VisualEditor

• VisualEditor gives you 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 published. 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 larger pages, VisualEditor can be slower than wikitext, and it is not available on talk/forum/discussion pages, where Structured Discussions tool is in place. While VisualEditor remains in development, you should review your changes to ensure that the edits are those you intended.

Availability

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

• PLACEHOLDER

First step: enabling VE

If you are registered on Wikipedia, you can opt to make VisualEditor available for editing, 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 enabled VisualEditor in their preferences - that is, the box for "Temporarily disable the visual editor while it is in beta" option is checked - can do the same.)

Opening VisualEditor

	To edit a page using VisualEditor, click on the "Edit" 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" link on each section. Protected pages do not have this link.

Getting started: the VisualEditor toolbar

The VisualEditor toolbar appears at the top of the screen when you begin editing. It includes the following icons:
	Undo and Redo the changes you have made.
	Headings pull-down menu: allows you to change how the paragraph is formatted. To change the style of a paragraph, put your cursor in the paragraph and select an item in this menu (you don't have to highlight any text). Section titles are formatted "Heading", and subsections are "Heading 2", "Heading 3", and so on. The normal format for text is "Paragraph".
	Formatting: Clicking the "A" opens a menu. The "Bold" item (B) bolds the selected text. The "Italic" item (I) italicizes the selected text. 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" 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 "Remove", removes all character formatting from the selected text, including links. If you have not selected any text, then when you click the "A" to open the menu, and then select an item, that formatting will apply to the text that you start typing, from wherever your cursor is located.
	Linking tool: The chain icon 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.
	Cite button: If the citoid service is enabled on your wiki, then you will see a "Cite" button instead of a Cite menu. The citoid service tries to fill out citation templates automatically.
	Lists and 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 "Template" icon (a puzzle piece) allows you to edit templates. The "Comment" item (a speech balloon with a "!") allows you to insert comments that are not visible to readers; these comments can be seen only when in edit mode and are then indicated by an exclamation mark icon. The table item allows you to insert a table. The "⧼visualeditor-mwgalleryinspector-title⧽" icon (a set of photos) allows you to insert a gallery to the page. The "⧼math-visualeditor-mwmathinspector-title⧽" icon (Σ) opens the formula inserter dialog. The "⧼wikihiero-visualeditor-mwhieroinspector-title⧽" icon (an ankh symbol - ☥) allows you to enter the hieroglyphics inserter. (See below. Not mentioned again.) The "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-referenceslist-tooltip⧽" 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.
Special character insertion: The "Special character" (Ω) 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.

	The Page options menu is to the left of the Publish changes 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. 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 blue Publish changes button in the toolbar. If you have not made any changes, the button will be disabled (grayed out). To cancel all your editing changes, just close your browser window.
	Pressing the blue "Publish changes" 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. You can also review your changes using the "Review your changes" button to be sure they will work as intended before saving your changes. The "Resume editing" button returns you to the page you were editing. You can save and publish all of your changes later.

Editing links

	Links can be added through the "Link" icon (links in a chain) in the toolbar. If you select (highlight) text and then press the "Link" button, that text will be used in creating the link. For a link that involves just one word, you can either select that word or just put the cursor within that word.
	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.
	Once you have entered or selected the link, you complete the linking process by pressing the "Done" button. Your link will immediately appear on the VisualEditor page but, as with other changes to the page, it will not be saved until you 'Publish' the entire page.
	To link to a web page on another website, the process is the similar: Choose the "External link" tab, and enter a URL in the box.
	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.
	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. In the link editing 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.

Editing references

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 select the appropriate citation type in the menu.
Using the "Basic" citation
	Shown here is what you will see if you select the basic references item. In the Reference editor, you can add your citation, including formatting. 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.)

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 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 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 one or both bottom corners). You can also drag and drop an image to a place higher or lower on the page.

Editing templates

Starting

To add a new template to a page, place your cursor where you want the template to be inserted, and click on the "Template" icon (a puzzle piece) in the "Insert" menu.
Start typing 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 a template that is already on the page. When you click on the template to select it, it turns blue, and a box appears with an "Template" icon (a puzzle piece). Then click on the "Edit" link.
Some templates are not visible to someone reading a page. In VisualEditor, such hidden templates are shown as puzzle icons, such as Anchor.
When you select the icon, the context menu is displayed, and you can edit the template.
Template parameters
When you add a new template or open an existing one, VisualEditor opens the "Transclusion" dialog. What you see depends upon whether there is TemplateData for that template.
The template shown here has no TemplateData set up for it. The dialog shows a link to documentation for the template. You can read the documentation to figure out if the template has any parameters (fields), and what goes in each field. Use numbers as the name for each nameless parameter. The first un-named parameter is named 1, the second is named 2, and so forth.
If a template has been updated to contain TemplateData information, then the dialog will show a list of individual (named) parameters.
For an existing template, you can edit the parameters shown in the dialog, and you can add 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 for adding a parameter. You may need to check the template documentation to make sure that the sub-template is supported. Nested templates can currently be edited as wikitext only, without the facility offered by VisualEditor (see phab:T52182).
Finishing
When you have finished editing a template, click "Apply changes" to close the dialog and return to editing the main page.
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 want to use autocompletion, first find the template you are looking for, and then add subst: in front of the template name. Then, click the green "Add template" button. Add any parameters as usual and click "Insert".
You will see the template expand on the page after you click "Apply changes".

Editing lists

	You can use VisualEditor to create lists, or to change the format of an existing list. There are two types of lists: unordered (bullet) and ordered (numbered). To start a new list, just click on one of the two menu items shown here. Or, if you already have typed the list (on separate lines), select (highlight) the list you have typed, then click on one of the menu items.
	Shown here are examples of the two types of lists: unordered (bullet) and ordered (numbered).
	If you want to change the indentation level of part of an existing list, select the part of the list that you want to change.
	Then use the menu, or press the Tab key. (The Tab key increases indentation; use the shift key plus the Tab key to decrease indentation)
	Here is the result of increased indentation.
	You can even mix ordered (numbered) and unordered (bullet) lists, if the list items have different indentations.

Editing tables

	You can use VisualEditor to insert and change tables. You can even import a table by dragging a comma-separated value (.csv) file from your computer into the main editing window.
toolbar>Insert</>" menu, VisualEditor inserts as a default a blank four-by-four table. Now the "Table" menu is available. From that menu, you can add a caption to the top of the table.
To select a cell, click it once.
To edit the contents of the cell (for example, to add content or to correct a spelling error), double click in the cell. Or you can select the cell and then press Return. To end your editing of a cell, just click elsewhere.	|-
	You can add or delete a column or a row.
You can merge cells: Select them, then from the Table menu, click on "Merge cells".
If you merge cells, only the text in one cell is kept; any text in the other cells is deleted when you merge the cells. If you decide that you wanted some or all of the text that was deleted, use the Undo button, move or copy the text you want, then merge the cells again.
You can also split cells that were previously merged. All the content that was in the merged cell will remain in the first cell when you do the split. You can then cut and paste text to other cells, if you want.

Editing categories

	To edit categories, on the "Page options" menu, click the "Categories" item. If the tool is not visible, first search for three horizontal lines. That's where it is.
	Clicking on "Categories" opens a dialog that lists existing categories and allows you to add new ones, and to delete existing categories. You also have the option of setting or changing the general (default) sorting key, which determines 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". 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 publish 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.
	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 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.
	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 "⧼math-visualeditor-mwmathinspector-title⧽" 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.
Mathematical formulae can be placed inline or centered as a block.

Editing poems and other special items

Some items, such as association lists, poems, and musical scores, are not yet fully supported by VisualEditor.
In most cases, the existing items can be edited, but new ones cannot be inserted in VisualEditor.
You cannot add an automatic datestamp to a page in VisualEditor. Until they are fully supported, you can copy an existing one from another page, or edit the source wikitext directly.

Moving pages

Moving a page with VisualEditor is functionally the same as moving it with the source editor; see Help:How to move a page for an introduction to moving pages, or Wikipedia:Moving a page for more detailed instructions.

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
Template:Key press	Bold	Template:Key press
Template:Key press	Italics	Template:Key press
Template:Key press	Insert link	Template:Key press
Template:Key press	Cut	Template:Key press
Template:Key press	Copy	Template:Key press
Template:Key press	Paste	Template:Key press
Template:Key press	Undo	Template:Key press