Help:Editing pages

There are two ways to make edits on Bulbapedia, the VisualEditor or the Source Editor. For those who have never edited a wiki before, or for those looking to quickly fix a spelling error or make a minor edit, the VisualEditor is the perfect place to start.

For those who are more experienced with editing, or who want to make more complex changes to an article, the Source Editor is your best option.

With either option, it's very simple to edit the contents of Bulbapedia:

1. Click the "edit" (for VisualEditor) or "edit source" (for Source Editor) page tab at the top of the page.
2. Make changes to the text.
3. Click the "Save" button.

Simple as that!

Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting

The number one rule of wiki editing is to be bold. Go ahead—make changes. Other people can correct any mistakes you make, so have confidence, and give it a try! There are all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophies for the editing of wiki pages, but the be bold rule is the most important of these!

An edit can contribute whole new paragraphs or pages of information, or it can be as simple as fixing a typo or a spelling mistake. In general, try to add or edit text so that it is clear and concise. Most importantly, make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the contents of the wiki.

When you need to use some type of formatting, such as for new headings or bolding of text, you can use the buttons at the top of the screen in VisualEditor, or in the Source Editor you do this using wikicode or the buttons in the edit toolbar above the editing zone. See Help:Cheatsheet for some of the common types of formatting used, or Help:Wikicode for a more in-depth guide.

The depth and variety of content covered on Bulbapedia means that content needs to be displayed consistently and in an ordered way. To help with this, we have a manual of style that lays these conventions out. You are highly encouraged to read it, and refer to it when making edits.

Edit summary

Before you save a change, you should enter a short note (must be shorter than 500 characters) in the "Summary:" box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, just put in a short description of what you just changed. For example, you might say "fixed typo" or "added more information about Bulbasaur".

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

Preview

When using the Source Editor, it's always 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. By using a preview before saving, rather than saving, then having to do another edit just to make one or more minor corrections, means that the Special:RecentChanges page remains nice and tidy.

Show changes

Another option is the "Show changes" button which allows you to see the differences between the current version and the edited version.

Protected pages

Pages that are protected cannot be edited by anyone except users of a specific group. Protected pages will instead display "View source" instead of edit. In that case, to edit a protected page, contact a user who has permission to edit the page. The default protection levels are as follows:

• None (allow all users)
• Autoconfirmed (prevent edits by new users who are not yet autoconfirmed)
• Sysop (prevent edits by all users except staff)

Other types of editing

With wiki edits you can start a new page, move (or rename) a page, or even delete a page:

• Help:Starting a new page
• Help:Moving a page
• Help:Deletion and undeletion

Remember you should always aim to improve the overall contents of the wiki with your edits.

Discussion

Every article has its own "talk page" where you can ask questions, make suggestions, or discuss corrections. See Help:Talk pages.

See also

mw:Help:Editing pages