Help:Edit toolbar

This page is kept for historical interest. Any policies mentioned may be obsolete. If you want to revive the topic, you can use the talk page or start a discussion on the community forum.

In compatible browsers, an edit toolbar can be automatically displayed with the edit box, provided that this has been set in the Preferences . It appears automatically for editors who are not logged in. This functions partly as a typing aid and partly as a reminder of the available functions. All the functions are available simply by typing the code directly into the edit box (such as [[link]]) - this may be easier.

The toolbar works with Internet Explorer, the Mozilla Suite/SeaMonkey, Firefox, Chrome, Konqueror, Safari and Opera.

For example:

To turn a piece of text into an internal link, select it and press the third button.

In Mozilla browsers and IE, you can format existing text by highlighting the text you want to format and clicking the relevant button on the toolbar. If you click a button without selecting any text, sample text will be inserted at the cursor's position (like so: Bold text). In other browsers, clicking on the button presents an explanation for that feature. (Pre-release 9.0 versions of Opera browser also seem to support the advanced functionality.)

All of the toolbar options, and further editing options, are available in Bananeweizen's Firefox extension.

(apart from the last two examples, these pieces of wikitext are created by typing abc, selecting it and clicking the buttons on the toolbar)

Icon	Function	What it shows when editing	What it shows on the page
	Bold or strong emphasis	'''abc'''	abc
	Italic or emphasis	''abc''	abc
	Internal link	[[meta:Sandbox|abc]]	abc
	External link	[abc.com]	abc.com
	Section heading	== abc ==
Color	What you want in color	<span style="color:red"></span>	Red
	Insert image	[[Image:Kino ABC in Bülach.png]]
	Insert media	[[Media:abc.ogg]]	Media:abc.ogg
	Mathematical formula	<math>abc</math>	${\displaystyle abc}$
	Ignore wiki formatting	<nowiki>abc '''[[Bold text]]'''</nowiki>	abc '''[[Bold text]]'''
	Sign talk comments (with time stamp)	~~~~	Gareth Aus 22:49, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
	Horizontal line*	----

The WikiEditor extension implements the alternative toolbar shown below. It was developed as part of the Wikipedia Usability Initiative in 2009, made available in MediaWiki version 1.19.x, and became the default on Wikimedia sites in 2010. The wiki administrator must enable it in the LocalSetting.php file; users can enable and disable it in the Editing tab of Special:Preferences.

• mw:Extension:CharInsert

Help contents

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Versions of this help page (for other languages see further)

What links here on Meta or from Meta · Wikipedia · MediaWiki

Reading

Go · Search · Namespace · Page naming · Section · Backlinks · Redirect · Category · Image page · Special pages · Printing

Tracking changes

Recent changes (enhanced) | Related changes · Watching pages · Diff · Page history · Edit summary · User contributions · Minor edit · Patrolled edit

Logging in and preferences

Logging in · Preferences

Editing

Starting a new page · Advanced editing · Editing FAQ · Export · Import · Shortcuts · Edit conflict · Page size

Referencing

Links · URL ·  · Footnotes

Style and formatting

Wikitext examples · CSS · Reference card · HTML in wikitext · Formula · Lists · Table · Sorting · Colors · Images and file uploads

Fixing mistakes

Show preview · Reverting edits

Advanced functioning

Expansion · Template · Advanced templates · Parser function · Magic words · System message · Substitution · Arrays · Expr parser function syntax · Transclusion

Others

Special characters · Renaming (moving) a page · Preparing a page for translation · Talk pages · Signatures · Sandbox · Legal issues for editors