Wikipedia:Tutorial (historical)/Editing/sandbox
 |  Welcome to the Wikipedia Tutorial sandbox! This page allows you to carry out experiments and practice editing. To edit, click the edit tab above, make your changes and click the Publish changes button when finished. Content will not stay permanently; this page is automatically cleaned every four hours. Please do not place copyrighted, offensive, illegal or libelous content in the sandboxes. For more information and resources on the basics needed to comprehend, comment on, and edit Wikipedia, see Contributing to Wikipedia. If you have any questions regarding Wikipedia, please ask them at the help desk or the Teahouse. If you have registered an account, and you are logged in, you can find or create your own user sandbox here. For future easy access, you can put |
With the exception of a few protected pages, every page has a link that says "edit this page", which lets you edit the page you are looking at. It is Wikipedia's most basic feature, and allows you to make corrections and add facts to articles. If you add information to a page, please provide references, because unreferenced facts are subject to removal.
Go to the sandbox and click the "edit this page" link. This will open an edit window with the wikicode (text) for that page. Add something fun and interesting or "Hello world!" then save it and see what you have done! (Note: not on this page) Hello World!
Show preview
One important feature to start using now is the Show preview button. Try making an edit in the sandbox, then clicking the Show preview Sandbox button instead of Save Changes. This allows you to see what the page will look like after your edit, before you actually save. We all make mistakes; this feature lets you catch them. Using Show Preview before saving also lets you try format changes and other edits without cluttering up the page history and has a number of other advantages. Do not forget to save your edits after previewing, though! Why Not? Well, Let Me Tell You!
Edit summary
Before you hit Save, it is considered good etiquette (or "Wikiquette") to enter a polite explanation of your changes in the Edit summary box between the edit window and the Save and Preview buttons. It can be quite terse; for example if you just enter "typo", people will know you made a minor spelling or punctuation correction, or some other small change. Also, if the change you have made to the page is minor, such as a spelling or grammar correction, be sure to check the box "This is a minor edit" (this is only available if you have logged in).