Help:VisualEditor

What is VisualEditor?
Visual Editor is a editing software which was part of the March 2016 upgrade of the FamilySearch Research Wiki. This editor replaces the Rich Text Editor used in the previous version of the Wiki. VisualEditor allows all users to edit pages without having to learn wikitext. In addition, VisualEditor works in most commonly-used browsers, such as, Chorme, Firefox, Internet Explorer 10 or higher, and Safari.

When to Use VisualEditor
Use VisualEditor when you want to do the following: Visual Editor cannot:
 * Edit text on a page
 * Edit text in a table
 * Create tables
 * Add rows and columns to tables
 * Add or fix a URL
 * Add references, templates, and images
 * Indent bullet and numbered lists
 * Add special characters, such as accented non-English words such as, ö.
 * Create or edit templates
 * Edit Help pages
 * Edit User pages
 * Edit any "Protected" pages
 * NOTE: [Edit source] must be used to accomplish all the tasks the VisualEditor cannot do. You can find instructions and lessons on how to edit in wikitext,  here.

How to Edit in VisualEditor

 * Note: You must be logged into the FamilySearch website to edit in the Wiki and to see all options for editing.

"Edit" tab
To edit a page using Visual Editor, click on the "Edit" tab located in the top right hand corner of the screen. This will open a edit page with a tool bar with icons to help with additional editing features.

Icons on the tool bar - left to right
'''NOTE: some icons on the VisualEditor tool bar have shortcuts to completing an action. Hover over the icon to learn the shortcut available.

Pages that cannot be edited with VisualEditor
Some articles in specific namespaces do not have the option to edit in VisualEditor:
 * Template pages/namespace
 * Help pages/namespace
 * Talk pages/namespace
 * FamilySearch Wiki pages/namespace

For more help on VisualEditor
For additional help on VisualEditor, go to the MediaWiki article. Please note that some icons in the user guide are different from our version of VisualEditor.