Here are some general notes about editing articles.

Useful templates

• To delete any page in your own user space, add {{db-u1}} to the top

Here's a collapsible guide to commonly used templates; the {{Quicktemplates}} template:

[[File: | thumb | upright | right | alt= | caption ]]

<ref>{{cite web
 |url= 
 |title= 
 |author= 
 |date= 
 |website= 
 |publisher= 
 |access-date= 
}}</ref>

<ref>{{cite journal
 |last1= 
 |first1= 
 |last2= 
 |first2= 
 |date= 
 |title= 
 |journal= 
 |volume= 
 |issue= 
 |pages= 
 |publisher= 
 |doi= 
 |url= 
 |access-date= 
}}</ref>

<ref>{{cite book
 |last= 
 |first= 
 |author-link= 
 |title= 
 |publisher= 
 |series= 
 |date=  
 |doi= 
 |isbn= 
}}</ref>

<ref>{{cite book
 |last1        = 
 |first1       = 
 |last2        = 
 |first2       = 
 |author-link1 = 
 |author-link2 = 
 |editor       = 
 |title        = 
 |trans-title  = 
 |url          = 
 |access-date  = 
 |edition      = 
 |series       = 
 |volume       = 
 |date         = 
 |publisher    = 
 |location     = 
 |isbn         = 
 |doi          = 
 |page         = 
 |pages        = 
 |chapter      = 
}}</ref>

{{convert|original_value|original_unit|conversion_unit|abbr=on}}

{{convert|orig_val1|range|orig_val2|original_unit|conversion_unit|abbr=on}}

{{convert|60|and|170|kg|lb|abbr=on}}
{{convert|18|°C|°F}}
{{convert|3.21|kg|lb}}

<ref name="NAMEOFREF" />

{{blockquote |text= |sign= }}

<blockquote>
<p>QUOTED PARAGRAPH</p>
<p>NAME, SOURCE, REFERENCE</p>
</blockquote>

{{About|USE1}}

{{About|USE1||PAGE2}}

{{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2}}

{{About|USE1|USE2|PAGE2|USE3|PAGE3|USE4|PAGE4|USE5|PAGE5}}

{|
|-
! scope="col" |COLUMN1
! scope="col" |COLUMN2
|-
|ROW1
|ROW1/COL2
|-
|ROW2
|ROW2/COL2
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" |COLUMN1
! scope="col" |COLUMN2
|-
|ROW1
|ROW1/COL2
|-
|ROW2
|ROW2/COL2
|}

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="text-align: left;margin:0px;"
|- 
! style="width:20em;" |COLUMN1
! style="width:20em;" |COLUMN2
|- 
|ROW1
|ROW1/COL2
|-
|ROW2
|ROW2/COL2
|-
|}

{{col-begin|width=100%}}
{{col-break|width=}} 
{{col-end}}

 * {{subst:uw-vandalism1|PageName}} ~~~~ (unintentional vandalism/test)
 * {{subst:uw-delete1|PageName}} ~~~~ (unintentional removal of content)
 * {{subst:uw-vandalism2|PageName}} ~~~~ (suitable for intentional nonsense or disruption)
 * {{subst:uw-delete2|PageName}} ~~~~ (variant for removal of content)
 * {{subst:uw-vandalism3|PageName}} ~~~~ ("please stop" for use after level 2 warning)
 * {{subst:uw-delete3|PageName}} ~~~~ (please stop removing content)
 * {{subst:uw-vandalism4|PageName}} ~~~~ (last warning for vandalism)
 * {{subst:uw-delete4|PageName}} ~~~~ (last warning for removing content)
 * {{subst:uw-vandalism4im|PageName}} ~~~~ (only warning; for severe or grotesque vandalism only)
 * {{subst:uw-delete4im|PageName}} ~~~~ (only warning; for many blankings in a short period of time)

{{rp|page=}}

Wiki markup syntax

Styling

• '''bold''', ''italic'', '''''bold-italic'''''

Escaping

• Surround any text with <nowiki>...</nowiki>

Links

See Help:Link.

• The Banana Splits
• My favorite show — piped link; link that has text different from the page you are linking to.
• Season 1 — link to a section within an article
• /subpage — link to a subpage of this page; should start with a "/".

Pipe trick

The pipe trick (see Help:Pipe_trick): If you enter a link that ends with a pipe character and nothing after it, then a label is automatically generated that leaves off the namespace and anything in parentheses. Examples:

• [[Help:Template|]] is converted to [[Help:Template|Template]], which is rendered as Template.
• [[Music: My life|]] is converted to [[Music: My life| My life]], which is rendered as My life - although "Music:" is not a namespace (therefore the space after the colon is not automatically removed), the shortcut works anyway.
• [[pipe (computing)|]] is converted to [[pipe (computing)|pipe]] which is rendered as
  pipe
  .

Linking to old versions / diffs

Use templates to do that:

• {{oldid|The Banana Splits|The_Banana_Splits|old version}} → old version
• {{diff|The_Banana_Splits|558783629|552638959|diff two versions}} → diff two versions, parameter order is new id, old id
• {{diff|The_Banana_Splits|0|552638959|diff old to latest}} → diff two versions, use 0 to diff against the latest version

Interwiki links

See:

• meta:Help:Interwiki_linking
• Help:Link#Interwiki_links
• meta:Interwiki_map - Lists hundreds of prefixes for other wikis all over the interwebs.

Tips

• Avoid excessive links. The lead of an article typically has more than the rest. Only make the first occurrence of a word or phrase a link.

Citing Sources

• Being bold is important on Wikipedia.^[1]

Notes

Multiple reference lists

Note that in order to do multiple reference lists on the same page, you have to make sure that each reference list is "closed", as described

When and how to cite

This is from Keilana:

All you need to do is cite at the end of the paragraph. Generally the rule of thumb is that you cite quotes and always have a cite at the end of a paragraph. If you only have one source in a paragraph with no quotes, then the single citation is fine. If you have multiple sources for a paragraph, try to cite them by sentence based on where they came from, but you don't need to have the same citation for two sentences in a row.

Images / figures

Modified from a comment by Keilana:

Here is a blank template that you can just fill in every time you want to put an image somewhere: [[File:FILENAME|thumb|RIGHT/LEFT|SIZEpx|CAPTION]]. For example, the code [[File:Andromeda annotated.png|thumb|right|400px|Andromeda as it appears in the night sky, with the superimposed figure.]] produces the image to the right.

Cool miscellaneous templates

{{tl|template name}} - {{

Blocks

{{Quote box
 |quote  = The internet is one gigantic well-stocked fridge ready....
 |source = --"Mega 'Zines'", ''[[Macworld]]'' (1995)<ref>Quote Reference here</ref>
 |width = 30%
 |align= right
 |bgcolor= #c6dbf7
}}

Graphics / icons

Here's the list:

• {{Done}} –  Done
• {{
  Done-t}}, a non-graphical alternative to {{Done
  }} –  Done
• {{Not done}} –  Not done
• {{Not done-t}}, a non-graphical alternative to {{Not done}} – ✗ Not done
• {{
  Notdone2
  }}) – N Not done and not likely to be done
• {{Stale-small}} - N Stale
• {{Partly done}} –  Partly done
• {{Half done}} –  Half done
• {{Fixed}} –  Fixed
• {{Won't fix}} –  Won't fix
• {{Added}} –  Added
• {{Doing}} –  Doing...
• {{Isdoing}} –  Example is doing...
• {{Awaiting}} – ω Awaiting
• {{Not sure}} – Not sure
• {{Checking}} –  Checking...
• {{Discussing}} –  Discussion ongoing...
  
• {{Sent}} – Sent
• {{Uploaded}} –  Uploaded
• {{
  snowball clause
  
• {{Question}} —  Question:
• {{Idea}} – Idea:
• {{Warnsign}} –  Warning
• {{Thank you}} – Thank you
• {{You're welcome}} – You're welcome!
• {{Tick}}, produces the tick alone – Y
• {{
  Cross
  }}, produces the cross alone – N
• {{Qmark}}, produces the questionmark alone — ?
• {{Bulb}}, produces the bulb alone – B
• {{Await}}, produces the clock alone – C
• {{Merge done}}, for completed mergers –   Y Merger complete.

Check marks:

• {{
  Check mark
  }} Y
• {{Tick}} = {{Tick|20}} Y
• {{
  y}}, {{aye
  }} Y
• {{Ya}}, {{ya}} data-sort-value="Yes" style="background: #DFD; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-yes2" |
• {{Check mark-n}} Y
• {{
  Y&
  }} ✓
• File:☑.svg

X marks

• {{Xmark}} N
• {{
  Cross
  |20}} N
• {{
  n}}, {{nay
  }} N
• {{Na}}, {{na}} data-sort-value="No" style="background: #FFE3E3; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="table-no2" |
• {{X mark-n}} N
• {{
  N&
  }} ✗
• File:☒.svg

Other

• {{n.b.}} *
• {{
  hmmm
  }} ?
• {{bang}}  

See also

• {{Done/See also}} - these have been copied below
• List of "Resolved", "Unresolved" and other templates for entire threads
• {{check mark templates}}