User:VGrigas (WMF)/How to Edit Wikipedia Tutorial

The following is a first draft of a series of short tutorial videos designed to allow an ordinary internet user to learn the basics of editing Wikipedia. They are not presented in order.

NOTES:
 * not comprehensive
 * forkable
 * updatable (script is written so that images can change, but script audio won't need to)
 * internationalizeable
 * Aim for terms that are easy to understand
 * Avoid internal nomenclature when possible
 * Show how a tool works as early as possible in the video
 * Videos should be as short as possible without eliminating essential information
 * Assume the audience is someone who types "How do I edit Wikipedia?" into a search engine.

How to Edit Wikipedia
FADE IN

Wide shot of WP main page, followed by images of the languages that WP is available in.

CU Typing www.wikipedia.org into search bar.

NARRATOR:

It’s easy to edit Wikipedia. Here’s how:

CU mouse clicks on ENGLISH on main page of Wikipedia

NARRATOR:

When you see something you want to change, like a typo, press the ‘edit’ button on the top of any Wikipedia page.

CU mouse clicks on the edit button

NARRATOR:

Wait a brief moment for the page to load, and then you’ll find that the text is editable, like an ordinary word processor.

MEDIUM Mouse clicks on text and starts typing.

NARRATOR:

Make your edits.

CU stops typing.

NARRATOR:

Press the save button on the bottom of the page.

CU click save button

NARRATOR:

Summarize what you changed, and press save again.

CU typing ‘I fixed a typo’

NARRATOR:

Your edits are now live on Wikipedia.

WIDE Wikipedia article CU Live edits that user made in article

NARRATOR:

To keep better track of the edits that you make, you can start an account on Wikipedia by logging in. WIDE arrow moving to ‘log in’

NARRATOR:

Logging in will give you your own userpage and will allow you to more easily collaborate with other Wikipedia editors.

CU logging in workflow, user page?

NARRATOR:

If you want to edit the source code of Wikipedia you can press the 'edit source' button.

CU click source code button, look at source code.

CU URL

FADE OUT

How To Add Links and Citations
NOTE: in usertesting, users didn't understand the difference between a link and a citation.

FADE IN

NARRATOR:

It’s easy to make links between Wikipedia articles. Links connect words and topics to each other. Here’s how to make a link. Press edit...

CU press edit

NARRATOR:

...then highlight the text you want to link to another Wikipedia article...

CU highlighting text

NARRATOR:

...Press the link button...

CU pressing link button

NARRATOR:

Type in or click the page you want your text to link to. Press done. Then press save.

CU typing in page, press done, press save.

NARRATOR:

Summarize what you changed, and press save again.

CU typing ‘added link’

NARRATOR:

If you want to make a link to an external site, select external link, paste the link, press done, and then save.

CU pasting external link, pressing done then save

NARRATOR:

Summarize what you changed, and press save again.

CU typing ‘added link’

WIDE moving mouse across page to citation button

NARRATOR:

Citations are different than links. Wikipedia relies on primary sources of information when referencing specific facts. You can add a citation by pressing the cite button...

CU pressing cite button

NARRATOR

...and from here you can paste a URL from a website, or manually enter a reference from a website, book, journal, newspaper or other source.

CU click through the features of the tool

NARRATOR

If you want to re-use a citation that is already a reference in the article you are editing, you can select it from the re-use tab.

CU Scrolling through the re-use options.

NARRATOR

After you have added your citation, press the save button on the bottom of the page.

CU click save button

NARRATOR:

Summarize what you changed, and press save again.

CU typing ‘added citation’

NARRATOR:

Your edits are now live on Wikipedia.

CU URL

FADE OUT

The History Page
NARRATOR: Every edit that’s ever made to Wikipedia is saved in the history of each article or page. Press the history button…

CU pressing history button, WIDE history page

NARRATOR: ...and you can see each edit, when it happened, and the username or the ip address of the person who made the edit.

CU Edit, date of edit, user of edit

NARRATOR: Every time you make an edit to Wikipedia, you are asked to describe the edit that you made. That way, work is easy to trace, so that anyone can easily update or correct Wikipedia. You can see these summaries next to each edit.

WIDE scroll through summaries

NARRATOR: You can compare differences in past and current edits to Wikipedia pages by selecting one historical version of a page…

CU click button on one version

NARRATOR: ...and then another…

CU click button of another version

NARRATOR ... and then pressing the ‘compare selected revisions’ button.

WIDE scroll through highlighted diffs

NARRATOR You can now see differences highlighted in the source code of the Wikipedia page.

CU comparison of differences

URL

FADE OUT

Headings and Sections
NARRATOR: You can create headings and sub-headings to separate paragraphs of a Wikipedia article.

CU click paragraph button, select heading, new heading appears.

NARRATOR: When you press save,...

CU presses save, types added heading, presses save

NARRATOR: ...you’ll see the outline of the article automatically formatted on the top of the page, based on the headings that you write.

CU article outline

URL FADE OUT