User:Grapeman/How to create a wikipedia article

A Simplified Guide For Absolute Beginners

Are you new to Wikipedia? Would you like to create a new Wikipedia article? If you find all of the Wikipedia instructions daunting, and the Wikipedia geekspeak impenetrable, here is a simplified guide. If you're not sure of my directions, click on the links for a more detailed explanation:

1. Sign up as a Wikipedia member (upper right hand corner - Sign in/create account).

2a. Find out if the topic already exists: Type into the search field (left) the exact name of the article you want to create. Press "Go" in Wiki or "Enter"/"Return" on your keyboard. If Wikipedia says the article doesn't exist, then try other combinations. The Wiki "Go" function is picky about exact names!

2b. Then type in these combinations and press "Search" in Wiki. The search function may offer a different set of links compared to the exact title search. You might find it helpful to read about the differences between "Go" and "Search".

3. If the article still doesn't exist, type in the exact article title you want to create and press "Go". The Wiki error box will say the article doesn't exist, but will give you the option of creating one:

4. Click on "create this article" and you should be given a blank field. This is where you create your article! Remember: Unlike in html, the title of your article is also the Wiki URL address. Be careful what name you give to your article.

5. Wikipedia tags are different from html tags!

• To create bullets, use the asterix (*) symbol.
• To indent one tab, use a colon (:) symbol.
• To create italicized text, put two apostrophes before and after the text.
• To create bold text, put three apostrophes before and after the text.
• To insert a picture, go to the left frame and press "Upload file". After you go through their instructions (and pay attention to licensing), create a link using two square brackets on either side, like this:

You may want to avoid the pipe symbol and alignment tag. Also, keep your pictures small. Wikipedia is slow enough without massive graphics, and they'd just get deleted anyway.

6. Wikipedia loves links to other Wikipedia pages. To do this, put two square brackets around the word that makes the link. Remember, it must be the exact title of a Wikipedia article. If the link word is different from the title of the actual Wiki article, then put the actual Wiki title first, then a "pipe" - | - and then whatever link word(s) you want. My first link above is like that:

7. External links go at the bottom. Here's an example of the tags for Google and MSN:

8. By the way, your article won't show up immediately in the "Search" box unless you've entered the exact text of the title. Indexing portions of your article (for the "Search" button) takes a lot of time.

9. Another useful idea is the Redirect page. If your article title has various permutations and acronyms, create a page for each one of these options. In each page, press the #R button. Inside the text field place the exact title of the original article beside the tag that the #R button creates. Place nothing else in the text field of the redirect pages. All of these pages will then redirect to the first page you've created.

10. After that, it's trial and error. Most of the rest of the instructions are pretty simple, so play around and see what else you can create. If you're feeling lucky (or masochistic) you can search the Wikipedia Help page, the Wikipedia Guide to Layout page, or the Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Good luck!

Do you have any suggestions? Has this helped you? Then please say hello to Grapeman.