Help:Editing
Wikipedia is a wiki, meaning anyone can edit nearly any[1] page and improve articles immediately. You do not need to register to do this, and anyone who has edited is known as a Wikipedian or editor. Small edits add up, and every editor can be proud to have made Wikipedia better for all. There are two editing interfaces: the new VisualEditor (VE) and classic wikitext editing (wiki markup), which uses the Source Editor.
An encyclopedic style with a formal tone is important: straightforward, just-the-facts, instead of essay-like, argumentative, or opinionated. The goal of a Wikipedia article is to create a comprehensive and neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge about a topic. Wikipedia does not publish original research. An encyclopedia is, by its nature, a tertiary source that provides a survey of information already published in the wider world. Ideally, all information should be cited and verifiable by reliable sources. Sourcing requirements are significantly stricter in articles on living persons.
Editing most Wikipedia pages is simple. Wikipedia uses two interface methods: classic editing with the Source Editor through wikitext (wiki markup), and a new VisualEditor (VE).
Wikitext editing using the Source Editor is chosen by clicking the Edit source tab at the top of a Wikipedia page (or on a section-edit link). This opens an editable copy of the page, showing all the wikitext used there, and the Source Editor toolbar offers simple menu options to add or change the formatting. Wikitext is used extensively throughout Wikipedia for such things as hyperlinks, tables and columns, footnotes, inline citation, special characters and so on. The Source Editor lets users toggle on 'wikitext highlighting' which uses simple colours to help differentiate article text from wikitext.
The VisualEditor option is intended as a user-friendly, "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) editing aid, allowing one to edit pages without the need to learn wikitext markup. It is only available to registered logged-in users through an opt-in choice available through personal preferences, see the VisualEditor user guide for more information.
Edit box showing the wikitext markup. You can change the formatting and contents of the page by changing what is written in this box.
