Help:VeesualEediter/Uiser guide

This page is a translated version of the page Help:VisualEditor/User guide and the translation is 54% complete.

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• Hame
• Lea feedback
• Status reports

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Aneat

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• Why ar we biggin this?
• VisualEditor rollouts
• FSSFrequentlie Speired Speirins
• Media S&A (in Ingils)
• Hou tae uise VeesualEediter
  • Keybuird shortcuts
• VisualEditor roadmap
• User testing reports
• Design portal
  • References and citations
  • Tables

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Heelp wi the launch

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• Update heelp pages
• Eik TemplateData
  • TemplateData tuterial
• Heelp new uisers
• OwersetinCentral
• Owerset & localise documentation
  • Hou tae tak screenshots

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eedit · owerset

If you would like to try VisualEditor without editing an article, here is a page where you can freely test it. You don't need an account to use VisualEditor on that page.

Apenin VeesualEediter

Tae eedit ae page uisin VeesualEediter, clap oan the "Edit" tab at the tap o the page. It can tak ae few seiconts fer the page tae apen fer eeditin, n langer gif the page is awfa lang. Clapin oan the "Edit source" tab will apen the classeec wikitex soorce eediter.
Foreby, ye can apen VeesualEediter bi clapin oan the "edit" link oan ilka section.

Gettin stairtit: the VeesualEediter tuilbaur

The VeesualEediter tuilbaur kiths at the tap o the screen whan ye begin eeditin throoch VeesualEediter. It incluids some fameeleear icons:
	Undo n Redo the chynges that ye'v dun.
	Heidins pul-doon menu: permits ye tae chynge the heider level o tex. The staundairt section heidins ar "Heading". The normal format for text is "Paragraph".
	Formatting: Clicking the "A" opens a menu. For any item to have an effect, you must have first selected (highlighted) some text. The "Bold" icon (B) bauds the selectit tex. The "Italic" icon (I) italeecises the selectit tex. The "Superscript" item (x2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and to be slightly higher than the surrounding text. The "Subscript" item (x2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and slightly lower than the surrounding text. The "Strikethrough" icon (S) eiks ae solid baur throoch the selectit tex. The "Computer code" item (a set of curly brackets: {}) changes the font of the selected text to a monospaced font, which sets it apart from surrounding (proportionally spaced) text. The "Underline" item (U) adds a solid line beneath the selected text. The "Language" item (Aあ) allows you to label the language (for example, Japanese) and direction (for example, right-to-left) of the selected text. The final item (), called "Clear styling", removes all character formatting from the selected text, including links
	Airtin tuil: The chain is the airtin tuil.
	Cite menu: The "Cite" menu is used to add inline citations (also called "footnotes" or "references"). All projects have access to "Basic" reference formatting and the ability to "Re-use" citations, using this menu. This menu also gives you quick access to local citation templates, if these are enabled on your wiki. (Instructions for adding local citation templates to the Cite menu at a specific wiki are available at VisualEditor/Citation tool.)
	Lists & indentation: The first two items allow you to format text as either a "Bullet list" or a "Numbered list". The last two items allow you to decrease or increase the indentation level of list items.
	Insert: The "Insert" puldoon oan the VeesualEediter tuilbaur leads til several addeetional optional actions, incluidin eikin referances n transcluidin templates. The "Insert" puldoon micht be differant oan some waurks. Ablo is ae leet o aw opties that micht kith. The "Media" icon (ae pictur o moontains) apens the media dialog. The "Gallery" icon (ae set o photæs) permits ye tae insert ae gallerie oantil the page. The "Template" icon (a puzzle piece) allows you to edit templates. The "Comment" item (a speech balloon) allows you to insert comments that are not visible to readers; these comments can be seen only when in edit mode. The "Formula" icon (Σ) opens the formula inserter dialog. The "References list" icon (three books) opens a dialog in which you can specify where will references be displayed to the reader. Usually this only needs to be done once on every page. The "Hieroglyphs" icon (an ankh symbol - ☥) allows you to enter the hieroglyphics inserter. (See below.) The "Special character" icon (Ω) allows you to insert some special characters. (See immediately below.)
	Special character insertion: The "Special character" icon permits yae tae summin ae subwindae wi ae nummer o byordinar chairachters that ye can steid intil the tex. Thir incluid some staundairt simbils, accents n mathemateecal simbils. (This list may be customized locally. See VisualEditor/Special characters for instructions.)
	The Page options menu is to the left of the Save page button. On this menu there are options to adjust page settings, such as whether the page is a redirect, or how it is indexed; to add, edit, or delete categories; and to see, using the "Language" item, the list of articles on the same subject that are in other languages. You can also switch (one-way only) from VisualEditor to the classic wikitext source editor without losing the editing work you've done.

Hainin chynges

Whan ye'r dun eeditin clap the green "Save page" button in the tuilbaur. The green button canna be clapt gif nae chynges were dun. To cancel all your editing changes, just close your browser window.
Pressing the green "Save page" button opens a dialog. You can then enter a brief summary of your actions, mark your edit as minor, and add the page to your Watchlist. The box for the summary is the equivalent of the Summary (?): field in the wikitext editor. You can also review your changes using the "Review your changes" button to be sure they will work as intended before saving your changes. This is similar to the "Show changes" button in the wikitext editor. The "Cancel" button returns you to the page you were editing. You can save all of your changes later.

Eeditin airtins

	Airtins can be eikit throoch the "Link" icon (airtins in ae chain) in the tuilbaur, or bi uisin the shortcut ⌃ Ctrl+K (or ⌘ Command+K oan ae Mac). If you select (highlight) text and then press the "Link" button, a link will be inserted using that text. For single-word links it's enough to just do it while the caret is on that word.
	Whather ye uise the button or the shortcut, ae dialog will apen, whaur in ye can type the airtin. VeesualEediter will ettle tae heelp wi internal airtins (airtins til ither pages o Wikipædia) bi seekin likelie matches aes ye begin tae type. VisualEditor will try to help with internal links by looking for likely matches as you begin to type.
	Once you have entered or selected the link, you complete the linking process by pressing ↵ Enter, pressing the "Done" button, or just clicking outside of the box. Your link will immediately appear on the VisualEditor page, but it will not be saved until you save the entire page.
	To link to a web page on another website, the process is the similar: you enter a URL in the box, and it will be added as an "External link".
	External links without labels look like this: [1]. You can add these by placing your cursor away from any word (e.g., after a space). Open the link tool by clicking on the button or pressing the shortcut keys. Type the URL in the box, and click the "Done" button to insert the link.
	Tae chynge or remuiv aen exeestin airtin, clap in the link in the tex, than press the "Link" icon that kiths naur it. Forby, ye can clap the same icon in the tuilbaur or uise the ⌃ Ctrl+K keybuird shortcut while oan it. In the dialog, you can then change where the link goes. You can also remove the link altogether by pressing the "Remove" button in the lower left corner of the dialog. You can also open the link's target in another window by clicking on the "Open" button. (You might want do this to check if an external link is valid.)

Eeditin referances

Eeditin aen exeestin referance
	Tae eedit aen exeestin referance, clap oan it in the tex, n clap oan the "Basic" icon (buikmaurk) that kiths naur it, or the yin in the tuilbaur.
	Clapin oan the "Basic" icon apens ae dialog that incluids ae mini-eediter, whau ye can eedit the referance's tex. Many wikis use templates to format references. If a template is used in your reference, then all the text in the template will be highlighted when you click on the reference information. If a template was used and you've clicked on information in that template, then the Template icon (puzzle piece) will appear. Click on that to edit the content of the template, in the template mini-editor dialog.
	If, instead of the "Basic" icon (bookmark), what appears when you click on a reference is an icon for a standard template for citations, clicking on that icon will take you directly to the template mini-editor dialog.
	Inside the template mini-editor, you can add or remove types of information or change current content. Only fields (template parameters) that have content are supposed to be shown initially. To add fields, click on "Add more information" at the bottom of the mini-editor.
	Click on "Apply changes" when you're done.
Reuisin aen exeestin referance
	Gif the page awreadie contains referances, ye can chuise tae reuise aen exeestin citation, gif it applies til the tex that ye want tae soorce. Tae reuise aen exeestin referance, place yer curser whaur ye want tae add it in the tex, n clap on the "Basic" icon (buikmaurk) fae the "Insert" menu.
	In the Reference dialog, look at the list for the reference you want to reuse, and select it. If there are many references, you can use the search box (labeled "What do you want to reference?") to list only those references that include certain text.
Adding ae new referance
	To add a citation using the "Cite" menu, place your cursor where you want to add it in the text. Then select the appropriate citation type in the menu.
Using the "Basic" citation
	In the referance eediter, ye can eik, eedit n format yer citation. You can make the reference belong to a given group, although normally this is left blank. (This option is used to display groups of references with the "References list" tool.)
	Gif ye'r eikin ae new referance n ye want tae include ae template in it, clap the Template icon (puzzle piece) in the puldoon "Insert" tuilbaur o the referance eediter.
	Then, look for the template you want to use, add it and edit it as you would any other template. (See the Editing templates section, below, if you need more information about templates.) Clap oan "Apply changes" tae return til the refarence eediter, n "Apply changes" again tae return til the page.
	Gif thaur's na awreadie ae leet o referances oan the page (fer example, gif ye'r addin the first referance o the page), ye need tae eik it in order fer the tex o yer referance tae be displeyed. Place the cursor where you want to display the references list (usually at the bottom of the page), open the "Insert" menu and click the "References list" icon (three books).
	If you are using several groups of references, which is relatively rare, you can specify the group in this dialog. Only the references that belong to that group will be displayed here. The final step in the References list dialog is to click "Insert".
Using standard cite templates
	Your local wiki may have added extra citation templates to this menu. This offers quick access to the most-used citation templates. (Instructions for adding extra citation templates to your local wiki are available at VisualEditor/Citation tool.)
	Clicking on a template icon such as "Cite book" will take you into the template mini-editor for that template. Important information fields may be marked with an asterisk. While the most common fields will be shown, not all of them are required.
	To add additional parameters, scroll down in the template mini-editor and click on the "Add more information" option. Click on "Insert" when you're done.

Editing images and other media files

Editing images

Tae eik ae new eemage (or anither type o media file) til the page, clap the "Media" icon (ae pictur o moontains) in the "Insert" puldoon menu. The eemage will be eikit whaurever yer cursor is.
Clicking the "Media" icon opens a dialog that automatically searches Wikimedia Commons and your local wiki for media files related to the title of the page you're editing. Ye can seek ither media files bi chyngin the tex in the dialog's rake kist. Clap oan ae thummnail tae chuise ae file. This places the image onto the page you are editing.
After the image you selected is inserted into the page, another dialog will open. This dialog allows you to add and edit the caption of the image. The caption can contain formatting and links.
The media dialog permits ye tae eik alternateeve tex captions aes weel, this heelps uisers that uise screen readers, or that hae disabled eemage displey.
You can also set various parameters for the image in the "Advanced settings" window. These include the alignment, the type, and size of the image.
Whan ye dun, clap "Apply changes" tae claise the dialog n return til the page eediter.
For an existing image, you can add or edit a caption or other settings by clicking on the image, then clicking on the "Media" icon that appears below the picture. You can resize an existing image by clicking on it, then moving the resize icon (the two-headed arrow on the bottom left). You can also drag and drop an image to a place higher or lower on the page.

Editing media galleries

To edit an existing gallery in VisualEditor, click that gallery. Then, near the bottom of the gallery, click the gallery icon (a set of photos). This brings up the gallery editor, with the full list of images included in the gallery.
The gallery editor is currently a simple box that allows you to edit existing galleries using wikitext markup. To add a new image to an existing gallery, type the file name, followed by a bar (|) and the caption for that image. You must put each image in the gallery on its own line. You can also edit this list to remove or rearrange images or to change captions. When you click the "Done" button, you will exit the gallery editor. You should then see your changes, with the gallery as it will now appear to readers. Remember that exiting the gallery editor does not save your changes. As with other changes made using VisualEditor, you must save the entire page in order to save your work.

Eeditin templates

To add a new template to the page, place your cursor where you want the template to be inserted, and click on the "Template" icon (puzzle piece) in the "Insert" menu.
Type the name of the template you want to insert. When you see it on the list, click on its name. Then click "Add template".
You can also edit templates that are already on the page by selecting them (they turn blue), and clicking on the "Template" icon (puzzle piece) that appears.
Adding a new template or opening an existing one opens the "Transclusion" dialog. If the template has have been updated to contain TemplateData information, then the dialog will show a list of individual parameters; otherwise, a link to the documentation will be available in the dialog. If you are editing an existing template, and the template has been updated, then the dialog will show the values for the parameters.
For an existing template, you edit the parameters already listed, and you can add additional parameters by clicking "Add more information", at the very bottom of the dialog.
Whan ae template embeds ither templates, thir sub-templates will kith inside the boondins that displey thaim. Thay can be eedited or remuived inside the boondin field. New sub-templates ar eikit bi follaein the steps o addin ae boondin. Ye micht need tae check the template documentation tae mak sair that the sub-template is supported.
Whan ye'r dun, clap "Apply changes" tae claise the dialog n return til the page eediter.
Substitutin templates
Whan ae template maun be substitutit, type subst: (colon incluidit) afore the template's name. Autæcompleation disna wairk wi subst:; gif ye need the autæcompleation, eik subst: yinlie efter fyndin the template that ye'r seekin. Than, clap the green "Add template" button.
Eik onie boonds aes uissual n "Apply changes".
Y'll see the template expand oan the page efter ye clap "Apply changes". Whan ye'r readie, hain the page.

Eeditin categeries

	To edit categories, on the "Page options" menu, click the "Categories" button.
	The "Categories" button opens a dialog that lists existing categories and allows you to add new ones. You have the option of setting or changing the general (default) sorting key, which used to determine where the page appears when listed with other pages in the same category. For example, the default sorting key for the article "George Washington" is "Washington, George", and so in the category "Presidents of the United States", the article is listed under the letter "W", not the letter "G".
	To add a category for a page, type the name of the category into the field "Add a category". As you type, VisualEditor will search for possible matching, existing categories. You can either select an existing category, or you can add a category that doesn't yet have its own category page. (Until that category page is created, your new category will show as a red link after you save all your editing changes.)
	To remove an existing category, click on it and click on the "Remove" icon (trash can) in the dialog that opens. Clicking on a category also allows you to specify a sorting key for that specific category. Such a sorting key overrides the default sorting key.
	Clap "Apply changes" whan ye'r dun eeditin categeries tae return til the page eediter.

Eeditin page settins

	To edit a page's settings, click to open the "Page options" menu, in the toolbar, and select the "Page settings" button.
	The "Page settings" button opens a dialog that shows several options.
	You can make a page a redirect to another page by checking the "Redirect this page to" checkbox, and then typing the name of the page to which you want to send the reader who tries to go to the page that you're editing. At the bottom is the option to prevent page renames from updating this redirect. This is very rarely used.
	Ye can chynge whather the page shaws ae Buird o Contents bi selectin yin o thir three buttons. Bi defaut, pages will shaw ae Buird o Contents gif thaur's three or mair heidin, this is whit "Gif needit" will dae.
	Ye can mak ae page na shaw eedit kists nex til ilka section heider bi checkin this checkkist.
	Clap "Apply changes" whan ye'r dun eeditin page opties tae return til the page eediter.

Eeditin mathemateecal formulae

Tae eik ae new mathemateecal formula til the page, steid yer curser whaur ye want it tae be inserted, n clap oan the "Formula" icon ("Σ") in the "Insert" puldoon menu oan the tuilbar.
A window will open in which you can type the formula, using LaTeX syntax. VisualEditor will update the formula as you type it, so you can see how it will look as you make changes. Once you are happy with the formula, click the "Done" button.
To edit an existing mathematical formula on the page, click on it and then click on the "Σ" icon that appears. This will open up the formula window, where you make changes.

Eeditin poems n ither biordinair eetems

Some items, such as poems and musical scores, are not yet supported by VisualEditor. Until they are, you will need to edit the source wikitext directly if you want to add these or change these.

Keybuird shortcuts

Many editors are used to entering wikitext directly, especially bold, italics and wikilinks. Keyboard shortcuts allow to quickly insert similar formatting without having to use toolbar items. Here are the common general shortcuts in VisualEditor:

PC shortcut	Action	Mac shortcut
⌃ Ctrl+B	Baud	⌘ Cmd+B
⌃ Ctrl+I	Italeecs	⌘ Cmd+I
⌃ Ctrl+K	Insert airtin	⌘ Cmd+K
⌃ Ctrl+X	Cut	⌘ Cmd+X
⌃ Ctrl+C	Copie	⌘ Cmd+C
⌃ Ctrl+V	Paste	⌘ Cmd+V
⌃ Ctrl+Z	Ondae	⌘ Cmd+Z