Wikipedia:VisualEditor/User guide

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• Main page
• Feedback page (or at MediaWiki)
• Sandbox (no account required)

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About

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• Why are the developers building this?
  • User Test Data
• Documentation:
  • User guide
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Frequently Asked Questions (or at MediaWiki)
• Development:
  • Updates
  • Weekly and monthly status reports

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Help with the launch

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• Workshops:
  • References
• Update the help pages
• Add TemplateData (Tutorial)
  • Translate and localize documentation

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Research

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• Main research page

• Live Analytics

• Hourly edits, VisualEditor vs. wikitext
  by user type, as % of all edits
• Hourly edits, VisualEditor vs. wikitext
  by user type, as % of all edits by user type
• Hourly edits, VisualEditor vs. wikitext
  as % of all edits
• Hourly edits, VisualEditor vs. wikitext
  absolute number of edits
• Hourly edits, VisualEditor vs. wikitext
  absolute number of edits, by user type
• Daily unique editors by UI
  by user type
• Hourly reverted revisions
  by revert type
• (all dashboards)

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Other

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• Enable VisualEditor
• Customization
• Known problems
• Requests for Comments (RfCs): 1, 2

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.

VisualEditor gives Wikipedia editors the ability to edit without needing to learn wikitext markup, as is required by the default wikitext editor. Unlike that editor, VisualEditor will display the text being edited almost as if it were already saved. This guide gives illustrated, step-by-step instructions on the editor's features, although it may occasionally lag behind the release of new ones.

Be aware that VisualEditor is still in development and thus has known limitations and bugs. For example, particularly for large pages, VisualEditor can be slower than wikitext. While VisualEditor remains in development, you should review your changes to ensure that the edits you make are those you intended.

We welcome your problem sightings, comments and suggestions at the Feedback page.

Availability

VisualEditor is available on the following types of pages (namespaces):

• Article ("mainspace")
• User
• Category
• Help
• File (but not with files, or other pages, at Wikimedia Commons)

First step: opt in

If you are registered on Wikipedia, you can opt to use VisualEditor by changing your preferences. You'll need a VisualEditor-supported browser; most are. More information can be found here.

If you are not registered, you can still use VisualEditor by adding ?veaction=edit to the end of a Wikipedia page URL. Registered editors who have not selected VisualEditor as a preferences option can do the same.

Opening VisualEditor

To edit a page using VisualEditor, click on the "Edit beta" tab at the top of the page. It can take a few seconds for the page to open for editing, and longer if the page is very long. Clicking on the "Edit source" tab will open the classic wikitext source editor.
You can also open VisualEditor by clicking on the "edit beta" link on each section.
Tablet users can use VisualEditor on the mobile version of Wikipedia. While editing a page, click on the cog in the top-right corner of your screen and select Edit.

Getting started: the VisualEditor toolbar

The VisualEditor toolbar appears at the top of the screen when you begin editing. It includes some familiar icons:
	Undo and Redo the changes you have made.
	Headings pull-down menu: allows you to change how text is formatted. Normal (highest level) section titles are formatted "Heading". The normal format for text is "Paragraph".
	Formatting: Clicking the "A" opens a menu. For any item to have an affect, you must have first selected (highlighted) some text. The "Bold" item (B) bolds the selected text. The "Italic" item (I) italicizes the selected text. The "Superscript" item (S2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and to be slightly higher than the surrounding text. The "Subscript" item (S2) causes the selected text to appear smaller than surrounding text and slightly lower than the surrounding text. The "Strikethrough" item (S) adds a solid bar through the selected text. 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.
	Linking tool: The chain is the linking tool. Clicking on it (usually after selecting some text) opens the link dialog.
	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" menu may be different on some projects. Below is a list of all options that may appear. The "Media" icon (a picture of mountains) opens the media dialog. The "Gallery" icon (a set of photos) allows you to insert a gallery to 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 "<visualeditor-dialogbutton-referencelist-tooltip>" icon (three books) opens a dialog where you can specify where references will be displayed to the reader. (After references have been set to display to the reader, you normally won't use this dialog again. The "<visualeditor-mwhieroinspector-title>" 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 on the "Insert" menu, when clicked, displays a dialog showing many special characters. By clicking on a specific character, you place it into the text. These special characters include some standard symbols, accents, and mathematical symbols. (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 the Page options menu 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.

Saving changes

When you're done editing, click the green "Save page" button in the toolbar. (If you have made no changes, the green button will be greyed out - not usable.) 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/or add the page to your Watchlist. The box for the summary is the equivalent of the Edit summary (Briefly describe your changes) field in the wikitext editor. You can also review your changes to be sure they will work as intended before saving your changes, 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.

Editing links

	Links can be added through the "Link" icon (links in a chain) in the toolbar, or by using the shortcut Ctrl+K (or ⌘ Command+K on a Mac). If you select (highlight) text or place your cursor within a word, and then press the "Link" button, a link will be inserted using that text or word. In most cases, when creating internal links (links to other pages in the same wiki) you do not select text. But when creating external links, in most cases you do select text before starting the linking process, and text is probably something you just typed.
	When you use either the button or the shortcut, a dialog will open in which you may type the link. 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".
	To change or remove an existing link, click within the text for that link, then press the "Link" icon that appears near it. The dialog will appear, for editing. (You can also get to the dialog with the Ctrl+K keyboard shortcut.) In the dialog, you can then change where the link goes. Or you can 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 do this to check if an external link is valid.)

Editing references

Editing an existing reference
	To edit an existing reference, click on it where it appears in the text (usually as a bracketed number). You will see either a "Basic" icon (bookmark) or an icon (and name) for the template that was used to create this reference. Clicking on this icon will open a dialog where you can edit the reference.
	If what appears is the "Basic" icon, clicking on it opens the Reference dialog, where you can edit the reference's contents. Many wikis use templates to format references automatically. 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 are used (have content) should be shown, initially. To add fields, click on "Add more information", which is at the very bottom of the mini-editor.
	Click on "Apply changes" when you're done.
Re-using an existing reference
	If the page already contains a citation that applies to the text you want to source, then you can choose to re-use the existing citation. To re-use an existing reference, place your cursor in the body of the text where you want to add a new reference (number) for that citation. Then click on the "Re-use" item from the "Cite" 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 a new reference
	To add a citation using the "Cite" menu, place your cursor where you want to add it in the text. Then on the "Cite" menu, select the appropriate item.
Using the "Basic" citation
	Shown here is what you will see if you select the "Basic" item. In the Reference editor, you can add your citation, including formatting. You can make the reference belong to a given group, although this is almost always left blank. (This option is used to display groups of references with the "<visualeditor-dialog-referencelist-title>" tool; if you need more information, see WP:REFGROUP.)
	In the Reference dialog, if you want to include a template in your new reference, click the Template icon (puzzle piece) in the "Insert" toolbar menu within the Reference editor.
	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.) After you're done editing your new template, click on "Apply changes" to return to the Reference editor, and "Apply changes" again to return to the page you're editing.
	If there isn't already a list of references on the page (for example, if you're adding the first reference for the page), you need to specify where the list of references, and their text, will be displayed to the reader. Place the cursor where you want to display references (usually at the bottom of the page), open the "Insert" menu and click the "<visualeditor-dialog-referencelist-title>" icon (three books.
	If you are using different groups of references (which is unusual), you can specify a group in this dialog, to display only those references that belong to that group. The final step, in the References list dialog, is to click "<visualeditor-dialog-referencelist-insert-button>".
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 "<visualeditor-dialog-citation-insert-citation>" when you're done.

Editing images and other media files

Editing images

To add a new image (or another type of media file) to the page, click the "Media" icon (a picture of mountains) in the "Insert" menu. The image will be added wherever your 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. You can change the search by changing the text in the dialog's search box. To choose a file, click on its thumbnail image. This places the image onto the page you are editing.
After the image you selected is inserted on the page, another dialog will automatically open. This dialog allows you to add (and edit) the caption of the image. The caption can contain formatting and links.
The media dialog also allows you to add alternative text captions, to help users who use screen readers, or who have disabled image display.
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.
When you're done, click "Apply changes" to close the dialog and return to editing the page.
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 anywhere in that gallery. Then, near the bottom of the gallery, click the gallery icon (a set of photos). This brings up the gallery inserter dialog, with the full list of images included in the gallery.
The gallery inserter dialog 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 dialog. You should then see your changes, with the gallery as it will now appear to readers. Remember that exiting the gallery inserter dialog does not save your changes. As with other changes made using VisualEditor, you must save the entire page in order to save your work.

Editing 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.
When a template embeds other templates, these sub-templates will appear inside the parameters that display them. They can be edited or removed inside the parameter field. New sub-templates are added by following the steps of adding a parameter. You may need to check the template documentation to make sure that the sub-template is supported.
When you're done, click "Apply changes" to close the dialog and return to the page editor.
Substituting templates
When a template must be substituted, type subst: (colon included) before the template's name. Autocompletion doesn't work with subst:; if you need the autocompletion, add subst: only after finding the template you're looking for. Then, click the green "Add template" button.
Add any parameters as usual and "Apply changes".
You will see the template expand on the page after you click "Apply changes". When you're ready save the page.

Editing categories

	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 a specific category. (This is uncommon.) Such a sorting key overrides the general (default) sorting key.
	Click "Apply changes" when you're done editing categories to return to the page editor.

Editing page settings

	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 the reader to be sent when he/she 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.
	You can change whether the page shows a Table of Contents by selecting one of these three buttons. The default option is "If needed", which shows a Table of Contents if there are three or more headings.
	You can make a page not show edit links next to each section header by checking this checkbox.
	Click "Apply changes" when you're done editing the Page options to return to the page editor.

Editing mathematical formulae

To add a new mathematical formula to the page, place your cursor where you want it to be inserted, and click on the "Formula" icon ("Σ") in the "Insert" menu on the toolbar.
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.

Editing poems and other special items

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.

You cannot always copy and paste footnotes and templates from one page to another while using VisualEditor.

You cannot post your signature (which is provided in Flow) or use any wiki code.

Keyboard 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	Bold	⌘ Cmd+B
Ctrl+I	Italics	⌘ Cmd+I
Ctrl+K	Insert link	⌘ Cmd+K
Ctrl+X	Cut	⌘ Cmd+X
Ctrl+C	Copy	⌘ Cmd+C
Ctrl+V	Paste	⌘ Cmd+V
Ctrl+Z	Undo	⌘ Cmd+Z