Wikipedia:Instructional material
 | This is an information page. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting. |
This page provides links to instructional material useful for Wikipedia users, especially new users. The intent is to provide a quick directory of such materials Wikipedians have found useful, including tutorials and manuals on Wikipedia itself, and books, videos, and documents available on and outside Wikipedia. Because Wikipedia runs on the MediaWiki software, much of the training material for new Wikipedia users is also useful for users of other MediaWiki wikis, and vice versa.
Wikipedia's how to articles
| Contributing to Wikipedia (Tutorial) |
|---|
 |
| Policies and guidelines |
| Introductions |
| How-to pages |
| Writing advice |
| Community |
| Directories and indexes |
| Interactive help |
help directory
.
- About Wikipedia
- Introduction— What is Wikipedia and how you can contribute.
- Short tutorials
- Introduction — Thirteen short modules on all the basics.
- Tutorial— A simplified guide to editing Wikipedia.
- Quick introductions
- Policies and guidelines— How does Wikipedia actually work.
- Manual of Style- How do I format Wikipedia articles.
- Talk pages— How do I communicate in Wikipedia.
- Referencing— How do I add sources to articles,
- Uploading images— How do I add and use images.
- Navigating Wikipedia — How do I find my way around.
- Comprehensive overviews
- Plain and simple— The basic mechanics of Wikipedia.
- Primer for newcomers— An overview intended for new contributors.
- How-to book
- The Missing Manual — A comprehensive how-to guide (book) that explains everything about contributing for novice to expert editors.
- Related
- Tutorials and quickstart guides for the WikiEducator wiki - relevant to Wikipedia because that wiki also uses the MediaWiki software.
- A number of tutorials appeared in the weekly internal newsletter, the Signpost. The January 14, 2008 issue had first of these.
- The "Bookshelf" project -- a collection of various instructional materials about the Wikimedia world.
Screencasts and Videos
Screencasts
| Video and script |
Title (associated wikiproject) |
Topic | Date | Time | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Editing basics: citing sources, part 1 | Text formatting | 2010-10 | 2:03 | Beginner | |
| Editing basics: boldness and links | Text formatting | 2010-10 | 3:37 | Beginner | |
| How to start a sandbox article | Article creation | 2010-09 | 2:11 | Beginner | |
| How to use talk pages | Collaboration | 2011-02 | 2:30 | Beginner | |
| How to use watchlists | Collaboration | 2011-01 | 2:10 | Beginner | |
| How to add an image | Images | 2010-09 | 1:25 | Beginner | |
| How to use bold and italics | Text formatting | 2010-09 | 0:55 | Beginner | |
| How to make a wikilink | Text formatting | 2020-11 | 1:24 | Beginner | |
| Uploading files to Wikimedia Commons (using the Upload Wizard) | Images | 2011-03 | 2:48 | Beginner | |
| Category explanation and how to use the HotCat gadget )(WikiProject Categories |
Categories | 2010-03 | 5:45 | Intermediate | |
| How to create a Wikipedia article - Right to science and culture | Article creation | 2010-02 | 8:15 | Intermediate | |
| The steps in creating a user account on the English Wikipedia | New account | 2008-12 | 2:40 | Beginner |
YouTube
| Subject/link | Length | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creating a new user account (WP version) | 2:35 | BillWedemeyer | December 8, 2008 |
| Start editing | 7:15 | BillWedemeyer | December 8, 2008 |
| Creating a new article | 3:42 | BillWedemeyer | December 9, 2008 |
| Cheatsheet | 3:26 | BillWedemeyer | December 9, 2008 |
MediaWiki
An administrator of a public wiki recorded some MediaWiki training videos, to help people learn how to edit on his wiki. Most of the material in the videos applies to any MediaWiki site, including Wikipedia; many of the examples actually feature Wikipedia. You can view the videos from the wiki page, or download the videos in high resolution (.avi files), or download lower resolution files in Quicktime format.
In addition, there are some screencasts posted to YouTube.
Other videos
- How to create a Wikipedia article - at Howcast (video 3:36m).
- Wikipedia beneath the surface - from North Carolina State University (video 6:41m).
- "Wikis in Plain English", May 2007. In this case, "plain" may be a bit repetitive, but for those who prefer pictures to words, this is a good, brief introduction to the concept of a wiki. (And no, editing a wiki isn't normally done in rotation, as the video happens to show.)
Books
English
- Phoebe Ayers; Charles Matthews; Ben Yates (2008). How Wikipedia Works:. No Starch Press. ISBN 978-1-59327-176-3.
- John Broughton (2008). Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-0-596-55377-7.
- Andrea Forte; Amy Bruckman (2005). Why Do People Write for Wikipedia? (PDF). Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing.
- Dan O'Sullivan (2009). Wikipedia: A New Community of Practice?. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4094-8606-0.
- Joseph Michael Reagle, Jr.; Lawrence Lessig (2010). Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01447-2.
German
- Henriette Fiebig (ed.). Wikipedia: das Buch.
- Ziko van Dijk. Wikipedia. Wie Sie zur freien Enzyklopädie beitragen. Open Source Press, Munich 2010.
- Nando Stöcklin: Wikipedia clever nutzen – in Schule und Beruf. Orell Füssli, Zürich 2010, 149 S., ISBN 978-3-280-04065-2(CHF 26.90)
Other languages
- Esperanto:
- Ziko van Dijk. Vikipedio por vi. Espero, 2008.
- Swedish:
- Lennart Guldbrandsson. Så fungerar Wikipedia. October 2008. ISBN 9789197710947.
- Lennart Guldbrandsson. Så fungerar Wikipedia. October 2008.
MediaWiki
- Mizanur Rahman. MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide: Install, manage, and customize your MediaWiki installation. Packt Press. Published March 2007. ISBN 978-1904811596
- Daniel Barrett. MediaWiki (Wikipedia and Beyond). O'Reilly. Published October 2008. ISBN 978-0596519797.
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Instructional videos on using Wikipedia.