User:Liutinaa/sandbox

This is the user sandbox of Liutinaa. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot and page development space for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. Create or edit your own sandbox here.

Other sandboxes: Main sandbox | Template sandbox

Finished writing a draft article? Are you ready to request review of it by an experienced editor for possible inclusion in Wikipedia? Submit your draft for review!

Going in

This session will cover:

What you need to know about Wiki markup (or Wikitext) to edit comfortably enough in most situations
- Topics are broken out by task (e.g. formatting, linking, communicating with other editors) and include exercises
- We will cover templates in greater depth during August's second Wikidata Working Hours session (Monday 17th).
Tips and tricks for making Wiki markup editing work for you

This session will be useful if:

You have mostly edited Wikipedia (or some other Wikimedia project) with the Visual Editor, and have limited experience with the text (source) editor
You find the source view of Wikimedia projects confusing or complicated
You are somewhat familiar with the content, but wish to revisit it or just want some practice
You're a Wiki markup master but you've stepped away for six years and would like a refresher

You will need:

This page, for reference
A page in your sandbox where you can practise
- Copy over the contents of User:Utl_jung/sandbox/LD40807try
- To make a new sandbox page, simply "create a new file" by writing /something after /sandbox in the URL
  - For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Utl_jung/sandbox/workinghour1 allows me to start that page

Basics

Wiki markup (or Wikitext) is one of many lightweight markup languages (LML) that prioritise human readability.

Wiki markup works across all MediaWiki-based platforms, including all Wikimedia projects and other wikis built on MediaWiki
- Wikibase, the software behind Wikidata, is a specially developed instance of MediaWiki and also uses Wiki markup (e.g. today's working hour page)
- We are editing on Wikipedia today because Wikipedia allows us the luxury of a sandbox!
Technically, Wikitext refers to text snippets or documents written in the Wiki markup language. But many use the terms interchangeably.
Other LMLs include Markdown and GitHub Flavored Markdown.
By comparison, HTML allows you to do more things but compromises on human readability.

Here is a table demonstrating how Wiki Markup compares to HTML (from Wiki#Basic syntax):

MediaWiki syntax (the "behind the scenes" code used to add formatting to text)

Equivalent HTML (another type of "behind the scenes" code used to add formatting to text)

Rendered output (seen onscreen by a regular web user)

"Take some more [[tea]]," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had '''nothing''' yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

"You mean you can't take ''less''," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take ''more'' than nothing."

<p>"Take some more <a href="/wiki/Tea" title="Tea">tea</a>," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.</p>

<p>"I've had <b>nothing</b> yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."</p>

<p>"You mean you can't take <i>less</i>," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take <i>more</i> than nothing."</p>

"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."

"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter. "It's very easy to take more than nothing."

As we begin, you may find it helpful to turn on syntax highlighting!

This feature colours your syntax to make it easier (and more fun!) to use Wikitext.
To enable it, toggle the button () that appears in the toolbar.
If you're curious about how this works, see: Extension:CodeMirror.

Formatting

Characters

Bold: Use three apostrophes(') on either side. '''foo'''
Italics: Use two apostrophes(') on either side. ''foo''
Bold + Italics: Use five apostrophes(') on either side. '''''foo'''''
~~Strikethrough~~: Use the template {{strikethrough}}. {{strikethrough|foo}}
Underline: Use the template {{underline}}. {{underline|foo}}
small caps: Use the template {{smallcaps}}. {{smallcaps|foo}}

Formatting a link

To format a link, add the apostrophes around the parentheses: '''[[foo]]''' If you do it the other way around, it will not work since the parentheses interpret the apostrophes as part of the page name.

Line breaks

If you press ⌅ Enter once, it will place a line break in the markup but not in the rendered result.
If you press ⌅ Enter twice, it will insert a line break in the rendered result.
Lists are an exception. These require one, not two, markup line breaks.
To insert a line break without pressing ⌅ Enter twice, type <br>, <br/>, or {{pb}}. But, use sparingly.

Make lists

Bullet lists

* a
* b
** c

produces:

a
b
- c

Numbered lists

# a
# b
## c

produces:

a
b
1. c

Link

Internal pages

Use [[foo]] to link to an article
Use a pipe (|) to insert a parameter which changes what the link says. For example:
- [[Wikipedia:About]] gives Wikipedia:About
- [[Wikipedia:About|About page of Wikipedia]] gives About page of Wikipedia

Images

Link images in the same way that you would link any other internal page. For example, [[File:Abacus 6.png]] gives:

Extended syntax for an image looks something like this:

[[File:Name|Type|Border|Location|Alignment|Size|link=Link|alt=Alt|page=Page|lang=Langtag|Caption]]

Here, only File is technically necessary. Most images only require:

[[File:Name|thumb|alt=Alt|Caption]]

Here, thumb stands in for the size parameter.

Alt text

Please: always insert alt text! Alt text describes visual content for users of screen readers and other visual-to-auditory assistive technologies. Rule of thumb: write out alt text as if you're describing the image to someone in another room.

Other language Wikipedias

Look up the two-letter language code per ISO 639-1.
- This is the same two-letter code at the beginning of the URL which takes you to that specific language Wikipedia.
- For example, en.wikipedia.org with the ISO 639-1 code en (English) takes you to the English Wikipedia.
Use : two-letter language code : article name to link directly to the other-language Wikipedia page
- For example, [[:fa:زرتشت]] gives fa:زرتشت. This is the Farsi page for Zarathustra
- You can use what's called the "pipe trick" (add a pipe symbol(|) to the end of the article name) to have the output only display the article name
  - زرتشت gives زرتشت
- Or, as you did in previous sections, use a pipe (|) to insert a parameter which changes what the link says
  - [[:fa:زرتشت|Zarathustra in Farsi]] gives Zarathustra in Farsi

Pages that exist in other languages but not in English

Use the template {{interlanguage link}} ({{ill}} for short) if you wish to link to the other-language article until the English article becomes available.
- {{interlanguage link|INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier|fr}} gives INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier [fr]

Other Wikimedia projects

Add a prefix (shortcuts available) before the page name to link to other Wikimedia projects. For example:
- [[:wikt:toothbrush]] gives wikt:toothbrush
- [[:simple:toothbrush]] gives simple:toothbrush
Remember: you can always change what the links say by using a pipe(|)!
Sometimes, the prefixes don't work without a colon(:) at the beginning. You may have to play around with it a bit.
See Help:Interwiki linking#Prefix codes for linking to Wikimedia sister projects for a comprehensive chart.

Wikidata and Reasonator

Use the template {{Wikidata entity link}} ({{q}} or {{wde}} for short) to link to an existing Wikidata item.
- {{q|Q20155952}} gives Reasonator (Q20155952)
- {{q|P197}} gives adjacent station (P197)
You can also use {{ill}} to display links to Wikidata and Reasonator! We will try with the item for Reasonator (Q20155952), since this does not currently have a Wikipedia page.
- {{ill|Reasonator|qid=Q20155952}} gives Reasonator [Wikidata]
- {{ill|Reasonator|qid=Q20155952|reasonator=1}} gives Reasonator [Wikidata]
- {{ill|Reasonator|reasonator=1}} gives Reasonator []
  - If no |qid= is given, Reasonator will perform a search for the item. Note that this can be imprecise, and often requires disambiguation.

External links

Use [foo] to add an external, non-Wikimedia link
- Technically, any link (even internal links) can be made this way, but the internal link rules (using [[foo]]) make those look much cleaner
Use a space ( ) to label the link. For example:
- [https://insulin.library.utoronto.ca/] just gives
- [https://insulin.library.utoronto.ca/ Insulin Collection at the University of Toronto Libraries] gives Insulin Collection at the University of Toronto Libraries

Communication

Sign

Signing is an etiquette on anonymous platforms! Use tildes(~) to sign off on comments, add yourself to Wikiprojects, etc.
- ~~~: Three tildes(~) produce your signature Utl jung (talk)
- ~~~~: Four tildes(~) produce your signature + timestamp Utl jung (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)
  - Use this one on talk pages
- ~~~~~: Five tildes(~) produce a timestamp 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Ping

You can notify ("ping") a user by making an edit that links to their user page.
- Typing @Username will not automatically ping the user.
There are many ways to do this. To use myself (User:Utl_jung) as an example, you can write:
- {{u|Utl_jung}} gives Utl_jung and notifies the user (this option does not append an "@")
- {{ping|Utl_jung}} gives @Utl jung: and notifies the user
- {{re|Utl_jung}} gives @Utl jung: and notifies the user

Indent

On talk pages, add a colon(:) to indent every time you reply within a thread. For example:

Hello world! ~~~~
:I see your comment. ~~~~
::{{re|Utl_jung}} I, too, see your comment. ~~~~

produces:

Hello world! Utl jung (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

I see your comment. Utl jung (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

@Utl jung: I, too, see your comment. Utl jung (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Outdent

Once there are too many indents, it can help to {{outdent}} ({{out}} for short) for better readability. For example:

[...]
:::::The latest in a long thread of comments. ~~~~
{{out|:::::}}{{re|Utl_jung}} Let's reset the indents for readability. ~~~~

produces:

[...]

The latest in a long thread of comments. Utl jung (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

@Utl jung: Let's reset the indents for readability. Utl jung (talk) 17:13, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Documentation

When writing documentation, it can help to know a few templates and HTML snippets which make it easier to distinguish input from output.

Use <nowiki>...</nowiki> to escape all contained Wiki markup
Use <code>...</code> to stylise contained text as code
Use {{tl}} to write about a template without triggering the template itself
- To use, write: {{tl + | + template name + }}
- For example, {{tl|archival records}} displays the link to, but does not trigger, {{archival records}}

Transclusion

This section is visible here; this section is also visible there. Sections outside of these tags will be visible here, but will not be visible there.  … {{#ifeq:SECTIONNAME|SECTIONNAME|</syntaxhighlight>

End each such transcludable section with:

}}</onlyinclude>

Target document markup

To transclude a section marked as above into another page (the "target page"), use the following line on that page, substituting PAGENAME for the "source" document from which text to be transcluded, and SECTIONNAME with the name of the section you want to transclude:

{{PAGENAME|transcludesection=SECTIONNAME}}

Thus each section enclosed within <onlyinclude> … </onlyinclude> tags will always be rendered when the transcludesection parameter is not set (when the document is viewed ordinarily, or when the document is transcluded without setting the transcludesection parameter as shown below), and will be rendered by transclusion on any page that does set transcludesection to the section's name. It will not be rendered by transclusion that uses the transcludesection parameter but sets it to anything other than the name of the section.

Also, when providing PAGENAME, without providing a Namespace, the wiki will assume that the PAGENAME belongs in the Template Namespace. To transclude from a Mainspace article, use :PAGENAME.

{{:PAGENAME|transcludesection=SECTIONNAME}}

Example

If we want to make the "Principal Criteria" and "Common Name" sections of WP:TITLE be independently transcludable, we edit the WP:TITLE page and enclose the "Principal Criteria" section as follows:

<onlyinclude>{{#ifeq:{{{transcludesection|principalcriteria}}}|principalcriteria|
...
''(text of "Principal Criteria" section)''
...
}}</onlyinclude>

Similarly, we enclose the "Common Name" section with:

<onlyinclude>{{#ifeq:{{{transcludesection|commonname}}}|commonname|
...
''(text of "Common Name" section)''
...
}}</onlyinclude>

Then, to transclude the "Principal Criteria" section into another page, we insert into that page:

{{WP:TITLE|transcludesection=principalcriteria}}

To transclude the "Common Name" section into another page, we insert into that page:

{{WP:TITLE|transcludesection=commonname}}

Of course, the same page can transclude two or more sections this way by including multiple such lines.

There is no limit to how many selectable sections for transclusion a document can have. The only requirement is that each transcludesection be given a value that is unique within that page.

Additional markup for selectively transcluded sub-article leads

Per MOS:LEAD § Format of the first sentence, the first instance of the sub-article title should appear in bold in the first lead sentence of that article; this is often not desirable for a transclusion to a section of the parent article. In addition, the parent article is often wikilinked in the lead of a sub-article; when transcluded to the parent article, this wikilink will appear as bold text. The wikitext markup listed below can be used to address both of these problems.

To ensure that the article title is bolded in the first sentence of the sub-article, but unbolded and wikilinked in the transclusion to the parent article, make the following replacement in the sub-article's first lead sentence:

Replace

SUB-ARTICLE_PAGENAME

with

<noinclude>'''</noinclude>{{No selflink|{{var|SUB-ARTICLE_PAGENAME}}}}<noinclude>'''</noinclude>

If there is a wikilink to the parent article in the lead section of the sub-article, replacing the wikilink to the parent article with a {{no selflink}} template will ensure that it is wikilinked in the sub-article's lead but not in the transclusion to the parent article. In other words:

If the wikilink to the parent article is not a WP:Piped link, replace [[PARENT_ARTICLE]] with {{no selflink|PARENT_ARTICLE}} in the sub-article's lead
If the wikilink to the parent article includes a pipe (e.g., this link), replace [[PARENT_ARTICLE|Piped link wikitext]] with {{No selflink|PARENT_ARTICLE|Piped link wikitext}} in the sub-article's lead

Drawbacks

Shortcut

H:TRANSDRAWBACKSH:TRANSDRAWBACKS

Like many software technologies, transclusion comes with a number of drawbacks. The most obvious one being the cost in terms of increased machine resources needed; to mitigate this to some extent, template limits are imposed by the software to reduce the complexity of pages. Some further drawbacks are listed below.

Transcluded text may have no sources for statements that should be sourced where they appear, have different established reference styles, contain no-text cite errors, or duplicate key errors. (To help mitigate these, see Help:Cite errors)
Excerpts break the link between article code and article output.
Changes made to transcluded content often do not appear in watchlists, resulting in unseen changes on the target page.
Transcluded text may cause repeated links or have different varieties of English and date formats than the target page.
Transclusions may not reflect protection levels, resulting in transcluded text perhaps having a different level of protection than the target page. See Cascading protection
{{excerpt}} and related templates may require using <noinclude>, <includeonly>, and <onlyinclude> markup at the transcluded page to have selective content; that would require monitoring that the markup is sustained.
Excerpts cause editors to monitor transcluded pages for "section heading" changes to ensure transclusion continues to work. (To help mitigate this, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking § Avoiding broken section links.)
Excerpts can result in content discussions over multiple talk pages that may have different considerations or objectives for readers.

Special pages

Some pages on Special:SpecialPages can be transcluded, such as AllPages, PrefixIndex, NewFiles, NewPages, RecentChanges, WhatLinksHere (see help page), and RecentChangesLinked. Samples:

{{Special:AllPages/General}} – a list of pages starting at "General".
{{Special:PrefixIndex/General}} – a list of pages with prefix "General".
{{Special:NewFiles/4}} – a gallery of the four most recently uploaded files.
{{Special:NewPages/5}} – a list of the five most recently created pages.
{{Special:RecentChanges/5}} – the five most recent changes.
{{Special:RecentChangesLinked/General}} – recent changes to the pages linked from "General".
{{Special:Contribs/Larry Sanger|offset=20021108002158|limit=50}} – user contributions prior to November 2002, limited to 50.

Attempting to transclude {{Special:Categories}} will not result in an actual list of categories, but {{Special:PrefixIndex/Category:}} can be used for this purpose.

Except for Special:RecentChangesLinked, the slash, and the word or number after the slash, can be omitted, giving a list of pages without a specific starting point, or a list of the default length.

URL parameters can be given like template parameters:

{{Special:RecentChanges|namespace=10|limit=5}} – the five most recent changes in the "Template" namespace.
{{Special:PrefixIndex/Jimbo Wales/|namespace=2|stripprefix=1}} – the subpages for User:Jimbo Wales, but without the user page prefix. {{Special:PrefixIndex/User:Jimbo Wales/|stripprefix=1}} (where the special page presumes mainspace with the user prefix directly specified as part of the title) performs the same function.

Note: Transcluding certain special pages (such as Special:NewPages) can change the displayed title of the page.

Advanced concepts

Transclusion occurs before parsing and can emit syntax fragments, like HTML entities, to preserve them in the final render. The content being transcluded is processed and embedded before the target page is parsed and fully rendered. When transclusion happens at the HTML layer before parsing, it allows certain content – like syntax fragments such as character entity references like & or specific HTML components – to be inserted in their original form and preserved in the final render. However, this approach may cause pages to render incorrectly or violate the principle of least surprise for the reader.^[a] It should be used sparingly when cleaner alternatives are not available.

Emitting fragments of template syntax, such as opening braces ({{}}), is unlikely to re-parse correctly as template syntax in the target page, and it is unwise to rely on such behavior unless formally documented. While it is sometimes the only way to do something that needs to be done, you should really try to see if there is some other way to do it first.

Notes

↑ For example, if whitespace, tabs, and newline HTML code are preserved without parsing, the final page may display awkward spacing, misalignments, or unexpected breaks. This whitespace is usually added in the source code to improve readability for developers and isn’t intended to appear in the published content.

Journey ahead

Once comfortable with the basics of Wiki markup, I highly recommend that you reference these wonderful existing documentation pages to do more and more things with Wiki markup!

Nifty customisation!

Syntax highlighter tool - allows custom coloured highlighting for Wiki markup syntax.
- Enable under Preferences (user toolbar in the top right) > Gadgets

Meow
meow
meow

~~meow~~
meow
meow

meow meow about 喵

[1] For example, if whitespace, tabs, and newline HTML code are preserved without parsing, the final page may display awkward spacing, misalignments, or unexpected breaks. This whitespace is usually added in the source code to improve readability for developers and isn’t intended to appear in the published content.

[a]

v t e Portal templates
Visual overview of template usage
Layout and formatting	{{Box portal skeleton}} {{Box-header}} color palettes plain round square watch {{Box-header colour}}^[1] {{Box-footer}} {{Flex columns}} {{Plain navboxes}}
Content transclusion	{{Transclude lead excerpt}}^[2] {{Transclude linked excerpt}}^[2] {{Transclude list item excerpt}}^[2] {{Transclude random excerpt}}^[2] {{Transclude selected excerpt}}^[2] {{Excerpt}} {{Transclude DYK}}^[9] {{Transclude selected current events}}^[3] {{Transclude selected recent additions}}^[4]
Content slideshows	{{Random slideshow}}^[5] {{Transclude files as random slideshow}}^[5] {{Transclude excerpts as random slideshow}}^[6] {{Transclude linked excerpts as random slideshow}}^[6] {{Transclude list item excerpts as random slideshow}}^[6]
Content randomisation	{{Random portal component}}^[7] {{Random quotation}} {{Random subpage}}
General	{{Portals}} {{Portals browsebar}} {{Portal description}} {{Portal information sidebar}} {{Portal navbar no header2}} {{Purge link portals}} {{Wikimedia for portals}}
Linking templates	{{Portal}}^[11] {{Portal bar}}^[12] {{Portal-inline}}^[13] {{Pbox}} {{Related portals2}}
Talk pages / Maintenance	{{Portal talk}} {{Portal maintenance status}}^[8] {{Portal suggestions}} {{Portal toolbox}} {{WikiProject Portals}}^[8]
Images	{{Portal dynamic image}} {{Portal image banner}}^[10] {{Portal pictures}}^[14] {{Portal POTD}}
Modules	1. Module:Box-header 2. Module:Excerpt/portals 3. Module:Selected current events 4. Module:Selected recent additions 5. Module:Random slideshow 6. Module:Excerpt slideshow 7. Module:Random portal component 8. Module:Portal maintenance status 9. Module:Transclude DYK 10. Module:Portal image banner 11. Module:Portal 12. Module:Portal bar 13. Module:Portal-inline 14. Module:Portal pictures
Wikiprojects	{{Portal and project}} {{WPbox}} {{NBbox}}
Usage	Wikipedia:Portal Wikipedia:WikiProject Portals
For more information, see: Category:Template-Class Portal pages and Category:Wikipedia Portal templates

v t e Wikipedia technical help
Get personal technical help at the Teahouse, help desk, village pump (technical), talk pages, or IRC.
General technical help	Bypass cache Keyboard shortcuts Editing CharInsert Edit conflict Edit toolbar Reverting How to create a page IRC Tutorial Mobile access Multilingual support Page history Page information Page name Help Printing Software notices Editnotice Special characters Entering User access levels VisualEditor Help
Special page–related	Special page help AllPages Edit filter Emailing users Logging in Reset passwords Logs Moving a page History merging Non-admin and admin-only page moves Notifications/Echo FAQ Page Curation Page import Pending changes Random pages Recent changes Related changes Searching Linksearch Tags User contributions Watchlist What links here
Wikitext	Wikitext Cheatsheet Columns Line-break handling Lists Magic words For beginners Conditional expressions Switch parser function Time function Redirects Sections and TOCs Tables Introduction Basics Advanced table formatting Collapsing Conditional tables Sortable tables Using colours
Links and diffs	Links Interlanguage Interwiki Permanent Diffs Simplest diff guide Simple diff and link guide Complete diff and link guide Colon trick Link color Pipe trick URLs
Media files	Media help Files Creation and usage Moving files to Commons Images Introduction to images Picture tutorial Preparing images for upload Uploading images Options to hide an image Extended image syntax SVG help Gallery tag Graphics tutorials Basic bitmap image editing How to improve image quality Graphics Lab resources Sound file markup Visual file markup
Other graphics	Family trees Graphs and charts How to create Barcharts To scale charts Math formulas Math symbols Musical scores Musical symbols Timeline EasyTimeline syntax WikiHiero syntax
Templates and Lua modules	Templates Advanced template coding Template documentation Template index Template limits Template sandbox and test cases Citation templates Lua help Lua project Resources To do Substitution Purge Job queue Transclusion Labeled section Costs and benefits Guide to Scribbling
Data structure	Namespaces Main/Article Category Draft File File description page Help Portal Project/Wikipedia Talk Archiving Simple Template User User page design MediaWiki Bug reports and feature requests TimedMediaHandler extension Module Special
HTML and CSS	Cascading Style Sheets HTML in wikitext Common.js and common.css Classes in microformats Markup validation Span tags Useful styles
Customisation and tools	Preferences Gadgets Skins Citation tools Cleaning up vandalism tools Customizing watchlists Hide pages IRC Scripts User scripts Guide List Techniques Safe mode User style Tools Alternative browsing Browser tools Editing tools Navigation shortcuts Optimum tool set Wikimedia Cloud Services Beta Features at MediaWiki
Automated editing	AfC helper script AntiVandal AutoWikiBrowser Bots Creating history HotCat Huggle Interceptor Navigation popups RedWarn Twinkle Ultraviolet WPCleaner Inactive igloo STiki
See also: Category:Wikipedia how-to Category:Wikipedia information pages Further navigation at: Help pages Administrators Accessibility Accounts Bots Referencing Citation metadata Templates User scripts

Going in

Basics

Formatting

Characters

Formatting a link

Line breaks

Make lists

Bullet lists

Numbered lists

Link

Internal pages

Images

Alt text

Other language Wikipedias

Pages that exist in other languages but not in English

Other Wikimedia projects

Wikidata and Reasonator

External links

Communication

Sign

Ping

Indent

Outdent

Documentation

Transclusion

Target document markup

Example

Additional markup for selectively transcluded sub-article leads

Drawbacks

Special pages

Advanced concepts

Notes

See also

MediaWiki transclusion

Templates

Other

Journey ahead

Nifty customisation!