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Introduction What is Wikipedia? Registering an account Editing Formatting Links Citing Discussion

Creating pages

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To learn the basics of editing, we will first create your userpage, then edit it:

Open the following link to your new user page in a new tab: Special:MyPage

Click on the link that says Start the User:xxxxx page

This will open an editing window containing a blank box for text. Your canvas awaits.

Editing

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Your userpage is the one page on Wikipedia of which you have limited ownership, so long as you adhere to the basic rules.

Briefly write one sentence in the box to introduce yourself
Then click Save page

Congratulations, you have created a page and logged your first edit (you can see this edit in your contributions list by clicking Special:MyContributions or on the link in the bar at the top of the page.

Now your page is created you can edit it further, by adding more content, or perhaps improving the sentence you recently added. With the exception of a few protected pages, every existing page has a link that says "edit this page", which lets you edit the page you are looking at. It is Wikipedia's most basic feature.

Click the "edit this page" link on your userpage
Modify or add to the text in the box
...But do not click Save page yet

Show preview

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One important feature to start using now is the Show preview button. This allows you to see what the page will look like after your edit, before you actually save. We all make mistakes; this feature lets you catch them before you log the edit and inflict your poor grammar on the world. Using Show Preview before saving also lets you try format changes and other edits without cluttering up the page history. Try and preview your recent edit now.

Click the Show preview button now
Review your edit and change it if required
....But do not click Save page yet

Edit summary

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Before you hit Save page, it is considered good etiquette (or "Wikiquette") to enter a polite explanation of your changes in the Edit summary box between the edit window and the Save page and Show preview buttons. This summary gets logged in your contributions list and in other editors' watchlists, so it serves as a quick way of checking what sort of edit was made. Its is very impolite to leave a misleading edit summary.

It can be quite short; for example if you just enter "typo", people will know you made a spelling correction. Also, if the change you have made to the page is minor, such as correcting a spelling or grammar error, be sure to check the box "This is a minor edit". If you add or subtract content, or change the meaning of any existing content, leave this box unchecked.

Continue the tutorial with Formatting →