Pensapedia:How to edit an article

This article is copied mostly or entirely from a corresponding page at Wikipedia. You can help Pensapedia by rewriting it.

See also Pensapedia:Introduction, Pensapedia:Tutorial, Help:Editing, and Help:Starting a new page

Pensapedia is a wiki, which means that anyone can easily edit any unprotected page and save those changes immediately to that page. After your first edit, you will be a Pensapedia editor! Good luck with your first edit.

Introduction

Editing most Pensapedia pages is not very difficult at all. Simply click on the "edit this page" tab at the top of a Pensapedia page (or on a section-edit link). This will bring you to a new page with a text box containing the editable text of the original page. If you just want to experiment, please do so in the sandbox, not here. You should write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box. You may use shorthand to describe your changes, as described in the legend, and when you have finished, press the Show preview button to see how your changes will look. You can also see the difference between the page with your edits and the previous version of the page by pressing the "Show changes" button. If you're satisfied with what you see, be bold and press the Save page button. Your changes will immediately be visible to all Pensapedia users.

You can also click on the "Discussion" tab to see the corresponding talk page, which contains comments about the page from other Pensapedia users. Click on the "+" tab to add a new section, or edit the page in the same way as an article page.

You should remember to sign your messages on talk pages and some special-purpose project pages, but you should not sign edits you make to regular articles. In page histories, the MediaWiki software keeps track of which user makes each change.

Minor edits

Template:Further A check to the "minor edit" box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the current and previous version: typo corrections, formatting and presentational changes, rearranging of text without modifying content, etc. A minor edit is a version that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. The "minor edit" option is one of several options only available to registered users.

Major edits

All editors 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, consider discussing proposed changes on the article discussion/talk page. During the edit, if doing so over an extended period of time, the {{inuse}} tag can reduce the likelihood of an edit conflict. Once the edit has been completed, the inclusion of an edit summary will assist in documenting the changes. These steps will all help to ensure that major edits are well received by the Pensapedia community.

A major edit is a version that 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.

Wiki markup

The wiki markup is the syntax system you can use to format a Pensapedia page; please see Help:Editing for details on it, and Help:Wikitext examples for a longer list of the possibilities of Wikitext. A cheatsheet is also available for quick reference.

Links and URLs

What it looks like	What you type
Plaza Ferdinand VII is located in downtown Pensacola. A link to another Wiki article. Internally, the first letter of the target page is automatically capitalized and spaces are represented as underscores (typing an underscore in the link has the same effect as typing a space, but is not recommended). Thus the link above is to the URL pensapedia.com/wiki/Downtown_Pensacola, which is the Pensapedia article with the name "Downtown Pensacola". See also Pensapedia:Canonicalization.	Plaza Ferdinand VII is located in [[downtown Pensacola]].
The downtown area has many shops and restaurants. Same target, different name. The article name (the "piped" text) must be placed first, then the text that will be displayed second.	The [[Downtown Pensacola|downtown area]] has many shops and restaurants.
Several Escambia County Commissioners eat at downtown Pensacola's many restaurants. Examples include buses, taxicabs, and streetcars. Endings are blended into the link. Preferred style is to use this instead of a piped link, if possible.	Several [[Escambia County Commission]]ers eat at [[downtown Pensacola]]'s many restaurants. a [[micro]]<nowiki>second </nowiki>
See the Pensapedia:Manual of Style. A link to another namespace.	See the [[Pensapedia:Manual of Style]].
Pensapedia:Manual of Style#Italics is a link to a section within another page. #Links and URLs is a link to another section on the current page. #example is a link to an anchor that was created using an id attribute . Italics is a stylish link to a section within another page. The part after the number sign (#) must match a section heading on the page. Matches must be exact in terms of spelling, case, and punctuation. Links to non-existent sections are not broken; they are treated as links to the top of the page. Identifiers may be created by attaching an id="..." attribute to almost any HTML element. This doesn't work with legacy browsers. Include "| link title" to create a stylish link title.	[[Pensapedia:Manual of Style#Italics]] is a link to a section within another page. [[#Links and URLs]] is a link to another section on the current page. [[#example]] is a link to an anchor that was created using <div id="example">an id attribute</div>. [[Pensapedia:Manual of Style#Italics|Italics]] is a stylish link to a section within another page.
Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: Pelican. Automatically hide namespace: Village Pump. Or both: Manual of Style But not: [[Pensapedia:Manual of Style#Links|]] The server fills in the part after the pipe character (|) when you save the page. The next time you open the edit box you will see the expanded piped link. When previewing your edits, you will not see the expanded form until you press Save and Edit again. The same applies to links to sections within the same page (see previous entry). See Pensapedia:Pipe trick for details.	Automatically hide stuff in parentheses: [[Pelican (disambiguation)|]]. Automatically hide namespace: [[Pensapedia:Village Pump|]]. Or both: [[Pensapedia: Manual of Style (headings)|]] But not: [[Pensapedia: Manual of Style#Links|]]
Pensacola sarcasm society is a page that does not exist yet. You can create it by clicking on the link. To create a new page: Create a link to it on some other (related) page. Save that page. Click on the link you just made. The new page will open for editing. For more information, see How to start a page and check out Pensapedia's naming conventions. Please do not create a new article without linking to it from at least one other article.	[[Pensacola sarcasm society]] is a page that does not exist yet.
How to edit a page is this page. Self links appear as bold text when the article is viewed. Do not use this technique to make the article name bold in the first paragraph; see the Manual of Style.	[[How to edit a page]] is this page.
When adding a comment to a Talk page, you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name: Admin or four to add user name plus date/time: Admin 11:56, 8 March 2007 (CST) Five tildes gives the date/time alone: 11:56, 8 March 2007 (CST) The first two both provide a link to your user page.	When adding a comment to a Talk page,you should sign it by adding three tildes to add your user name: : ~~~ or four to add user name plus date/time: : ~~~~ Five tildes gives the date/time alone: : ~~~~~
Redirect one article title to another by placing a directive like the one shown to the right on the first line of the article (such as at a page titled "ECUA"). It is possible to redirect to a section. For example, Redirect ECUA Board will redirect to the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority page, to the Board section if it exists.	#REDIRECT [[Emerald Coast Utilities Authority]] Redirect [[Emerald Coast Utilities Authority#Board|ECUA Board]] will redirect to the [[Emerald Coast Utilities Authority]] page, to the Board section if it exists.
What links here and Related changes pages can be linked as: Special:Whatlinkshere/Pensapedia:How to edit a page and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Pensapedia:How to edit a page	'''What links here''' and '''Related changes''' pages can be linked as: [[Special:Whatlinkshere/ Pensapedia:How to edit a page]] and [[Special:Recentchangeslinked/ Pensapedia:How to edit a page]]
A user's Contributions page can be linked as: Special:Contributions/UserName or Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0	A user's '''Contributions''' page can be linked as: [[Special:Contributions/UserName]] or [[Special:Contributions/192.0.2.0]]
To put an article in a Pensapedia:Category, place a link like the one to the right anywhere in the article. It does not matter where you put these links while editing as they will always show up in the same place when you save the page, but placement at the end of the edit box is recommended.	[[Category:Private schools]]
To link to a Pensapedia:Category page without putting the article into the category, use an initial colon (:) in the link.	[[:Category:Private schools]]
Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: Bare URL: http://www.pensapedia.com/ (bad style) Unnamed link: [1] (only used within article body for footnotes) Named link: Pensapedia Square brackets indicate an external link. Note the use of a space (not a pipe) to separate the URL from the link text in the "named" version. In the URL, all symbols must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ \ / ~ % - + & # ? ! = ( ) @ If a URL contains a character not in this list, it should be encoded by using a percent sign (%) followed by the hex code of the character, which can be found in the table of ASCII printable characters. For example, the caret character (^) would be encoded in a URL as %5E. If the "named" version contains a closing square bracket "]", then you must use the HTML special character syntax, i.e. &#93; otherwise the MediaWiki software will prematurely interpret this as the end of the external link. There is a class that can be used to remove the arrow image from the external link. It is used in Template:Ref to stop the URL from expanding during printing. It should never be used in the main body of an article. However, there is an exception: wikilinks in Image markup. An example of the markup is as follows: Markup: <span class="plainlinksneverexpand"> [http://www.sysinternals.com/ ntw2k/freeware/winobj.shtml WinObj]</span> Display: WinObj See Pensapedia:External links for style issues.	Three ways to link to external (non-wiki) sources: # Bare URL: http://http://www.pensapedia.com/ (bad style) # Unnamed link: [http://http://www.pensapedia.com/] (only used within article body for footnotes) # Named link: [http://http://www.pensapedia.com Pensapedia]
Linking to other wikis: Interwiki link: Wikipedia:Pensacola Interwiki link without prefix: Pensacola Named interwiki link: Wikipedia's entry for Pensacola All of these forms lead to the URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensacola Note that interwiki links use the internal link style of [[double brackets]]. Pensapedia:Interwiki_map for the list of shortcuts; if the site you want to link to is not on the list, use an external link (see above). See also Pensapedia:How to link to other wikis.	Linking to other wikis: # Interwiki link: [[Wikipedia:Pensacola]] # Interwiki link without prefix: [[Wikipedia:Pensacola|]] # Named interwiki link: [[Wikipedia:Pensacola|Wikipedia's entry for Pensacola]]
Date formats: August 16, 2004 16 August 2004 2004-08-16 2004-08-16 Link dates in one of the above formats, so that everyone can set their own display order. If logged in, you can use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting. All of the above dates will appear as "20 July 1969" if you set your date display preference to "15 January 2001", but as "July 20, 1969" if you set it to "January 15, 2001", or as "1969-07-20" if you set it to "2001-01-15".	Date formats: # [[August 16]], [[2004]] # [[16 August]] [[2004]] # [[2004]]-[[08-16]] # [[2004-08-16]]
Special WP:AO links like this year needing future maintenance	Special "[[Pensapedia:As of|as of]]" links like [[As of 2007|this year]] needing future maintenance
Chuckie & Donno commercial To include links to non-image uploads such as sounds, use a "media" link. For images, see next section.	[media:ChuckieDonno4.mov|Chuckie & Donno commercial]]

Images

Only images that have been uploaded to Pensapedia can be used. To upload images, use the upload page. You can find the uploaded image on the image list.

What it looks like	What you type
A picture:	A picture: [[Image:wiki.png]]
With alternative text:	With alternative text: [[Image:PensapediaLogo.png|ship book logo]] Alternative text, used when a mouse hovers over the image or when the image is loaded in a text-only browser, or when spoken aloud, is strongly encouraged. See Alternate text for images for help on choosing it.
Floating to the right side of the page using the frame attribute and a caption: Pensapedia logo	Floating to the right side of the page using the ''frame'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:PensapediaLogo.png|frame|Pensapedia logo]] The frame tag automatically floats the image right. The caption is also used as alternate text.
Floating to the right side of the page using the thumb attribute and a caption: Pensapedia logo	Floating to the right side of the page using the ''thumb'' attribute and a caption: [[Image:PensapediaLogo.png|thumb|Pensapedia logo]] The thumb tag automatically floats the image right. The caption is also used as alternate text. An enlarge icon is placed in the lower right corner.
Floating to the right side of the page without a caption:	Floating to the right side of the page ''without'' a caption: [[Image:PensapediaLogo.png|right|Pensapedia logo]] The help topic on Extended image syntax explains more options.
A picture resized to 30 pixels...	A picture resized to 30 pixels... [[Image:PensapediaLogo.png|30 px]] The help topic on Extended image syntax explains more options.
Linking directly to the description page of an image: Image:PensapediaLogo.png	Linking directly to the description page of an image: [[:Image:PensapediaLogo.png]] Clicking on an image displayed on a page (such as any of the ones above) also leads to the description page
Linking directly to an image without displaying it: Image of the ship book logo	Linking directly to an image without displaying it: [[:Media:PensapediaLogo.png|Image of the ship book logo]] To include links to images shown as links instead of drawn on the page, use a "media" link.
Using the div tag to separate images from text (note that this may allow images to cover text):	Example: <div style="display:inline; width:220px; float:right;"> Place images here </div>
Using wiki markup to make a table in which to place a vertical column of images (this helps edit links match headers, especially in Firefox browsers):	Example: {| align=right |- | Place images here |}

See the Pensapedia's image use policy as a guideline used on Pensapedia.

For further help on images, including some more versatile abilities, see the topic on Extended image syntax.

Character formatting

What it looks like	What you type
Emphasized text Strong emphasis Even stronger emphasis	''Emphasized text'' '''Strong emphasis''' '''''Even stronger emphasis'''''
A typewriter font for monospace text or for computer code: int main() For semantic reasons, using <code> where applicable is preferable to using <tt>.	A typewriter font for <tt>monospace text</tt> or for computer code: <code>int main()</code>
You can use small text for captions.	You can use <small>small text</small> for captions.
Better stay away from big text, unless it's within small text.	Better stay away from <big>big text</big>, unless <small> it's <big>within</big> small</small> text.
You can strike out deleted material and underline new material. You can also mark deleted material and inserted material using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new logical with the old physical markup. When editing regular Pensapedia articles, just make your changes and do not mark them up in any special way. When editing your own previous remarks in talk pages, it is sometimes appropriate to mark up deleted or inserted material.	You can <s>strike out deleted material</s> and <u>underline new material</u>. You can also mark <del>deleted material</del> and <ins>inserted material</ins> using logical markup. For backwards compatibility better combine this potentially ignored new <del>logical</del> with the old <s><del>physical</del></s> markup.
Suppressing interpretation of markup: Link → (''to'') the [[Pensapedia FAQ]] Used to show literal data that would otherwise have special meaning. Escape all wiki markup, including that which looks like HTML tags. Does not escape HTML character references. To escape HTML character references such as &rarr; use &amp;rarr;	<nowiki>Link &rarr; (''to'') the [[Pensapedia FAQ]]</nowiki>
Commenting page source: not shown when viewing page Used to leave comments in a page for future editors. Note that most comments should go on the appropriate Talk page.	<!-- comment here -->
Diacritical marks: À Á Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È É Ê Ë Ì Í Î Ï Ñ Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ú Û Ü ß à á â ã ä å æ ç è é ê ë ì í î ï ñ ò ó ô œ õ ö ø ù ú û ü ÿ See special characters.	&Agrave; &Aacute; &Acirc; &Atilde; &Auml; &Aring; &AElig; &Ccedil; &Egrave; &Eacute; &Ecirc; &Euml; &Igrave; &Iacute; &Icirc; &Iuml; &Ntilde; &Ograve; &Oacute; &Ocirc; &Otilde; &Ouml; &Oslash; &Ugrave; &Uacute; &Ucirc; &Uuml; &szlig; &agrave; &aacute; &acirc; &atilde; &auml; &aring; &aelig; &ccedil; &egrave; &eacute; &ecirc; &euml; &igrave; &iacute; &icirc; &iuml; &ntilde; &ograve; &oacute; &ocirc; &oelig; &otilde; &ouml; &oslash; &ugrave; &uacute; &ucirc; &uuml; &yuml;
Punctuation: ¿ ¡ § ¶ † ‡ • – — ‹ › « » ‘ ’ “ ”	&iquest; &iexcl; &sect; &para; &dagger; &Dagger; &bull; &ndash; &mdash; &lsaquo; &rsaquo; &laquo; &raquo; &lsquo; &rsquo; &ldquo; &rdquo;
Commercial symbols: ™ © ® ¢ € ¥ £ ¤	&trade; &copy; &reg; &cent; &euro; &yen; &pound; &curren;
Subscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x₀ x₁ x₂ x₃ x₄ x₅ x₆ x₇ x₈ x₉ Superscripts: x1 x2 x3 or x⁰ x¹ x² x³ x⁴ x⁵ x⁶ x⁷ x⁸ x⁹ The latter methods of sub/superscripting cannot be used in the most general context, as they rely on Unicode support which may not be present on all users' machines. For the 1-2-3 superscripts, it is nevertheless preferred when possible (as with units of measurement) because most browsers have an easier time formatting lines with it. ε0 = 8.85 × 10−12 C² / J m. 1 hectare = 1 E4 m²	x<sub>1</sub> x<sub>2</sub> x<sub>3</sub> or <br/> x&#8320; x&#8321; x&#8322; x&#8323; x&#8324; <br/> x&#8325; x&#8326; x&#8327; x&#8328; x&#8329; x<sup>1</sup> x<sup>2</sup> x<sup>3</sup> or <br/> x&#8304; x&sup1; x&sup2; x&sup3; x&#8308; <br/> x&#8309; x&#8310; x&#8311; x&#8312; x&#8313; &epsilon;<sub>0</sub> = 8.85 &times; 10<sup>&minus;12</sup> C&sup2; / J m. 1 [[hectare]] = [[1 E4 m&sup2;]]
Greek characters: α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ ς τ υ φ χ ψ ω Γ Δ Θ Λ Ξ Π Σ Φ Ψ Ω	&alpha; &beta; &gamma; &delta; &epsilon; &zeta; &eta; &theta; &iota; &kappa; &lambda; &mu; &nu; &xi; &omicron; &pi; &rho; &sigma; &sigmaf; &tau; &upsilon; &phi; &chi; &psi; &omega; &Gamma; &Delta; &Theta; &Lambda; &Xi; &Pi; &Sigma; &Phi; &Psi; &Omega;
Mathematical characters: ∫ ∑ ∏ √ − ± ∞ ≈ ∝ ≡ ≠ ≤ ≥ × · ÷ ∂ ′ ″ ∇ ‰ ° ∴ ℵ ø ∈ ∉ ∩ ∪ ⊂ ⊃ ⊆ ⊇ ¬ ∧ ∨ ∃ ∀ ⇒ ⇐ ⇓ ⇑ ⇔ → ↓ ↑ ← ↔ See also WikiProject Mathematics and TeX.	&int; &sum; &prod; &radic; &minus; &plusmn; &infin; &asymp; &prop; &equiv; &ne; &le; &ge; &times; &middot; &divide; &part; &prime; &Prime; &nabla; &permil; &deg; &there4; &alefsym; &oslash; &isin; &notin; &cap; &cup; &sub; &sup; &sube; &supe; &not; &and; &or; &exist; &forall; &rArr; &lArr; &dArr; &uArr; &hArr; &rarr; &darr; &uarr; &larr; &harr;

No or limited formatting - showing exactly what is being typed

A few different kinds of formatting will tell the Wiki to display things as you typed them - what you see, is what you get!

	What it looks like	What you type
<nowiki> tags	The nowiki tag ignores [[Help:What is a wiki?|wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: →	<nowiki> The nowiki tag ignores [[Help:What is a wiki?|wiki]] ''markup''. It reformats text by removing newlines and multiple spaces. It still interprets special characters: &rarr; </nowiki>
<pre> tags	The pre tag ignores [[Help:What is a wiki?|wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: →	<pre> The pre tag ignores [[Help:What is a wiki?|wiki]] ''markup''. It also doesn't reformat text. It still interprets special characters: &rarr; </pre>
Leading spaces	Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets wiki markup and special characters: →	Leading spaces are another way to preserve formatting. Putting a space at the beginning of each line stops the text from being reformatted. It still interprets [[Help:What is a wiki?|wiki]] ''markup'' and special characters: &rarr;

Table of contents

At the current status of the wiki markup language, having at least four headers on a page triggers the TOC to appear in front of the first header (or after introductory sections). Putting __TOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to appear at that point (instead of just before the first header). Putting __NOTOC__ anywhere forces the TOC to disappear. See also compact TOC for alphabet and year headings.

Tables

There are two ways to build tables:

• in special Wiki-markup (see Help:Table)
• with the usual HTML elements: <table>, <tr>, <td> or <th>.

For the latter, and a discussion on when tables are appropriate, see Pensapedia:When to use tables.

Variables

(See also Help:Variable)

Code	Effect
{{CURRENTWEEK}}	51
{{CURRENTDOW}}	6
{{CURRENTMONTH}}	12
{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}	December
{{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}	December
{{CURRENTDAY}}	21
{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}	Saturday
{{CURRENTYEAR}}	2024
{{CURRENTTIME}}	17:42
{{NUMBEROFARTICLES}}	2,400
{{NUMBEROFUSERS}}	6,542
{{PAGENAME}}	How to edit an article
{{NAMESPACE}}	Pensapedia
{{REVISIONID}}	11629
{{localurl:pagename}}	/wiki/Pagename
{{localurl:Pensapedia:Sandbox|action=edit}}	/mediawiki/index.php?title=Pensapedia:Sandbox&action=edit
{{fullurl:pagename}}	https://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Pagename
{{fullurl:pagename|query_string}}	https://www.pensapedia.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Pagename&query_string
{{SERVER}}	https://www.pensapedia.com
{{ns:1}}	Talk
{{ns:2}}	User
{{ns:3}}	User talk
{{ns:4}}	Pensapedia
{{ns:5}}	Pensapedia talk
{{ns:6}}	File
{{ns:7}}	File talk
{{ns:8}}	MediaWiki
{{ns:9}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}}	Template
{{ns:11}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}}	Help
{{ns:13}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}}	Category
{{ns:15}}	Category talk
{{SITENAME}}	Pensapedia, the Pensacola encyclopedia

NUMBEROFARTICLES is the number of pages in the main namespace which contain a link and are not a redirect, in other words number of articles, stubs containing a link, and disambiguation pages.

CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN is the genitive (possessive) grammatical form of the month name, as used in some languages; CURRENTMONTHNAME is the nominative (subject) form, as usually seen in English.

In languages where it makes a difference, you can use constructs like {{grammar:case|word}} to convert a word from the nominative case to some other case. For example, {{grammar:genitive|{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}}} means the same as {{CURRENTMONTHNAMEGEN}}.

Templates

The MediaWiki software used by Pensapedia has support for templates. This means standardized text chunks (such as boilerplate text) can be inserted into articles. For example, typing {{stub}} will appear as "This article is a stub. You can help Pensapedia by expanding it." when the page is saved. See Pensapedia:Template messages for the complete list. Other commonly used templates are: {{disambig}} for disambiguation pages, {{spoiler}} for spoiler warnings and {{sectstub}} like an article stub but for a section. There are many subject-specific stubs for example: {{Geo-stub}}, {{Hist-stub}}, and {{Bio-stub}}. For a complete list of stubs see Pensapedia:Types of stubs.

More information on editing wiki pages

You may also want to learn about:

• How to start a page
• Informal tips on contributing to Pensapedia
• Editing tasks in general at the Pensapedia:Editing FAQ
• Pensapedia:Cheatsheet
• Rename pages boldly, at Pensapedia:How to rename (move) a page
• Preferred layout of your article, at Guide to layout
• Style conventions in the Pensapedia:Manual of Style
• An article with annotations pointing out common Pensapedia style and layout issues, at Pensapedia:Annotated article
• General policies in Pensapedia:Policies and guidelines
• Pensapedia:Naming conventions for how to name articles themselves
• Help on editing very large articles
• If you are making an article about something that belongs to a group of objects (a city, an astronomical object, a Chinese character...) check if there is a WikiProject on the group and try to follow its directions explicitly.
• Pensapedia:Namespace