WikiMD:How to edit a page

wikimd-specific introduction
wikimd is a WikiWiki, meaning that anyone can easily edit any unprotected article and have those changes posted immediately. This page is the reference for Wiki markup. You may also want to learn about:

Custom messages
In order to avoid repeated typing, it is possible to store junks of text as a custom message which will automatically be filled in by the server. Learn more about Custom messages.


 * How to start a page
 * Informal tips on contributing to wikimd
 * Editing tasks in general at the wikimd:Editing FAQ
 * Why not to rename pages boldly, at wikimd:How to rename (move) a page
 * Preferred layout of your article, at Guide to Layout (see also wikimd:Boilerplate text)
 * Style conventions in the wikimd:Manual of Style
 * General policies in wikimd:Policies and guidelines
 * wikimd:Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves
 * If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a chinese character...) check out if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly.
 * Finally, for a list of all articles about editing wikimd see wikimd:Style and How-to Directory or wikimd:Utilities. Simply click on the "Edit this page" link at the top or bottom (also on the sidebar) of a Wiki page to change the page itself, or click on "Discuss this page" link and then on "Edit this page" to write on the corresponding talk page. This will bring you to a page with a text box containing the editable text of that Wiki page.

Then type away, write a short edit summary on the small field below the edit-box and when finished press "Save"! You can also preview your changes before saving if you like. Depending on your system, pressing Enter while the edit box is not active (there is no typing cursor in it) may have the same effect as pressing Save.

If during editing you want to see the current version again, open "Cancel" in a new window. This does not cancel your edit.

Please use a neutral point of view, and please cite your sources so others can check and extend your work.

It is often more convenient to copy and paste the text first into your favorite text editor, edit and spell check there, and then paste back into the browser to preview. This way, you can also keep a local backup copy of the pages you authored so that you can make changes offline. Some text editors can be specially adapted to edit wikimd articles: see wikimd:syntax highlighting.

After making a new page, it's a good idea to
 * With your page displayed, use What links here to check that articles already link to it, and make sure that they are all expecting the same meaning that you have supplied;
 * Use the Search button to launch a Google search of wikimd for your topic title (and possibly variants), to find articles that mention it, and make links from them if appropriate;
 * Check for corresponding articles in the wikimds of other languages that you can read.

Minor edits
See also wikimd:Minor edit

When editing a page, a logged-in user can mark that edit as "minor". Minor edits generally mean spelling corrections, formatting, and minor rearranging of text. It is possible to hide minor edits when viewing wikimd:Recent Changes. Marking a real change as a minor edit is considered bad behavior, and even more so if it involves the deletion of some text. If one has accidentally marked an edit as minor, make another edit (add an extra space between two words, or a line break), mark it major, and say "the previous edit was major" in the summary.

The wiki markup
In the left column of the table below, you can see what effects are possible. In the right column, you can see how those effects were achieved. In other words, to make text look like it looks in the left column, type it in the format you see in the right column.

You may want to keep this page open in a separate browser window for reference. If you want to try out things without danger of doing any harm, you can do so in the Sandbox.


 * The rest of this page is deprecated but will be updated periodically.
 * Please direct edits to the Meta-wikimd version of this page

Character formatting
What it looks like What you type

Emphasize, strongly, very strongly.
 * These are double and triple apostrophes (single-quote marks), not double-quote marks.
 * Note that on almost all browsers, these appear as italic and bold; for semantic reasons,