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New users or beginners on wikiHow often find it difficult to know where - and how - to start on wikiHow. This article contains a series of easy ways to contribute to wikiHow positively and instantly.

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EditSteps

  1. Contribute to wikiHow As a New User or Beginner Step 1.jpg
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    Write a new article. If you have an idea for a new how-to topic, see if there's already an article on that topic. If not, feel free to write the article, following the guidelines in our Writer's Guide.
    • If you do not have any ideas for what to write about, you could try answering our article requests.
      Contribute to wikiHow As a New User or Beginner Step 1Bullet1.jpg
    • While writing an article, make sure you don't use first person language, e.g., I, me, my, etc. Don't copy matter from other sites as they may have copyrights. You can however, convert them to your own language and present them in your article, with your sources cited.
    • Make sure you do research on the topic and not write anything blindly. Do not spam by writing names or advertisements. Explain your article as much as you can and add images to steps if possible, just make sure that the image is freely licensed.
      Contribute to wikiHow As a New User or Beginner Step 1Bullet3.jpg
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  2. Contribute to wikiHow As a New User or Beginner Step 2.jpg
    2
    Categorize some of wikiHow's Articles. Here, articles created are sorted and placed into different wikiHow categories, to make them easier to find.
  3. 3
    Improve an existing article. If there is already an article on your topic, you can still edit it to make it better. We're all about collaboration!
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    Use the Spell Checker to fix spelling mistakes. While the system can identify potential misspellings, it needs your keen eye to fix them up. You can also help the system "learn" new words that aren't actual misspellings - keep making wikiHow smarter!
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    Patrol recent changes. Patrolling is a process in which all edits get reviewed by a registered user. This review process is done to ensure zero vandalism and 100% quality for articles on wikiHow.
    • While patrolling, make sure no one vandalizes articles by emptying the whole article, placing spam on the article, using vulgar language, or doing another form of vandalism. Make sure to roll back these types of changes by clicking on the "Rollback" button.
    • If you see an edit you are not sure of, skip it by clicking on the "Skip" button. This will leave it in RC for someone else to review.
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    Develop some short articles in the Stub Greenhouse. Here, articles that are very short and don't have enough information receive the attention they need, and get quality information added to them.
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    Guard the quality of tips and videos with the Quality Guardian tool. Here, newly added tips and videos are checked for approval by voting process.
  8. Contribute to wikiHow As a New User or Beginner Step 8.jpg
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    Review videos added to articles with the Video Picker tool. There, you will see recently added videos, which need reviewing to make sure they follow wikiHow's video curation guidelines. If you enjoy watching instructional videos, this is a great way to help out!
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    Edit by topic. Here, you can edit and enhance articles based upon your consolidated interest areas.
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    Use the Method Guardian app. Use it to help sort out articles that have been requested to have alternative methods added from those edits that just having nothing usable to be added.
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    Take some good quality pictures, good quality screenshots, or even draw some good quality illustrations. Make sure your images match the step-by-step listings, and upload them to the articles in the order they are presented.
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    Add a video to an article. Make sure the video meets our video curation guidelines and provides complementing information.
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    Add related wikiHow articles to an article. Doing this will give readers additional articles to look at once they've finished reading an article.
    • To add related wikiHows, pull up the article in a browser tab and select the Manage Related wikiHows tool from the drop down list that results when you hover over the EDIT tab (in the green wikiHow bar).
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    Read and bookmark How to Find the wikiHow Tour and take the tour.
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We could really use your help!

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Provide Details.
Please be as detailed as possible in your explanation. Don't worry about formatting! We'll take care of it. For example:
Don't say: Eat more fats.
Do say: Add fats with some nutritional value to the foods you already eat. Try olive oil, butter, avocado, and mayonnaise.
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EditTips

  • Do not remove {{nfd}} tags, as they can only be removed by admins or New Article Boosters. You can discuss your views on deletion by stating your opinion on the discussion page.
  • Make sure you read the guidelines of the original applications, such as the ones mentioned in How to Contribute to wikiHow, before using them. The articles on how to use them properly have a greater dimension to the topics.
  • If you need any help, feel free to contact any administrator, New Article Booster, or other experienced editor.
  • If you want to give somebody a thumbs up for their edits, you can do so during patrolling, guarding quality, or even just browsing the history of an article, wherein a thumbs up icon is present in blue color.

EditWarnings

  • Do not vandalize user pages. If you need to send a message to them, leave a message on their talk page.
  • Do not chat about non-wikiHow related things on talk pages. If you chat, you will raise the recent changes count, and may be blocked.

EditRelated wikiHows

How to
Find the wikiHow Tour

How to
Patrol Recent Changes on wikiHow (By Namespace)

How to
Act as a wikiHow Admin

How to
Publicize Yourself the Right Way on wikiHow

How to
Contribute to wikiHow

Article Info

Categories: WikiHow User's Manual | Help

Recent edits by: Andrew, Hacker Mahan, RG Dhruv Parikh

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 10,670 times.

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