Help:Visual editor

Visual editor is one of two options for editing MEpedia, the other being source editor.

Problems with long files
The Visual Editor has trouble when working with long files. In this case, the Visual Editor may take a long time saving changes, or it may hang completely.

If the Visual Editor stops working, follow these steps:
 * 1) Don't panic.  As long as your changes are visible in your web browser, your changes are not lost.
 * 2) Just to be safe, you can copy your changes to a word processing program until your changes are successfully saved.
 * 3) Wait 5-10 minutes, and try saving your changes again.
 * 4) If the problem persists, consider splitting the long page into 2 or more separate pages.

How to cite references



 * 1) While in the Visual Editor, check out the buttons at the top of the window and click on the button that says 'Cite'.
 * 2) This will open a box with three tabs: "Automatic", "Manual", or "Re-use".
 * 3) If you are citing a reference that has already been added to the reference section, select the "Re-use" tab, select the reference from the list, and you're done!
 * 4) If you have the reference's website or DOI number, you can try the "Automatic" tab.  This is an automated reference machine that can sometimes create a correct reference from nothing more than a website or a DOI number.  Sometimes it works with a PMID number.  If it correctly finds and formats your reference, click "Insert" and you're done!
 * 5) If the "Automatic" tab is not able to generate the correct reference, you will have to use the "Manual" tab:
 * 6) When you click the "Manual" tab, you should see a drop-down menu that offers you options to cite a website, a book, a news article, or a scientific journal, as well as a "Basic form" for when all else fails.
 * 7) Mepedia journal cite 2.png Journal for any scholarly source. Scholarly sources are anything from Pubmed or a scientific journal online or in print.
 * 8) Use News for anything from a news outlet or a blog discussing the news. Note: if a news article or blog is discussing science, go back to the original source (the journal) and use the information you find in that original source.  Don't count on the writer of the blog to have gotten it right!
 * 9) Use Basic form when you aren't sure what category to use.
 * 10) When you choose to manually cite a journal, the pop-up box at right will be displayed: You will see places to fill in the information you know about the article.  Items with an asterisk next to them mean you must enter that information.
 * 11) Often, the journal citation will have information like page number or issue number. Scientific journals may also have multiple authors, even though there is room for only a few in the manual drop-down menu provided.  If you scroll down to the bottom and click the 'add more information' button (circled at right), then you will be able to add that information easily.
 * 12) When you are finished, click the blue 'Insert' button at the top right-hand side of the pop-up box.