Difference between revisions of "Help:Editing Pages"

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When you start a new page or add to an existing one in order to improve it, no matter how small your edit may seem, you can be proud of being a part of this community that is helping make M3P better - all those edits and contributions add up!
When you start a new page or add to an existing one in order to improve it, no matter how small your edit may seem, you can be proud of being a part of this community that is helping make M3P better - all those edits and contributions add up!
Here is how you do it...


= Editing =
= Editing =

Latest revision as of 14:47, 20 October 2010

M3P is a wiki, meaning that anyone can start a new page, edit or improve existing ones, and the change is done immediately for all readers.

However, some pages are protected for obvious reasons. These might be pages of published newspaper articles or other pages directly related to the administration of M3P.

When you start a new page or add to an existing one in order to improve it, no matter how small your edit may seem, you can be proud of being a part of this community that is helping make M3P better - all those edits and contributions add up!

Here is how you do it...

Editing

Editing most M3P pages is easy! Simply click on the red "edit" tab at the top of a page (or on a section-edit link on the right-hand-side of the page). This will bring up a text box containing the editable text of the current page. Here you can type in the text that you want to add, using wiki markup to format the text (BOLD, Italic, etc.).

Paragraphs can be separated with a blank line by entering 'Return' twice on the keyboard.

'Show preview' button

To see how the page looks with your edits, press the Show preview button located at the bottom of the page.

'Show changes' button

To see the differences between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page, press the Show changes button, also located at the bottom of the page.

Summary

When you have finished editing, it is helpful to write a short summary describing what you have edited. Write this in the small text-field below the edit-box called Summary.

'Save page' button

When you are satisfied with what you had done, be courageous and press the Save page button!
Your changes will immediately be visible to all M3P users.

Minor edits

Checking the "minor edit" box means that you have done only superficial changes to the existing page: typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc.

Major edits

You are encouraged to be bold, but there are several things that a user can do to ensure that major edits are performed smoothly. Before engaging in a major edit, you should consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page.

Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will help all to ensure that major edits are well received by the M3P community.

A major edit should be reviewed to confirm that it is consensual to all concerned editors. Therefore, any change that affects the meaning of an article is major (not minor), even if the edit is a single word.

This is recommended as best practice, since doing it your own way, may increase the likelihood that your changes be re-edited.

discussion/talk pages

discussion/talk pages are similar to article pages in that you can edit the whole or part of the page.

As previously mentioned in this section, it is encouraged that when attempting to make major edits to a page, one should consider discussing such proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page first, before making the actual edit.

More information on editing wiki pages

Moving a page

Pages may be moved to a new title for a number of reasons such as the previous name is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, etc.

Moving a page is easy, but please note that you must first be logged in.

The steps for moving a page are as follows:

  • With the correct page displayed, click on the move button at the top of the page. (right next to the edit and history buttons.)
  • You will be asked for a new name for the page, and given the option to also move the page's talk page (this box should usually be left checked).
  • Complete the "Reason for move" field (which is just like an edit summary), by stating a reason for the page move. (A common example: moving a userspace draft into place; corrected inaccurate name.)
  • When ready, click the move button and, if successful, the page will be renamed to the new title. The old title will become a redirect page, so any links to the old title will still go to the new page.

The move will fail if a page already exists at the target name, unless it is simply a redirect to the present name that has never been modified.

Note: When a page is renamed, its page history is attached to the new name, and the previous title is automatically redirected to the new name.

Article titles

Style and layout

Tools