This is a basic guide to Wikipedia editing for history students at Boston College. (For the full set of Wikipedia tutorials, head over to Wikipedia: Tutorial.)
On this page, you will find information about:
To help you follow along, we will use the Gertrude Bell page as an example.
This is a quick chart to the basic commands you'll likely want as you edit a page in Wikipedia or build a new one.
| Function | What it shows when editing | What it shows on the page |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | '''Bold text''' | Bold text |
| Italic | ''Italic text'' | Italic Text |
| External link | [http://www.example.com link title] | link title |
| Internal link | [[Link title]] | Link title |
| Insert image | [[File:Example.jpg|thumbnail]] |  |
| Insert Footnotes* | <ref>Insert footnote text here</ref> | [1] |
| Insert Notes | {{efn|This would be a note}} | [a] |
| Sign talk comments (with time stamp) |
--~~~~ |
*Note that Wikipedia requires you to cite to where you got your information using references. Check out the information below for how those citations are coded.
You can check out the full Wikipedia guide for setting up references. That said, here's a sample of what's going on:
| Function | What it shows when editing | What it shows on the page |
|---|---|---|
| Reference |
<ref>{{citation |last1=Meyer |first1=Karl E. |first2=Shareen B. |last2=Brysac |
 |
|
Breakdown |
{{|last1 ... |first1 ... |first2 ... |last2 ... |title ... |location ... |publisher ... |year ... |page}} | |
| Citation | {{cite book|first=Gertrude|last=Bell|title=Poems from the Divan of Hafiz|place=London|date=1897}} |  |
Breakdown of markup for a journal article using the example below, which has two references: one web and one journal article.
{{cite journal : opens the citation and tell Wikipedia how to format the subsequent tags
|last1= : the last name of the first author
|first1= : first name of the first author
|date= : the date of publication
|title= : the title of the journal article
|url= : clean URL where readers can access the article
|journal= : title of the journal
|volume= : journal volume number
|issue= : number of issue in volume
|pages= : page range for article
|doi= : this is the document object identifier
|access-date= date you accessed the article last
}} : closes the reference
There are a few parts to your page that you will (almost definitely) want to have using the Gertrude Bell Wikipedia page for samples:
| Function | What it shows when editing | What it shows on the page |
|---|---|---|
|
Short description |
{{short description| ...}} |
Not visible on page |
| Date guide |
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} |
14 July 1868 |
| Infobox person | {{Infobox person ... }} | See below |
| Table of Contents | Automatically generated when more than three subheadings used. |  |
| Subsections | ==Early life== |  |
|
Sub, subsections |
===Cairo and Basra=== |  |
| Notes | ==Notes== {{notelist}} |
 |
| References | ==References== {{Reflist|33em}} |
 |
| Bibliography | ==Bibliography== |  |
|
Writings by ... |
===Writings by ...=== |  |
|
Biographies of ... |
===Biographies of ...=== |  |
|
Other sources |
===Other sources=== |  |
| External Links | ==External links== {{commons category|... }} {{wikisource author}} |
 |
| Authority Control | {{Authority control}} |  |
| Categories | {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Gertrude}} [[Category:1868 births]] [[Category:1926 deaths]] |
 |
To create the infobox that appears on the right of a Wikipedia page for people (or movies, etc.) copy and paste the "Infobox" coding below. Fill in information you know and leave any you don't blank.
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|YEAR|Mo|Da}}
| birth_place = [[City]], Country
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation =
| nationality =
| education =
| era =
| known_for =
| years_active =
| parents =
| children =
| relatives =
| website =
| signature =
| spouse =
| works =
| awards =
}}
