Wikiversity:FAQ/Editing

You can just dive in and start typing the way you'd type an e-mail - be bold!. Come to this page, however, for a jumping-off place for more technical editing instructions. To experiment with editing, visit the sandbox.

This page is like a manual for editing Wikiversity and provides many examples. You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference while you edit. If you are new to wiki, you may benefit from Introduction to Wikiversity before trying to use this page.

Additional help pages for editing are shown in the box on the right.
 * Wikipedia has additional help for editing such as the Wikipedia Cheatsheet. There is an attempt to centralize help for all Wikimedia projects at this page.

Editing basics



 * Short introductory tutorial
 * Start editing
 * To start editing a MediaWiki page, click on the "Edit this page" (or just "edit") link at one of its edges. This will bring you to the edit page: a page with a text box containing the wikitext: the editable source code from which the server produces the webpage. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox, not here.


 * Summarize your changes
 * You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend.


 * Preview before saving
 * When you have finished, click preview to see how your changes will look -- before you make them permanent. Repeat the edit/preview process until you are satisfied, then click "Save" and your changes will be immediately applied to the article. Small changes such as spelling corrections can be marked as "minor" before saving. Marking a significant change as a minor change is considered bad Wikiquette.


 * Review previous changes to the page
 * Yes, you can step back in time to see every single version of a page. Just click on the History tab at the top of the page. Here you can see who did the editing, the date of the change, their summary notes about the change. There are even tools to let you compare what's different between one version and another. Click on an editor's Talk URL and go to their talk page where you can engage them in discussion.