Deletionpedia -- for examining deleted pages

Wikipedia Help and Guidance

To look up help, type the (bold) shortcut into the search box.

WP:TM – top-level list of useful Template Messages, both for article space and user space - good starting point...
For invisible comments to editors use:

To show example template text, use:
{{tl|templatename}}, for example {{thomas}}.
Alternatively, with fixed font:
{{tlx|templatename}}, for example {{thomas}}.

This version can also show parameters (see template doc).
For examples, can use {{xt}} for highlighting:
- positive (green) text (produced by {{xt|positive (green)}} )
- negative (red) text (produced by {{!xt|negative (red)}} )
- {{xt2}} is the same, but text appears on next line
- avoid use in article space!

Echo / User Notification mechanism

To alert a user of a Talk page message (except user's own Talk page) use (eg) {{ping|EdJogg}} or {{reply to|UserName}}.
Either produces: '@UserName:' and can be further customised if desired!

Can also trigger a user notification by simply including their user name in double square brackets (see Notifications) or more simply using the User link (or u) template eg: {{u|EdJogg}}.

WP Admin

For complete set of User Talk Namespace Message Templates, see: WP:UTM
See WP:VAN for categories of vandalism

For spam reporting on talk pages, see Template:spam (as starting point)

For unsigned talk page comments, add: {{subst:unsigned|user_name|date}}

To greet a new user, add the following: (see WP:WC for guidance and WP:WT for the myriad templates.)

==Welcome!==
{{subst:NewUser}}
~~~~

To refer to a user, can use {{user}}; for example, {{User|EdJogg}} produces:
EdJogg (talk · contribs)

Messaging, Talkback, and Emails home

This has all evolved since EdJogg's maximum activity period. See elsewhere for more information.

Talkback

This {{tb}} template was left on EdJogg's Talk page, resulting in an email (as emails are enabled in settings).

{{tb|Wikipedia talk:Route diagram template/Catalog of pictograms/watercourses}}

Writing style

Featured Articles)

Several articles provide help and guidance for editors raising an article to 'Featured status' (see WP:FAC). A particularly good one, concerning English writing style, may be found at: User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a. The same author has written a set of redundancy exercises to train editors to identify and eradicate superfluous verbiage (avoid redundant words :o) ); plus several other useful pages. It is a good idea to read these before attempting a FAC review...

FA Preparation

The following experimental tools were found as a result of a FAC nomination (see here).
The links show stats for traction engine, but all allow the page name to be changed from an edit box.

List of contributors (by #edits)
DABlinks (list of DAB links on a page)
External links analysis -- can show dead links (and searches Internet Archive!) and moved pages - excellent resource

Search-and-replace 'curly quotes': “ ” and ‘ ’

Edit summaries

Occasionally, may be useful to refer to the edit-being-undone as WP:CB ("Complete Bollocks") -- yes there is a page by that name, with alternate shortcuts: WP:BALLS and WP:BOLLOCKS.

Manual of Style (MOS)

Starting point is always the Wikipedia's Manual Of Style (WP:MOS).

WP:LAYOUT or WP:GTL – Guide to layout
WP:DASH – Manual of Style (dashes)
WP:PUNCT – Manual of Style (quotation marks and other punctuation)
Lead paragraph (or 'lede'): WP:LEDE
- This is VERY important. WP 1.0 may well use ONLY the article Lede sections, and MANY articles fall short of the ideal. Re-read this occasionally to remind of the important considerations.
- Also compare news style and Wikipedia:Summary Style (WP:SS)

Standard Headings

Use the following order, taken from WP:MOSHEAD:

See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

'Notes' and 'References' may be in the other order, or combined, according to ref style in use.

Article clean-up

Not-a-typo Templates

{{Not a typo}} for items which are actually correct (for example, "he put a little english on the ball") - in this sense "english" is not capitalised, although it almost always is.
{{Typo}} for items which are deliberately incorrect, either because we are illustrating a point, or because they are direct quotes.
{{Proper name}} for names, such as Flouride - not flouride or Pharoah as opposed to pharaoh.

Also be aware of:

{{Sic}} which can be used to mark up text, thus [sic], or invisibly.

In-line fact-query templates

If you do NOT date these, a bot will come along and do it for you, and probably apply some other formatting improvements into the bargain!

{{Fact}} -- aka 'citation needed' -- the basic tag for un-ref'd information
{{Clarify|reason=xxxx|post-text= – yyyy}} -- request to clarify text that is difficult to understand, or whose meaning is unclear (see WP:CLARIFY)
- |reason=xxxx -- is used to assist editors in place of a trailing in-line comment (keep it short, or use talk page)
- |post-text= – yyyy -- is used to display text within the superscript text, that is visible to all readers.
  Current template formatting (Aug 2010) requires spaces and ndash, as shown, for best effect.
- |pre-text=zzzz -- less useful, but may help reader if used to add a preceding '?'
Also available: {{Elucidate}}, which takes the same arguments as {{Clarify}} but shows as ^{[further explanation needed]}
Also available: {{Who}}, {{Whom}}, {{When}}
Also available: {{Verify source}}, {{Dubious}}, {{Disputed-inline}}

Banner clean-up templates

WP:TC – Cleanup message templates

'Expand section' indication (below) is produced by {{Expand section|date=May 2008}}

'Clean-up section' indication (below) is produced by {{cleanup|section|date=May 2008}}

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this section if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions.

To highlight an article that is too technical, use {{technical}}. Probably is intended to go on Talk page...?

Disambiguation

WP:DAB – DAB including template suggestions
WP:TMG – for DAB and other template messages (also Template:Otheruses templates: 'for', 'other uses', etc)
WP:MOSDAB – Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)
WikiProject DAB: Malplaced disambiguation pages - report instances of <article> redirected to <article (disambiguation)>

References

See steam shovel for first citation added by EdJogg.

WP:REF – Citing sources – good starting point
WP:CITET – Citation templates – useful, but not required

For example (based on 'Footnotes' section of WP:REF):

Place a <ref> ... </ref> where you want a footnote reference number to appear in an article
Type the text of the note between the ref tags.
Place the {{reflist}} tag in a "Notes" or "References" section near the end of the article
– the list of notes will be generated here.

Example:

According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big;<ref>Miller, E: "The Sun", page 23. Academic Press, 2005</ref> however, the moon is not so big.<ref>Smith, R: "Size of the Moon", ''Scientific American'', 46(78):46</ref> == Notes == {{reflist}}

{{reflist}} produces small text references.
{{reflist|2}} generates 2 columns (in Firefox. See doc for further options.)
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}} generates 2 or more columns according to width of browser window (in Firefox)

Multiple References

See Angels Flight for example of multiple-entry reference (copied! by EdJogg)

See HM Railway Inspectorate for a good example of a brief implementation.

See Scotch gauge for an excellent example of succinctness for large numbers of references:

(49 references to 4 sources, split between 'Notes' and 'References' sections:

notes occupy 4 lines, references, another 5 or 6, rather than the 49 lines required if shown in full)

See Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal (a Featured Article) for an example of Harvard notation using the {{Harvnb}} template.

This wikilinks the page reference (under 'Notes') with the book citation (under 'Bibliography') -- very neat!

also see 'Simplification', below.

Use <ref name=XXXX>, where XXXX is an identifier for the reference, for each example of the same reference, in place of <ref>.
Use <ref name=XXXX/>, where the same reference has been used previously.
NB, the '/' replaces the need for </ref>, and avoids the possibility of an empty ref (which is a syntax error).

Harvard refs - simplification

Where there are a large number of Harvard-style refs to the same publication, showing each with separate page numbers can expand the ref list unnecessarily. A solution is to use the {{rp}} tab, for example:

text to be referenced<ref>reference text</ref>{{rp|36-37, 45}}, produces:

text to be referenced^[1]^{: 36–37, 45}

where the page numbers can be whatever text is needed (but omit the 'p' or 'pp').

Scrollable reference list

A scrollable window showing (approx) eleven refs at a time. The original example is at Hindu-German Conspiracy.
These do not comply with the MOS concerning the display and printability of references, and should not be used.

Common reference sources

See #External Links

Cite templates

Web page

Book

<ref>{{cite web
  | last = 
  | first = 
  | authorlink = 
  | coauthors = 
  | title = 
  | work = 
  | publisher = 
  | date = 
  | url = 
  | format = 
  | doi = 
  | archiveurl = 
  | archivedate = 
  | accessdate = }}</ref>

<ref>{{cite book
  | last = 
  | first = 
  | authorlink = 
  | coauthors = 
  | title = 
  | publisher = 
  | year = 
  | location = 
  | page = 
  | pages = 
  | url = 
  | isbn = 
  | oclc = }}</ref>

See: {{cite web}} for examples of referencing archived links
For 'cite book': use page = for p; pages = for pp; n-dash (–) for page ranges
Use 'date' rather than 'year' if appropriate
WebCite -- instant document archiving here (or URL search first) -- Use email address edjogg.webcite@[E]

For book information, search at OCLC.

'Notes'

See {{cref}} and {{cnote}} -- see examples at Tower Bridge.

For example:

{{cref|Example Note}} produces ^{[Example Note]}

which links to {{cnote|Example Note|Formatted note text}}, placed under a 'Notes' heading towards the bottom of the page:

^ Example Note: Formatted note text

Talk Page management

For archiving talk pages, see 'Page Management'. Section may be moved here in due course?

'Diff' Template

The {{diff}} template provides a link to a history-difference that is both server independent and allows the link to be built without full URLs cluttering up the place. For example, this:

{{diff|Template talk:Infobox locomotive|380574816|380564141|my edit}}

is equivalent to this:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template_talk:Infobox_locomotive&action=historysubmit&diff=380574816&oldid=380564141 my edit]

but is shorter and neater, and server independent. (See Wikipedia:Secure server)

Recommend using this everywhere (except on your own ToDo list maybe!)

Multiple project banners

Where an article talk page has attracted 'project banners' for three or more WikiProjects, the first useful text (and the TOC) may be forced off the bottom of the page. To get round this can use the 'banner shell'. Add the following text:

{{WikiProjectBannerShell|1=
  ...project banner templates...
}}

If a project banner does not auto-hide once this template is applied, or if the page already uses the {{WikiProjectBanners}} template, see the {{WikiProjectBannerShell}} template documentation for instructions.

Outdenting

When a thread becomes too indented, may be clearer if it is reset to the LH margin. Can use the {{outdent}} template for this. For example:

::::::This is the previous post, indented 6 levels
::{{Outdent|4|link}}start of a new post

displays as:

This is the previous post, indented 6 levels

(outdent)

start of a new post

'4' indicates level of indenting to revert -- may be an integer or a sequence of colons if easier
'link' adds the 'outdent' text (this is optional, but may aid clarity and help spread use of template)
as shown here, template may itself be indented -- this is also optional

Page Management

Category:Under-construction templates -- explore usage further!

Counter-Vandalism

WP:RFPP -- Requests For Page Protection -- unlikely to be granted except for extreme/persistent cases, but this is the place to ask.
WP:REVDEL -- Revision Deletion -- for Administrator intervention where the presence of a previous version of a page could cause offence. For example, if libellous or profane text included in an edit summary (which is later reverted) it is still visible in the article history, but Revision Deletion can make it inaccessible to those without the appropriate privileges. This page lists the valid criteria, but EdJogg successfully requested removal of a profane edit summary via the help page (this mechanism was used). Having checked the criteria at WP:REVDEL, ask for assistance from someone via CAT:RFRD where there are further instructions.

Reasons for Reverting

WP:NOTBROKEN -- Explains why links to redirects should not be replaced by piped links to the redirect target

For/Main/Seealso/etc

See Template:Other uses for a list of the various templates available for directing readers to alternative pages.

{{Main|Article|l1=Alternate text}} produces:

Can have up to 10 Articles, and 10 Alt texts -- all articles come before any alt text, NB 'l1' uses lowercase 'L'
Alt text is not required but allows anchor links to be hidden, if needed.

Archiving talk pages

WP:ARCHIVE – How to archive a talk page

see Talk:Traction engine for an example of Archive box in use.
see User talk:EdJogg for multi-page archive handling
see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK Waterways (section "Archive?", around early Aug 2009) for discussions about, and subsequent setup of bot archive + index page (by User:ronhjones). (The index sub-page is particularly impressive!)

Moving/Merging Pages

WP:MM – Merging and moving pages (includes 'merge' templates)

Identifying a proposed merge

Add this on the page being merged from (the 'Source Article'):
{{Mergeto | DestinationArticle#MergeSection | discuss=Talk:DestinationArticle#Proposed Merge | date=Month 20xx}}
Add this on the page being merged to (the 'Destination Article'):
{{Mergefrom | SourceArticle | discuss=Talk:DestinationArticle#Proposed Merge | date=Month 20xx}}
Create a new section 'Proposed Merge' on one or other talk pages, whichever is likely to see the most traffic (usually the destination page). Add any additional commentary explaining the reason for the proposal
Make a note in your ToDo list to indicate that a proposal has been raised. (Note the date.)
After 6 weeks, if no opposition, go ahead with the merge (or deal with any queries) -- see Help:Merging (WP:MM) for instructions.

Alternatives and further notes

{{Mergeto}}/{{Mergefrom}} templates can handle up to 20 articles!
{{Mergesection}}/{{Mergesections}} templates are available for merging sections
other templates are available for more complicated merge proposals (see template doc for details)
"If you are unable to merge the pages, or you believe that the merger may be controversial, you might want to add a listing to [[Wikipedia:Proposed mergers]]."
View from {{Merge-multiple-to}}:
"If there is consensus after one or two weeks that the articles should be merged (or no response at all), proceed with the merger. Otherwise, your proposal should be pulled. It is less controversial if you undo your own tagging. You have implicit responsibility to watch your proposal and follow any discussion that develops!"

-- note that this text is NOT present on the Help page or the basic merge/mergeto/mergefrom templates, so may be deprecated, indeed, it is possible that NO time limit is implied!

Orphan Pages

WP:ORPHAN (or WP:O) -- WikiProject Orphange

Use bots to identify the 1000's of orphan pages (>3 incoming links)
View the project page for the procedures (and edit summaries) to use when de-orphaning a page (finding suitable pages and adding links from them)
Use the site search tool (in the banner template, and in EdJogg's navi-toolbox) to find pages with suitable text that may not be linked yet.

Stub identification

{{UK-engineer-stub}} -- UK engineer, inventor or industrial designer

Redirects

Always add at least one template (see WP:TMR for list) by using the form:

#REDIRECT [[destination page]] {{R template}}

Frequently used templates include:
- {{R from abbreviation}}
- {{R from alternative capitalization}}
- {{R from alternative name}}
- {{R from duplicated article}} see note at WP:TMR
- {{R from merge}}
- {{R from misspelling}}
- {{R with possibilities}}
- {{R to section}}
- {{R to list entry}}

Redirects should also be categorised as {{R printworthy}} or {{R unprintworthy}}, as appropriate.
Some of the other templates automatically add one or other of these cats.

Link anchors

{{Anchor}} may be used to enable an (HTML) 'anchor' at any point in an article, linkable using 'link syntax' ([[<article_name>#link|Link text]]). Multiple anchor names may be specified, allowing for likely alternative spellings, etc (currently, up to 10 are supported).

{{Visible anchor}} is a variant, where the first parameter will be visible text. The two templates are otherwise identical. This version is ideal for section headings, where the heading text is frequently repeated in the first sentence following the heading.

The templates are of particular use for direct linking to individual entries in a glossary.

Usage

To anchor an article section, use {{Anchor}} just after the heading. This allows the anchor to be independent of the heading text (hence allowing for future heading text changes without affecting incoming links), but also alerts editors to the presence of incoming links.
For example:

===Heading===
{{Anchor|First anchor alias|Second anchor alias|etc}}

NOTES

For talk pages, etc, best to use wikilink markup, eg: [URLforPage#Link Page#Link]
Template {{Anchors}} was originally used to specify multiple anchors, but this is now just a redirect to {{Anchor}}. Replace it when encountered.
The original advice was to place inside the heading syntax, but the current documentation (Oct 2009) suggests that this will not work.
[[#link|link text]] can be used to link to an anchor within an article
See Glossary of boiler terminology for example usage within a glossary

Don't replace links to redirects

See WP:NOTBROKEN for the MOS explanation of why replacing redirect links with the redirect's target is not a good idea. Useful for edit summaries reverting such changes.

Deletion

WP:DP – Deletion policy - useful starting point...
WP:PROD – Proposed deletion - also see Category:Prod-related templates
WP:SPEEDY – Criteria for Speedy Delete

Formatting

Text layout

Non-breaking space, use: &nbsp - followed by a semi-colon
{{pad}} adds multiple non-breaking spaces. (Seems to scale with page zooming.)
Takes one unamed parameter; a width value specified in px, em or ex.

For example {{pad|2px}} produces [ ], {{pad|2em}} produces [ ], {{pad|2ex}} produces [ ].

Medium dash ('–'), use: &ndash followed by a semi-colon (or use 'Insert' character below editing box)
Long dash ('—'), use: &mdash followed by a semi-colon (ditto)

Links ('pipe trick')

Use the 'pipe trick' to reduce length of links.
Most commonly used for plurals/suffixes, eg [[steam engine]]s, where no pipe character is needed.

steam engines

Can also use to hide namespace, eg: [[Wikipedia:About|]]

About

or disambiguation brackets, eg [[British Rail Class 43 (HST)|]].

British Rail Class 43

Note the 'pipe' (|) at the end of the last two links (hence the name).
BUT the mediawiki software will fill in the link for you -- don't try to remove text and replace with just the pipe, it won't work!

Images

Size

Use thumb most of the time.
Use frameless (same size as thumb) when you don't need a caption (eg in a table).
Use frame to display at native size (cannot re-size).
Use upright for tall thin images.
- Can specify a scale factor if still too big (eg upright=0.65)
Can fix width by specifying a numerical px value (better to use default where possible). Widths greater than 550px can cause problems in some browsers.
Can fix height, in same way as width, but prefix with x, eg x300px
Specifying both eg 100x300px, produces the smallest image that will fit in a space

To fix 'bunching' of [edit] links due to multiple images, see WP:BUNCH ("Wikipedia:How to fix bunched-up edit links").
Having looked at the bug report, this is a bug that cannot readily be fixed: it results from following the W3C specifications to the letter (which IE doesn't do!) and would require a change to the way that edit links were displayed (which can be done by a user pref setting).

{{multiple image}} allows arrangement of 2 - 5 images, horiz or vert, with or without borders, links, captions, background colours, headers and footers! (does anyone know about this??) Hence can describe several pics with one caption, or a title and several captions, etc

Gallery

Can use the > </gallery> tags to add several pictures in a row
- A parameter – <gallery perrow="5"> – can be used to set the gallery width: default value is 4, but a value of 6 is too wide for 1024x768 monitors with default image sizes
More flexible (and underused) is the {{gallery}} template, which allows setting of various parameters and addition of a title.
(See Stretham Old Engine for EdJogg's first encountered...)
Worthwhile modifying former to latter...

Tables

To centre all cells in a row, use |-align="center" in place of the row marker |-.
To centre all cells in a table, use {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" at top of the table.
Individual cells may then be adjusted to left/right by preceding the cell indicator | with |align="left"|.

To fix column widths, (eg for separate but related tables in an article) precede the column heading with !width="x%"|
(adjusting x as appropriate, and remembering to make the column widths add to 100%!):

|-
!width="15%"| Number
!width="25%"| Class
!width="45%"| Information
!width="15%"| Picture
|-

Note that 'ypx' can be used instead, but using % values ensures the table fills the page and adjusts to window size.

To prevent adjacent text hitting table borders, add the following to the end of the first line:
style="margin-left:10px"
- Alternative style properties: margin-right, margin-top, margin-bottom
- The comment gives other editors a clue why the style is there, but only use the style when essential.

No wrap template

To prevent in-cell wrapping, and effectively set column width, use {{nowrap}}
eg: {{nowrap|text}}, where text may be a link, or whatever.
- See Aerial tramway support pillar for example of use

Multiple-column list

Two column list

Simple two-column list using templates: {{multicol}}, {{multicol-break}} and {{multicol-end}}.
Various parameters are available, to set uneven widths, colours and borders, but these won't be needed much.
(First seen in E-mail replacing the HTML-like code: <div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">...</div>.)

For example, the following code:

{{multicol}}
* List entry 1
* List entry 2
{{multicol-break}}
* List entry 3
* List entry 4
{{multicol-end}}

Produces this two-column list:

List entry 1
List entry 2

List entry 3
List entry 4

Multiple columns

First seen used in Railfan; useful if there is a long list with short text entries, and MUCH easier than a table!
Templates exist for 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-column tables.
See {{Col-begin}} as a starting point for the available component templates, and {{Top}} for the full range.

Note regarding browser rendering: Using the {{Col-xxxx}} templates requires more typing, but the code displays correctly in Internet Explorer. The down-side is that if used alongside an image, for example, the columns may be forced below the image in IE (whereas they will be drawn correctly in Firefox). Alternative template column systems include: {{Div col}}, {{Multicol}}, and {{Columns-list}}, but these all use CSS3 and in unsupported browsers will simply display a single column.

For example, the following code:

 
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-1-of-3}}
;Heading 1
* List entry 1
* etc
 
{{Col-2-of-3}}
;Heading 1
* List entry 1
* etc
 
{{Col-3-of-3}}
;Heading 4
* List entry 5
* etc
{{Col-end}}

...produces this three-column result:

Heading 1

List entry 1
List entry 2

Heading 2

List entry 3
List entry 4

Heading 3

List entry 5
List entry 6
List entry 7

Heading 4

List entry 8
List entry 9

Heading 5

List entry 10
List entry 11

"Quick 'n' Dirty" Columns

As explained in the browser rendering comments above, the {{Div col}} templates are not ideal for articles, however they are much easier to use.
For maintenance pages, use the following code for a 3-column list:

{{Div col|cols=3}}
* a
* b
* c
* d
* e
* f
{{Div col end}}

...produces this three-column result:

a
b
c
d
e
f

'Convert' template tricks

See infobox for British Rail Class 17 for a number of useful ideas (add some here?).

Tricks for using {{convert}}:

{{convert|106.5|ft|m}} produces: 106.5 feet (32.5 m)
{{convert|106|ft|6|in|m}} produces: 106 feet 6 inches (32.46 m)

From GWR 3700 Class:

Wheels

{{convert|6|ft|8+1/2|in|m|3|abbr=on}} produces:
6 ft 8+1⁄2 in (2.045 m)

Cylinders

{{convert|18|x|26|in|mm|0|abbr=on}} produces:
18 in × 26 in (457 mm × 660 mm)

Speed

{{convert|100|mph|km/h|abbr=on}} produces:
100 mph (160 km/h)

Tractive effort

{{convert|17800|lbf|kN|1|abbr=on}} produces:
17,800 lbf (79.2 kN)

Weight

55 long tons 6 cwt ({{convert|123900|lb|t|1|abbr=on|disp=/}}) produces:
55 long tons 6 cwt (123,900 lb (56.2 t)^*)

Hyphenation

Now sorted. Where previously you had to resort to cheating, can now use the template:

{{convert|7|ft|m|adj=mid|-wide narrowboats}} produces:
7-foot-wide narrowboats (2.1 m)

Inflation calculations

Use {{formatprice}} and {{Inflation}} to give monetary values allowing for inflation. For example:

...in 1867, about £20,000 (£{{Formatprice|{{Inflation|UK|20000|1867|r=-4}}|0}} today){{Inflation-fn|UK}}...

produces:

...in 1867, about £20,000 (£2.24 million today)^[2]...

It is important to provide a reference for the inflation characteristics, so always add {{Inflation-fn|UK}} afterwards, which will generate the reference shown:

^ reference text
^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.

Note that these are only valid for country codes UK, US, DE at present (July 2009).

Fancy quotes

There are a wide number of tricks to present fancy quotes. See the documentation for the following templates for examples and syntax, and for links to alternative templates.

This is deprecated for use in article space. Use {{quote}} instead.

EdJogg's original preference, now prefers {{Quotation}} (full width) or {{Quote box}} (highly formattable) (see below).

Quotation, in bordered box, occupying full width of page, with formatted author/title/source. Better for long texts.

{{quotation|'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves<br />did gyre and gimble in the wabe<br />
all mimsy were the borogoves<br />and the momeraths outgrabe|[[Lewis Carroll]]|[[Jabberwocky]]|[[Through the Looking-Glass]]}}

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe
all mimsy were the borogoves
and the momeraths outgrabe
— Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky, Through the Looking-Glass

"Baden-Powell is a wonderfully able scout and quick at sketches. I do not know another who could have done the work at Mafeking if the same conditions had been imposed. All the bits of knowledge he studiously gathered have been utilized in saving that community."

— Siege of Mafeking Abandoned by the Boers, Frederick Russell Burnham, the American scout, interviewed by The Times, May 19, 1900.

Quote, in bordered box, with source, fully customisable.

Better for shorter texts that are not required to be in the main text flow.
Note that source is formatted manually.

For example, the following code (taken from {{Quote box}}), produces the box, right:

{{quote box
| width=30em
| bgcolor=#c6dbf7
| align=right
| halign=left
| quote="Baden-Powell is a wonderfully able scout and quick at sketches.
 I do not know another who could have done the work at Mafeking if the
 same conditions had been imposed.  All the bits of knowledge he
 studiously gathered have been utilized in saving that community."
| source= — ''Siege of Mafeking Abandoned by the Boers'',
 [[Frederick Russell Burnham]], the American scout,
 interviewed by [[The  Times]], May 19, 1900.
}}

More examples can be found on the {{Quote box}} examples page.

Naviboxes - Preceding Whitespace

Don't add blank lines as instructed here -- indeed, any previously added should be removed. Adding blank lines is likely to be against the WP:MOS and makes for inconsistent pages. Where naviboxes are full width there is no real problem, and narrow boxes should be 'standardised' instead.

It is common for a navibox to have no clear space above it, with the result that it almost collides with the preceding text. While the 'obvious' answer would be to modify the template, this is not appoved of by some editors, and has undesirable effects if naviboxes are stacked (especially when 'hidden').

~~Instead, add the following on affected pages:~~

~~<BR>~~

~~The split line is used to make it much clearer what is going on.~~

~~The comment accompanies the line-break to try to avoid bot-deletion.~~

Useful Templates

Syntax aids

Pipe character ('|') in templates

Use {{!}} to insert a pipe character in a template parameter (for example) where the pipe on its own will change the functionality.

For example, to create a piped wikilink to an article anchor point within a template:

{{For|similar steam vehicles|Traction engine#Relatives of the traction engine{{!}}Relatives of the traction engine}}

produces:

Images

Use {{Copy to Wikimedia Commons}} for images that are local to Wikipedia and should be moved.

Infoboxes

Museums

Use {{Infobox Museum}} for heritage centres and the like, whether open or closed.

Route Diagram Templates

Canals

See Wikipedia talk:Route diagram template/Catalog of pictograms/watercourses for help in locating a missing icon, or if you cannot create it using overlays.

Legend

					Default icons don't match
					Left icon is the 'overlay'

For instructions on creating composite ('overlay') icons, see: Wikipedia:Route diagram template#Overlay

First EdJogg overlay icon at: Template:Wey and Arun Canal map (Tannery Lane bridge, 08 Jan 2016)

Example right: the first row uses the existing (WKRZuy) and (gSKRZ-Yu) icons. The second row shows the overlaid 'W' icon made from three components (river, bridge, road).

Railways

just a placeholder for now!

Railway-related articles

Station name shortcut

Use {{Rws}} to quick-link to a railway station name.

For example: {{Rws|Slough}} produces: " Slough " (equivalent to typing: [[Slough railway station|Slough]])

Route Box - Railway Stns and Lines

See WikiProject UK Railways/Colours list for existing colour templates, and Template talk:Rail line for discussion about colours to use
- Don't know where colours for 'disused lines' are defined!
See Barnstaple Town railway station for examples of Heritage/Disused templates
See Vickerstown for examples of National Rail/Fictional templates

Miscellaneous

This page is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Above banner is for use on pages where there have been problems with changes (such as James Watt).
It can be included on a talk page, thus: {{BrE}}

**Special Effects templates**
Effect	Required Wikicode
	{{flagicon\|United Kingdom}}
United Kingdom	{{flagcountry\|United Kingdom}}
	{{flagicon\|England}}
England	{{flagcountry\|England}}
England portal (see right)	{{portal\|England}}

See: Template:Country data England for England country template data.

External Links

It's worth a look at Category:External link templates, since many commonly-used sites have special templates available.

Wikimedia Commons

For a single page: {{Commons|Steam machinery}} produces:

For a category (usually the best bet): {{Commons category|Steam engines}} produces:

or, formatted: {{Commons category|Steam engines|<br />Steam engines}} produces:

Use this if the name splits across two lines, but should fit on one.

or you can put it on the left,: {{Commons category|Steam engines|position=left}} produces:

(particularly useful on short pages)

or, inline (neater but less obvious): {{Commonscat-inline|Steam engines}} produces
Media related to Steam engines at Wikimedia Commons

If the page/category name is identical, the parameter may be omitted, but specifying it should avoid problems resulting from page moves.

Wiktionary

Rather than linking to a WP article, it may be appropriate to link to a dictionary definition.
Use the 'pipe trick' to show a link to Wiktionary, for example [[wikt:steamroller|]] shows as:

steamroller

External media

For music/audio/video files not at Commons, use the {{external media}} template
One template may link to multiple media sources, and additional description may be included (see template documentation for examples).

Common websites

Geograph

TBA

English Heritage - BaRR

This template links to the entry in the register and adds the page to Category: Buildings on the Buildings at Risk Register.
for example:

{{EHbarName|Westonzoyland+Pumping+Station}} produces:

Buildings at Risk Register: Westonzoyland+Pumping+Station

where "Westonzoyland+Pumping+Station" is the link text for the URI to a search result page.

(This template replaces the former {{EHbar|xxxx}} template, which is now a redirect.)

Images of England

{{IoE|432966|(south west workshops, grade II)}} produces:

Historic England. "Details from listed building database ({{{num}}})". National Heritage List for England.

(Example from Crossness Pumping Station)

ODNB

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

see Great Western Railway, for example, which uses {{ODNBsub}}.

YouTube

{{YouTube|wUipU3l1bKY|Slough Estates No. 3}} produces:

Slough Estates No. 3 on YouTube

where wUipU3l1bKY is the video ID.
In practice you may want to reformat the wording and hence link directly using a URI instead (see Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum#External links), although there are bots who watch for this sort of linking.

Link identification

Foreign language links

Identify non-English links using {{Language icon}} such as {{in lang|ru}} which produces: (in Russian)

The language abbreviations are listed at: List of ISO 639-1 codes (column 1)

Non-HTML links

Identify non-HTML links using the appropriate template: {{PDFlink}}, {{DOClink}}, {{RTFlink}}, {{XLSlink}}, {{PPTlink}}, {{MP3link}},{{DjVulink}}

These require the format: {{PDFlink|[link-URI] link text|size}} (Size field is optional and may be added later by a bot)

For example:

{{PDFlink|[http://www.url.htm Description]|32kB}} produces:

"Description". (32kB)

Link management

Dead links

If you find a Dead Link, do not just delete it. Ideally, find where it has gone, or link to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Failing that, consider marking with {{Dead link}}, which will route the user to WP:DEADLINK, where further instructions (and lists of bad links) may be found. (As at Feb 2009 the lists had been created in Nov 2006; however, three dead links on EdJogg-watched pages were found!)

Spam links

If faced with a spammer having edited multiple pages, suggest dropping a note to User talk:Bob Castle. Bob is passionately opposed to spam and would more than likely help out. (Haven't tried asking yet! - 02/07/07)

Search Wiki for links

Lists of External Links for a specific URI may be found using Special:LinkSearch (available from Special Pages link on LH toolbar).

Copyright

Image copyright

See File:Porlock map 1937.jpg, for example of using an OS map over 50 years old.
See Image:Wimbledon station 02.jpg (from Commons) for good example of licensing stuff and link for more info (from Thryduulf)
See Image:Vj day kiss.jpg, for example of use of license {{tl:HistoricPhoto}} – may be able to use this as excuse for B&W pics of very old traction engines!
See Image:Miss Sedusa.JPG, for example of a Fair-Use Rationale for an animated TV screenshot
See below for examples of logo FURs

UK Copyright Law

Pictures of statues and other 3D "works of artistic craftsmanship", in a public place (or a place 'open to the public', even if an entry fee is required) MAY be uploaded to Commons. Artistic craftsmanship implies that the creator was both artist and craftsman, and the intention was to create a work of art; this intention should be 'obvious'. Other acceptable items include such as: hand-painted tiles, wrought iron gates, cutlery, needlework, etc.

Uploading pictures of signs, paintings, maps, advertising posters, murals and similar 2D media -- even if displayed in a public place -- is NOT permitted unless suitable permission is obtained from the copyright holder.

The explanation, and the differences, may be found here: Commons:Freedom of panorama#United Kingdom.

It may be worth adding a note -- to a relevant category or image file -- that links to the same explanation, as is done for Commons:Category:Bekonscot.

'Backwards copyvio'

Where an external article or web page draws substantially on text in a WP article, the latter may be incorrectly identified as a copyvio at a later date.
To avoid this, use the template {{Backwardscopyvio}}. See Talk:Wharncliffe Viaduct for an example.

Terminology

Content

Text

Where there is a need to use '[sic]', (eg in a quotation) utilise {{sic}}

Incomplete Lists

Identify incomplete lists with the following templates:

basic list: {{expand-list}}
transport-related list: {{inc-transport}}
eternally incomplete: {{Dynamic list}}

Images

WP:LI – Wikipedia:List of images

ReqPhoto

The {{reqphoto}} template can be used as a catch-all (deprecated!), or for specific requests. 'Catch-all' requests are being targeted by a bot if they appear to be out-dated. However, by adding '|of=<description>' it is possible to be more specific.

See Talk:Cupcake for an example of use, and Template talk:Reqphoto#Use when other photos exist for discussion about it.

NB, {{reqphoto}} should always have a category associated to avoid the request being lost in a big pile. See Category:Wikipedia requested photographs for a complete list (drill-down to the appropriate sub-cat).

Fair-Use Rationales (FUR)

See File:Monthersunionlogo.png / File:Sharp logo.svg for a FUR for a logo

Miscellaneous

WP:BOX – Wikipedia:Userboxes – how to create, how to use, links to lists of existing user boxes
WP:CACHE – Wikipedia:Bypass your cache – bypass/clear/disable cache (instrux for various browsers), force server re-render, etc
{{Done}} produces Done . . . . . also see {{Tick}} which produces Y
{{Not done}} produces Not done . . . . . also see {{Cross}} which produces N
{{Thank you}} produces Thank you

Utilities

Semi-automatic editor Wikipedia:AutoWikiBrowser (WP:AWB)
'TinEye' reverse image look-up utility (looks for duplicates, eg in case of copyvio queries)

Project banners

Simple, first application

{{WikiProject Trains|locos=yes|UK=yes}}

example

{{WikiProject Trains|class=c|importance=mid|unref=yes|locos=yes|UK=yes|UK-importance=low}}

Anti-vandal work

WP:SPS (Self-Published Sources) -- self-published sources (such as personal websites, blogs and especially newspaper columnists (where opinions are being expressed)) should generally not be cited as references, and certainly not for BLP articles. (Check section for precise details.)

For Foreign-Language Wikis

Wikipedia:Babel

en

This user is a native speaker of the English language.

ru-0

Этот участник не понимает русский язык.

Search user languages

Find EdJogg at the English Wikipedia.

(Sorry, this language wiki is not watched by EdJogg.)

As a nice touch, try to include a translation of the above text before the English text.
Suggest using the local translation of 'User:EdJogg' as a section heading.
See EdJogg at Galician wiki] for example.

A translation tool that worked well for Galician

Language skills (or lack of) notified at the following Wikipedia sites

Basque (Euskara) -language -- 16 April 2009
Turkish-language -- 13 Aug 2009
Ukrainian-language -- 22 Sept 2009
German Wikipedia -- 22 Sept 2009
Galician (north-west Spain) Wikipedia -- 05 Oct 2010 -- first one with above text copied in both Galician (GL) and English

[1] reference text

[inflation-UK-2] UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.

[1]

[Example Note]

[2]

Wikipedia Help and Guidance

Echo / User Notification mechanism

WP Admin

Messaging, Talkback, and Emails home

Writing style

Featured Articles)

FA Preparation

Edit summaries

Manual of Style (MOS)

Standard Headings

Article clean-up

Not-a-typo Templates

In-line fact-query templates

Banner clean-up templates

Categories

Category sorting

Disambiguation

References

Multiple References

Cite templates

'Notes'

Talk Page management

'Diff' Template

Multiple project banners

Outdenting

Page Management

Counter-Vandalism

Reasons for Reverting

For/Main/Seealso/etc

Archiving talk pages

Moving/Merging Pages

Orphan Pages

Stub identification

Redirects

Link anchors

Don't replace links to redirects

Deletion

Formatting

Text layout

Links ('pipe trick')

Images

Gallery

Tables

No wrap template

Multiple-column list

Two column list

Multiple columns

"Quick 'n' Dirty" Columns

'Convert' template tricks

Hyphenation

Inflation calculations

Fancy quotes

{{cquote}}

{{Quotation}}

{{Quote box}}

Naviboxes - Preceding Whitespace

Useful Templates

Syntax aids

Pipe character ('|') in templates

Images

Infoboxes

Route Diagram Templates

Canals

Railways

Railway-related articles

Miscellaneous

External Links

Wikimedia Commons

Wiktionary

External media

Common websites

Geograph

English Heritage - BaRR

Images of England

ODNB

YouTube

Link identification

Foreign language links

Non-HTML links

Link management