Help:Contents

This page provides assistance with the most common questions about Wikipedia. To start, click on what you need assistance with below, or search all the help pages using the search box to the right. Or browse the Help menu or the Help directory.

Help Wikipedia

	Read or find an article The Readers' FAQ and our about page contain the most commonly sought information about Wikipedia. There is a search box in the upper-right corner of every page with the word "Search" in it. Just type what you are looking for in there and then press ↵ Enter. See Help:Searching for more details. There are other ways to browse and explore Wikipedia articles; many can be found at Portal:Contents. Also see our disclaimer for cautions about Wikipedia's limitations.		Edit an article Contributing is easy: see how to edit a page. For a quick summary on participating, see contributing to Wikipedia. For a listing of introductions and tutorials by topic, see getting started. Or play the Wikipedia Adventure to learn to edit in an hour. The Cheatsheet can remind you of basic wiki markup. Be bold in improving articles! When adding facts, please provide references so others may verify them. If you are affiliated with the article subject, please see our conflict of interest guideline. If you're looking for places you can help out, the community portal is the place to go. You can practice editing and experiment in a sandbox.
	Report a problem with an article If there is a problem with an article about yourself, a family member, a friend or a colleague, please read Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Help and, if necessary, add a discussion to the biographies of living persons noticeboard. If you spot a problem with an article, you can fix it directly, by clicking on the "Edit" link at the beginning of that page. See the "I want to edit an article" section of this page for more information. If you don't feel ready to fix the article yourself, please post a message on the article's talk page. This will bring the matter to the attention of others who work on that article. There is a "Talk" link at the beginning of every article page. Alternatively you can contact us. If it's an article about you or your organization, see Contact us – Subjects.		Create a new article or upload media Check Your first article to see if your topic is appropriate, then the Article wizard will walk you through creating the article. Once you have created an article, see Writing better articles for guidance on how to improve it and what to include (like reference citations). For contributing images, audio or video files, see the Introduction to uploading images. Then the Upload wizard will guide you through that process.
	Factual questions If searching Wikipedia has not answered your question (for example, questions like "Which country has the world's largest fishing fleet?"), try the Reference Desk. Volunteers there will attempt to answer your questions on any topic, or point you towards the information you need.		Stuck? For your convenience, answers have been recorded for the most frequently asked questions. You can find also where to ask questions or make comments. You can ask questions about using Wikipedia at the Help desk or at the Teahouse. Volunteers will respond as soon as possible. Or and a volunteer will visit you there! You can get live help with editing in the help chatroom. For help with technical issues, ask at Village pump (technical)
	Directories Directory: main list of directories and indexes. Help related Help directory: for informative, instructional and consultation pages. Request directory: for services and assistance that can be requested on Wikipedia. Tips library: where you can digest how to use Wikipedia in bite-sized morsels. Editor's index: for everything an editor needs to know to work on Wikipedia. Protocols and conventions Policy directory: official policies for "English Wikipedia" Guideline directory: official guidelines for "English Wikipedia" Manual of Style directory: pages related to the style manual of Wikipedia articles. Community related Department directory: for the different divisions of Wikipedia. Essay directory: for Wikipedia namespace essays. Dashboard: for current discussions taking place throughout Wikipedia. WikiProject directory: for people who want to work together as a team to improve Wikipedia. Terms Glossary: for Wikipedia jargon, with definitions. Abbreviations: for various pages, processes, policies, and proposals.		Help by topic Help Menu: for searching by subject matter. Navigating Wikipedia: for searching and browsing the encyclopedia. Joining Wikipedia: how to get involved. Editing Wikipedia: has general help for editors. Links and references: has help for creating links, or dealing with references Images and media: how to use images, videos and sound files Keeping track of changes: how to track the evolution of a page, or follow a user. Policies and guidelines: for community standards. Asking questions: volunteers will attempt to answer. The Wikipedia community: how to submit or debate a proposal. Resources and lists: has resources for editors. Account settings: has tips and tools for registered users. Technical information: has tools for advanced users, and troubleshooting. Site map: is the above twelve pages on a single page.
	Tip of the day How to insert a picture into an article The syntax used for displaying an image is: [[File:{name}|{type}|{location}|{size}|{alt=}|{caption}]] Only [[File:{name}]] parameter is required.  Do not put spaces between parameters. The other parameters are optional and can be placed in any order. Some infoboxes do not require the brackets. Keep parameters in lower case. The other parameters are: Type  'thumb' / 'thumbnail' or 'frame'. This causes image to be displayed with specific formatting. "thumb" is normally preferred. Location  'right', 'left', 'center' or 'none'. Determines placement of the image on the page. "Left" or "right" is the norm, but large panoramas or timelines can be displayed in the center. Size  {width}px or {width}x{height}px (e.g. 50x40px, would limit width to 50 pixels and height to 40 pixels). Normally only one variable is used. Use common sense when determining the sizes; you can use the "Show preview" button if you need to. If thumb or thumbnail is chosen, size should normally be left out, so that the size defaults to the size set in a user's preferences. alt=  (keep it lower case). This is the "alternate image" parameter used to describe the image for screenreaders or for people with low-vision. It should be more descriptive than the caption alone. Do not use this for another copy of the caption or of the article title, as the reader will already be aware of these. Caption  Any element which cannot be identified as one of the above is automatically treated as caption text. It is traditional to put this last. The caption should identify what the image is, and ideally be a complete sentence that adds to the article by pointing out something a casual reader would not have noticed otherwise, or add information the pertains to the image. Full sentence or multi fragment captions require full stop punctuation. If you have a picture that is not already in Wikipedia's image collection on the Commons that you want to include in an article, you will need to upload it first. Bonus tip: Similar formatting is used to insert basic audio or basic video clips in to articles. Prior tip – Next tip Read more (includes examples):   Wikipedia:Extended image syntax   Wikipedia:Picture tutorial   Wikipedia:Images   Become a Wikipedia tipster – Tips library, by subject To add this auto-updating daily tip to your user page, use {{totd}}		Additional searches Search Frequently Asked Questions Search the help desk archives

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