Help:Source editor

The key to learning the Source Editor is learning the code used to format articles. This "wikitext" is just like regular writing, but it also includes special characters to create headings, italics, bolding, indented lists, etc.

First acquaint yourself with wikitext

 * 1) Find a page with some interesting formatting.
 * 2) Click on the "Edit source" or "View source" tab at the top of the window to show the wikitext for that page.
 * 3) Look at the wikitext responsible for creating the page. This may help you learn how to edit since the "code" is, in large part, pretty intuitive and easy to learn if you look back and forth between the article and the code responsible for it.

Learn the most important wikitext formatting
Here are the basics you may need to know:

{| class="wikitable" ! Description ! What you type ! What you see
 * Italic text
 * italic text
 * italic text
 * Bold text
 * bold text
 * bold text
 * Bulleted list
 * * Item 1
 * Item 2
 * Item 3
 * Item 1
 * Item 2
 * Item 3
 * Numbered list
 * # Electrolytes
 * 1) Cytokines
 * 2) Cytokine subgroups
 * 3) Cytokine sub-sub-groups
 * 4) Bananas
 * 5) Electrolytes
 * 6) Cytokines
 * 7) Cytokine subgroups
 * 8) Cytokine sub-sub-groups
 * 9) Bananas
 * Indented text
 * : cytokines
 * interleukins
 * IL-6
 * leukocytes
 * 1) Bananas
 * Indented text
 * : cytokines
 * interleukins
 * IL-6
 * leukocytes
 * leukocytes


 * cytokines
 * interleukins
 * IL-6
 * leukocytes
 * leukocytes


 * Block quotes
 * "this paragraph will be indented"
 * "this paragraph will be indented"
 * Headings of different levels
 * ==Section Heading==
 * Headings of different levels
 * ==Section Heading==

Sub-sub-section Heading

 * (not illustrated)
 * Link to another MEpedia page (internal link)
 * The MEpedia page on the PACE trial
 * The MEpedia page on the PACE trial
 * Link to a different website (external link)
 * The Wikipedia page for mitochondrion
 * The Wikipedia page for mitochondrion
 * }
 * The Wikipedia page for mitochondrion
 * }

How to use links
As shown in the above table, internal links, which link to another MEpedia page, are treated differently from external links, which to a different website:
 * Internal links use double brackets  while external links use single brackets.
 * To give an internal link a visible name, use a pipe character “|” to separate the link from the name:
 * To give an external link a visible name, use a space to separate the link from the name:

Note: A link to a category page must start with a colon ":", for example. If you forget the initial colon, your page will be added to that category instead! Similarly, a link to a image file page must also start with a colon “:”, for example. If you forget the initial colon, the image will be displayed on the page instead!

How to use template tags
A ‘Template Tag’ is just a way to add a note to a page or to a statement.

To insert a template tag:
 * Type the name of the template tag inside double braces. For example,   or   or.
 * and  template tags are usually placed at the top of the page.  A   template tag is placed directly after the statement needing a citation.
 * If you are inserting a "Cleanup" template tag, include the reason for the "Cleanup" template tag as well as the current date. For example:

For more information on template tags, see Help:Templates.

How to use categories
To change the categories that a page belongs to: Note: If you want to link to a category in the middle of the page, without accidentally adding the category to the page, begin the link with a colon, such as
 * 1) Scroll down to the end of the page, where the categories are listed.
 * 2) To add a new category, add  to the end of the page, where   is the name of the category you're adding.
 * 3) Be sure to remove any inappropriate categories listed.

A visual introduction
You will notice on the site that there are often superscript numbers in the text. When you click on them, they take you to the References section on the page, and a citation.



To add a reference, you will need two things: a web link for your source (academic sources are preferable, but a blog post or video is okay too) and the code to create the reference.

Here is a sample of what a reference looks like in the text. You can see the two sections of code, one before the web link, and one after.



The two pieces of code are:

(which goes at the end).

It is important to make sure that you include both pieces of code (yes, you're a coder now!), and note the direction of the "/" in the code that comes after the web link.

Simple References
To add a simple reference to a statement, use the

...

Full References
To add a full published reference to a statement, you will need more than just the

...

Learn more

 * Wikipedia's wikitext cheatsheet
 * Mediawiki's wikitext help