Help:Editing pages

It's very easy to edit the contents of a wiki. It only takes a few clicks.

Click the “Edit” page tab at the top of the page.
Make changes to the text.
Click the “Save page” button.

Simple as that!

Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting

The number one rule of wiki editing, is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There can be all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophy governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!

In general try to write clearly and concisely and make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the wiki contents. An edit might be to contribute whole paragraphs or pages full of information, or it could be as simple as fixing a typo or spelling mistake.

When you need to use some type of formatting e.g. new headings or bold text, you do this using wiki syntax. See Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used. Don't overthink formatting to start with, or be too ambitious with what you want to achieve.

Some useful types of formatting for new editors are:

The [[ and ]] formatting signs to mark internal links in Wikispooks:

[[John F. Kennedy]], which will show as a clickable link: John F. Kennedy

The <ref> and </ref> formatting signs to open and close reference links:

<ref>https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-f-kennedy/</ref>, which will show as a reference number:^[1]

The == signs to mark headlines: ==John F Kennedy==.

Hint: Look at existing articles to see how specific formatting is done.

Edit Summary

Before you save a change, you can enter a short note in the Summary: box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it, but try to give a little description of what you just changed e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".

The summary gets stored alongside your edit, and allows people to track changes in the wiki more effectively.

Preview

It's a good idea to use the “Show preview” button to see what your change will look like, before you save it. This is also related to tracking changes because every time you save, this is displayed to others as a separate change. This isn't something to worry about too much, but it's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving several minor corrections afterwards.