Help:Editing a Page

General Editing Basics
All registered users of FamilySearch Wiki are invited to edit or add to Wiki articles.

Watch a video demonstration of how to do basic editing.

Editing rules, editing conventions, and formatting
The number one rule of wiki editing, is to be bold. Dive in and make changes. Other people can correct mistakes later, so have confidence, and give it a try! There can be all kinds of editing conventions, rules, and philosophy governing the editing of wiki pages, but the "be bold" rule overrides these!

In general try to write clearly and concisely and make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the wiki contents. An edit might be to contribute whole paragraphs or pages full of information, or it could be as simple as fixing a typo or spelling mistake.

When you need to use some type of formatting e.g. new headings or bold text, you do this using wiki syntax. See Help:Formatting for some of the common types of formatting used.

Before you edit an article
Before you edit your first article, you should:


 * Register with the Wiki If you haven't previously registered, click here to register.
 * Review Wiki guiding principles
 * Understand Wiki publishing policies
 * Sign in to the FamilySearch website.

Finding an Article to Edit
1. Search for the article you want to edit. In the search box, type the name or title of the article you want to edit. Press the Search button. Otherwise, learn how to create a new article.

2. After clicking the Search button, you will see the search results page. Find the article you want to edit and click on the title to open the article.

Editing
3. Click Edit This Page at the top right to edit that page. Or click the Edit Icon to the right of the section heading to edit that section. After clicking, the editing box will open.



4. In the editing box, begin typing new text or editing existing text in the article. You may use the toolbar at the top of the editing window to format text, insert links to other pages, insert links to other websites, and add tables. For more details about how you can edit, learn more about the editing toolbar. You may also insert images or files into an article.

Preview
5. It's a good idea to use the “” 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. This isn't something to worry about too much, but it's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving several minor corrections afterwards. Be sure to click on the Save button at the bottom of the page after you preview or you will lose your edits.

While editing, use the Show Preview button frequently. This allows you to review the edits and changes you've made and prevents your wiki session from timing out after twenty minutes of no activity. If your session times out, you will lose all the work you've done.



Edit Summary
6. Before you save a change, you can enter a short note in the  box describing your changes. Don't worry too much about this, or spend too much time thinking about it, but try to give a little description of what you just changed e.g. "fixed typo" or "added more information about sunflowers".

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

After making any changes, be sure to summarize your changes in the Summary field below the editor window, and then save your work.



Save
7. Be sure to save all of your edits by clicking on the Save button under the bottom left hand corner of the edit box. If you are doing extensive editing, it is a good idea to save your work periodically so you don't risk losing it. Remember, previewing your changes does not save them, you must still click on the Save button. To save, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save page button. ''WARNING: If you navigate away from your article without saving, your work will be lost. This includes clicking on links in the preview mode, and clicking the back button on your browser after saving. Remember, after saving the page, you may click the Edit link again to add or edit more material.''

We recommend you Save your work periodically, especially before you start reading reference material, after you enter a paragraph, or in stages while working on a time intensive task such as creating a table or list.



Things you can do while editing articles

 * You can import text from other sources
 * You can add an internal link to a page within the Wiki
 * You can add an external link to a page at another Web site
 * You can add a breadcrumb trail
 * You can create a new page linked from an existing page
 * You can copy and paste text into the Wiki
 * You can insert images into articles after images are approved
 * You can add tables to pages
 * You can add citations to pages

For more information on contributing to the FamilySearch Research Wiki, please visit the Edit and Contribute Page

Wiki Editing is as Easy as 1-2-3!
Congratulations! You have just created your first Wiki page!

You may sometimes encounter "disgruntled" or even "mean" people on the Wiki. Please read the Wiki policies and guiding principles to learn how to deal with such situations.