Help:Directory

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This is a directory of

directories
.

You can browse help related pages using the "search box" below.

Most common questions

About Wikipedia

Contributor information

  • Contributing to Wikipedia – the main page that provides information, links, videos and other resources on the basics needed to comprehend, comment on, and contribute to Wikipedia.
  • Welcome to Wikipedia
    – portal style page to get you started.
    • Getting started – small listing of pages dealing with the basics.
    • New contributors' help page – what would you like to do?
    • Common mistakes – a few common mistakes y'all should try to avoid.
    • Plain and simple overview
      – all about this amazing project Wikipedia.
    • Primer for newcomers
      – blunt introduction intended to help newcomers.
    • Learning the ropes – highlights the resources to help you help Wikipedia.
    • Help hub
      – a page that has links to useful directories.
  • Why create an account – don't need to be registered to edit, however it does provide additional features.
    • Choosing a username – do not choose names which may be offensive, misleading, disruptive, or promotional.
    • How to log in – If you are not logged in your edits are labelled in page history with your IP address.
  • Your first article
    – guide to starting your first encyclopedia article.
    • Annotated article – is a well-constructed sample article, with annotations.
      • Article wizard – will walk you through the process of submitting a new article.
        • Creation and usage of media files
          – only logged in users can upload files.
          • Upload Wizard
            – will walk you through the process of submitting media.
  • Frequently Asked Questions – common questions about using and contributing.
  • More instructional material – provides links to instructional material useful for users.
    • Trifecta – ultra fast overview of foundational principles related to policies and guidelines.
  • Things you may not know about Wikipedia – insights specifically targeted at people who have limited experience.
  • Tip of the day – provides "very useful" advice daily on how to use or develop Wikipedia more effectively.
    • See also Wikipedia:Tips, the complete library of tips arranged by subject.
  • User page design center
    – where you will find all the resources for developing your user page. Enjoy!

Frequently asked questions

  • FAQ main page
    – questions about using and contributing.
    • Administration
      – answers some questions related to Administrators.
    • Article subjects – what to do about a specific articles.
    • Categories – about using Wikipedia's categories.
    • Contributing – answers to questions commonly asked by contributors.
    • Copyright – four most commonly asked questions about copyright.
    • Editing – answers the most common questions about editing.
    • Forking – how do I download and use Wikipedia content.
    • IRC (live chat) – about "chat rooms" – real-time discussions.
    • Organizations
      – editing without displaying a conflict of interest.
    • Problems – solving problems you may encounter when browsing or editing.
    • Readers – addresses concerns and questions readers may have.
    • Schools – questions teachers, librarians and administrators might have.
    • Technical – answers some questions related to the technical workings.
    • (Miscellaneous) – questions that do not fit into any of the others above.

How to pages

  • Help:help
    – explains how to find and navigate the help pages.
  • Books – explains how to make and download Wikipedia books.
  • Categories – explains how to edit categories.
  • Copyright – explains how to deal with copyright concerns.
  • Diff – explains how to view the difference between two versions of a page
  • Editing – explains the basics of editing.
    • Edit toolbar – explains the basics about how to use the toolbar.
    • Edit conflict – explains how to deal with an edit conflict.
  • Find sources – explains how to find references.
  • Files – explains how to manage media.
  • Footnotes – explains how to add notes and references.
    • Nesting footnotes – explains how to include a note or reference within a note or reference.
  • Glossary
    – quick overview of terms.
  • Infobox – explains the basics about how to use infoboxes.
  • IPA/English – explains how the International Phonetic Alphabet system works.
  • List – explains how to add lists.
  • Linking – explains how to add internal links.
    • Link color – explains how to add color to link text.
  • Logging in – explains how to access your account.
  • Magic words – explains how words surrounded by brackets or underscores function.
  • Media – explains the basics of seeing media.
  • Merging
    – explains how to consolidate articles.
  • Mobile access – explains how to access Wikipedia from mobile devices.
  • Navigation – explains how to get around Wikipedia.
  • Other languages – explains how to deal with other languages.
  • Page name – explains how to deal with page titles.
  • Redirect – explains how to direct pages to the proper place.
  • References – explains how to make those complicated sources work.
    • Citation Style – explains some of the different reference styles.
    • Cite errors – explains how to deal with errors in references.
  • Rename – explains how to change your user name.
  • Password – explains how to change your personal password.
  • Reverting – explains how to roll back edits.
  • Searching – explains how to use Wikipedia more effectively.
  • Section – explains how to edit just portions of a page.
  • Talk pages
    – explains the basics of what to do on talk pages.
  • Students – explains the basics for students.
  • URLs – explains how to add and deal with external links.
  • User contributions – explains how to view editors additions.
  • Watching pages
    – explains how to track pages.

Technical help

Special pages
Links and diffs
Media files: images, videos and sounds

*

Media help

Other graphics
Namespaces
Customisation and tools

*Customisation

Automating editing
Navigation

Coding (Wiki markup)

  • Wiki markup
    – explains the coding used by text, links, & talk pages
  • Barchart – explains how to make charts.
  • Calculations – explains how to make complicated calculations.
  • Characters – explains how to add special characters.
  • Citations quick! – simplistic examples of two preferred ways of doing footnotes (reference).
  • Columns – explains how to make columns.
  • HTML – explains how to use HTML in text.
  • Musical symbols – explains the basic coding of music symbols.
  • Sound files – explains the basic coding sound files.
  • Tables – explains the basic coding for making tables.
    • Wiki table
      – more advanced coding information on tables.
  • Templates – explains the basic for templates.
    • Documentation – explains the basic of how to properly document template information.
  • Visual files – explains the basic of coding for visual media.
  • Wiki tools – various tools and tutorials intended to simplify, make more efficient, or provide additional functionality.

CSS

Templates and Lua

Tutorials

  • Main tutorial
    – will help anyone become a Wikipedia contributor.
    • Editing
      – almost every page has an "Edit" tab.
    • Formatting
      – the basics on coding.
    • Links
      – the basics on internal links.
    • Sources
      – the basics on adding references.
    • Talk pages
      – the basics on how to communicate with others.
    • Policies
      – there are some things to keep in mind when editing Wikipedia.
    • Registration
      – registering a username is optional, but encouraged.
  • Graphics – the basics on how to use graphics.
  • Images
    – the basics on how to use images.
  • IRC (live chat) – to access the freenode IRC servers, you'll first need to.
  • VisualEditor user guide – a guide that gives illustrated, step-by-step instructions about VisualEditor
    features.

Introductions

Wiki Markup

  • Main introduction – quick overview of what Wikipedia is all about.
  • Editing – the basic pages on how to contribute to Wikipedia.
  • Images
    – introduction to adding images to Wikipedia.
  • Manual of Style
    – introduction to the style guide for articles.
  • Media
    – how to add media to Wikipedia.
  • Navigating – Wikipedia is a big place.
  • Policies
    – how to apply policies and guidelines.
  • Sourcing
    – why references are so important.
  • Tables
    – how an where tables are used and how to make them.
  • Talk pages
    – how to communicate within Wikipedia.

VisualEditor

  • Editing with VisualEditor
    – a five part introduction to editing with VisualEditor. Opening the editor. Toolbar basics. Links and Wikilinks. Saving your changes. Summary
  • Referencing with VisualEditor
    – a five part introduction to referencing. Verifiability. Inline citations. RefToolbar. Reliable sources. Summary.
  • Uploading images with VisualEditor
    – a six part guide on uploading images. Introduction. Free content. Non-free content. Wikimedia Commons. Using an image. Summary.

Training modules

  • Wikipedia assignments for class
    .
  • Training for educators – four-part orientation for professors and other educators running assignments for class.
  • Campus and Online Ambassadors
    .
  • MediaWiki training – learn about editing and formatting content using MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia.
  • The Wikipedia Adventure – Wikipedia is not a game, but learning it should still be fun.

Built-in tours

  • Help Guided tours – providing tooltip-like tours of the Wikipedia experience.
  • Wikipedia GettingStarted – feature, which provides a "getting started" page to newly registered Wikipedians. Immediately after creating an account, users see the page Special:GettingStarted, which invites them to try out editing by improving one of the pages presented.

The Missing Manual

  • The Missing Manual – comprehensive how-to guide (book) that explains everything about contributing for novice to expert editors.
  • Introduction – originally written in 2008 by John Broughto, the Manual has since been expanded and updated by many others.

Part I – Editing and Creating Articles

  • First edit
    – explains what you see when you look at an article in Wikipedia's editing window and how to practice.
  • Sourcing
    – you will need to learn some technical matters.
  • Account setup & personal space
    – having an account actually protects your privacy better than editing while logged out.
  • Creating articles
    – get a much better sense of what articles in Wikipedia should be like.
  • Page history & reverting
    – as an editor you're likely to want to see what other editors do to articles you've edited.
  • Monitoring changes
    – experienced editors monitor articles they've edited.
  • Vandalism & spam
    – explains in detail what you, a Wikipedia editor, can do in terms of spotting and fixing vandalism and spam.

Part II – Collaborating with Other Editors

  • Communicating with others
    – you will need to know how to use the pages where editors interact and collaborate with each other.
  • WikiProjects
    – many editors at Wikipedia work together in groups, formal or informal.
  • Content disputes
    – if you find yourself involved in a content dispute ...
  • Incivility
    – shows you helpful ways to respond to incivility and personal attacks directed against you or other editors.
  • Helping others
    – shows you all the places and ways you can lend other editors a hand.

Part III – Formatting and Illustrating Articles

  • Sections
    – shows you how to effectively use sections in an article.
  • Lists & tables
    – shows you how to create and edit both lists and tables.
  • Images
    – shows you how to place an image in an article, after you or someone else has uploaded it.

Part IV – Building a Stronger Encyclopedia

  • Naming, redirects & disambiguation
    – helping people to navigate Wikipedia.
  • Categorizing
    – adding categories to articles is easy.
  • Better articles
    – serve as a detailed checklist for improving articles.
  • Deletions
    – some editors abuse the privilege, creating nonsense articles, attack articles, or promotional articles.

Part V – Customizing Wikipedia

  • Personal preferences
    – "My Preferences" is where you can change a number of settings that control how pages look and function.
  • JavaScript
    – you can customize Wikipedia in ways that make your editing easier with scripts.

Part VI – Appendices

  • Wikipedia Pages
    – when you're registered, and logged into Wikipedia, you'll see links in a number of places.
  • Reader's guide
    – background on what Wikipedia is and how to get the most out.
  • Learning more
    – shows you the myriad places you can go, both inside and outside Wikipedia.

Interactive assistance (help forums)

Questions about Wikipedia

Replying to help requests – contains guidelines for users who respond to questions about how to use or edit posed by other users.
  • Help desk – the "main page" for asking questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia.
  • Teahouse – a "very friendly place" for new editors to become accustomed to and ask questions about editing.

General knowledge questions

Replying to general knowledge questions – contains guidelines for users who respond to general knowledge questions posed by other users.

Note: legal or medical responses are prohibited. See Wikipedia's Legal disclaimer and Medical disclaimer.

  • Reference desks – you can ask questions about any topic at the specific pages listed below.
    • Computing – to ask about computing, information technology, electronics, software and hardware.
    • Entertainment – to ask about sports, popular culture, movies, music, video games, and TV shows.
    • Humanities – to ask about history, politics, literature, religion, philosophy, law, finance, economics, art, and society.
    • Language – to ask about spelling, grammar, word etymology, language usage, and translations.
    • Mathematics – to ask about mathematics, geometry, probability, and statistics.
    • Science – to ask about biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, geology, engineering and technology.
    • (Miscellaneous) – to ask about anything that is not listed above.

Specific help and mediation

  • Noticeboards
    – Wikipedia noticeboards are pages where editors can ask questions and request assistance from people who are familiar with the policies and guidelines covered by each individual board.
  • Administrators – for posting information and issues that affect administrators.
    • three-revert rule
      .
    • Incidents – for reporting and discussing incidents that require the intervention of administrators and experienced editors.
    • Vandalism – for reporting about obvious and persistent vandals and spammers.
  • Dispute resolution – provides a central compilation of the boards listed below to help resolves conflicts.
    • Third opinion
      – for disputes between two editors to receive an outside opinion.
    • Requests for comment
      – the place to go to get outside input on issues from a broad number of users.
    • Dispute resolution noticeboard – used as a "first step" in solving content issues.
    • Arbitration – the "last resort" for conduct issues when all other avenues are exhausted, issues binding rulings.
  • Conflict of interest – for determining whether a specific editor has a conflict of interest.
  • external links
    policy.
  • Neutrality – for reporting issues regarding whether article content is compliant with the Neutral Point of View policy.
  • original research
    .
  • sources are reliable
    in context.
  • Page moves – a process for requesting the retitling of an article, template, or project page.

Technical issues

  • Village pump – main directory divided into five boards by topic (as seen below), to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia.
    • Policy – to discuss changes to existing and proposed policies.
    • Proposals – to discuss new proposals that are not policy-related.
    • Technical – to discuss technical issues. For wiki software bug reports, use Bugzilla
    • Idea lab – to discuss ideas before proposing them to the community and attempt to find solutions to common issues.
    • (Miscellaneous) – to post messages that do not fit into any other categories listed above.

Other ways to get help

  • Request departments
    page that lists the alternative ways of getting help as seen below.
    • Place {{Help me}} (including the curly brackets) "then your question" on your talk page, a volunteer will visit you there!
    • If you require personal administrator assistance in regards to blocking, deleting, protecting, personal harassment or legal threats you can place {{Admin help}} (including the curly brackets) "then your concerns" on your talk page, an administrator will visit you there!
    • Adopt-a-User
      – is where you can find experienced Wikipedians that "adopt" new users and mentor them.
    • Co-op – a mentorship space where you can work with an experienced Wikipedian to learn about and improve Wikipedia.
    • Join the
      #wikipedia-en-help
      IRC channel for real-time chat.
    • Contact Wikipedia – is a page that describes how and where to contact Wikipedia directly for a variety of reasons.

Community standards and advice

  • Policies & guidelines – describes how policies and guidelines should normally be developed and maintained.
    • List of policies and guidelines – lists the main community standards for "English Wikipedia".
      • List of policies – a comprehensive descriptive list of policies.
      • List of guidelines – a comprehensive descriptive list of guidelines.
        • Simplified rule-set – essay about some basic aspect of Wikipedia norms and practices.
        • Expectations & norms of the community – essay about some social norms that editors are expected to follow.
        • Eight rules for editing
          – essay stating if you start out by following these simple rules, the rest should come naturally.
        • Ten rules for editing
          – essay that provides tips to make editing smoother.
  • How-to and information pages
    – about pages that contain technical and factual information or supplement guidelines and policies in greater detail.
  • Essays – Although essays are not policy or guidelines many are worthy of considerations.
  • Accessibility – guideline primarily intended to assist those with disabilities, it can be helpful for all readers.
    • Accessibility dos and don'ts – regardless of disability, all should be able to read, navigate, and contribute easily.
    • Alternative text for images
      – allows the content and function of an image to be understood by text-only readers.
  • Article deletion – policy about how articles and other Wikipedia pages can be removed from general view.
    • How to delete a page – essay with an easy explanation of how to ask for an article to be deleted.
    • Guide to deletion – essay with step by step instructions for nominating articles for deletions.
    • Arguments to avoid during deletions – essay about what not to say or talk about during a deletion.
    • Save an article proposed for deletion
      – essay about how to familiarize yourself with the deletion process.
    • "several" options available
      to you.
      • Deletion essays
        – summarizes the gist of user written essays about deletions.
  • Biographies of living persons (BLP) – guideline about how bios on living persons must be written with great care.
    • Libel – policy about how it is the responsibility of all to ensure that material posted is not defamatory.
      • Avoiding harm – essay that contains the ideas behind the philosophy that formed the BLP.
  • Blocking – policy behind how administrators technically prevent users from editing.
  • Child protection – policy about the behavior and actions of adult editors with regards to children.
  • Citing sources – guideline that contains information on how to place and format citations (references).
    • Verification methods – essay about several common methods that Wikipedia editors use to make their articles verifiable.
    • Referencing for beginners
      – essay that shows you how to use the most popular system for providing inline citations.
  • Conflict of interest – guideline about how it is best to not edit Wikipedia to promote your own interests.
    • Conflict of interest guide – essay for editors who want to write and edit articles about a subject they are affiliated with.
    • Best practices for editors with close associations
      – essay about having a close association with a topic.
    • Paid editing – essay that provides advice on what to do, when it comes to Paid Editing & Wikipedia.
  • our goals
    .
  • CC BY-SA 3.0
    • Close paraphrasing – essay that states all should summarize in their own words, instead of closely paraphrasing.
    • Donating published work – essay for editors who would like to grant permission to use their own previously published work.
    • copy-and-pastes
      .
    • Requesting copyright permission – essay about editors who would like to get permission to use other people's work.
  • Be bold in updating articles in a fair and accurate manner, because perfection is not required
    .
  • Etiquette – principles of decorum, also referred to as "Wikiquette", how to work with others on Wikipedia.
    • Civility – Wikipedia's basic conduct expectations.
    • Assume good faith – unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, assume people are trying to help not harm Wikipedia.
    • No personal attacks – comment on content, not on the contributors.
    • posting personal information is strictly prohibited
      .
    • Don't bite the newcomers – it's very unlikely for a newcomer to be familiar with the community standards.
      • IPs are human too
        – essay about how unregistered users input is just as important in building consensus.
      • Honesty – essay about how truthfulness is expected in all processes, including content discussion.
        • Civility essays – list of essays that summarizes the gist of user written essays on civility.
  • Ignore all rules (IAR) – policy that states if a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it.
    • The rules are principles – essay on how policies & guidelines exist as rough approximations of their underlying principles.
    • Reasonability Rule
      – essay about how anything unreasonable that is being done shouldn't be done at all.
    • common sense
      as you go about editing.
  • Image use policy – policies towards images, like content and copyright issues—applicable to "English Wikipedia".
  • Manual of Style (MOS) – main guideline page that describes communal consensus on layouts and presentation.
  • Neutrality (NPOV) – policy about how articles should represent the views of main scholars and specialists on topics.
  • No original research (OR) – policy about how all material must be attributable to a reliable, published source.
  • Notability – guideline that outlines how suitable a topic may be for its own article or list.
    • Fringe theories – guideline about how articles should not make a fringe theory appear more notable than it is.
      • Notability essays – list of essays that summarizes the gist of user written essays on notability.
  • User rights – the ability to perform certain actions in Wikipedia depends on an editor's user access level.
  • Verifiability (RS) – policy stating how readers must be able to check that articles are not fabricated or embellished.
    • Identifying reliable sources
      – guideline that discusses how to identify reliable references.
  • Understandability – guideline about how all should strive to make each part of every article as understandable as possible to the widest audience of reader.
  • Words to watch – guideline about how certain expressions should be used with care.
  • Vandalism – if you see vandalism in an article, the simplest thing to do is just to remove it.

Directories

  • Directory
    – the main list of "Wikipedia" and "Help" namespace directories and indexes
  • Abbreviations – a list of all the abbreviations used on Wikipedia
  • Departments – a list of all the different divisions of Wikipedia.
  • Editor's index – a list of all the pages to help people who edit pages.
  • Essays – a list of pages that contain advice or opinions from one or more Wikipedia contributors.
  • FAQ
    – a list of frequently asked questions by topic.
  • Glossary – a list of terms (slang) commonly used by editors.
  • Guidelines – a descriptive list of official guidelines for "English Wikipedia"
  • Manual of Style – a descriptive list of the pages which make up the Manual of Style.
  • Policies – a descriptive list of official policies for "English Wikipedia"
  • Quick directory – a small list of key pages with emphasis on interaction between members of the community.
  • Shortcuts
    – a list of abbreviated redirects and the pages they lead to.
  • Tips – a list of "tips" created by users at Tip of the day project.

Help contents by topic


Further reading (external links)

Note – publications below may contain out of dated information or images.

Sister projects (external links)

Help:Contents
on Wikibooks
Help:Contents
on Commons
Help:Contents
on Wikinews
Help:Contents
on Wikiquote
Help:Contents
on Wikisource
Help:Contents
on Wikiversity
Help:Contents
on Wiktionary
Help:Help
on Meta
Help:Contents
on MediaWiki.org