Wikipedia talk:Tip of the day/Archive 4

wikEd New and advance users can edit pages with ease by installing wikEd on your browser (works on all except opera and IE). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cacycle/wikEd_installation Harsh 2580 (talk) 09:17, 1 May 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Harsh 2580 (talk • contribs) 09:11, 1 May 2012 (UTC) Peacock words Try not to use words like greatest and best unless it has been statistically proven. Use (Singer X is considered by many as the best singer) instead of (Singer X is the best singer)

Use your userpage Use your User page to do stuff you can't normally do on Wikipedia. Try out techniques, have userboxes, try out your template skills, and make a user page worthy of Wikipedia!

Editing If you are stumped on what to edit next, try using User:SuggestBot. They, however, need to know what you've edited previously. For other ideas on what you can contribute, check out Contributing to Wikipedia.

"Am I logged in?" Don't be confused. Do you sometimes make edits, without realising that you weren't logged in? There is an easy way to avoid this. Log in, go to preferences, and choose a different skin. Or change the quickbar so it is on a different part of the page. That way, it's obvious straight away whether you are logged in or not. E.g. you may wish to use the Cologne Blue skin.

If another Wikipedian uses the same computer and likes the same skin, one of you could place the quickbar on the right hand side so that it's obvious who is logged in.

Read more: Customisation

Omniwiki!

With this trick you can look up any Wikipedia article directly from any web page by merely highlighting the word you want to know more about and clicking a button! Use the javascript below as a link on your browser toolbar. Make sure you get it all on one line, a simple Copy/Paste will probably only get the first line:


 * javascript:q = %22%22 + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection : document.selection.createRange.text); if (!q) q = prompt(%22Enter a Wikipedia topic:%22, %22%22); /* if (q!=null) { location=%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22);} void 0; */ if (q!=null) { WindowObjectReference = window.open(%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22), %22DescriptiveWindowName%22, %22resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes%22); } void 0;

Now, when you highlight any word on a webpage and click this link, a new window will open up with the Wikipedia article for that word! You can also change the URL and have the link take you to Wiktionary definitions, or even perform a Google search on the term (put in "http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=") So there it is, have fun with it!

You Got Your Sig Together?

At some point after you open an account with Wikipedia you'll probably want to "fancify" your signature, make it more "unique". And Wiki allows for a lot of creativity on your part. Read about that at Customizing your signature.

Here's a tip! You might decide to put a space in your sig, perhaps between your Username link and your Talk-page link. Unless you want your sig to "break in two" at the end of a line, don't just hit the space-bar key, use one of Wiki's "non-breaking space" options. It's real easy, and that way all of your sig will completely wrap around to the next line. Now that's keeping your sig together! Read more about it here: Non-breaking_space and also here: Line_break_handling To the administrator: The perfect form?

This Tip Is Lineboggling!  There might be times when you want to use lines as separators on your pages. Wikipedia gives you the Wiki four-hyphen code, like this:   and you can also use the HTML   tag. Watch this... renders as a line all the way across...

gives the same line...  renders...   yields...  and so on.

Visualizing redirects There is a way to make redirects stand out from a long list of links by visualizing them. This quick and easy solution was found by Kim van der Linde using customized CSS:

Go to "My preferences", click on the tab "Appearance", and click the "Custom CSS" link behind the skin you use. It opens a page, and you can add there the following code (just copy and paste it): Change the color codes if you want. Save the page, and reload (bypass your cache) to force the new CSS to be included. All redirects will now show up as green links!

Read more:WP:Visualizing redirects

-- &oelig; &trade; 09:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Hidden Text Have you ever wanted to inform all editors about what to or what not to do to an article but thought it would be too hard to do and that it wouldn't match if it was seen on the article? Are you reverting many edits on a certain article because of this? Instead, you can insert hidden text! That way, only the people editing the page will see what you want them to see! Here is how to insert hidden text:

Once you have completed those 3 easy steps, you won't be reverting as much edits anymore! Read more: WP:HIDDEN -- Ha dg  er  01:25, 4 November 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) First, begin the comment by typing.

The Userbox Generator Many users adore userboxes. And many enjoy creating userboxes. Still others enjoy humorous userboxes. And quite a few enjoy creating humorous userboxes. Have you any problems making jokes? Then use the Wiki Userbox Generator!

Cyde's generator allows you to create userboxes within a limited number of themes. However, many of the images used in the userboxes created may be deleted or moved. Therefore, you must first check whether the picture exists before copying the code onto your userpage!

Happy userbox-creating! Read more:'''WP:Userboxes

Any-language search If you want to go to an article in any other language from the current language that you are in, you don´t have to go to that article in the current language and search if it exist in the left language bar, not even be switching between wikipedias, you only have to input the ISO 639-1 prefix of the language of your choice followed by the name of the article (in that language). This will directly bring you to the article in that other wikipedia. For example:


 * Placing: "ES:Satélite natural" in the search box   ➔    will lead you here (spanish version of: Natural satellite)

Read more:List of ISO 639-1 codes

-- ☩ Damërung ☩ . -- 14:17, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Contractions aren´t suitable When writing in their computer, people often make use of contractions. Contractions like "IDK", "lag", "lol", "u" (slang) are obviously not suitable to use in article namespace, however, even common things like: "aren´t", "it's", "should´ve" and others, are neither suposed to be part of an article text, so when writing an article, keep in mind to avoid contractions and other informal writing. Also avoid:


 * The use of scrolling lists in article prose
 * Using images to display text
 * Such phrases as "remember that..." and "note that...", which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone

Read more:WP:CONTRACTION, Manual of style, Internet slang

-- Damërung ...ÏìíÏ..._ Ξ_       .  --  18:09, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Orphans An important aspect of Wikipedia is how well articles can be reached from other articles by means of linking. An article that has fewer than three links to it in other articles, however, is called an "orphan," and should be dealt with in a number of ways:


 * Tag the article as an orphan using the template.
 * Create necessary links on other articles to the orphaned article (but make sure they're relevant).
 * Remove the template from the article when there are three or more links to it.

Keep in mind that links from disambiguation pages, redirects, lists, soft redirects, talk pages, and Wikipedia pages outside of article space do NOT count towards the three links to a given article.

Also, keep in mind some of the ways to avoid creating orphaned articles...like browsing the templates with red links page when considering making a new article.

Read more: Orphans, WikiProject Orphanage

 ARTICHOKE-BOY  (Talk) 15:45, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

Discussions in other user´s talk pages In the talk page of an article´s section, wikipedia section or portal section (amog others), if you post a question or comment, you will get your reply in that same section. However, some users will reply comments in your talk page instead of their own. This makes reading back a conversation quite cumbersome; having to switch talk pages back and forth in order to make sense of the conversation, something even worse when the discussion involves more than two users. This is why is suggested as a tip to answer a message in the same section it was created.

For this matter, templates such as  ,    and    became useful:

Read more:Talkback, Talk back note, Shoutbox
 *   - To post the message of this hint in your talk page.
 *   or    - To notify other user that you have already replied.
 *   - To make smaller coments (avoiding to create a whole new section for that) and even place the    template inside.

-- Damërung ...ÏìíÏ..._ Ξ_       .  --  08:42, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

When Speedy Deletions are not Speedy Occasionally, there are times where a long backlog for speedy deletions exists. Thus, don't panic if a speedy tag you placed on an article isn't acted upon immediately. Other times, a speedy tag may linger for a while because no admin is willing to accept or decline it. Consider taking the article to Articles for Deletion if it is such a case.

&eta;oian  &Dagger;orever &eta;ew &Dagger;rontiers  05:12, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Get rid of the stress Bored or tired a bit of writing tons of articles and sections? You can always find funny ways of relaxing here on wikipedia:


 * Customize your page or signature
 * Sign other guest books (or make your own)
 * Search secret pages among other users (some may give you an award)
 * Give out some barnstars, or hunt 'em
 * Spend some time in the department of fun
 * Participate in the Wiki-cup
 * Vote or nominate specific things like pictures or articles
 * Welcome the newbies
 * Join to specific discussions (perhaps in projects, perhaps to arbitrate or give neutral point of view...)

Just remember, wikipedia is not a forum or a blog, so just don´t move too away from wikipedia´s goal and scope. Read more:WP:NOT, Department of Fun

-- <font color="#FFDB58" size="3" face="Matura MT Script Capitals">Damërung <font color="#FF2400">...ÏìíÏ...<font color="#A7FC00">_ Ξ_       .  --  08:03, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Proper citations - an easy way You need to have installed:
 * 1) Firefox free open source browser (or Netscape Navigator or Flock)
 * 2) Zotero free open source citation manager

Zotero can capture citation data from web pages, including library catalogs (WorldCat) and bibliographic indexes and export them in Wikipedia citation format.

Set Zotero:Actions(cog):Preferences to export Wikipedia citation template.

To cite:
 * 1) Show the web page with citation information in your browser
 * 2) Click the Zotero icon on the right of address line to capture the bibliographic data to a Zotero item
 * 3) Highlight the bibliographic item in the Zotero window
 * 4) Use Zotero Quick Copy (Ctrl-alt-C or Cmd-shift-C)
 * 5) Click the Wikipedia <ref/ref> button to insert a reference.
 * 6) Paste citation into the reference

Voila! A properly contructed wikipedia citation in a few seconds.

--Blouis79 (talk) 23:54, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

'''Avoid Double Redirects

Always try to avoid adding Double Redirects. Redirects are special pages that automatically causes the text of another page to be dispalyed in its place. A redirect which leads to another redirect is a double redirect. Wikipedia will not follow the second redirect making it unpleasant for readers. Read more: Double redirects

Juthani1    17:58, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Barnstars

You can always appreciate another user, and you can always show it with a barnstar! Barnstars are are little award-like templates that have stars and messages in them! They can cheer up someone´s day and encourage that person to keep doing constructive edits on wikipedia (and staying in wikipedia). Barnstars are a joyful way to show recognition to the work of a wikipedian. You don't have to be an admin, in fact you don't have to be logged in! Anyone can hand them out, and remember, if you appreciate others, and you show it, then you can get a barnstar too. (you can also customize them, instead of the usual-given barnstar) Read more: Barnstars

HTML on Wikipedia?!?!

If something cannot be done with MediaWiki, HTML can be used!! Simple HTML guide available |here But try to use Wikipedia Code when you can.

Shruti14

How to Get Unblocked

A sysop got you blocked for a reason. Here are some tips on how to get you unblocked and contributing back! First, add reason to your user talk page (the only userpage you can edit), and your reason why you got blocked and some things you done accidentally. Then, wait for a sysop to unblock you. BE CAREFUL! Some sysops might decline your unblock by adding a decline reason below your reason. Please try again if you have problems with your sysop blocking.

Read more: Appealing a block, WP:AUTOBLOCK

PNiddy- ~ // My edits 16:30, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Monobook

Have you ever been dissatisfied with having to type out user warning templates? Are you not satisfied with the default user interface? Everyone has, so that's why an association of Wikipedians who can program at an advanced level have made a page, WikiProject User Scripts, dedicated to giving you scripts to improve your experience here.

Read more: WikiProject User scripts, WP:TWINKLE

 ~ <font face="Vivaldi" size="3"><font color="#FF0000">St <font color="#FFD700">ep <font color="#7CFC00">tr <font color="#00FFFF">ip  23:48, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Template:Workpage

Do you have workpages in your user space that give the appearance of being in article namespace? Try adding workpage to the top of that page.

Read more: Template talk:Workpage </Div>

Jreferee 22:49, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

What do those colored numbers mean If you've looked at your Watchlist or at Recent Changes lately, you'll notice that after each entry there is a colored number. This number represents the amount of bytes that have been either added or removed in that edit. Usually this is the same as the number of characters added or removed. Green numbers (+xx) show the number of bytes added while red numbers (-xx) show the amount of bytes removed.

Read more: Added or removed characters </Div> <b style="color:darkblue;">Harryboyles</b> 01:44, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Spell checking available through Google and Mozilla Firefox

Although there is no spell checking available within the Wikipedia Edit Page, you can spell check anything which is in a text form (which the edit box is) if you're using the latest Google Toolbar which has a spell check option available.

Also, the 2.0 release of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, now available to the general public at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox, has automatic as-you-type spell checking in all text fields. The spell checking is turned on by default when you install the browser.

<font color="Blue">J <font color="Red">A <font color="Green">X <font color="Blue">HERE | <font color="Blue">T <font color="Red">a <font color="Green">l <font color="Blue">k  19:04, 20 December 2006 (UTC) / JDG 22:24, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Personal navigation tool

Perhaps the best navigation aid is one you create yourself.Your userpage can serve as a custom navigation tool: simply add the links you need most to it.Note that there are many ready-made link lists available in the form of Navigational templates.

For easy access to the above link, add it to your user page.

See also: Contents, Searching, and User page </Div>

User page design

Many resources are available to save you time designing your user page:


 * For lists of choices, examples of wikicode, and for links to a selection of very interesting user pages, see User page design


 * For personal assistance with your user page and some general help resources, see the User page help WikiProject

For easy access to the above links, add them to your user page.

Read more: User page </Div>

Search Wikipedia with Lumrix

Simply go there and type in your search term:

Search Wikipedia with Lumrix

To make the above link easily accessible, add it to your user page.

Read more: Searching </Div>

Cite.php trick

Here's a way to get Cite.php references into two columns:

&lt;div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;"> &lt;references />&lt;/div>

Read more: References </Div>

Help organize a loose collection of articles into a coordinated WikiProject

Do you find yourself working on a lot of related articles, and wishing there were some rhyme or reason to how they were written, internally organized, cross-referenced to each other, categorized in Wikipedia, and templated with useful features like sidebars? You can make it happen! WikiProjects are groups of editors with special project pages for storing guidelines, templates and to-do lists for an entire general topic area, and a Talk page for coordinating on a topic-wide basis.

Starting a WikiProject is easy: Create a page in your userspace, such as User:MyNameHere/Wikiproject Project name, put   in it, and save. You now have a fill-in-the-blanks Project page. Propose your WikiProject, and recruit active editors who work on relevant articles to support the proposal and join the project. Read more: WikiProject Council Guide

&#91;It's too long, but it's a start. &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 09:23, 23 November 2006 (UTC) &#93; Shortened as requested. &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 15:44, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Report bugs on Bugzilla

MediaWiki, the software which runs Wikipedia, is hosted by SourceForge. The right place to support problems with the software ("bugs"), or to request new features, is the SourceForge project site, not Wikipedia. Before you submit a bug report or a feature request, check for duplicates,. If you have broader visions for MediaWiki, Meta-Wikipedia is a good place to work on proposals, and the wikitech-l mailing list is where you can announce and discuss them.

Read more: MediaWiki project homepage </Div>

Ask for new features on Bugzilla

MediaWiki, the software which runs Wikipedia, is hosted by SourceForge. The right place to support problems with the software ("bugs"), or to request new features, is the SourceForge project site, not Wikipedia. Before you submit a bug report or a feature request, check for duplicates,. If you have broader visions for MediaWiki, Meta-Wikipedia is a good place to work on proposals, and the wikitech-l mailing list is where you can announce and discuss them.

Read more: MediaWiki project homepage </Div>

Auto-Peer Reviewer

User:AndyZ/peerreviewer is an automated javascript program that highlights areas for improvment for any article on Wikipedia, including sources, lack of categories or tips for uploading images to the page. To use, go to User:AndyZ/peerreviewer and follow the instructions; then, edit any article and click the "peer review" text at the page top for an instant automatic peer review!

Anthony cfc  [ T &bull; C] <em style="font-size:10px;">17:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Tabbed Browsing

Do you merge articles? Are you a translator? Do you dislike using multiple windows to look at multiple pages? If you have a capable web browser, such as Firefox or Safari, you may want try tabbed browsing within your browser window for quick and easy organization of multiple pages of information. Try using ctrl-T or apple-T to open a new tab, or search your browser's help menu to get started.

HornandsoccerTalk 04:18, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

The Pipe key

Wiki formatting often required the use of the pipe key. The pipe key or "|" is located on the keyboard itself. Many editors of wikipedia find it frustrating when they must scroll to the teplate at the bottom of the page and select the pipe. The pipe on the keyboard is located directly underneath the backspace key. By pressing the shift key and this key simultaneously, the pipe symbol appears.

<font face="Palatino Linotype">World (talk • contributions) 21:57, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

=New entries=


 * Please add new (fresh) tips to the top of this section (the old tips which are being recycled are at the end).

Think forward
While editing, ask yourself "how will this edit make the article grow?". For example, a section titled like "Criticism of this topic" will fill with criticism only, and a section titled like "Trivia of this topic" will fill with trivia rather than specific and organized information. In contrast, usage of inline citations will result in continuing usage of inline citations by future contributors. Mikael Häggström (talk) 08:37, 5 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Here's a tool that can help when you're using AWB. To help find a category for an article, I choose key main words which are closely connected to the subject. For example, if the article was about a hospital in Poland, I would input into the tool "hospital Poland" (without quotes) and it will then search through categories and list some to choose from.  In the example above,  Category:Poland and Category:Hospital would be the categories I'd pick.  It works really well!  Here's the link: Common Sense Tool Good Luck   Mlpearc   MESSAGE  00:00, 20 March 2010 (UTC)



 Mlpearc  MESSAGE  18:48, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

=General discussion=

I'm not sure how this works
Something like two months ago, I wrote up a potential TotD here, and never heard anything further.Does that mean that it was considered lame and ignored, or did it move into some other process? The workflow from the intial proposal of a draft TotD, to discussion, cleanup and eventual use at a TotD or rejection isn't very clear to me. &mdash; SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 10:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
 * No, nothing like that. It's just that the project isn't in a hurry, because tips have already been scheduled to the end of the year.  But it's all very flexible.  Some tips on the schedule (listed on the project page) are repeats.  So we can replace those with new tips, for instance.  I'll be happy to have a look at your tip submission.  The Transhumanist 12:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The tip is a bit long, can you edit down a bit? The Transhumanist 03:06, 11 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. How's that? &mdash;  SMcCandlish &#91;talk&#93; &#91;contrib&#93; ツ 15:45, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I put a barnstar TotD up above a long time ago and hasn't been touched since. Or did it get moved tom the top and just have to wait another year? What is it? &mdash; Coasterge ekperson  04 ' s talk @Feb/14/08 00:38

General TOTD encyclopaedia article?
I think "tip of the day" should be an actual article, discussing the use of TOTD as a supplementary form of online help in (primarily Microsoft?) GUI applications. I was a little surprised to see it redirect to this meta-type page. 86.138.65.206 16:52, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
 * See Tip of the day. Needs to be expanded.  The Transhumanist  19:50, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

April 3 TOTD
The TOTD for April 3rd is about Esperanza. Since the project no longer exists, it might be a good idea to replace it. -- MarcoTolo 04:55, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The TOTD for May 17 is also about Esperanza. --Smokizzy Review Me! (Please!) 01:31, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Jimbo tip?
Today (or yesterday) I saw 'spam Jimbo Wales', presumably for April Fools' Day - but I cannot find it anywhere. Link, anyone? If it was not, it should be BJAODNed.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 04:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Found it.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 04:14, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Pardon
This has nothing to do with Today's tip. It is regarding the automatic message that is on the Log In page. Make sure to have a secure password. Out of curiosity, has there been a recent admin who's password was discovered? Send a message to my talk page. -Yancyfry 02:22, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Internet Explorer advocacy
Today's tip advocates Internet Explorer. I've nothing against IE, but did you really mean to do that? --SueHay 02:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

A metaphor for a metaphor?
"Village pump" can't be a metaphor for "community watering hole." A metaphor can only be a symbol of something real, not a symbol of yet another symbol. The village pump on Wikipedia is the real online gathering place the metaphor is supposed to indicate, but "community watering hole" is just an alternative metaphor. I suggest saying something such as "The Village Pump is a metaphor for a community crossroads or meetingplace where news and ideas are exchanged." Preston McConkie 20:31, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

typo in popups tip
Power tool: Navigation popups ... you can activate it form the popups menu ... A minor quibble also, empowers? When you install this nifty wikitool, it empowers your mouse arrow. I love the tip of moment template, thanks to all concerned. Cygnis insignis 05:50, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Five Pillars - Not the same pillars!
Today's TOTD on the Five Pillars - that is, TOTD for October 20 - lists slightly different pillars to to Five Pillars page that it links to.

In WP:PILLARS, it lists "Wikipedia works by consensus" as one of the pillars (next to the yellow icon).

In Tip of the day/October 20, "Wikipedia is free content" appears next to the yellow icon rather than the green icon, and instead, "Wikipedia has a neutral point of view" is listed next to the green icon.

What's going on here? DonkeyKong64 (Mathematician in training) 06:31, 20 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The edit leading to version 169225058 of the Five pillars article changed the points to be consistent with the tip. According to the edit summary, it was a revert. Brian Jason Drake 08:51, 14 January 2008 (UTC) [edited Brian Jason Drake 08:57, 14 January 2008 (UTC)]

barnstars rule
Barnstars make good editors feel appreciated. Try to give one to every editor you think is good. --1bookfan 02:48, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Archives
The 2007 archive only has links to some of the days, and some of those pages don't work (in particular, the prior/next day links don't work on any of the February pages on the list - they have error messages instead - and February 2-4 don't have any tip). Brian Jason Drake 08:37, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

How to Use this template on Other Lrnguage wikis?
Hi, I contribute in gu@wiki and hi@wiki, and visit en@wiki for timeto time as well. I am even one of the Administrator for gu.wiki and would like to use this template on my user page at gu@User:Dsvyas, can anyone tell me how can I do that? or can give me the basic code for template to import the tips from en.wiki here??--Dsvyas (talk) 16:10, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Hillary Clinton
Today's totd includes a Hillary Clinton box. It was probably added by one of her supporters and it needs removing. I can't find it in the totd text. <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:#008000">George D. Watson  (Dendodge). Talk Help 17:07, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It was added to the template by someone who seems to be a new user; he added the same template to over 10 templates - I have reverted his insertions and left a note on his talk page. --Gurubrahma (talk) 18:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Feed
Tip of the Day could really use an RSS feed, I imagine this would boost readership significantly. --Padraic 18:50, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
 * As I understand it, the display templates update using the magic words  and , which are in UTC.  So we can setup a script off-site that, each day at 00:00 UTC, checks the relevant tip page and uses that to update a feed.  If somebody reminds me in a week or two I will try to make one, don't have the resources at the minute.  -- tiny plastic Grey Knight &#x2296; 17:06, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Pronounciation of words
Up to now, I never found an audio-option to hear the correct pronounciation of the words that are explained. Would it be possible to offer such a feature? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.120.169.118 (talk) 08:12, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Big blooper: December 2
Um ... did anyone bother to check the major change in the style guides (MOSNUM, MoS, MOSLINK, CONTEXT) concerning date autoformatting? How embarrassing. If there's a way of substituting today's Tip to stop WP looking like a bunch of fools, that would be great. Tony  (talk)  12:57, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * So is anyone going to remove this now-wrong "tip" from the cycle? Tony   (talk)  09:09, 5 December 2008 (UTC)
 * It's been fixed: fine. Tony   (talk)  09:26, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

Main page push
With all the usability grants and work ahead, simply pushing this TOTD to Wikipedias Main Page would do a great job.--Kozuch (talk) 13:25, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Who updates the tip of the day?
Tip of the day for March 5,2009 "Reserve your username on the sister projects, before it gets taken" seems very out of date.
 * "Therefore, create an account identical to your Wikipedia account on each of the Wikimedia projects before someone else chooses your name as their own. Even if you never need those accounts, they'll be ready and waiting in case you ever do.


 * The upcoming unified login will mean that registering a username reserves it everywhere."

Unified login is has been in place for quite some time now. I am not sure of the process to up date the tip of the day, but this one sure needs updating. Dbiel (Talk) 02:50, 6 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Done. Rd232 talk 15:17, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

Today's tip of the day is broken!
Wannabe Kate's counter stopped working last January. I would recommend replacement with User:Soxred93's very nice Edit Counter here. Any other suggestions are welcome, too. Cheers, <b style="color:#00C">⋙–Ber</b><b style="color:#66f">ean–Hun</b><b style="color:#00C">ter—►</b>  (<b style="color:#00C">(⊕)</b>) 01:32, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Now repaired..thank you, <b style="color:#00C">⋙–Ber</b><b style="color:#66f">ean–Hun</b><b style="color:#00C">ter—►</b>  (<b style="color:#00C">(⊕)</b>) 15:46, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Question
How come the project didn't operate in 2005? -- &oelig; &trade; 12:25, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, I think the project procedures above need to be updated.. specifically #6 -- &oelig; &trade; 12:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

It got shut down. The guy running it stopped, and removed it from everywhere. One day it just disappeared.

That was before I joined, so I didn't even know it had existed. I discovered it in 2006 when I was redesigning the Community Portal. So I resurrected the project, put together a team of people, and we created enough tips to run all year long! We re-established the tip of the day to the Community Portal, and we added it to the main help page as well.

Eventually, RichardF created the "yearless year", and the tips get repeated year after year. The template just starts over at the beginning each year.

They are also available in the tips library at WP:TIPS.

Since the tip display runs automatically, I've practically forgotten about this project.

I'll try to pop in more often.

The Transhumanist 20:46, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

P.S.: The tip schedule needs work - it needs to be archived to 2008, and more tips replaced for 2009.

Repetition tips
What if someone (without knowing it) post a tip a little similar, similar or very similar to other existing tip? (since there are plenty of them). - <font color="#FFDB58" size="3" face="Matura MT Script Capitals">Damërung <font color="#FF2400">...ÏìíÏ...<font color="#A7FC00">_ Ξ_       .  --  02:32, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
 * If the tip is especially important, it may be repeated several times throughout the year. As you'll see in the schedule, certain tips are repeated, and they are worded differently each time for added impact.  For example, one of the most important tips for beginners is to sign their message posts with 4 tildes ( ~ ).  That tip is scheduled to display about once per month.


 * If the tip is important enough to be repeated, then no worries. If not, replace one of the versions with a different tip.


 * Now that the tip schedule is full, we need to displace old tips with new tips. Try to replace obsolete tips or tips that are marginally useful.


 * The important thing is to improve the quality of the tip collection.


 * Once completed, each tip should also be added to the tip library at WP:TIPS.


 * The Transhumanist 19:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh i see... And how often does the tips are recycled? - <font color="#FFDB58" size="3" face="Matura MT Script Capitals">Damërung <font color="#FF2400">...ÏìíÏ...<font color="#A7FC00">_ Ξ_       .  --  14:51, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Tips are replaced as fast as people replace them. It's been pretty slow over the past couple of years.  Editors have been correcting errors as they spot them, such as when a tip has grown out-of-date and is no longer accurate.  In most cases, the tip is simply updated.


 * To be on the safe side, we have a template that shows the tip-of-the-day one day in advance, so that errors can be spotted before the tips are displayed to the whole community: Totd-tomorrow.


 * There's another one that shows a random tip: Totd-random


 * (It also has space for this project's announcements).


 * For other tip-displaying templates, see Tip of the day/July 21 (the "tip-of-the-day tip").


 * The Transhumanist 15:57, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

July 16 tip is broken! Bookmarklet = dead link
July 16 tip = nonfunctional. Please fix. Softlavender (talk) 11:40, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Recommend fast replacement of this TOTD until broken link, Wikr bookmarklet, can be researched and repaired.   .`^) Paine Ellsworthdiss`cuss (^`.   10:03, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Helper response: So what do you need me to do? Is it protected or something? &mdash; Deon<sup style="color:purple;">talk I'm BACK! 10:07, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I've updated the tip using the link in bookmarklet. Rd232 talk 15:28, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

LIFE:
HELOO DEARS,

my name is shahana... i am student of masters in business administration.i just want to share something with u all people... i m 20years old... i have passed 20 yrs of my life but still i am unable to know what is life? i am so much confused with mystery of this life. i want to know what life really is?in my 20yrs of life i just came to know... "life is totally uncertain". it is the name of giving (whatever it is).i think it is a beautiful gift of GOD,if we spend it according to GOD'S will... We just need to understand this.i don't know whether i am right or wrong,but that is all i know about life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shani.f (talk • contribs) 09:49, 4 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Is the result for ALL the statistical probabilities of an ecuation. - <font color="#007BA7" size="5">☩ <font color="#E52B50" size="3" face="Harlow Solid Italic">Damërung <font color="#007BA7" size="5">☩ <font color="#808080">. -- 16:15, 4 August 2009 (UTC) (lol)  --  718smiley.svg

An Idea for the Tip of the Day
I'm not really sure where I can put ideas for a tip of the day, so I'm just adding a new section for it. Anyways, I'm not sure if this tip exists already (I checked on the "Tip of the Day" page), but my idea is a tip about inserting hidden comments. It will say this: "Have you ever wanted to inform all editors about what to or what not to do to an article but thought it would be too hard to do and that it wouldn't match if it was seen on the article? Are you reverting many edits on a certain article because of this? Instead, you can insert a hidden comment! That way, only the people editing the page will see what you want them to see! Here is how to insert a hidden comment: The page with more information will be Help:Hidden Text (a shortcut to the page is HIDDEN). The title of the tip will be "Inserting Hidden Text." -- Ha dg  er  02:39, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Begin the comment by typing ."


 * You can always insert it as a new entry in this page. It doesn´t matter if for some reason it´s wrong, it won´t be added inmediately tot he tips, so nothing is being damaged. - <font color="#007BA7" size="3">☩ <font color="#E52B50" size="1" face="Harlow Solid Italic">Damërung <font color="#007BA7" size="3">☩ <font color="#808080">. -- 01:27, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok! Thank you for telling me! -- Ha dg  er  01:26, 4 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Besides, I don´t see any problem with this one. - <font color="#007BA7" size="5">☩ <font color="#E52B50" size="3" face="Harlow Solid Italic">Damërung <font color="#007BA7" size="5">☩ <font color="#808080">. -- 08:34, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Tip of the day/April 25, 2007 outdated?
The tip Tip of the day/April 25, 2007 seems outdated now that there is single-user-login. It is on the main page community portal today as part of 'Wikipedia's dozen most powerful tips', Tip of the day/January 27 Arthena(talk) 14:24, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I have removed this tip from the list of 'Wikipedia's dozen most powerful tips'. Arthena(talk) 14:34, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Tip_of_the_day/April_27,_2006 outdated
Tip_of_the_day/April_27,_2006 is outdated or should be rewritted because vector does not have a "go" button. Christian75 (talk) 08:20, 21 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Updated, thanks. -- &oelig; &trade; 02:59, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Tommorrow's tip
There is a gadget that enables an edit link for leads.  Kayau  Voting  IS   evil 11:06, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Ummm...
Someone should look at today's tip... J04n(talk page) 00:44, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Never mind, I fixed it. J04n(talk page) 00:46, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Invalid link
Ooops! Today's tip links to a "User account expired" message rather than a working edit counter, which is what the reader is led to expect.--JayJasper (talk) 04:59, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Just came here to say the same thing. 'Wannabe Kate' was good when working, but has been unavailable for many months. -- EdJogg (talk) 15:47, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Proofreaders needed...
Out-of-date or obsolete tips have been making it through to the Community Portal and main Help page! We must prevent this from happening again.

Please place the following template code on your user or talk page, and check the tip for accuracy. It's displayed one day early, to give us time to fix it.

 

Please make the corrections yourself if you can. And report the tip here, on this talk page, especially if you don't know what to write.

There's a tip schedule at WP:TOTD in case you feel like proofreading further ahead.

Thank you.

Sincerely, The Transhumanist 00:56, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

Let's compare notes - what tools and methods do you use?
I'm always looking for faster ways of doing things (navigating and editing) on Wikipedia (and in general), and I thought it might be fun to compare what programs and routes we use to get around and get things done on Wikipedia. And maybe some new tips will arise from our discussion.

Let me start things off. I use Firefox 3.6 on Windows 7. I love Firefox's tab capabilities. (Tabs are windows within Firefox, each one displaying a web page that you load into it). I load lots of pages into tabs, and then cycle through them using Ctrl (moves to next tab) or Ctrl (closes tab). Shift moves to the previous tab.

The bottleneck with tabs is loading pages into them. If done manually, it can be very time-consuming. So I rely heavily on the Firefox extension WP:LINKY, which loads into tabs the pages from selected links on the current web page. Linky allows Firefox's tab commands to shine, because tabs are only as useful as the pages you have loaded into them, and Linky takes the work out of loading.

After loading dozens of pages into tabs with Linky, I use Firefox's Ctrl or Ctrl hot keys to cycle through them rapidly when I need to look over many pages quickly. This technique is great for inspecting pages for certain aspects. I also queue pages up in tabs for cutting and pasting the same message onto several talk pages. Linky works well for medium-sized batches. AWB is better suited for batches of hundreds or thousands of pages.

The real power of Linky isn't evident until you make custom lists of links (sandboxes are good for this). Then you can modify the links before loading them, such as specifying sections in the links. Then you can use Firefox tabs for inspecting specific types of sections in articles, like the See also or External links sections, or sections with the same heading, such as "History", etc.

The editor I use on Wikipedia is WP:WikEd, because of its built-in search/replace features.

I also use WP:AWB, for auto page loading and batch processing. AWB is designed for search/replace across a great many pages.

For list building, I make extensive use of Grep for Wikipedia title searches, it really helps in finding everything related to a subject, and I like its streamlined results (titles only). The lists are easily converted into lists of links. I also use the list making features of AWB, and then cut/paste them to a sandbox for conversion to links. Then they can be modified and fed back into AWB for processing (specifying "links on page").

I'm currently learning WP:REGEX, the advanced search/replace language, which is supported in WP:WikEd, WP:AWB, and Grep. So far, the most useful thing I find regex good for is multi-line search-replaces to find and replace things at the beginning and ends of lines. Really helps a lot for adding bullets and link brackets to list items, and for stripping them out. The code for a new line is \n ("backslash en").

In AWB and Grep, Regex allows you to very specifically target pages based on what is contained in them or their titles. The hard part is figuring out how to describe what you are looking for in Regex code. I'm very interested in collecting regex examples.

Well, that's all for now. (If you have any questions about the methods mentioned above, please feel free to ask).

Your turn. What tools and tricks do you use? (Please provide links). The Transhumanist 00:14, 27 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I use Firefox 6.0, and occasionally Safari 5.1 on a Windows 7 machine. (Side note: Transhumanist, why are you still on Firefox 3.7?)  Firefox's tab options are, indeed, useful - though I have noticed that having too many tabs (more than 40 or so) open at one time slows my machine quite noticeably.


 * I use quite a few of the Special:Gadgets on Wikipedia, including WP:POPUPS, the expanded edit summary, and WP:HotCat. HotCat is a particularly useful tool, both here and over at, because it makes it easy to find parent categories as well as providing you a live list of existing categories as you type the new category's name.  I also use User:Where/usertabs, customized on my vector.js page.


 * Finally, for making multiple repetitive edits where I am copying more than one chunk of text, I use Utopia Angel, which is an amazingly simple-to-use clipboard viewer/editor that can be set to "stay on top" of other windows and can store up to your 99 most recent clipboard entries and easily switch among them.


 * Of course, I also use AWB occasionally for various tasks, though I still find regular expressions to be somewhat challenging. AWB is also quite useful for when I want to update my custom watchlist, which are based primarily around category membership, as AWB can easily generate lists of category members (recursively if desired) and export them to a .txt file.


 * I also have a WP:BOT account, User:Philosopher-Bot, which I use very occasionally for making fully automated AWB edits to Wikipedia. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 13:19, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Tomorrow's Tip: How to link to a section of an article
The tip for tomorrow includes the phrase: "...redirects do not follow section links..."

Now you have been able to add anchor (section) links to redirects for as long as I can remember. So, is this referring to something else, or is it simply out-of-date now? (Sorry, I don't have time to follow this up, but thought it important to raise it here.) -- EdJogg (talk) 12:30, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I removed it - it looked like it was simply out-of-date. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 21:36, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Tomorrow's tip of the day... Google search link
Gives me

Google Sorry... We're sorry... ... but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now. See Google Help for more information.

© 2009 Google - Google Home AmigoCgn (talk) 16:04, 29 August 2011 (UTC)


 * thanks for reporting. -- &oelig; &trade; 02:39, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

Proofreading September
I proofread the tips of September 4-30. I edited the tips for Sept. 4,8,10,17,23. I think the upcoming September tips are OK now, with the exception of Tip_of_the_day/September_20. The tip of September 20 is about an old 'Wikipedia toolbar' addon for Firefox. The latest version of the toolbar was released in 2006, and does not seem to be compatible with an updated browser. I think this tip should be replaced. Arthena(talk) 00:30, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Today's tip (popups)
Today's tip (link in section header) is outdated, since popups is available in the gadgets tab of "My preferences". ...Dynamic&#124;cimanyD... (talk&#124;klat) ☺ 15:07, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

TIps...???
Is this even active? All the new Tips of the Day redirect you to their counterparts in 2008 (which is why everything is outdated like so many have commented). THanks:Jay8g Hi!- I am... -What I do... WASH- BRIDGE- WPWA - MFIC- WPIM 02:22, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

ANother question... (Wikipedia:Tip of the day/October 17 ← Google Wikipedia quick search tricks)
For this tip, I can't figure out what it was saying about A9! please clarify! :Jay8g Hi!- I am... -What I do... WASH- BRIDGE- WPWA - MFIC- WPIM 02:34, 10 September 2011 (UTC)