ
η θ ι κ λ μ ν
ξ ο π ρ σ ς
τ υ φ χ ψ ω
Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π
Σ Φ Ψ Ω

α β γ δ ε ζ 
η θ ι κ λ μ ν 
ξ ο π ρ  σ ς
τ υ φ χ ψ ω
Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π 
Σ Φ Ψ Ω

Math characters:
∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞
≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ →
× · ÷ ∂ ′ ″
∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø
∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇
¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔
→ ↔

• See also WikiProject Mathematics.

∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞
≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ →
× · ÷ ∂ ′ ″
∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø
∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇
¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇔
→ ↔

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 m: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 &rarr; use &amp;rarr;

<nowiki>Link &rarr; (''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.

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