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This is a descriptive directory of Wikipedia's informative, instructional, and consultation pages. Wikipedia also has an introduction for aspiring contributors, and if you require interactive assistance see asking for help.
For other useful directories and indexes, see directories.
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About Wikipedia
Contributor information
- Contributing to Wikipedia - the main page that provides information, links, videos and other resources on the basics needed to comprehend, comment on, and contribute to Wikipedia.
- Welcome to Wikipedia - portal style page to get you started.
- Why create an account - don't need to be registered to edit, however it does provide additional features.
- Choosing a username - do not choose names which may be offensive, misleading, disruptive, or promotional.
- How to log in - If you are not logged in your edits are labelled in page history with your IP address.
- Your first article - guide to starting your first encyclopedia article.
- Annotated article – is a well-constructed sample article, with annotations.
- Article wizard - will walk you through the process of submitting a new article.
- Frequently Asked Questions - common questions about using and contributing.
- More instructional material - provides links to instructional material useful for users. **Trifecta - ultra fast overview of foundational principles related to policies and guidelines.
- Things you may not know about Wikipedia - insights specifically targeted at people who have limited experience.
- Tip of the day - provides "very useful" advice daily on how to use or develop Wikipedia more effectively.
- See also Wikipedia:Tips, the complete library of tips arranged by subject.
- User page design center - where you will find all the resources for developing your user page. Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
- FAQ main page - questions about using and contributing.
- Administration - answers some questions related to Administrators.
- Article subjects - what to do about a specific articles.
- Categories - about using Wikipedia's categories.
- Contributing - answers to questions commonly asked by contributors.
- Copyright - four most commonly asked questions about copyright.
- Editing - answers the most common questions about editing.
- Forking - how do I download and use Wikipedia content.
- IRC (live chat) - about "chat rooms" - real-time discussions.
- Organizations - editing without displaying a conflict of interest.
- Problems - solving problems you may encounter when browsing or editing.
- Readers - addresses concerns and questions readers may have.
- Schools - questions teachers, librarians and administrators might have.
- Technical - answers some questions related to the technical workings.
- (Miscellaneous) - questions that do not fit into any of the others above.
Tutorials
Introductions
Wiki Markup
- Main introduction - quick overview of what Wikipedia is all about.
- Exploring - finding your way around Wikipedia.
- Editing - the basic pages on how to contribute to Wikipedia.
- Images - introduction to adding images to Wikipedia.
- Manual of Style - introduction to the style guide for articles.
- Media - how to add media to Wikipedia.
- Navigating - Wikipedia is a big place.
- Policies - how to apply policies and guidelines.
- Sourcing - why references are so important.
- Tables - how an where tables are used and how to make them.
- Talk pages - how to communicate within Wikipedia.
Visual editor
- Editing with VisualEditor - a five part introduction to editing with VisualEditor. Opening the editor. Toolbar basics. Links and Wikilinks. Saving your changes. Summary
- Referencing with VisualEditor - a five part introduction to referencing. Verifiability. Inline citations. RefToolbar. Reliable sources. Summary.
- Uploading images with VisualEditor - a six part guide on uploading images. Introduction. Free content. Non-free content. Wikimedia Commons. Using an image. Summary.
Training modules
Built-in tours
- Help Guided tours - providing tooltip-like tours of the Wikipedia experience.
- Wikipedia GettingStarted - feature, which provides a "getting started" page to newly registered Wikipedians. Immediately after creating an account, users see the page Special:GettingStarted, which invites them to try out editing by improving one of the pages presented.
The Missing Manual
- The Missing Manual - comprehensive how-to guide (book) that explains everything about contributing for novice to expert editors.
- Introduction - originally written in 2008 by John Broughto, the Manual has since been expanded and updated by many others.
Part I - Editing and Creating Articles
- First edit - explains what you see when you look at an article in Wikipedia's editing window and how to practice.
- Sourcing - you will need to learn some technical matters.
- Account setup & personal space - having an account actually protects your privacy better than editing anonymously.
- Creating articles - get a much better sense of what articles in Wikipedia should be like.
- Page history & reverting - as an editor you're likely to want to see what other editors do to articles you've edited.
- Monitoring changes - experienced editors monitor articles they've edited.
- Vandalism & spam - explains in detail what you, a Wikipedia editor, can do in terms of spotting and fixing vandalism and spam.
Part II - Collaborating with Other Editors
- Communicating with others - you will need to know how to use the pages where editors interact and collaborate with each other.
- WikiProjects - many editors at Wikipedia work together in groups, formal or informal.
- Content disputes - if you find yourself involved in a content dispute...
- Incivility - shows you helpful ways to respond to incivility and personal attacks directed against you or other editors.
- Helping others - shows you all the places and ways you can lend other editors a hand.
Part III - Formatting and Illustrating Articles
- Sections - shows you how to effectively use sections in an article.
- Lists & tables - shows you how to create and edit both lists and tables.
- Images - shows you how to place an image in an article, after you or someone else has uploaded it.
Part IV - Building a Stronger Encyclopedia
Part V - Customizing Wikipedia
- Personal preferences - "My Preferences" is where you can change a number of settings that control how pages look and function.
- JavaScript - you can customize Wikipedia in ways that make your editing easier with scripts.
Part VI - Appendices
- Wikipedia Pages - when you're registered, and logged into Wikipedia, you'll see links in a number of places.
- Reader’s guide - background on what Wikipedia is and how to get the most out.
- Learning more - shows you the myriad places you can go, both inside and outside Wikipedia.
How to pages
- Help:help - explains how to find and navigate the help pages.
- Books - explains how to make and download Wikipedia books.
- Categories - explains how to edit categories.
- Copyright - explains how to deal with copyright concerns.
- Diff - explains how to view the difference between two versions of a page
- Editing - explains the basics of editing.
- Find sources - explains how to find references.
- Files - explains how to manage media.
- Footnotes - explains how to add notes and references.
- Nesting footnotes - explains how to include a note or reference within a note or reference.
- Glossary - quick overview of terms.
- Infobox - explains the basics about how to use infoboxes.
- IPA for English - explains how the International Phonetic Alphabet system works.
- List - explains how to add lists.
- Linking - explains how to add internal links.
- Link color - explains how to add color to link text.
- Logging in - explains how to access your account.
- Magic words - explains how words surrounded by brackets or underscores function.
- Media - explains the basics of seeing media.
- Merging - explains how to consolidate articles.
- Mobile access - explains how to access Wikipedia from mobile devices.
- Navigation - explains how to get around Wikipedia.
- Other languages - explains how to deal with other languages.
- Page name - explains how to deal with page titles.
- Redirect - explains how to direct pages to the proper place.
- References - explains how to make those complicated sources work.
- Rename - explains how to change your user name.
- Password - explains how to change your personal password.
- Reverting - explains how to roll back edits.
- Searching - explains how to use Wikipedia more effectively.
- Section - explains how to edit just portions of a page.
- Talk pages - explains the basics of what to do on talk pages.
- Students - explains the basics for students.
- URLs - explains how to add and deal with external links.
- User contributions - explains how to view editors additions.
- Watching pages - explains how to track pages.
Coding (Wiki markup)
- Wiki markup - explains the coding used by text, links, & talk pages
- Barchart - explains how to make charts.
- Calculations - explains how to make complicated calculations.
- Characters - explains how to add special characters.
- Citations quick! - simplistic examples of two preferred ways of doing footnotes (reference).
- Columns - explains how to make columns.
- HTML - explains how use HTML in text.
- Musical symbols - explains the basic coding of music symbols.
- Sound files - explains the basic coding sound files.
- Tables - explains the basic coding for making tables.
- Wiki-table - more advanced coding information on tables.
- Templates - explains the basic for templates.
- Documentation - explains the basic of how to properly document template information.
- Visual files - explains the basic of coding for visual media.
- Wiki tools - various tools and tutorials intended to simplify, make more efficient, or provide additional functionality.
Interactive assistance (help forums)
Questions about Wikipedia
| Replying to help requests - contains guidelines for users who respond to questions about how to use or edit posed by other users. |
- Help desk - the "main page" for asking questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia.
- Teahouse - a "very friendly place" for new editors to become accustomed to and ask questions about editing.
- Editor help - a "far less busy place" where editors will get comprehensive assistance about on going problems related to editing.
General knowledge questions
- Reference desks - you can ask questions about any topic at the specific pages listed below.
- Computing - to ask about computing, information technology, electronics, software and hardware.
- Entertainment - to ask about sports, popular culture, movies, music, video games, and TV shows.
- Humanities - to ask about history, politics, literature, religion, philosophy, law, finance, economics, art, and society.
- Language - to ask about spelling, grammar, word etymology, language usage, and translations.
- Mathematics - to ask about mathematics, geometry, probability, and statistics.
- Science - to ask about biology, chemistry, physics, medicine, geology, engineering and technology.
- (Miscellaneous) - to ask about anything that is not listed above.
Specific help and mediation
Technical issues
- Village pump - main directory divided into five boards by topic (as seen below), to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia.
- Policy - to discuss changes to existing and proposed policies.
- Proposals - to discuss new proposals that are not policy-related.
- Technical - to discuss technical issues. For wiki software bug reports, use Bugzilla
- Idea lab - to discuss ideas before proposing them to the community and attempt to find solutions to common issues.
- (Miscellaneous) - to post messages that do not fit into any other categories listed above.
Other ways to get help
- Special services - a section on the Request departments page that lists the alternative ways of getting help as seen below.
- Place {{Help me}} (including the curly brackets) "then your question" on your talk page, a volunteer will visit you there!
- If you require personal administrator assistance in regards to blocking, deleting, protecting, personal harassment or legal threats you can place {{Admin help}} (including the curly brackets) "then your concerns" on your talk page, an administrator will visit you there!
- Adopt-a-User – is where you can find experienced Wikipedians that "adopt" new users and mentor them.
- Co-op – a mentorship space where you can work with an experienced Wikipedian to learn about and improve Wikipedia.
- Join the #wikipedia-en-help IRC channel for real-time chat. New to IRC? Click here to be connected instantly!
- New editors can join the "Newcomer live chat" to connect with editors experienced assisting novice users.
- Contact Wikipedia - is a page that describes how and where to contact Wikipedia directly for a variety of reasons.
Community standards and advice
- Policies & guidelines - describes how policies and guidelines should normally be developed and maintained.
- Essays– Although essays are not policy or guidelines many are worthy of considerations.
- Advice pages – guideline about advice pages written by WikiProjects.
- Accessibility - guideline primarily intended to assist those with disabilities, it can be helpful for all readers.
- Article deletion - policy about how articles and other Wikipedia pages can be removed from general view.
- Biographies of living persons (BLP) - guideline about how bios on living persons must be written with great care.
- Libel - policy about how it is the responsibility of all to ensure that material posted is not defamatory.
- Avoiding harm - essay that contains the ideas behind the philosophy that formed the BLP.
- Blocking - policy behind how administrators technically prevent users from editing.
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- Manual of Style (MOS) - main guideline page that describes communal consensus on layouts and presentation.
- Neutrality (NPOV) - policy about how articles should represent the views of main scholars and specialists on topics.
- No original research (OR) - policy about how all material must be attributable to a reliable, published source.
- Notability - guideline that outlines how suitable a topic may be for its own article or list.
- Fringe theories - guideline about how articles should not make a fringe theory appear more notable than it is.
- Notability essays - list of essays that summarizes the gist of user written essays on notability.
- User rights - ability to perform certain actions in Wikipedia depends on his/her user access level.
- Verifiability (RS) - policy stating how readers must be able to check that articles are not fabricated or embellished.
- Understandability - guideline about how all should strive to make each part of every article as understandable as possible to the widest audience of reader.
- Words to watch - guideline about how certain expressions should be used with care.
- Vandalism - if you see vandalism in an article, the simplest thing to do is just to remove it.
Directories
- Directory - the main list of "Wikipedia" and "Help" namespace directories and indexes
- Abbreviations - a list of all the abbreviations used on Wikipedia
- Departments - a list of all the different divisions of Wikipedia.
- Editor's index - a list of all the pages to help people who edit pages.
- Essays - a list of pages that contain advice or opinions from one or more Wikipedia contributors.
- FAQ - a list of frequently asked questions by topic.
- Glossary - a list of terms (slang) commonly used by editors.
- Guidelines - a descriptive list of official guidelines for "English Wikipedia"
- Manual of Style - a descriptive list of the pages which make up the Manual of Style.
- Policies - a descriptive list of official policies for "English Wikipedia"
- Quick directory - a small list of key pages with emphasis on interaction between members of the community.
- Shortcuts - a list of abbreviated redirects and the pages they lead to.
- Tips - a list of "tips" created by users at Tip of the day project.
Help contents by topic
Further reading (external links)
- Note - publications below may contain out of dated information or images.
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Sister projects (external links)
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